Moving into the Mastersuite

I sit and type, completely and utterly knackered! I found a new form of cruel torture today and it's painting ceilings. The . . . absolute . . . pits. I will bribe someone else to do it for me next time. Funny thing is, the cheapest and most simple ceiling paint was the best to work with. It was even quite hot today and it behaved beautifully. The only nice thing about painting ceilings.

I was determined to complete the room today, so I trotted off to Bunnings this morning to get the paint and a roller on a pole. Such glamorous purchases. I prepped the room ala 'Dexter' style to ensure that no paint touched my pretty grey walls and I could get the cornices undercoated and painted as quickly as possible. I'm getting really good at being clever and efficient when it comes to painting. I even discovered that cranberry juice is not only good with vodka.

Wouldn't look out of place in Dexter's lair . . . . . hehehe!

Oh the fun of it! I think he looks so much better with my little makeover. Best thing about protecting the walls like this is that I got to catch up on the news on my way around. Did you know that Colette Dinnigan just had another baby, a boy, at the age of 47? Fascinating.

So on I plodded and finished the cornices AND ceiling and the the great move began. Do you remember when the room used to look like this?

  

Well now, it looks like THIS! (Insert Happy Dance!)

Part one of my vision is complete! I'm finding it hard to believe, but my body is telling me otherwise!

I chose a grey/white colour scheme for the whole room as I just adore the serenity of the colours. I will, of course, add more accents along the way. I have found that dark timber or black accents beautifully with this colour scheme, so I'll be keeping my eye out for some special pieces over the holidays. 

I think people get concerned about using too much white, but it can easily be balanced by the use of textures. I certainly have plenty of texture in my bedlinen and cushions, great for Ms Tactile!

All of my cushions came from Freedom. I find they are the best for on trend items that aren't ridiculously expensive and I do love looking at their pretty displays! I got these ones using the voucher my sister gave me for my birthday back in March. The smaller cushions remind me of ones my Grandma has, a pretty shantung silk texture. 

My bedside tables were bought off eBay for the grand total of $50 - for BOTH! They came with the gorgeous glass knobs and I must say, I do love them. My other Grandma used to have furniture with similar Queen Ann legs. Funny how things go full circle!

My lamps were purchased a little while ago at Bunnings for $59 each. One of very few pretty things I've ever found at Bunnings, they were also the right price. Not like that 'other' lighting store who perform daylight robbery with their prices! I'm really pleased with the look so far, it's very close to what I had in mind. The only thing missing now is our built-in and timber floors, but they'll have to wait until after New Years. 

Now that's done, I can open my doors each morning and gaze at my next project!

 

Eeeeeek! Think I'd better shut the doors, lay down and gaze at my greenery instead. :-)

Cornices & other conundrums

I am proud to announce that we completely avoided having to pay the ridiculous $100 delivery fee for the cornices. The cornices didn't even cost $100 for goodness sake! I passed the problem onto the brains trust and they put their brains together and worked it out! :-)

I'm happy to say that all the cornices are now up. My excitement was soon dampened when I realised that it means MORE cleaning & painting for me (GASP! There's plaster on my pretty grey walls). The ceilings will also need doing again due to the patchy holes from the old fluoro lights. Think I'll just turn up the music, sing at the top of my voice and try to forget that my arms are being tortured once again!

 

The cornices are also up in Room 2 and some more plastering means that this room is also nearly done. And we all know what that means now don't we?

Then we have the conundrum. A patch of ugliness consisting of sewer pipes and remnants of the brick wall. It's here because this will eventually be a doorway into our ensuite (currently just a toilet and laundry on the other side). I'm hoping that the nice built in wardrobe people (yet to be found) can fashion a temporary closet for us so the bricks really will be no more! Think I'll hide the iron AND the ironing in there :-)

Tomorrow, I will pay my friendly paint man at Bunnings another visit. Love it when he calls me 'love'.

Blinds and Doors galore!

Even more progress today, which was really pleasing!

We managed to install two of the four blinds we ordered and also got the doors hung! 'We' means myself and my sister and brother-in-law. After all, many hands make light work!

I ordered the blinds from my sister and brother in law who have an eBay store that sells a range of great blinds. You can find their store here. I decided on dual roller blinds for the two windows in the bedroom (light filtering teamed with blockout) and chose stark white to continue the soft grey/white colour scheme.

Here's the daytime shots I promised, complete with blinds!

 

I mocked up the skirting board for that one. We're not putting them on until we replace the flooring. I'm aiming to make my life easier, so we can live without them until then!

This pic is probably the closest to the colour Tranquil Retreat in real life. Tricky to capture with the camera.

 

And voila! Pretty doors hung and ready to sliiiiiiiide! No door frames yet. I'm giving myself a break!

Now to go and resign myself to ordering and paying way too much for delivery of our cornices. Dammit, but it has to be done!

Paint, paint and more paint

Please, no more paint.

I am pleased to announce that room 2 is 98% complete! I have decided that cornices and hung doors only account for 2% (cough), makes it sound just that much closer to the finish line!

I have pretty much spent the last few weeks of my life painting, usually late at night when I should have been tucked up in bed. After undercoating with the most awfully thick 3 in 1 paint, I was then able to apply my long awaited finishing colour. I originally chose Dulux Tranquil Retreat, first for its name, secondly because I am a bit in love with grey/white colour schemes at the moment. On testing, I decided that the full strength colour was way too dark for this particular space. I settled for Tranquil Retreat half strength which has given us a really soothing soft grey.

Couldn't wait until morning, so I apologise for these night pics! Will take more in the daylight.

Oh, did I mention that I made the window frames all by myself? So clever that mitre box and me!

Trims and doors have been painted in Dulux Aquanamel, untinted white. I have a love hate relationship with Aquanamel. This evening I discovered that it behaves much better when the temperature is under 20 C and humidity is moderate. On other days it has been akin to painting sticky white honey uphill. I bought a 10L tin of the stuff, so I have to make it work!

Doors are all painted and ready to hang tomorrow. Yes, more painting!

Then there's room 2. Well, still a work in progress! Once we get our cornices delivered (when I negotiate the ridiculous $100 minimum delivery charge) I think I'll really feel like it's almost all done. Shouldn't be too impatient - finished plaster means more painting for me! Bring on those Lotto numbers!