The Living Room – Home Sweet Home

Welcome to the first room in Home Sweet Home: The Living Room!

Read each of the rooms below (links updated as I post):

Before and after:

Finished:

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Before:

Looking through my hardrive makes me wish I’d taken more photos before so I could show what a big difference there’s been. I didn’t take many out of embarrassment >_< This is a before but it was a lot worse than this for the first 8 months.

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Photo spam:

I really suggest clicking the panoramas to get the full view! You can spot a very sleepy puppy in a lot of them 😉

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The view from the kitchen. The cherry blossom windows look particularly awesome on the middle window.

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This area typifies the theme I wanted to have for the apartment: Spring.

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This is my favorite part of the entire house. This is the window I spend pretty much all day every day staring at. I wanted something to inspire me and I absolutely love it. Every time I look at this window it puts a smile on my face. It’s partially because that container is usually full of M&Ms and partially because it’s beautiful 😉

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One more because I love it so much. It seems ridiculous but this just feels *right*.

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My noticeboard and photo wall. For Christmas James bought me a gift to Printstagram so I will be getting our photos printed to fill this wall up with happy memories!

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The new couch with the rug I spent months crocheting. I made all of those pillows other than the green one too. The speakers I recovered are on the sides.

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I crocheted the spiral cushion and the others were made of old dresses. I am most proud of the rug though, it took me so long and I was basically making it up as I went along. If I could stand the idea of spending the next year crocheting I would make one big enough to cover the carpet in our room. It took 10 balls which we got half price at just $2 each!

 

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The tv area is now no longer a mess of cables. Everything has a place.

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Background information:

So the lounge is the most important part of the apartment, it’s the area I spend the most time in and I like it to be nice and relaxing. When we came from Brisbane, we didn’t bring any furniture at all. Everything that came down with us was in our car. Not much fit in the car! We bought appliances like the tv, fridge etc when we moved in but didn’t have much left for furniture. Luckily we had some very kind friends who gave us a desk and a folding chair as a start. Even luckier, our apartment had a hard rubbish removal day a few months after we arrived and we were able to salvage some really awesome things including our tv table, rug and a big table we used for a while as my desk. We managed to get the antique couches from a family downstairs who were collectors but also out of room. They were my favorites for a very long time but they were in very bad shape. I wanted to restore them completely but they were too far gone for me so I  ended up having to give them away in favor of something newer. I hope the lady that has them now can restore them to their former glory!

You guys will remember that I made some removable curtains for the middle window. We struggled with them for around 6 months before I decided that they just didn’t fit with the look. I absolutely adored them but with the door being broken behind them and therefore very hard to open in Summer they had to go. I actually prefer it this way now that the cherry blossoms are up because it gives a complete view when all of the blinds are up. I reused the fabric from one of the curtains in the bedroom which you’ll see later and once the window is properly fixed I will think about putting something similar back up again.

Changes made:

  • Couches replaced
  • Rug replaced with handmade crochet rug
  • Everything rearranged
  • Side table painted white
  • New table cloths for all of the side tables
  • General cleaning
  • New decorations for the sliding doors
  • Tv table rearranged
  • Inspiration area added
  • Broken speaker system fixed and covered
  • Tv area reorganised
  • Curtains made then removed
  • Stars on windows replaced with cherry blossoms

Still to be done:

  • Not totally happy with the tv area, need something else, or something less or a better set up.
  • Debating whether I want to keep the sliding doors the way they are or whether I would prefer a different set up.

Final thoughts:

I love my lounge room now. This is possibly the room I love the most. This room has gone through the most changes since we moved in but it’s the one I’m the most proud of. When I sit and look out the window at my special flower area I feel relaxed and that’s really what this was all about!

Bonus progress photos:

The tv area with the first version of the inspiration area on the left. The table next to it used to be just full of whatever junk I was using at the time and needed to clean away quickly.

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The day our new couch was delivered the whole place was super messy and trashed. They delivered the couch broken too so we had a week and a half trying to fix everything >_<

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I was so happy to get rid of the red rug, it made the room so much brighter!

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The end of couch moving day, enjoying being comfortable. Lottie totally approved  of having her own place on the couch now ^_^

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My pretty area started out as Lottie’s area while we were toilet training her XD

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Everything was very Lottie-centric at this point ^_^

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Make sure you come back tomorrow for the next instalment: the kitchen!

 

Welcome To Our Home Sweet Home

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So almost a year ago I started The Home Sweet Home Project. It was my aim to stop procrastinating about decorating my house and actually do it. We rent and because of that I had a tendency to not bother with decorations or actually making places feel like home as I didn’t know where we would be in 6 months or a year. It didn’t seem like a good mentality and almost a year later I can say that I’ve made a lot of really positive changes both in our home and the way that I look at things.

The day we moved in, I was so excited:

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You can read the full original Home Sweet Home post over here but I’m going to go through my original goals and show the progress I’ve made.

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The first meal we ever had in the apartment, James got Subway and I had Okonomiyaki. Note the lack of furniture and the cardboard boxes next James which will soon be turned into furniture XD

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So what was I trying to get out of this project and do I think I’ve completed it?

  • To make every part of the house pretty without losing functionality.
    With our budget and time allowance, we’ve done amazingly well. There are still areas which need improvements but I am really proud of the progress we’ve made so far! The house looks like a completely different place. When we moved in, I had to make our furniture out of cardboard. How times have changed!

Me putting together my cardboard furniture right after moving in. Having to cut up all of those heavy boxes really cut up my hands too:

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  • To spend as little money as possible.
    We stuck to our budget because we bought as we found things cheaply and made most of the big things from scratch. The biggest purchase we made was a new couch for the lounge room and that was actually a gift from my Mum so I was very lucky in that area!
  • Regain my creativity and problem solving skills.
    I feel invigorated. I lost my inspiration in some areas (mostly drawing) but I found it in others. I think that’s just the nature of inspiration though isn’t it? If we were inspired all the time it wouldn’t feel as awesome coming up with something new!
  • Replace all ugly things.
    We’ve made some real progress on this. Most of the things which now need replacing are in the kitchen and as I have no intention of wasting things I’ll be replacing them as they wear out.
  • Practice decorating for our real home.
    No matter where our first “real” home ends up being I know that the lessons I’ve learned here will allow me to decorate it with ease! I’m absolutely looking forward to moving there too and hopefully it will be this year!
  • Stop procrastinating!
    I’m not completely sure I managed this one >_> I mean I’ve stopped several times while writing this post to watch Poirot over the top of my laptop… but I have gotten a lot of things done! I have worked very hard this year at making our house nice. I guess a little procrastination isn’t really a bad thing as it gives time to relax when you haven’t scheduled it. I tend to schedule everything so perhaps embracing procrastination (to a point) as my brain’s way of saying “Enough is enough!” is the right thing to do at the moment.
  • Surround ourselves with beauty .
    I think I’ve checked this off very well!
  • Stop waiting and start DOING!
    Well and truly DONE!

So overall I think I’ve made a pretty damn good go of this project and while I know it’s never going to be completely finished I can be comfortable at calling this finished 😀

For the next week I’ll be posting one room per day with before/afters and everything that’s happened in between. I hope you enjoy them!

My Photo Wall and Notice Board – Home Sweet Home

One of the things I wanted to make in the Home Sweet Home project was a notice board. I made one when we lived in Brisbane but it was too big to bring with us so I have been making do since moving here.

We have a massive glass door which leads to our bedroom so I figured that was the perfect place to put one! This is the result:

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Now it’s up, I really like it but I’m debating whether I would rather just cover the glass with some nice paper and put the board and polaroids/business cards somewhere else. That’s for another day though so today I’ll just show how I made all of this!

You need:

  • Cardboard
  • Foam/corkboard/something to stick pins into (I’m using the rest of that old yoga mat)
  • Fabric to cover it all
  • Decorations: popsicle sticks, paint, lace etc
  • Hot glue
I was reusing old supplies for most of this.

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Cover the cardboard in foam and hot glue it down. I used that same old yoga mat and because there wasn’t much left I made a bit of a patchwork XD

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Next cover it all with fabric. Again I was using scraps so I did it in two sections.

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Tadaa 😀

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The finish was a bit rough so I glued thick elastic around the edges and middle. This made it look more like a window. You could easily use ribbon or something else similar.

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So far:

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Now I wanted to make a little white picket fence to go around it too so I used popsicle sticks.

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I snipped off one of the ends…

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Painted them all white…

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And left them to dry while I did the next part.

I decided to hold this on to the glass using some double sided tape.

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Here it is on the wall:

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Then I added the popsicle sticks in a picket fence design over the top. It turned out that having the sticks over the top of the board made it too thick to slide back into the wall. Boo! I ended up removing that section and leaving the rest.

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Decoration time now! I used some green yarn to hang from the top of the boards to the sides of the door.

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I used little pegs to hold photos there.

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I made matching swoops of yarn on the other panels.

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It wasn’t quite fancy enough so I added some little flowers around the fences and drew in some grass with a green whiteboard marker.

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Lastly I made our initials out of pearls and added them to the top.

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All done!

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I love that all my photos and pretty things are on display like this.

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But I’m not sure if this is going to be the room’s final incarnation or if I’ll recover it.

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I think I’m coming to accept a bit more that my house is always going to be a work in progress! 😀

How To Make A Craft Box From A Yoga Mat – Home Sweet Home

This is a really quick way to knock together some craft storage from an old yoga mat.

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  • Old Yoga mat or foam
  • Needle and yarn or stapler
  • Scissors
I wanted to use the basket I keep my lace in for the tv area to hold cables. Good idea but what would I replace it with? I didn’t have any other things to use so I decided to make one.

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First cut a rectangle of foam which is as wide as the bottom of the box plus both sides. You can see I had a helper 😉DIY-Craft-Storage-83

Put the basket in the middle of the foam and trace lightly around it 2cm from the base with the scissors so it scores the foam.

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In each corner cut out a square which meets the corner of the score you made.

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Snip the inner corner 2cm.

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Repeat on each side and you’ll have something like this:

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When you fold the edges together they should match up like this:

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Stitch each side together. I used yarn and a basic whip stitch. You could staple it if you’re in a hurry but this does look a bit nicer.

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Done, easy!

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And all full of stuff. Apparently this was really hard work so my helper decided to have a nap ^_^

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With one yoga matt you could easily make a bunch of these and have a matching storage system.

How To Cover Speakers – Home Sweet Home

As I work through my Home Sweet Home projects one thing has always been a bit of a mystery: how to brighten up the tv area? The tv is black, the speakers are black, the stand is black, it’s all black. It’s like a black hole in the living room. I didn’t want to touch the tv or the stand so I decided to give the speakers a mini make over.

Tadaaa, slightly less black:

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You need:

  • Speakers with a removable cover (these are James’s Logitech G51 speakers)
  • Pretty paper or fabric
  • Scissors, screw driver etc
  • Double sided tape

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First clean the speakers and remove any dust. Take off the plastic covers, our speakers just unscrewed at the sides.

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Use the cover as a guide to cut a strip of paper long enough to go all the way around.

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My speakers curved at the back so to get the paper to fit snugly I made several small cuts in the middle.

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Like this:

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Use double sided tape to stick it to the speakers. The cuts will allow it to fit to the curve easily.

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Now pop the plastic back on and screw in place.

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Easy!

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Repeat to all of your other speakers. James has a surround system which was originally from his music room so I had to do 5 of them.

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I added some stuffed toys too and it brightened up the area nicely. I’ll show you the whole thing when I do the big house reveal. We’re getting SO close to being finished!!

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I can’t decide if I want to keep the speaker covers on or replace them with some white tulle to make it even lighter. More thought needed!

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I’m so excited to be finished the apartment, having made all of these changes has made such a difference in my life!

Cherry Blossom Window Stickers – Home Sweet Home

The window stickers we got from Daiso were almost the first thing we got to decorate our apartment. They really made the apartment brighter and they made it a little less awkward that our windows look directly into the neighbours lounge room.

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Unfortunately after 2 years in the sun they were a little worse for wear 🙁 Most of them were fine but a couple were melty and faded.Off to Daiso we went for some replacements! This time rather than the stars I went for something a little more grown up.

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Cherry blossoms for a more Spring/Summer feel. I would actually like to change them for every season now! But they only make stars and cherry blossoms =(

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They’re a lot harder to see on the windows but they’re so pretty!

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I positioned them to flow through the three windows like a breeze is blowing:

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They certainly brighten up the place.

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The theme I decided to go with for the apartment is floral so this really fits in well. I’m considering adding some matching ones to the kitchen too, what do you think?

 

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