by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 11, 2013 | Home Sweet Home Tutorials, Tutorial
Welcome to the next room in Home Sweet Home: James’ area!
Read each of the rooms below (links updated as I post):
Before and after:
This will always be a boys area so it’s never going to be pink and pretty but it’s well organised and not another light hole now!
Before the work James had a massive set of black selves for his photography stuff. It wasn’t ideal as we couldn’t find anything because it was so fat, plus his black shelves held black gear. His desk was also very unorganised. 
Photo spam:
James tends to keep his things in small piles so I think I might get him a little box or something to keep them in.
At least as time goes by he’s replacing his old broken things with nice things!
The two main things he keeps are photography things and music things.
The photography stuff now has a better set of shelves which don’t take up as much space. You may recognise them from the original food area!
Of course there are still some cute touches. This is from the first time we ever took purikura together 😀
The top of the mini fridge holds Lottie’s things. Since taking these photos I’ve moved her things to inside the cupboard and I’m working on another flower arrangement to keep here.
Background information:
James’s desk takes up a lot of room in our living area but it’s a very important part of the house. Without it I couldn’t bug him to take photos of me XD His requirements for our houses are always that he needs a decent desk and a place to store his photography stuff. In an apartment it’s a bit harder to put that into action without a separate room for it, especially because he likes to watch tv from his desk! The layout we have at the moment works reasonably well for this as he can see around his computer and there’s a space for shelves. It would be nice if we could switch his desk out to a much smaller one so we might be able to turn it sideways and reclaim the space he’s not using. I didn’t want to do too much here because it’s James’ space but the changes we did carry out actually did make a difference to brighten the whole room.
Changes made:
- Shelves swapped
- Desk covered with a table cloth
- Desk reorganised
Still to be done:
- Better more comfortable (and less ugly) chair
- Smaller desk
- Paint shelving
Final thoughts:
I don’t think this area was ever going to be cute and girly, it’s James’ area after all and he’s not exactly in love with the idea of daisies covering his computer monitor XD That said having the table cloth really brightens the room up. Hiding the black photography gear in the shelves works well and the only improvement I could think there would be to either paint them or have a door so they are hidden entirely. All in all as long and James is happy with it so am I!
Bonus progress photos:
This is from when I changed the shelves out, notice the lovely model who kind of looks like he’s trying to flirt with the camera XD
The desk was given to us by SuperKawaiiMama and it’s served very well these last few years but I think it’s time to get something smaller which we can turn around. 
Make sure you come back tomorrow for the next instalment: Violet’s Area!
by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 10, 2013 | Home Sweet Home Tutorials, Tutorial
Welcome to the next room in Home Sweet Home: the laundry!
Read each of the rooms below (links updated as I post):
Before and after:
I didn’t actually think to take any before photos of this because I didn’t think I would be doing anything with it! And really there wasn’t that much done in here.
Photo spam:
Background information:
The laundry tends to be another dumping ground. We used to keep dirty clothes ready to be washed in the sink until we discovered that it was leaking and causing things to mould *_* That was actually a blessing in disguise as it made me get organised and clean it up a bit more. When we got Lottie we needed a place to keep all of her things which was out of the way but still easy to get to and this was the most logical place. I added the shelving to give us some more space but to be honest it needs even more shelving now it’s full of Lottie’s junk!
Changes made:
- Shelves added
- Reorganised everything
- Shoe organiser added for the bottles
Still to be done:
- Needs some kind of decoration
- Maybe decorating the washing machine
- Turn the top of the washer into an ironing board
- Paint/decoupage shelves
- Find a better place for the shopping cart
- Maybe find more shelves to put over the sink for Lottie’s things
Final thoughts:
This is probably the room that still needs the most work. It’s really not even a room, it’s just a cupboard in the bathroom but I don’t want to leave any stone unturned in this house. Because it’s out of site, it tends to be a bit out of mind but I want to enjoy opening the door and having to do washing. I hate washing so it would be nice to be able to open it up and smile at how pretty it is!
Bonus progress photos:
Again I didn’t take any because I didn’t do much here XD
Make sure you come back tomorrow for the next instalment: James’ area!
by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 9, 2013 | Home Sweet Home Tutorials, Tutorial
Welcome to the next room in Home Sweet Home: the bathroom!
Read each of the rooms below (links updated as I post):
Before and after:
Totally bright!
Before it was very white but also very cluttered.
Photo spam:
The pretty mirrors on the doors 😀
I love the Cristina Re butterfly paper.
The flower vase suits the bathroom a lot more than it did the living room!
I think this area needs a little more organising as it’s gotten messy after moving some more make up in here. I’m going to buy some cute little containers from Daiso to keep it all out of the way.
The vase is full of memorable things. James found me this peacock feather the first time we ever visited the Zoo on Billy Idol Day 😀
I love my repurposed MOR containers.
I made a new little door stop by filling a candy container with rice and putting pretty fabric around it.
Background information:
When we inspected the property to decide if we wanted to rent it, the bathroom was locked shut from the inside and so we couldn’t see it. We applied anyway because we were pretty desperate at the time and this was the nicest place we’d seen so far. Rental competition was very high at the time and we were lucky that it was raining and the agent was 30 minutes late so almost everyone else gave up and went home before the inspection even started. Fast forward to when we actually got the keys and a locksmith had opened the bathroom up. I was so surprised and happy at how nice and big it was! Big is definitely relative, it’s much smaller than our last places but it was still the biggest we’d seen in a city apartment. Unfortunately I covered my nice pretty modern bathroom with a bunch of bathroom junk XD That’s the problem with pretty modern houses, they look great until you put stuff in them! So I’ve had to find a medium between the white and the pink clutter!
Changes made:
- Removed all of the stuff on the walls and accessories to put elsewhere
- Rearranged everything and removed things which were not suitable for the bathroom
- Added the big mirror (we found it in the trash)
- Added flowers
- Added shelves to the shower
Still to be done:
- Possibly something to decorate the shower more?
- Matching towels
- Add some more flowers to fill out the bunch
Final thoughts:
The bathroom didn’t need a lot of work, it just needed some thought and for me to stop being so lazy. It’s got a great base and in my dream house this is the styling I would probably choose. I like plain things which can then be embellished to whatever you feel like afterwards and then changed depending on taste and mood. I’ve always liked my bathroom here but now I love it.
Bonus progress photos:
The day we moved in:
The first time I tried to do some decorating:
After getting the big mirror it just looked even more cluttered but it was the accessories which were the problem not the mirror. Lucky because I love the mirror!
The next version where we were thinking “minimalist”. It didn’t last long!
Make sure you come back tomorrow for the next instalment: the Laundry!
Photo spam:
The desk was given to us by SuperKawaiiMama and it’s served very well these last few years but I think it’s time to get something smaller which we can turn around. 
Make sure you come back tomorrow for the next instalment: Violet’s Area!
