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Violet’s Vanity Area – Home Sweet Home

by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 12, 2013 | Home Sweet Home Tutorials, Tutorial

Welcome to the next room in Home Sweet Home: Violet’s make up area!

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

Before and after:

More brightness here, this is the most cluttered area in the apartment but it’s starting to come together and match so it’s less obvious.

I think this is the area I worked on the most as it required me to completely redo the dresser.

Photo spam:

This is definitely the pinkest area of the apartment, it’s also where I film my videos so it’s good to get me in the mood for it haha!

Jewellery is now organised on some little displays from Daiso. I have since added a section to this for earrings.

The good part of this area is that I can dump jewellery very easily and it doesn’t look too bad because it’s all fairly similar.

The new matching eyelash holder.

Make up 😀

I love my stool now but I totally hate the carpet. I just need enough time to crochet an entire new carpet 😉

Background information:

I love this vanity so much. In fact it’s been the subject of so many posts on the blog you’d probably know that already! My mum gave this vanity to me years ago and we had it in our old house too. When we moved down I couldn’t bring it but James’ parents were nice enough to bring it down for us with his double bass. I was so glad to have it back! Unfortunately the colour just didn’t work with what I was doing so I had to do some rethinking.

Changes made:

Painted vanity
Covered stool
Removed shelves
Cleared off everything and started the reorganisation from scratch
Added all of the accessories
Changed lighting set up
Added new eyelash storage
Added new accessory storage

Still to be done:

Work out better storage on top of the shelves for large palettes
Think about best way to have a backdrop permanently up

Final thoughts:

I love my vanity. I love it even more now it reflects my personality. The only problem I have is that it gets messy very easily. It’s the area that I tend to dump things in when I’m in a hurry. When I get home at night I dump all of my jewellery there because I’m too tired to put it away and that’s not ok. I think changing from a messy person to a neat person happens in degrees, you can’t just change overnight. I’ve made great progress at it so far because the new house design actually encourages me to put things in their places but the vanity is the one area left that’s a little tough to do because it’s so full of tiny things in a small area. It is happening though. I am becoming less lazy, I want to keep things tidy and I’ve noticed my priorities changing over the last year to reflect that. This area is my second favorite in the house (the special flower place in the lounge being my favorite), it’s very “me”. Every time I sit down here to do my make up I feel happy and that’s the whole point of the Home Sweet Home project. It’s a fantastic feeling when you can look at a before photo and know it’s never going back to that again!

Bonus progress photos:

You’ve already seen a lot of vanity photos on the blog at various times but here are a few of them again as a reminder of how far it’s come! The stool after it was recovered. After moving it over to the other side of the bedroom. Unfortunately as we moved everything around in the cupboards and around the house it became even more cluttered. It was at that point I decided to paint it. Much prettier! And then I cluttered it right up again XD Make sure you come back tomorrow for the next instalment: the bedroom!

James’ Area- Home Sweet Home

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!

The Laundry – Home Sweet Home

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!

The Bathroom – Home Sweet Home

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!

The Hallway- Home Sweet Home

by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 8, 2013 | Home Sweet Home Tutorials, Life, Tutorial

Welcome to the next room in Home Sweet Home: The Hallway!

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

Before and after:

Just like the rest of the apartment, it’s light and airy. It’s amazing what a little paint and paper can do!

This is what our hallway used to look like. It was basically a dumping ground for things which didn’t have another home. The craft area was particularly bad because every time someone offered me some kind of supplies I would just dump them there on top and not even think about it. The other problem area was the shoe rack which was never neat.

Photo spam:

The bathroom door is covered with mirrors in our colour scheme. I’m planning to add more to it too.

My shoe rack is organised and themed. The pretty paper makes it so much brighter, I love it! Now I just need to limit myself to not getting any more shoes… as if that’s going to happen >_<

Sneaker obsession partially survived my shoe cull:

Things now actually have their own places in the craft area. Again the lighter shelves make it easier to find things.

My absolute favorite part of the craft area is Quinn my mannequin. She was a gift and she makes everything so much easier to sew and display!

She looks super pretty when she’s doing it too!

My drawing and painting supplies are organised (no more empty pens that I keep because they’re pretty) and seeing them so often makes me want to use them.

All of the smaller craft supplies are organised in little containers so if I want to use them I can just take that container elsewhere then bring it back.

Over the other side the glass panels are decorated with James’ photography. There are only small prints there at the moment but I would love to get some really big ones. I also painted and added leaves to the tree here. I am changing the leaves every season so in Autumn they’ll be orange etc, it’s a silly thing but it’s a really fun way to mark the seasons 😀

Background information:

The hallway in our apartment is quite wide and unfortunately it takes up a lot of space which would be better used as living space. It’s an odd width because these buildings used to be offices a long time ago and were only cut into apartments later. The apartments are quite small and don’t have a huge amount of storage space so we had to add in a lot more shelves. I think keeping this are nice looking wasn’t actually that difficult, it just takes a little bit of self control and making sure I put stuff away straight away rather than dumping it and doing it *later*. When I tell myself I’m going to do it later, later never actually comes and we end up with things like the “before” photos XD It’s amazing how much brighter everything looked after I painted and decoupaged the shelves (which was actually James’ idea!). It’s such a little thing but it makes such a big difference! My favorite part of this hallway is the bathroom door which now has the mirror installation. I love the colours that I painted everything and I am planning to get more and more mirrors to hang there until the entire door is covered.

Changes made:

Shoes organised and cut to a reasonable number
Shoe rack decoupaged with nice paper
Clothes drying rack reorganised
Craft shelves painted
Craft shelves cleaned out and reorganised
Photo wall fixed up and tree painted
Mirror wall added
Removed second clothes rack

Still to be done:

Not 100% happy with the craft shelves, I’d like to do a little more with them
Adding more mirrors to the mirror wall

Final thoughts:

I think the hallway is so much brighter these days. It’s function but it’s not cluttered and dark any more. It feels like a hallway that’s leading you somewhere nice rather than towards a hoarder’s house XD

Bonus progress photos:

The shoe rack was reasonably organised though the shoes were spilling everywhere and they weren’t arranged in any particular way.

The craft area went through a lot of different versions as I tried to organise supplies. Really what I needed to do was get rid of the useless things I was hoarding. Various shelves on the craft area before they were organised.

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

The Kitchen – Home Sweet Home

by VioletLeBeaux | Jan 7, 2013 | Home Sweet Home Tutorials, Life, Tutorial

Welcome to the next room in Home Sweet Home: The Living Room! Read each of the rooms below (links updated as I post):

Before and after:

My kitchen today is light, follows my pink and green colour scheme and has some actual form of organisation!

Looking at the kitchen the way it used to be makes me cringe. I can’t believe it used to be so messy >_< We kept a lot of food here considering it was an apartment, the stupid thing being that it wasn’t stuff we needed. Most of the things that were on these shelves were there because we impulse bought or we had several half finished packets of things. It wasn’t needed!

Photo spam:

Starting with a shot of the whole kitchen/lounge area to get an idea of space. You’ll notice the sleepy puppy in the kitchen now haha!

The kitchen is very standard for an apartment this size. I’m very glad there’s an oven and dishwasher though as I saw quite a few that didn’t come with them.

The bench has my favorite change: the covered backsplash. I am planning to change that out for a green one a bit later though as I think the stripes aren’t exactly what I envisioned.

On the right side the appliances are now organised. I made a hanging hook thing to get some of the stuff off the bench. I love the idea of hanging hooks and being able to put things up and away because the space up there is pretty useless otherwise.

On the other side I created a little matching system of drawers in pink/green and stacked our other things over the top. I’ll be moving the hot chocolate etc into matching containers eventually so it will be even more matchy.

I think it’s the smaller details that really made the kitchen. Having everything in similar colours and with similar patterns really made a big difference visually.

The kitchen is a fairly functional place but having small decorated touches doesn’t take away from the functionality, it makes me very happy.

Background information:

When we moved here we saw the kitchen and lack of storage space and thought “Pft, who cares, we’ll eat out all the time and we’ll drop by the grocery store every few days”. Did that happen? No. We did exactly what we previously did and shopped every few weeks and had no money to eat take away >_< Going to the grocery store? Pft no, we order online now and just pick up little things at the store when needed. So that’s how we somehow ended up with all of this crap. Our kitchen appliances and things didn’t fit anywhere either. This place had minimum bench space so it’s impossible to keep many appliances, the lack of actual storage space means you can’t even really keep them in the cupboards because they’re very thin. When we started here we didn’t have a proper fridge, just a mini fridge so it made things easier as the space where the fridge was could be used for extra appliances. The kitchen was one of my hardest areas to redecorate because no matter how I organised things the gigantic blue backsplash still wasn’t the right colour to go with what I wanted. It was the last thing I put in here and it really changed the look. This area is the place which still needs the most work but it’s stuff which will gradually be replaced and changed.

Changes made:

Removed 2 sets of shelves
Added coloured backsplash
Made mini shelves for bench storage
White board for fridge
Reorganised benches and cupboards
Started replacing broken things like crockery with the correct colours (green and pink)

Still to be done:

Possibly replace pink backsplash with a green one
Replace the rest of the appliances/crockery/cutlery so they all match
Do something about ugly black bench

Final thoughts: We rent so there’s only so much I can do in areas which have been already decorated. When I own the house I’ll be doing bigger things like repainting or adding new backslashes but for now I’ve made a big enough difference to be happy with the kitchen. I don’t spend as much time in here as I want to (James does all the cooking) but as I spend more time baking, I find the changes are making it more enjoyable. I actually like being in the kitchen baking now… that can only mean good things as it makes me want to bake more 😀

Bonus progress photos: The Home Sweet Home page from my diary that I never actually posted.

With all of the cupboards open. The one above the rangehood is only a few inches deep so you can only keep spices there. The one next to it has blocks of wood drilled in so plates can only be a certain width. The one below the sink has a bunch of piping for the dishwasher so it’s very thin too. I think whoever designed this storage had never actually lived in a house before, don’t even get me started on the bedroom cupboards!!

These were the shelves we originally had in here, the white one on the right slides into the wall (super unhelpful) and is built in. The middle one was completely falling apart so I repaired it and gave it to James for his photography stuff. The black one was repurposed for our clothes.

It’s a bit ridiculous that I managed to fit everything from the two left shelves on to the the right one with some organisation and actually chucking out things which I shouldn’t have been keeping.

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

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