Displaying posts from October, 2016

Clean, bright, fresh, with a touch of elegance and an unquestionable level of comfort I think we all strive for in our homes. Arizona-based interior designer Lexi Westergard clearly enjoys dabbling with pattern and textures, and colour in just the right amount, with furniture in a variety of styles. Loving these spaces from several projects she has worked on.  

“… a series of elegant, open plan and light filled spaces conceived as a series of nooks from the scale of a room down to the home for a favourite bowl.”

I love the kitchen in this extension of a Victorian-era terrace house. MDF, cast concrete, cement tiles, stainless steel and birch faced plywood create a modern, practical and stylsih kitchen. Best part? That bench seat and window looking out to the garden. Nook House by London-based Mustard Architects.

There is a little slice of paradise in the rolling hills behind the northern New South Wales coastal resort of Byron Bay. Lush green land with stunning views often with old farm houses poised on top of a ridge. Where once dairy cattle grazed or avocado trees groaned under bumper crops now cashed up tree changers create little kingdoms. As much as I love a good old Queenslander-style house restoration (this one was moved here) it’s the gardens that I’m concentrating on today. A simple, classic layout with emphasis on the house and that view. Such green goodness in Federal by Secret Gardens.

Yesterday I shared my dining room makeover, so today I thought I would show you what happened to my credenza. Some may love, some may hate, but it’s working for now so I am going to enjoy it until I can maybe afford something fancy. 

Soon after we moved in I noticed Benjamin Curran was selling a bunch of pieces of this walnut veneer (??) vintage furniture in Montreal so off we went with my mom’s massive SUV and trailer and picked up this credenza, a headboard, 2 side tables and an armoire. All for an awesome price (or free because some of it he just wanted to get rid of). I loved the somewhat brutalist pattern in the doors and still do, and it fits PERFECTLY in this alcove (7′ long). It has SO much storage with pull out drawers behind the doors on the left and right sides and drawers down the centre. 

Pre-makeover of the room it was pretty cute. But then we went and refinished the floors grey. Then I had that hemlock dining table made (blonde and grey wood). After that the orange tones of this credenza were just AWFUL. We looked into buying Ikea kitchen cabinets to fit in the alcove and getting a marble top made but the cabinets alone with shelving/drawers inside would have been over a thousand dollars. YEAH. NO. And I could not find anything this long that wasn’t a gazillion dollars. 

After much thought, I committed the worst crime of all and painted the credenza. It was a bitch of a job but in the end, saved me a ton of money until I can afford something totally fabulous. 

I painted it Black Blue by Farrow & Ball that I used on the alcove windows and doors. I figured this was the safest colour choice, and I wanted the dining table to stand out and this to blend in more. It sat like this with an unfinished top for several months. Why you ask? Because I was determined to purchase a piece of white carrara marble for the top because I am obsessed with white carrara marble. Husband called around and we got several insane quotes for around $3,000. UH NO THANKS. Seriously?! We managed to find one place who offered to cut us the piece we needed for $800. I was game, and we visited their warehouse, then the showroom, then the warehouse, then the showroom (why we had to do this I still don’t know) and several emails in between and I was all CAN YOU JUST CUT ME A DAMN PIECE OF MARBLE ALREADY? So guess what happened? Absolutely nothing. After a few emails asking when our marble would be ready, we never received a response. I was fed up at this point and decided these people could go to hell, and I came up with a PLAN B. I enlisted husband to search online for a really nice looking white marble contact paper. And he found a roll on eBay for a grand total with shipping of $50.77. 

I was nervous that I would screw up the measurements and cutting but I managed to do a decent job.

I had curled the ends over the side in this photo and not done the front yet, but I realized this would not fly as this paper was VERY thick so I cut the sides off and re-cut separate side pieces. The beauty of this whole project is that this credenza had this raised part on the top so when covered in the paper it looks like a really thick piece of marble. I think in the end this looks better than if I had of stuck a piece of marble on this already raised top. 

I sooo dig the pattern on the front of this beast. Too bad I didn’t shut the middle drawer tight. YEESH!

Here’s a detail shot of the marble pattern. There are some air bubbles that I need to poke out, and I probably should have installed it with one of those squeegee things to really get the air out but I was a contact paper virgin and didn’t know any better. 

And voilà! My credenza transformation. 🙂

Still stalking. I promise I won’t be tomorrow. Melbourne suburb of Richmond, a restored single front cottage with historic facade and modern extension out the back. A mullet as I like to call it. Business up the front and party down the back. Just what we Aussies love. No backyard as such but you’re so close to the city it’s not a bad trade off. Link here while it lasts.