DIY turned wood pendant light.... without the turning

 

 

 

We had been looking for bedside lights for a long time, I would find something, stare at it for a while and then decide it wasnt quite right. I love our white bedroom but the thing I love about white is all the warming up you can do with fittings and furniture. I needed the warmth of wood.

 

I found a light I loved from Citta design, it really is so gorgeous....the wood and copper one?! But they weren't coming in until August and this "build your own home from scratch' project is hogging all my patience. So it was back to the drawing board, I youtubed lots of wood DIY's, mainly Canadian men with very Canadian accents, checkered shirts and serious wood working skills. I could do the checkered shirts, I would even give the accent a go but the skills....nope. I just needed the turning part done for me and then I could totally take it from there. I needed to come up with a DIY, a shortcut to perfect Canadian wood working. I think that's how my brain got me started, I was looking at this sweet wooden bowl, gifted to us from an Aunt and Uncle from....you guessed it, Canada. A wooden bowl, wood that has been perfectly carved and turned...ummmm. And then a trip to Briscoes sealed it....and then their 60% off all ECOLOGY wooden bowls made me fist pump in delight.... It was SO on.

I wanna be all cool and a bit "oh yeh, they worked out alright" about them, except I just think these lights are freaking awesome and I'm so stoked with them!!! So instead I'm doing that 'I have something on my shoulder, I'm gonna brush it off' dance in the most gangsta style I can muster.

So here we go, here's how we did it (I have left out most of the trial and error parts that lead us to the final result, I have also left out the exact amount of pilsner consumed and the Husband and Wife DIY 'just do it my way' battles, you're welcome)

 

 

 

 

 

1 x 25cm ECOLOGY bowl These are 60% off at the moment. go, go, go!

1 x 15cm Freedom serving bowl ECOLOGY also do a similar size bowl which is $10 cheaper but I think the colour difference and the fact you can see the layering in the Freedom bowl are little details that make the light.

Coloured cord (whatever length amount you require)

ceramic light socket - sorry, no link for these but any electrical store will have them. You need to use one of these and not a cheapy plastic one as you will screw this directly onto the bowl. They're only a few dollars I think?

We bought our wall brackets from Bunnings in a 2 pack for $10

Brass nut on top from Bunnings too, purely decoration.

Some screws and a drill

Ruler

Pencil

Strong adhesive

Enamel paint (our colour is resene alabaster)

 

Right, I would start by painting the inside of your big bowl with 2 coats of enamel. I did this at the end, which was not as ideal.

Once that's dry....

Find the centre of your bowls base, mark them and drill a hole large enough for the light cord to pass through easily

Attach your ceramic light socket to the cord. We did this ourselves but I'm not suggesting everyone does and I am not going to run you through how to be an electrician because neither of us are one of those, in fact when deciding which colour would be the positive/negative between the blue and the brown we decided 'poo is brown and poo is a bit of a negative so brown is negative' say no more, you are not taking advice from us when it comes to wiring.

 

 

 

 

 

Thread your cable through your drilled hole and then screw the light socket up onto the bowl.

 

 

 

 

Now tie a knot about 8cm up from where the cable is coming out of the big bowl, then continue to thread it through the small bowl. when you hold onto the top of the cord and hang your pendant, your small bowl should be resting on the knot with a 1-2cm gap between the two bowls. This is to take the pressure off the wiring when hanging.

Spread your super strong glue around the top rim of your small bowl and then press firmly down, wipe away any glue that squishes out and let this cure overnight, we originally thought to screw this down but with the curve of the bowl its hard not to split it, so the glue seemed the better option.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thread your decorative brass nut (if you so desire) over the cable so it sits on top of the small bowl

Either attach a plug or connect to your wiring and you are all done!

Look what you did you clever thing, you made a cool light, brush your shoulders, you are a light gangsta now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope this very casual 'how to' is clear enough, feel free to ask me anything if it doesn't make sense.

If you do give this a go, I would love to see your finished result, if you instagram it, go ahead and tag me.

 

Good luck, have fun and may the sprirt skills of a checkerd shirt Canadian be with you.

 

 

 

 

Where to hang?

 

 

Wardrobes, they're one of the things that I've put to the back of my mind, on the 'not a priority' list....what would Carrie Bradshaw say, that's all the poor girl wanted in the end, right? Unlike Carrie though, my wardrobe is full of "I found it for 10 bucks" kinda items and a little less "I sold my left kidney for this Balmain blazer" type treasures, so it's hardly surprising.

So here lies the I'm-not-Carrie-dilemma, we have no budget for kitting out the empty spaces we will eventually call wardrobes....none at all. I'm not giving an inch to these wardrobes that could be better used elsewhere, I know what I need to do, I need to get crafty.

I need to make our wardrobes look less budget and more buudgettte (that's budget said in a French accent and written in italics, so much more chic) so I've been collecting some ideas from Pinterest and this is where I'm at.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These driftwood options are right up there for me. I have access to plenty of it at the beach down the road and I love the look of it. Painted or unpainted, still undecided.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This ply and copper job looks so great, we have a fair bit of ply lying around but I'm not sure if the budget would allow for copper pipe.

 

 

 

 

Crates and boxes for shoes, I've done that before and I think I could easily do it again. As much as I love the rustic look of the boxes, I think I'd go white in our wardrobe to make it look a little less cramped and busy in a small space. There will also be a few less red soles and heels in our wardrobe, mainly just rubber soles if I'm honest.

 

 

Thinking, thinking, need to start deciding.....

 

 

 

 

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

 

 

 

Waikuku Welcome

 

 

 

 

What a welcome home I received on Tuesday. The sun was BLAZING and the beach was perfect.

The weeds hadn't stopped growing or pulled themselves out though. A bit rude, I thought.

 

 

 

 

It was a great day to come home to because as much as I loved Auckland and was insanely jealous of all the cool restaurants, flower markets and shops. They do not have Waikuku Beach on Ponsonby Road.

Talk about our happy place. I mean, this was Guy's lunch break!!! I got up to my knees while frolicking in the waves and it was actually quite warm. If I had a cossie I would have dived straight in....up to my waist, because I'm not a huge fan of the ocean. I know, gasp! Am I even a kiwi? I promise I am, don't get me wrong, I LOVE sand....I could lie on that all day. But the ocean... As soon as something touches my foot I can't get out fast enough (it makes surfing hard, which is why I don't do it), some may call me paranoid, bit I ask you....why are so many scary movies based on the sea? Jaws 1-100, Open Water, which also had a sequel...because 2 people being eaten by sharks just wasn't enough and then there was Deep Blue Sea.... The one where a shark eats Samuel L. Jackson like he's a French fry.

It's because there are scary things in the ocean that can eat you. I'm a river girl, give me a river to swim in any day! The only scary river movie I can think of is River Wild, which means I only need to fear Kevin Bacon while swimming.... And seeing as Kev lives in Hollywood, I think I'm in the clear.

OK, see how my brain works...wildly off topic in milliseconds. No wonder my report cards always said 'easily distracted'. Back to the wonders of Waikuku, which only has happy vegetarian sharks with full bellies swimming near it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It wasn't all play mind you, I did pull out a trailer full of weeds from our front mound and help finish off a fence and some irrigation. I also did some drop saw cavity batten cutting the other day, which I forgot to tell you all about. It was very exciting and made me feel like a real builder. That's what's been happening on the house lately, cavity battens and flashings....they don't exactly make for great photos and reading.... But I took a photo anyway.

 

 

 

Whenever I look at this photo all I can think about is the future decking..... how great it will be to sit on and look out at the native bush that we planted (at my feet) and all the happy birds tweeting away their thank you's for their bushy retreat. I will cheers them with a pimms and wish them a good day eating worms and berries and pooping on people's heads for luck. Truly the only living thing that could get away with such a thing, I'm pretty sure a bird started that rumour.

 

 

Happy Friday X

 

Go and type Marcus Foster into your spotify search and listen to him. So good. Apart from that strange woods song....it's a bit strange. So to be fair he did warn us.

 

A steal

 

 

How great are these hanging planters from ezibuy. I love the globe shaped one and can see a cluster of 2 or 3 hanging in our new home. Good thing they have a sweet discount when you buy 2!

Find them here Oh! How I love a good bargain.

 

Progress

This is just a quicky... check this out!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woooahhhhh! I love seeing things like that! And it makes me feel like we've done loads.

 

 

Standing in the kitchen/dining area looking out... Can't wait to get the soffits on those eaves out front. It's going to look pretty exceptional.

 

 

I love the western and eastern sides of the house... Above is looking towards our master bedroom and the end of hallway window. The soffit will carry along the roofline which is going to look pretty cool.

 

 

This weekend is a big one with loads of planting on the western mound. Can't wait to show you all a before and after of that one.

 

 

 

Windows

 

 

It's been very slow going lately.... So slow that I lost all motivation to fill any of you in with what is slowly happening. A few of you have been asking so I guess it's time to do a post that isn't all sunshine and lollipops.....

 

These windows..... We just can not catch a break. They have really held up progress, nothing has gone off without a hitch. So I will give you a quick run down.....it's a bullet point kind of fill in, full sentences will use too much energy on something that had already been the biggest energy sucker yet.

• 4 weeks ago we were ready for the windows. Some of the windows arrive, with unwanted vision rails...as you know. They are sent back.
• 2 weeks after that some more windows arrive which all have to be sent back because they arrive looking like this.

 

• They return the bulk of the repaired windows over the last week. Excluding the sliding part of the kitchen window, which was dropped on it's way out to us. (Beginning to feel like our windows are actually starring in their very own slapstick comedy)
• Realise that the other part of the kitchen window has been made to slide the wrong way anyway... Has to be sent back.
• Site glazers come out to place the glass in all large windows. I take the day off to clean all the birds nests and poop off the newly polished concrete floor that was supposed to be in a weathertight house. We figure we'll just board the kitchen window up to finally make us weather and bird proof.
• Except.... The have completely forgotten to order one of the large raking triangle windows and the large window above the front door.

 

Thought I'd show you just some of the poop. Haha, you're welcome. So, yep this was all through the house. It was no small job.

We're now looking at having it finished by the end of this week....fingers are crossed, breath is definitely not held.

It has been a bit of a Window nightmare.... I'm sure at the end of all of this we will look back and laugh....haha... Nope, too soon.

It's a funny thing this disappointment because I genuinely want things to go right for not only our own experience but because I like that I have been able to confidently recommend people and businesses from experience to those of you who are also about to build. I have to say, it's not been a great experience because nothing has gone smoothly and the initial stress of having a 30-something-thousand dollar purchase arrive looking second hand was not a nice one.

Two things though,

1. I'm proud to say I haven't cried since the vision rails (yep, still embarrassed about that)
2. As unfortunate as the experience has been, at least Vistalite haven't backed out on us once. They have had many screw ups but they are fronting up to all of them. And the windows we finally have in, we love!

Vistalite are actually responsible for doing all the windows for a large and popular building company and perhaps that hasn't worked in our favour? They would surely be run of their feet with hundreds of orders from them and we're definitely the little guys. I wonder whether it is best to go with a company who deals with quite a few custom builds and not copious amounts of spec houses?

In conclusion. We love the windows we have, we haven't loved the constant problems. To clarify, we are not paying for any of these problems to be rectified. Vistalite has taken care of everything.... That's not to say we haven't lost money with the 5 week drag on to get the windows in. This will definitely be one invoice that will hurt as we pay but I'm sure when we are sitting in our home and looking out those windows....all will be forgotten.

 

Roomie Light

Tina Stephens, our light at the end of the tunnel, our glimmer of hope, when we were scratching our heads...she knew just watt to do. Ohhh! I have so many more puns to make you cringe and make my Father in law clap proudly! But I'll leave it for now....

Tina, is the Creative Director of Roomie, an online professional interior decorating service which has a little something for everyone and in my case, I was drowning when it came to lighting!!!

People say good lighting can make or break a home and when it came to flicking the switch (ok that is the last pun, I promise) on a lighting plan, we were failing miserably. I had a good idea of the aesthetic I was after but placement and clever thinking of 'where and why' was lost on me. Perhaps a downside to doing the build yourself is that you only have room for so many things in your brain. They say you have to build your dream house three times before you get it right....and here we are going for a hole in one. So with that being said, I knew I had to relinquish control of some areas and I KNEW lighting would be it. Now, some of you may be reading this and saying "oh no, Katrina! Don't you realise you can get free lighting plans from chain lighting stores" and I would answer.... Yes, yes I do.... And I did, and they were just never right. If lighting is as important as people say it is then I wanted someone to do it that REALLY got what I was trying to achieve with the style of our home, someone on my wavelength. I didn't want to be limited to what a lighting store had imported this year......plus if I had to look at one more "trendy" light fitting I was going to scream.

Enter Roomie Light....

I gave Tina a very small amount of info to get her started....I wanted a mixture of industrial lighting from Icotraders and natural textured shades to soften it slightly, as few down lights as possible and I also let her know that we weren't big on a LOT of light. Guy is forever turning off lights and switching on lamps.... so with that being said, she wove her magic and presented us with the most comprehensive and well thought out plan, budget and spec sheet than I could have ever hoped for. Seriously, blown away.

 

This is a compilation of ideas Tina put together that were based on the very brief brief. Clever isn't she...... Just you wait.

Meet our lighting plan.... (I hope it's clear enough for you) Each little code matches a light fitting that is on the spec sheet. It was so much fun referencing back and forth and getting a good clear vision of what the room will look like. Tina has made the most of our high ceilings by using up lights in certain areas that will wash light up and across the ceilings in the living room. We will have a few pendant lights in the same area which will be on a different switch. I love that idea, a light room without the harshness of downlights highlighting every single downy eyebrow hair that hasn't been touched in 4months. Curse you non-dimmable downlights and your unforgiving shadows. I am so happy with the plan and could finally breathe out a solid exhale when it came to the lighting. Tina definitely got me, offered fantastic advice and is just really easy to talk to.

To give you an idea of what the product and budget sheet looked like you can check out their Room Service page which offers you a break down of what you get... Look for "shop and budget" down the bottom, you'll see what I mean by well thought out and comprehensive. Roomie light is yet to be officially launched, roll on November. But that won't stop Tina from jumping on a lighting project for you now. Just email her through the Roomie website.

Speaking of Room service.... Obviously lighting isn't the only trick up their sleeve. They have great interior design packages for those of you who need a little inspiration and ahem designer discounts....errrrm bonus! Whether it's just a bit of a kick start and some great ideas of what and where to shop or an all out room makeover that would make your friends think you should be on the The Block next year because you have mad skills. Roomie can and will hook you up. Click here for packages and pricing.

So there you go, my little lighting secret...You don't need to thank me, sharing is caring.

You can follow Tina on Pinterest and like Roomie on Facebook for some daily inspiration.

Thank you Tina!

 

Builders block

 

Oh hey, it's been a while. Things have felt incredibly slow going lately. Most of the work we're doing has no visual impact....super frustrating and not very blog worthy. BUT we did get our concrete floors polished over the weekend!!!! So exciting! Our fantastic neighbour Chris Hendricks from Not Just Coatings did it for us and we are seriously so lucky that he lives next door otherwise we may not have found him!!! He is a proper perfectionist and 'hard worker' doesn't even scratch the surface of his commitment to his work and doing a great job! The concrete looks exactly as we'd hoped. Super natural with just a little aggregate showing in some areas and we actually couldn't be happier!

I tried my best to get some good photos but it turns out photographing concrete and getting it to live up to its 'in real life' potential is a little difficult.

 

There we go, one is in the sun....the other is not. Oh and I forgot to mention, they're not even done yet! This is only stage one, we have to cover the floor with boards to protect them until we're pretty much done with everything and then they're taken off and have two more polishing grits and a sealant buffed in..... Or something like that.

 

 

 

 

 

This weekend marked our first weekend spent staying over in the shed so we could rise nice and early to start work....which also meant Guy could get early morning and dusk surf sessions in and I could sneak away to the brick mill for some vintage goods foraging....Living the dream.

 

 

 

Oh and we threw a BBQ for some of our closest neighbours who have made an effort to visit, help, give and be awesomely neighbourly in general. It was a super fun night and it turns out when we are all together....the drinks flow like a raging river. I had the hugest hangover on Monday, I was thanking my lucky stars it was my day off and I was thinking of my fellow neighbours who weren't quite so lucky while I ate hot chips for breakfast...living the dream? Not so much. All I can say is that the lane would have been harbouring a few sore heads on Monday and it was the Nurse's fault. Welcome to the neighborhood. Eek!!!

In other news, more dramz with the windows but I'll get to that another time. Ugh.

 

Window dilemma

 

 

So, as many of you know from my instagram..... We had a bit of a down day at the house on Saturday. The windows arrived and I was so excited to see them. But as soon as they came out of that truck...my excitement turned into massive disappointment. Things had gone wrong. Our tall skinny master bedroom windows had been cut in two with a big aluminum bar running through them 300mm above the ground and the French doors (one pair which are right near the entrance of the house also had these aluminum bars through them. This is not uncommon, in fact most French doors have them, but it's precisely what I didn't want. The big problem was, it was on our plans....I had noticed this and made sure to check several times that all the doors and large windows were just a big pane of glass "like the front door" but this is where things go wrong. Saying things like "one big pane of glass" "like the front door" isn't enough. You need to use the right words and those words were not in my vocabulary....until Saturday.

 

Vision Bars..... Remember this term if you are a normal customer and not an experienced project manager.... Vision bars!!!! See amazing diagram below.

 

We don't even have kids who are going to run full speed into a window and when we do, I'll buy a little sucky toy and stick it on at their eye level....like my Nana had to do after I ran into her sliders three times as a child. And come to think of it, she HAD vision bars, they don't even work!!!! Actually, I intend to hold those sliding doors with ineffective vision bars responsible for knocking out the area of my brain that could have harboured the term 'vision bars'.

It's a funny thing this house building because we just feel very lucky that we can do this, yes, we work very hard to make it happen but we still feel incredibly grateful that we have the chance to do something like this, so with that being said, complaining about seemingly small things like a bar across some glass may be ridiculous. But in the relevance of our world at the moment. We are living and breathing this project, we practically only see friends at wedding's, 30ths and baby showers these days. I've even had to miss a couple of good friends Hen's weekends. We keep track of every measly dollar during this build so that we don't run over budget and end up with a dream home filled with our blood, sweat and (after Saturday) tears that we can't afford so when things like this happen it can feel like quite a blow.

Glen at Vistalite called this morning to advise me that they will be taking care of the master bedroom windows because what we have on our plans is nothing like what they provided but when it come to the two sets of French doors and the laundry door, because it was on the plans and I didn't say those two stupid words (oh how I wish I'd asked what they were called!) they will replace it all and charge us for the materials only....which will add a painful $3000 to our already huge window bill. To be fair (I always try and see both sides of the story, they were on the plan and I didn't say 'no vision bars') they are trying to meet us halfway.

But, this phone call is where it got very embarrassing, as soon as he said that, the emotion over took me and I could tell I was about to cry. I had to say, "ok thanks Glen, I will have to call you back sorry I'm a little bit upset"....... Great. Only mildly mortified. So Guy has taken it from here...I'm too emotionally invested as this stage, I felt like I did my absolute best at communicating what I wanted and it wasn't quite good enough and it's going to cost us....

 

Oh, that all sounds so doomish and gloomish...But don't worry I'm not gonna beat myself up, listen to sad songs and not get out of my pajamas....I'm gonna live and learn, brush up on my building vocab and post this blog so that those of you who are also building can maybe learn from my mistake.

And if anyone needs their car washed I'm thinking of putting Guy in a speedo at Waikuku beach on Saturday and doing a sexy one for $10.... I'd pay for that.

Need to raise this money somehow right?

 

A roof over our heads

 

 

 

 

The roof is all done and we couldn't be happier with it. Woohoo!! The profile and the chunky spouting work perfectly with the house.....Phew!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We really needed a good team to get this all done and we definitely had that.

Residential roofing put the roof on for us, they were SO fantastic and we would recommend them to anyone. Well priced and great people. They contracted out the spouting to a great guy called Warren and his cute bearded collie called Wattie.

The edge protection was provided by Pumpjack Scaffolding NZ, it was the most affordable quote we received and they followed through with awesome service.... Nothing was a problem!

Paul at Pumpjack recommended the company for the safety nets.... Funnily enough they are called Safety Nets NZ. Joe was the man we dealt with and I don't think they come much nicer than him. A super great guy who was great to deal with!

 

The roofing profile is ST-963 from Steel&Tube and the colour is Ironsand.

 

Bitchin' kitchen

 

 

 

 

 

We have a roof on, so naturally my mind is well and truly over all the building stuff and now all I can think about/obsess over is the interior stuff. Never mind the fact we still don't have any cladding on the exterior walls or any wall linings....minor details. The pic above of a London cafe is my 'kitchspiration' it's made up my mind that I will indeed be painting the bricks on the kitchen wall white (twinsies with the fireplace). We are having some final plans drawn up for the kitchen at the moment, which I will share with you along with a kitchen contact, but until then here's some little bits and pieces....

 

The kitchen cabinetry will be white, the benchtop running along the wall will be stainless steel and the big kahuna island benchtop is going to be reclaimed wood with a waterfall edge.... just like this

 

 

 

 

 

These barstools from Icotraders in black to sit at the island

 

 

 

 

This awesome ($3) vintage macramé holding a fruit bowl over the island... Excited about the small things....

 

 

 

 

 

And this is the best part....We finally found the beautiful reclaimed wood that we'll be using for the kitchen island and it was so meant to be!!! Let me tell you a story about a man named Jeremy and how he made this girls day....

He is part owner of Graceworks demolition and after Guy and I spent half an hour cruising around the demolition yard with him, it was abundantly clear that he has a huge passion for salvage, re-using and upcycling. He took us into a large shed where he makes gorgeous furniture out of reclaimed wood and doors (his joinery background is definitely not going to waste). As soon as we walked in, I was overwhelmed by all the things I wanted!!! Like, everything in there.... But there were two hall tables that he was working on that caught my eye the most.

 

The wood!

 

It was perfect, it was EXACTLY what we wanted. My feet stuck to the spot in front of them like glue and then I stayed there stroking the wood like a kitten while excitedly talking about its perfection. That's when he said it, the words that made my day.... "it's beautiful wood, Baltic pine, only used for a short time in New Zealand, this wood came from St Johns Church in Latimer Square after it was destroyed in the earthquake" HOLD THE PHONE.... Did I hear him right, the wood that I was so in love with and already had my heart set on came from the very place where my much loved Nana and GrinGrin held each others hands and exchanged their vows. I almost had tears in my eyes, I was so excited!! I am a crazy romantic and I feel like the heart of our home is going to be pumping with so much love with that wood and it's stories in the middle of it. Yay!!

 

 

 

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