Think outside the big reflective box

This house building stuff can get expensive, it drains your pockets along with your energy (tiny violin) and there is always something cooler / would fit in that space perfectly / looks just like that one you saw on San Francisco Girl by bay's blog / waaaay out of your price range. Alas it is all just a part of life and sometimes you can buy a cheap knockoff which is what happens when life feels like giving you the big thumbs up (sorry design guru's out there who despise knockoffs, I'm just a tall girl with a small wallet, building a big house)

 

So, I have seen so many HUGE mirrors on Pinterest. Those really cool big ones that are just casually leaning up against the wall like "who me, I'm just chilling....the lady that owns this house bought me for a gazillion bucks so I'm set for life and I'm sending my tiny mirror babies to college".... You know the ones I'm talking about. Smug and gigantic.

Well I wanted one (of course I did) to go in our wardrobe and I do not have a gazillion bucks to spend! Not even close, in fact, not even 100. So I started thinking about how I could copy them without the price tag and then I thought about the big mirrors that are part of those sliding wardrobe doors in a lot of newish houses these days AND THEN I thought about how many newish houses were pulled to pieces after those heinous earthquakes of ours. I did a search on trademe and sure enough there were loads but I found a really big one for $50 and I hit the buy now so hard my index finger felt a little sore for about 5 minutes.

 

It was ugly.... And I didn't care. It was big and in this case. Size totally mattered.

 

I bought some black etching primer spray paint.... It sticks to anything, dries super quick and goes a great matte colour. I taped the mirror up, then went outside with a head torch and started spraying.

 

It looks awesome, sure... if you get real close you may notice it's 'wardrobe door' like frame but I don't mind. Most people when they're looking at a mirror are checking that their teeth are clean and their bums look not too small/not too big so I'm thinking no one else will notice and everyone will just assume it's the kind of mirror with trust fund babies. Result.

 

I'm also finding that whenever I finish a space I want to spoil it with gifts of cool stuff that I've been collecting (aka buying and hiding from Guy) and in my wardrobes case it got well and truly spoilt. I can't say these things will stay there forever because when I have an actual living area to deck out I may want to steal them back but for now..... They're all yours wardrobe.

 

 

 

 

The wardrobe got my favourite pouf ever that I found at LETLIV.... You can't really go past a tan moroccan pouf, all they're going to do is wear in and keep looking more and more awesome, which in turn will make you (pouf owner) look awesome. It's science.

The madras rug from freedom

My Clare Elsaesser prints, these may stay.....and I may just have to buy more. Oh darn.

A little vintage macrame and toolbox find + all of my hats

 

 

 

 

 

This wardrobe without all the cool poufs and prints was actually cheap as chips. A couple of pieces of driftwood and twine, the bottom piece a little shorter in length so there's room to hang the long dresses I never wear and a $50 giant mirror.

 

Next on the list are some cheap DIY plywood shelves..... We have a dresser with drawers in the bedroom for all the folded stuff so we don't need to worry about that and when we have more time and money we may change the driftwood to matte black metal piping but for now it's as good as gold.

 

Build progress according to my instagram feed

For those of you who rely on my updates here, not instagram. I'm sorry, blame instagram and all of its easy instantaneous-ness. You probably thought we had been slacking off. Quite the opposite though. So I'm going to drop a photo bomb. 3,2,1

 

Starting with the kitchen/dining

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living/fire zone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think we're going with this pattern for the fire predicament (last post)

 

 

 

Entrance...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think that gets you pretty much up to date!!! Always apologizing for my hazy photos, and here goes again.... Sorry! Call it laziness but busy sounds waaaaay better. It's all iPhone and blogging apps around here.

 

Oh and I will post more often, hand on my heart. Pinky swear, yada yada yada. But really.

 

 

Fire predicament

 

 

 

 

 

 

Help!!!! Remember that giant feature of a fire place we have? Well it seems the council are having second thoughts about it and whether or not it actually complies to the code..... Cheers guys, awesome news. (I don't even care about sarcasm being the lowest form of wit, that's the only wit I've got right now and it's just gon' have to do) so we were given a few options to make it comply,

1. Raise the false ceiling behind the brick wall above the fire. No problem.... Just bang out a few bits of timber and Bob is the uncle you never had.
2. Have a shield made to protect the lowest part of the brick wall (closest to the fire) ummmm ok, not stoked you'll be able to see it, but ok....if it makes it all legit then I won't quit.
3. Create vents in the brick wall by leaving out at least a couple of bricks or using weep holes....screeeeech (record player needle sound effect) hold the phone!!! No way! Deals off compadre! You want me to put holes in the main feature of my room. Are you mental?

I am feeling a little gutted and I need to snap on out of it, because it is just a wall.

BUT, it's a wall that I had looking a certain way in my head long before this house was even drawn on paper. So I just desperately want it to be right. So.....from where I stand, these are our options.

 

Taking a few bricks out and covering the holes with white vents of some sort. Interesting that I have included this as an option, seeing as in my head....it really isn't.

 

The next option are the weep holes. Do you know what they are? No? Neither did I. They are this...

 

 

So, they're still not great. Especially seeing as there will need to be many of them. But Then I started thinking about Bri Emery's studio. It's gorgeous and there is a giant brick wall painted white but there are a cluster of bricks were the mortar has fallen out. As soon as I saw it I loved it and asked Miss Bri of Designlovefest if it was done purposefully or if it was a 'happy accident', it was the latter and I thought to myself, age and wear for the win, it looks great!

So what if we did that by actually cutting all the way through on some bricks to make vents, and we could make a bit of a feature out of it?! Our wall will eventually be all bricked and all white, so, pretty similar to this wall. Here are some pics from Designlovefest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The big plus about this is that I don't think they will compete too much with whatever art I choose to hang on that wall.

 

Last option.

 

 

I do away with art and try and make some kind of feature out of the venting. Not too sure about this but......

 

Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts. Drop in your 2 cents, help a sister out.

 

 

 

 

 

What a weekend

 

 

Last weekend was HUGE, we ticked so much off our ridiculously long to do list and it felt goooooood.

Let's start with the floating fire plinth (plinth? That's what we're calling it, we could be wrong) Guy and Dad poured it a few weeks back and we had it sitting in the middle of the room with all the framing and braces attached to it while it cured. Well it was well and truly cured by last weekend and it was time to reveal it in all it's floating glory.

 

 

 

 

Going

 

 

Going

 

 

 

 

Gone.....apart from the plastic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guy had the job off grinding and polishing it, then I had the job of having an asthma attack from all the dust.....ok, a little dramatic...it was a wheezy cough....

 

 

I got all the kitchen/dining nail holes filled, my Father in law sanded them all and then I started painting all the grooves ready for the roller.

 

 

 

 

Dad got the chimney all ready for the cap to go on and with a bit of muscle we got it up on the roof

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day, we hired a wet saw and finally after months of sitting there, this pile of bricks I scored for $21 were turned into tiles/slips. It was a BIG job and poor Guy was at it allllll day long. Constantly bent over, constantly wet and very cold. I felt kinda bad being all warm inside painting....not bad enough to stop him though. He got all of them done, I carted them all around to the front of the house, then Dad started putting them up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took this photo this morning. We have done all the bricks behind where the fire will sit because it would be a little hard to do it after it's in. I absolutely love them and although Guy and Dad think it would be a shame to paint them white (as was always the plan) I'm sticking to my guns. We are putting a black woodburner on top of the plinth, and we all know they aren't the MOST beautiful of things, but they are the most efficient and as much as I tend to focus on the design, I don't want to be impractical.

But if we left those bricks natural it would immediately look like instant 80's decor with a logburner in front of them.....a wall by itself, awesome, id keep them.... But I'm just not ready to go full design circle to the years of my birth. I have a few ideas floating round, originally I thought we would do it all white and then I thought to let the fire 'sink in' and not be such a feature I would paint a darker colour behind it..... Still not sure, so I will do it one step at a time....

Here are some of my pins I used for inspiration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The above house is utter perfection in my eyes, right down to the cute little dog in the corner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And lastly, I love this half painted wall. Hmmmm so many ideas to play with!

 

Ensuite tiling......forever

I stand by it, I stand firmly by my decision to cover all 4 walls with 15cm square tiles. It may have taken a VERY long time, my Dad got it started and then Guy took over and then I did the grouting... yes, it was somewhat of a relay because I'm sure it would have broken the Man or Woman who attempted it on their own.

But like I said, I stand by it because I absolutely love it. When my sister walked in for the first time she said "I think this is my favourite room in the house" I could have hugged her....maybe I did?

I'm so looking forward to showing you the end result....actually I'm so excited to see it myself... ha! Eventually we will have the wooden slats on the shower floor, where the lads are standing. We'll have the glass screen up and the old $10 mirror I found on trademe.

Speaking of the shower glass....I ended up finding a company in Timaru who we are going through because it was HALF the price of the Christchurch company that got back to us and that is including frieght. Christchurch Glass didn't even return my phone calls, they clearly didn't need our business, I felt like a crazy desperate stalker, the amount of messages I left....please call me back, we're in need of some shower screens....pllllllease. Nothing. What the?!

That is something we have learnt from this experince, you just HAVE to shop around, I know it takes time and is super draining but it will do the opposite to your pockets....not drain them I mean.

Another thing we found out is that grout sealing is the worst job ever. Avoid it, pretend you have a stomach ache and go to bed and read Homestyle while your Husband finishes it. Just saying.