Wardrobe IKEA hack

It's the simple things isn't it? I recently decided my daughter's wardrobe was too boring. I could either update it or I could buy a new one (was thinking of a smaller one from IKEA). But then I thought I'd rather extend the life of this one if I can and save the cash.

So… I thought I'd wallpaper it. It's a bit fiddly and I still haven't done the sides but if you've got a couple of hours or so it's worth doing. Here's the before...

and the after

Oh, and here's the cheap Rast drawers I got from IKEA (£20) which I painted with rustoleum's chalk paint in duck egg blue.  

 And here it is in situ in the room with the wallpaper patchwork behind. :)

A whole new wall for £4.77

Sorry for the absence. Hoping you'll forgive me as I had my second child 4 months ago. This is a short one as I'm in a bit of a hurry but thought I'd share this as I go... 

Cost: £4.77

Process: 1. Divide your walls into squares the size of a width of wallpaper (beware not all wallpapers are the same width as I learnt the hard way!) I put a boarder in for the alphabet as it didn't quite go. 2. Paint the squares you want painted with paint samples. 3. Cut the wallpaper samples you gather from DIY stores and wallpaper paste them in place. 

Voila!! 😉

Don't spend a *sheet load* on sheets

This is a real simple blog post, but sometime the simple ones are the best so thought I'd write.

My 21 month old loves our duvet. At snuggle time in the morning she'll say "Cover Cas-sarah Mummy" (Please cover Cassandra, Mummy)

I asked her this morning if she would like her own pillow and duvet and she said yes - very excitedly. The thing is, I'm not sure how much longer she'll be in a cot bed - probably a year. I didn't want to buy cot bed duvet covers for her room and then chuck them out after a year. 

I also noticed that although they're smaller, cot bed duvet sets seem more expensive (around £20) than standard singles (often under £10). Go figure.

So, I bought a full sized single duvet cover, turned it inside out and placed the duvet inside, centring at the bottom in the middle of the buttoned opening. Then I used just a single line stitch on the sewing machine and sewed down each side of the duvet (the reverse pattern had stripes so this was dead easy) then sewed across the top of the duvet. (Make sure not to sew the duvet to the cover!)

So now when she moves up to an adult single duvet, I just need to unpick three lines of stitching.

Result.

(Duvet and pillowcase was £11 from Tesco and will fit in with her elephant curtains)

Nesting time!

When I had my little girl we were in temporary accommodation waiting for our new build to be finished. This time of course we are in and settled so I get to nest for my baby. :)

It all started with the Raskog unit I bought from Ikea

I liked the colour, kind aqua but not cold. Also ideal for nappies and changing kit. 

I thought about chevrons, but really didn't want something that would make the medium sized room feel small. Then I was scrolling through our holiday snaps and saw this...

Haha! I thought. I've got my theme. 

So I drew the lighthouse freehand on the left hand side of the wall.

And then bought 4 sample tester pots (on buy one get one free) and mixed the three with white emulsion I had in my reserves to paint the sky. Then I painted the lighthouse in stripes and then used other tester pot leftovers to do the grass, sheep and the sea. Basically the whole thing cost £3!!!

Here's the finished lighthouse

The birds are cartoon birds I sourced online and printed on transparent stickers, cut them out and stuck them up!

Next I got to work on the black metal edged mirror we brought from the old house, originally from ikea years ago, and painted it up with some rustoleum duck egg blue paint. It took three coats, but well worth it I think. 

  (As you can see I remembered the before photo just in time!)

And here it is:

Oh, and I painted the inner panels of the ikea wardrobe door in the sky colour. Y'know, just because. It's only emulsion, so I can wipe it off one day if I want to. 

Really want to paint the black double bed and the side of the wardrobe, but think I'm going to have to pick my battles!

So far it's probably cost me £4 (in stickers and paint) as I had so much of it already or was upcycling stuff I already had.

Just need the baby to put in it now... ;)