Posted by Futch
This is the biggest transformation for the smallest cash investment in the whole cottage. Currawong Cottage came to us with a vintage kitchen, and while I love the soft yellow cupboards and the Aga, these hideous tiles needed to go. Not only was the colour really ugly but you can see there was a strip of tiles missing. The solution - tile paint, see below for the amazing transformation.
Replacing the missing tiles:Fixing the tiles was a surprisingly simple and very quick task. The tiles go up the chimney a bit so I levered a few off with my Worx Sonicrafter (you can see them on the counter above) and chipped off all the old grout carefully. Then I simply stuck them into the missing gap with some Weldbond, and when the glue was dry filled in the gaps with Gap Filler. You cannot tell where they were missing and it took me about half an hour tops to do.
Getting the tiles off was super easy with the Worx Sonicrafter. You could use a screwdriver but the Sonicrafter made it a super easy process.
Tile paint in three steps:
1 - Clean tiles thoroughly, all oiliness needs to be washed away so the paint will adhere properly2 - Paint with primer3 - Paint with tile paint once primer is dry
To easy!I did one coat of primer and two of tile paint and the entire job took me around three hours all in, with drying time in between coats. I was worried that the tiles would look painted and poorly finished, but the end result is good, crisp and clean. It isn't quite as good as new tiles or back splash, but for around $50 it is a fab transformation. Highly recommend this if you hate your tiles but don't have the budget for a redo.
Seriously - how amazing is this transformation of the before and after.
You may have noticed there is a new bench top too. Another really inexpensive and easy to achieve transformation! I will be sharing how we did here soon.
See how lovely Currawong Cottage looks after all our diy work, and book your own stay to see it for yourself and explore the lovely Mornington Peninsula.
Posted by Futch
Seriously! This is what the bathroom at the cottage looked like when we bought it. Pretty original and not in a good way! Infact this photo makes it look like the colours were kind of vintage charming, when really they were just dirty, and don't get me started on the vanity.
I would love to have gutted and started again, but we are saving our pennies for other projects. Something had to be done though. After reading lots of online reports we decided to paint everything white. The blue walls are plaster so we could use acrylic, but the pink bits are plastic (yes plastic!). Plastic needs special paint and we went with White Knight Laminate Paint & Primer. Now I should say that all the hard work was done by Mr B, and he reports back it was hard work. Not difficult but a lot of effort.
First you have to clean and sand the surfaces really really well. This takes 90% of whole time of the job, but if you don't do it well the product won't work well. If you aren't prepared to do a whole lot of sanding this product is not for you. Once the surfaces are prepared, cleaned and dried, paint on the White Knight Tile & Laminate Primer. Once the primer is dry paint with White Knight Laminate Paint.
Safety note!!! The paint has really strong fumes, extremely strong, so do not start without first buying a good quality mask and goggles that you can wear comfortably while you are painting. Mr B said he could only be in the room for about half an hour at a time before the fumes really started to get to him. Even with the windows wide open he had to outside for lots of breaks. This little room took two whole days to do, and a lot of effort. But for around $250 you have to admit the results are pretty good (the photos are not the best I know it really is a tiny space and hard to photograph).
With a lot of elbow grease and a lot of white paint it's gone from very very yucky to fresh and bright and spotlessly clean. We could not salvage the vanity, it was truly horrid, so we bought the Hemnes/Rattviek from Ikea. It fits in well with the country style, has a generous sink and lots of storage. So much better and good value too!
There is still a little way to go, that is why I called it "better" rather than "after". We were going to paint the tub but now I rather like the sky blue, it may stay, what do you think? I would love to paint the floor in a blue, white and grey pattern, maybe an encaustic style pattern. The trim still needs painting too. But it is clean and whole lot better that what we started with.
Posted by Futch
Some new pics of Currawong Cottage. Looking so pretty now that it is getting some finishing touches. Lots and lots of trim still to paint but seeing how far we have come gives me the energy to carry on. And very very exciting news!!! If you like the cottage you could spend a weekend there yourself! See our Currawong Cottage website for rates and availability (and because it is pretty too).
We couldn't do any painting this time, it was just to cold and it was taking to long to dry, but we hung curtains, fixed the kitchen counter tops, build a bench seat and finished the entrance, hung lamps and arranged furniture in the third bedroom, added some decorative country pieces, and just generally had fun.
Pop by the Currawong Cottage website and let me know what you think.
Posted by Futch
This funny dirty room with to many doors has become a serene retreat for afternoon snoozes and lazy mornings. That is if we ever have an afternoon without diy in it! This is one of the before and after projects I love most, the room was just so dirty and ugly before. My wonderful hubby closed an extra door that opening into the living room and put lining board panelling across the wall behind the bed. Neatly taking care of all plastering problems and creating a subtle feature. Scroll down to see just how impressive this change was.
Dirty paint, cracked cornices, peeling ceiling, ugly curtains and pelmets, this room was full of ugly.
Closing up the extra door gave us a larger space to put the bed against and the panelling created a subtle textural feature. Good looking and time saving, you got to love that!
I love the soft grey wall with the crisp white of the rest of the room. It took coats and coats of paint to stop the yellow of the wood trim coming through.
It doesn't even look like the same room! It looks twice the size we started with! The colour scheme centres around the gorgeous knitted bed cover that was given to me by a friend. I found patterned grey and white sheets that feel a bit Ralph Lauren, and added just a little bit of yellow in the cushions and lights.
The bedside tables were repurposed from home and given a fresh white finish.
My amazing hubby made these wonderful wall sconces, I love how the yellow cable pops off the grey wall and the old style globes create a lovely soft light at night. You may have noticed that only one light is up in these photos. The other one made it up a few months later but I haven't been back to see them yet. I will post an update next time I visit.
The final touch was adding the linen look curtains, again in a pale grey. I found this fabulous poly linen mix at Bargain Fabrics. It looks like linen but won't be affected by the sun and won't stretch or shrink. Making them was a labour of love and took several days of sweating at the sewing machine. I'll tell you all about it in another post.
Just a final reminder of what it looked like before...and after. Hooray!
