The placemat is from Target – only $5 each!  Bargain.

The colours work so well with the orange feature wall in the dining room.

Now that the spare room is a nursery, the study has become a bit of a dumping ground.  Our next project is finding storage solutions for our junk.

Baby boy N was born over 5 months ago. We converted our spare/junk room into a nursery for the little one.

A reminder of what the room was like before (previous owner):

We didn’t do much with the room when we moved in, just new carpet and a lick of neutral wall paint (hog bristle 1/2).

We want the nursery to be fun, bright, practical and easily updatable.  I want to keep it gender neutral for now – I’m sure N will demand for Thomas the Tank Engine etc when he’s older!

Well here’s the result.  Starting with the door.

Little Prince Sleeping

This is the view as you walk into the room – the cot is right in front and the change table is in the corner.

We chose wall stickers as the decoration because they are (relatively) easy to apply and they can be removed without damaging the walls.

The stickers are from Decofun and the collection is called “The Animal Farm”.  “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” turns out ot be one of N’s favourite nursery rhymes so I think this theme is a good choice.

The bigger stickers came in a pack of 40.

You can tell from the photo that the bigger stickers have not been stuck on properly yet.  They are stuck onto the wall by Blu-tac.  J, my brother and I played around with the configurations a few weeks ago and we want to leave them on for a while before applying them for good.  I don’t know, the stickers on that wall looked a bit too orderly, I think we need to move them slightly.

And N makes an appearance!

The cot is called Renaissance by Bertini.  Apparently it’s a copy of a more expensive Boori cot.  It’s nice and simple, with an adjustable side rail and it can be converted into a toddler bed.  It comes in a walnut colour as well but we prefer white.  I’m not a fan of dark coloured furniture (especially for kids), plus it’s easier to colour match.

Here’s a closer look of the cot, with Sunny the Polar Bear as our model.

Sunny catching a nap

It’s winter so we’re using flannelette sheets from Living Textiles.  Instead of a pillow (which babies don’t need) we use a towel to catch N’s dribbles so we don’t have to change the sheets all the time.

There are “nursery collections” with cot bumpers and valance etc, but they’re not my cup of tea.  Plus I have enough washings to do already!

The change table is called Hensvik from good old Ikea.  It’s the only change table I’ve seen with shelves on top which is a handy feature.  And it converts into a bookshelf when the change table is no longer required.

We stuck some sticker on the back of the shelf so the border appears to be continuous but it’s not.

The chest of drawers is from Ikea too (Malm).  On top of the drawers are part of N’s soft toy collection, a small cross stitch (it says “A Star is Born“), and a night light from Bunnings of all places.  We put a low voltage bulb inside and the shell is frosted so it gives out soft light.

I think the wall stickers on this side looks better but I’m not 100% sure yet.

Below is one of N’s favourite toys – the musical mobile.  It’s from Kids Line’s Zanzibar collection.  He loves watching it going around and around.  It’s my handy baby sitter.   I even named all the animals – Ellie the elephant, Gillian the giraffe, Zac the zebra, Mark/Mike the monkey (I can’t make up my mind) and Craig the crocodile in the middle.

One thing we didn’t buy is a proper chair for feeding.  It would have been handy when N was smaller.  Instead I used a simple fold-up chair with a footrest.  They do an OK job I guess.

For a full view of the room, check out the video.

We’re pretty happy with it.  What do you think?

Well, bub has arrived safely and he is 10 weeks old today

The nursery is in operation, but we still have a bit of decorating to do, so that post will have to wait.

This post is about our “outdoor area”, i.e. the balcony.  We haven’t used it at all;  it has been empty since we moved in.  It was retiled a few weeks ago because of building leakage.  That’s what it looks like now with the new tiles.

For my birthday I wanted a sunlounge, so I can sit outside and read a book/have a nap.

Most of the sunlounges we saw are pretty bulky and couldn’t fit in our car.  The delivery charge is so expensive compared to the cost of the sunlounge and it dampens our desire to get one.

Well, we struck it lucky last weekend because we found this at the last shop we went to.

It’s a fold-up sunlounge!  As you can see it also function as a normal chair (for weekend breakfast etc).

And when I feel like lying down, I can fold out the extension and recline the back of the seat, and PRONTO!

The recline is adjustable by lifting the chair handles, so I don’t even have to get out of the chair.

It’s very light because the frame is lightweight aluminium, and since it folds up we can bring it home ourselves.  I’ve tested it already and it’s very comfy

Next on the shopping list is a small table, and a sunshade so that bub can enjoy the outdoors too.

Once we have packed up the nursery we will post some new pics, probably sometime in the new year.

I hope you all have a great Christmas.

Another long wait for a post, right?  Unfortunately I’ve been unwell for a while, I’m still not 100% but I’m feeling much better at the moment.

What does the title of this blog has to do with home renovation? Not much really, except right now J is playing a game (Civilisation Revolution something, it’s lost on me) via the newly (at least to this blog) installed projector.

We have the projector for a while but didn’t get around to installing it.  We were a bit concerned about the projector stand intruding too much against the red feature wall.

However, upon seeing a $25 wall bracket at Ikea, we took the plunge.  J played handyman and we’re very happy with the result.

And this is what the end result looks like.

Just for reference, the TV at the bottom of the picture has a 68cm screen.  We haven’t measured it but my guess is that the projected image is close to 2m diagonally – take that plasma and LCD TVs!

And talking about games, I was just playing this really silly game on the net, hope you enjoy it too!

RayRay

Next items on our home shopping list … baby furniture

Something else has been capturing our attention … J and I are expecting our first baby!  The bub is due late January 2009.   I was preoccupied with “anytime sickness” (morning sickness is a BIG misnomer), and unfortunately I have been suffering from a cold once or twice as well.  The good news is that all is well with the baby

Well, I guess you’re looking for an update about our place as well.

The buffet that we ordered a while ago arrived just before my overseas trip.  Here’s the design sketch to refresh your memory.

Have to admit – I cleaned up the junk that usually sit on top of the buffet before taking the photo.  The only “permanent features” on the buffet should be a portable phone and our letter storer, but other things managed to make their way on top and it takes a while to clean them up.

There are 6 drawers and 2 shelves.  One of the drawers is used to store keys, walllets etc, so we have less chance of misplacing them (that being said we still don’t know where the spare keys are!).  The other drawers are used for CD and DVD storage.  The shelves in the middle are great for storing things that don’t fit anywhere else.

And this is what it looks like as part of the dining room.

When it was delivered, I was a bit disappointed that the orange fabric print on the buffet is not in the same shade as the wall, but on second thought, that will be too “matchy-matchy”.

We’re very happy with it.  What do you think?

We still plan to put a mirror on top of the buffet – will get around to it one day …

Thanks to our generous friends, we’re now proud owners of these homewares and plants.

Free trade salad fork and spoon

Crabtree and Evelyn Winter Birch crystals and burner

Guess what’s in this box?

OK OK it is printed on the box …

It’ll be great for an outdoor picnic!

Maxwell and Williams spice rack

Pretty handy, don’t you think?

And now for the plants.

Lilies

I can’t wait until it flowers!

Cacti

I think this is beautiful – love it.

Thanks again to everyone for your lovely gifts!

For some strange reason I’m interested in fruit bowls, even though we already have one. These two are from different designers but they’re in the same vein.

Zack Stiletto fruit bowl

PO: Quadrat Table Fruit Bowl

And these easel-like trays are really stylish!

Majamoo Tray

We’re going to store our CDs and DVDs in the buffet we ordered (which should arrive in the next week, yay!), but these CD holders are excellent options.

PO: Snake CD holder

PO: Groove CD holder

This looks good even without the CDs.

I really like this Mondrian-inspired vase.

PO: Mondri Vase

I think I may just buy this.

n.o.l shake light

This is another great energy efficient lighting idea.

Description from their website:

It lights [up to] 5 minutes after being shaken for 30 seconds, and fades out slowly.
With [electricity] generating equipment built-in, there is no need to replace the batteries.
It provides both gentle light which is like one of those candles, and safety.
Please enjoy the last moment of a day before you fall asleep.

black+blum turn me on

Last but not least, I’d love these lamps for our bedside tables, but they’re only available overseas

Do you have any homeware lemmings to share with this blog’s readers?

We had our first housewarming party yesterday and it was a lot of fun.  Thanks to everyone for coming and for your lovely gifts.

For the broader readership, here’s a photo of our dining room with a canvas print of one of our wedding photos. We love the Harbour Bridge and panoramic photos in general (see the header of this blog), and of course it was a special day for both of us.

Our first attempt to hang it up didn’t work, the 3M hook came off because the wall was too tough.  We managed to find a smoother patch on the wall and it worked the second time around.

I may be biased but I think it looks great

P.S. We ordered the print from Bigprints – they were really helpful and we’re very happy with the result.  Thanks Rob!