The Interior DIYer

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Curio cabinet collection

It’s been nearly 2 years since I got my curio cabinet and up until last week, it was empty. I wanted to fill it with a collection but as you may be able to guess, I wasn’t sure exactly what that collection should be. 

I do find I like to collect things that I’ll never really use [washi tape, wrapping paper, feathers, small boxes, cat whiskers, wine corks] so I’ve been trying to stop collecting things so uselessly. Except, last week I cleaned out a small round jar [seen on the top shelf to the left] and I really liked it and I just wanted to keep it. It’s just a small jar! So innocent. So I put it in my curio cabinet. Then I washed two mini jam jars and added them too. And a few tiny bottles of emergency baby food. And, oh, look how cute they all look together! They all had different coloured lids which was irking me, so late last night I spray painted the lids gold and semi organised them and I think it looks quite nice! And it immediately justifies one of my [many] useless collections. 
Do you have any weird or unusual collections? Or do you share a passion of hoarding something slightly more normal like small boxes like I do? I get that from my mom so it’s in my DNA so that makes it okay. 

Also check out – updated curio cabinet
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Giving an IKEA Ribba picture ledge a faux marble update

Hands up who’s tired of me faux marbling things? I’m afraid today I’m sharing a few pictures and the process of the latest unfortunate piece to be overcome by my mediocre marbling skills.

Going back quite a while, perhaps even before Cora was born, someone left a 6ft long IKEA Ribba picture ledge in our communal underground garage ‘free to a good home‘ refuse area. I used [albeit smaller] Ribba ledge’s in my brothers office update a few years ago and I really enjoyed how useful they are for styling [and restyling] a space without having to put a dozen holes in a wall. I brought the new to me ledge up to our apartment and there it sat, in the corner of our bedroom, for a very long time.

Someone had painted the picture ledge in a dark grey wall paint [ie – a paint in no way suitable for furniture], so I found it quite satisfying scraping off all the paint with an old library card. Once the picture ledge was clean, I painted it in four coats of white furniture paint. I knew for along time that I wouldn’t keep it as it’s original black as it was too close to the colour of our bedroom walls. I wanted the ledge to stand out from the wall and I figured, seeing as I faux marbled our bedside tables, I might as well see if I could do the same to the picture ledge. Matchy can sometimes be good [while also not being too matchy].

I used the same technique that I used when painting our bedside tables [see my tutorial here!] but in smaller amounts. The truth is that I didn’t have time to give it the same amount of detail as our bedside tables since I wanted it done during one of Cora’s naps. There’s nothing that will make you paint faster than the threat of a hungry baby. 
I honestly didn’t know how it would turn out, but I’m really pleased with it. It doesn’t look like much now until I style it out a bit. It looks quite boring for, but it’s already done so much for the wall in our bedroom that is so awkward to hang things on. Not too bad for a free project! 
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Letter Board from April and the Bear

Do you ever set something aside as a treat for completing a particularly boring pile of paperwork or other such remedial task? I do. A lot. The things I reward myself with are not always things that need to be bought. Sometimes it’s watching an episode of Gilmore Girls, or doing my nails during one of Cora’s naps, but honestly, these days a lot of the rewards I set myself are things like take a shower alone in the bathroom or have lunch at lunch time. Sometimes I set myself fancier rewards and recently one of those things was a letter board from April and the Bear.

I’ve coveted things like letter boards for years [I played with my dad’s letraset when I was young and have since loved the idea of personalising something in font], so when Siobhan started stocking letter boards at the beginning of this year, I waited for months until the time was right and last week I visited April and the Bear [when it was open – huzzah!] and wrapped my hands around it’s dainty frame. 

I of course immediately became paralyzed with what to write once I got my board home [too many options. Do I just write HELLO?], so for now I’m very happy with punching in our favourite movie quotes. That should keep me busy for a few years.