The Interior DIYer
Uncategorized

To paint or not to paint?

For my birthday earlier this week I was gifted this little gem of a curio cabinet from my parents. It’s an adorable piece with lovely details. It has a faux mahogany finish on the shelves but as you may or may not be able to tell, the back panel hasn’t been finished to the same standard and the shelves are chipped here and there. But my question – do I paint it or leave it as it is? To my surprise, my parents immediately suggested “it would look lovely painted black!“. I was surprised by their suggestion considering they’re forever trying to steer me away from black to, well, practically any other colour in existence. So when they suggested I paint it black I was pleasantly surprised. 
What pretell will I be filling said cabinet with? I mentioned a little while ago making the move to becoming a Level Nine Crazy Cat Lady by having a collection of Sylvanian Families kitties. As it happens, I got not one, but TWO SYLVANIAN KITTY FAMILIES for my birthday and I was so excited that I cried [they’re just so cute and I get emotional over cute stuff. Please don’t judge me]. I can’t wait to fill my cabinet with them. And for all our future visitors think I’m insane. 

So what do you think? To paint or not to paint? We’re expecting a lot of rain this weekend [yay] so a little painting project could justify being indoors all weekend. Now I can’t stop thinking of its gothic potential! 

As for my birthday; Robert surprised me with a stay at Powerscourt Hotel for the last night of my 20’s [seriously fancy], then on my birthday we ate black forest gateau, played Cards Against Humanity [thank you again, Kimberly!], drank way too much sangria and spent the day in inappropriate levels of hysterics. It was amazing. 

Also featured – waxing moon painting – gold tumblers – #DirtyThirty
Uncategorized

Cheeky bathroom cross stitch – everyone does it

George Clooney does it. So does Chris Pratt, Martha Stewart, Emma Watson, the Queen, Hugh Jackman, Dita Von Teese and Lawrence Krauss. Even Katy Perry does it. It’s something nobody talks about, but it’s something we all do.

I’m partial to keeping it real these days – in a sophisticated way, I like to think. I’ve been quite hesitant to blog about my most recent cross stitch as I feared people would find it crass. Overwhelming. Not suitable for children. They would revolt and gasp “This is distastefulness of the highest order! I literally can’t even. Who does she think she is?“, and to those people, I’d like to say you are in serious denial about what happens in the bathroom. It’s not vulgar. It’s an inconvenient truth … 

I created this bathroom cross stitch in a bid to indirectly put things into perspective about going to the toilet. The idea for this cross stitch came from hearing tall tales of people’s, how can I say, nervous dispositions. People holding it all day in work and waiting until they got home to do it. Cutting dates short to go home to use their own loo. Even once, a friend during their primary school trip to France held it for 5 days until they got home. FIVE DAYS. It’s ridiculous! Everyone does it! And they’ve been doing it since forever. 

I like to think I’ve broached the subject in an aesthetically pleasing way. This simple and straight forward cross stitch has been hanging in our bathroom for five months now and any guest that visits always comments on it. Not necessarily directly. I’ll hear them laughing in the bathroom or they’ll simply say “It’s true. Everyone does it“. The alternative is plain ridiculous. It’s simple. If you need to go, GO!

For those who do think this cross stitch is a bit too much, I do apologize. It was simply made to make people feel more comfortable and to put things into perspective. We only live once, and I’m a firm believer that you can’t take it all seriously.

If my silly cross stitch helps even just one person out there, I’ll feel like my blog post has been justified. Just remember, everybody does it. Even Katy Perry poops. 

Uncategorized

Work in progress – living room

Today it’s a Bank Holiday Monday here in Ireland [all kinds of yes], so with my extra morning I decided to switch up the living room a bit. Not much, just a little to freshen up what we’ve been sitting staring at for over five years. 

The wall behind our TV had been bothering me for a while in regards to unbalanced things were at this end of our living room. Bad unbalanced. Not chic asymmetrical. The TV stand is in the same place as when we first moved in – smack in the middle of the wall. So to mix things up, I swapped the TV stand with the bar cart, aligned them a bit better under the shelf, and moved some of our artwork and accessories around …

So far, this is a temporary set up. A work in progress. There are a few things that still need to be fixed, changed, found and hung. Some of which are …

– artwork for over the TV
– hang more artwork / frames in general
– hang up our Karlsson flip clock
– possibly find some artwork for behind the bar cart
– paint the TV cable white
– possibly update our landlord’s coffee table [that can be easily reversed]

After repainting our living white last week after it being beige for 4 years, my black and white artwork hanging above the TV didn’t stand out as much as it used to. I’m on the lookout for adding some big, dark pieces above the shelf to balance the weight of the TV and make this wall feel a bit more finished. I’m half thinking of stretching some velvet onto a canvas, or just painting another piece myself. I also want to get an old ladder to display all our blankets and throws to place on either the left or right adjoining wall, because we have a hella lot of throws. 

With the changes I made this morning to our living room, all I did was simply move around things we already had. To me, the pictures don’t look like a big enough change to warrant a blog post, but it definitely feels cosier and a better thought out layout. I find it strange [and disappointing] when you photograph something and it doesn’t capture the feeling that goes with a space. I guess you’re just going to have to trust me when I say it feels much cosier and put together in real life. Almost as if adults live here xx 
p.s. For anyone who’s extra observant today, no, I didn’t travel back in time between the before and after photos. Our flip clock tends to show the wrong date, so I made an effort to fix it for the after photos to today’s date, the 3rd. Not the 4th. Such detail. Big wow.