The Interior DIYer
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Updated curio cabinet

This past weekend we were gifted with some truly horrific weather here in Ireland. However, sometimes it’s nice to have such a solid excuse to stay indoors in your pj’s all day and contemplate striking one item off your never ending list of things to do. I was in such a mood this weekend so I finally rolled up my sleeves and repainted my little curio cabinet the blackest of black. As a reminder, here’s what it looked like up until this weekend … 

Not bad, but not great either. The finish was chipped all over, not to mention most of the panelling had no finish at all [as seen two photos down]. I began by disassembling the entire cabinet. As my dad showed me when it was gifted it to me for my 30th [and suggested in the first place that it be painted], you simply unscrew all the knobs along the top and bottom and that allows the entire piece to be taken apart, and fairly easily.

I laid the cabinet flat on a drop cloth on our dining table and began disassembling it. As I was taking the cabinet apart, I made a quick note of the order in which I took it apart [accompanied by a couple of rough sketches for the fancier pieces whose name I didn’t know. ie – the very top piece I called the tiara bit]. This note came in immensely handy when it came to reassembling the cabinet at the very end as it turned out to be trickier than I thought, even with the list. 

I took the cabinet apart, lightly sanded [in the direction of the grain] each piece, cleaned it with a damp rag and lightly painted two coats of black paint [again, in the direction of the grain]. Since removing it, I have yet to put the glass door back on as I’m in the process of replacing the hinges [I steeped them in coke to remove the rust, but alas, they were beyond repair]. Now that there’s no door, I’m actually kind of liking it. It doesn’t look too out of place sans door either …
Now that it’s painted, my exciting [for me] decision is that I’m hoping to fill it with succulents! Yes! Living things! I was originally going to fill it with my Sylvanian Families cat collection, but I’ve managed to keep a certain succulent alive since I brought it home from Dublin Design Night, so one day I thought how lovely it would look filled with little succulents in glass jars? It would look lovely, past self! And it would make the cabinet seem a bit less … daunting, too. 

I’m not however sold on where the cabinet is now hanging. If I’m to fill it with succulents, hanging it over a storage heater probably isn’t the best start. The cabinet’s also kind of fighting with the white shelf over our TV. It looks not too bad in the above photo, but in real life they look like two grumpy old men having to sit next to one another for the duration of a long bus ride. For now, I’m thinking maybe over my desk would look nice? We’ll see. Chances are, it’ll take another two months for me to make my mind up. 

and Juniper looking rather confused
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Decorating for fall

Autumn has well and truly landed here in Dublin and I for one am not complaining. This past week I’ve been trying to figure out why I love autumn and winter so much, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. I’ve concluded it’s a mash of the following …

– It being cold is a great reason to hide under a duvet on the couch and watch 100 movies.
– Candles. All of the candles.
– Hot beverages such as mulled wine and hot chocolate. 
– I’m 1,000 times more comfortable under a pile of sweaters, scarves and coats vs. being in a summer dress with my bingo wings flapping about.
– Further to the above point, I prefer to be cold than hot. 
– It might snow. Even just for 5 minutes.
– It gets dark early [which mostly sucks], but there’s something about it being dark out and lights being on in shops and in people’s homes. 
– Autumn and winter call for decorating our home in two very different styles, both of which I love.

I decorated our apartment a little this week in preparation for autumn and Halloween. I feel this year that my decor is just a bit … meh. Probably because I didn’t make anything new, but simply raided my accessory hoard for autumnally appropriate pieces [aka, every skull ever] and decorated a bit lazily by adding some leaves that I hope have been spared from dog pee. 

I’d like to do something a little more special with our bar cart and do something unusual in the hallway too, but the cogs are still turning so it might be the Eve of Halloween before I have a decent idea. 

So what about you? Do you decorate for autumn or Halloween? Do you find it a bit too North American? [I’ve heard people here referring to decorating for autumn and spring in that manner, but it’s all I’ve ever known. I love decorating for any season, especially when it comes to the winter months by mixing things up a bit – something to break up the monotony of the darker months].

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Autumn Decluttering is the new Spring Cleaning

Over the past few weeks I’ve been on what may be my final mission to declutter our apartment. I’m proud to say that this round has been the most beneficial yet as we’re down to a Goldie Locks level of stuff – not too little, not too much. Our cupboards are just right. 

I wrote some of my top decluttering tips a couple of springs ago [which I still live and purge by], and this time round I made note of some new tips and tricks during my latest and most ruthless purge. In case you’re also a bit hesitant to start, here are my second round of tips …

1. Make note of what needs to be done and keep it somewhere visible. For myself, I find the best way is to make a list of each room and the problem area in that room [usually a storage area] to either tackle, purge, organise or tidy. I tackle one item on the list at a time. Don’t overdo it, or you’ll burn out. If I’m feeling particularly energetic after work or if it’s a rainy Saturday morning, I’ll tackle one area on the list.

2. Let the amount of space you have dictate how much you should have. Meaning, if you only have room for [example] 12 mugs in your kitchen cupboard, only keep 12 mugs in your kitchen cupboard. It’s simple. There’s no point in trying to precariously balance 22 mugs in a space suited for 12. If it’s a case that some items are seasonal [ie – Christmas themed mugs], consider packing them away with the rest of your decorations and only bring them out when appropriate.

3. The less you have, the less you need to clean. Continuing from my last point and using the mug example again; the less mugs you have, the less mugs you need to clean. If you have 22 mugs, get really lazy and don’t wash any of them one week, you’re then inundated with mugs to clean. But if you have less, you not only have less but have less of an excuse to go so long between washing them.

4. Put everything you want to donate / recycle / relocate in one place, then tackle that at the end. I used our spare bedroom as a dumping ground while I was purging because I could simply close the door and forget about the chaos. Now that I’m finished, I can barely open the door so it’s high time I sort the contents of our spare room. Mini welp, but it’ll be relatively easy as I can sort through it 20 minutes at a time and close the door on it whenever I get sick of it. 

Yes, that’s a microwave on the bed. It, like many things in here are just waiting to be reorganised. 
Not everything is going. #KeepingItReal

5. Don’t expect your home to be purged in a week. That’s straight up not going to happen. If you live in a small apartment like us, give yourself 1 or 2 months, or longer if needs be. Slow and steady wins the race. 
For me, this weekend I’ll be tackling our spare bedroom and organizing what should be donated, rehomed, recycled or relocated. Exciting stuff I know, but I’m a firm believer in the old saying of …

“Tidy desk, tidy mind.”
And that goes for the rest of our home too. I don’t know if any of the above was of help to anyone, but for me I find these along with my original decluttering tips have helped me stay on track and downsize what we have. ‘Cause let’s face it, we all got way too much shit. xx