The Interior DIYer
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You’ve got mail

A couple of weekends ago Robert and I planned a trip to the Merchants Market on the East Wall road. It’s a behemoth of an indoor market full of thrifty stalls of all shapes and sizes, overflowing with the weirdest and most wonderful of things. For example, I distinctly remember finding an industrial size tub of used Vaseline for sale during one particular outing. 

Unfortunately, once we arrived we were told the market was no longer. Giant, undiluted ugly crying face. All was not lost as we were diverted to a single stall remaining in the adjacent building, so we of course went in for a snoop. A few minutes in what did Robert spy? This Canadian post bag hanging from a curtain rod. I had to have it. Then I did that thing where I say to myself “hmm, maybe I’ll leave it and think about it“, but the thought of coming back and it being gone was too horrible a thought.

I attempted some atrocious bargaining [I am painfully awkward at it, therefore rarely do it], but I managed to get 10 euro off. For me, that is a small and awkward victory. Some might say 25 euro for a post bag is a bit steep, but please keep in mind I was too floored by finding a bit of Canada in Dublin. 

When I got home I attempted to do a bit of research to see if it was a legit mail bag or not. Unfortunately, not much showed up in regards to history behind this style, but I did find this same style 1964 Canada Post bag on Flickr [and also this picture of a similar bag in action]. So I’m claiming it’s legit, but from where in Canada, I don’t know. There are no other markings on it.  

One thing I’m curious about is, and it’s going to sound dumb, but do I wash it? I personally love the way it looks and I’m planning on hanging it in our hallway so I don’t mind it’s current condition. But I mean it is a little scruffy. It’s vintage. It doesn’t smell or feel gross, so I kind of feel like washing it would lessen it? One thing’s for sure, Toshi thoroughly inspected it before it was hung up … 

You can see mine and Emily‘s trip to Merchant’s Market 2 years ago here, back when my site was called ‘Hydrangea Girl’ and I had no fringe. 
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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. 
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Living room update – one wall at a time

Four years ago when I repainted our living room I chose Crown Paints swans a’swimming paint in an attempt to tone down and make the horrid yellow paint on the doors and skirting boards less obvious. In my defense, the monumental task to simply paint all the doors and skirting boards WHITE didn’t occur to me until years later, so I basically lathered the living room in beige. It was fine. But now it isn’t really. 

Since I’m partial to dark wine colours, the beige-y walls didn’t compliment them very well and it gave off a feel of being dirty. You may think from the photo above that our living room looks not too bad. Well, that’s because that’s the after picture. This is the before … 

The storage heaters in our apartment cause smoke damage to all of the walls, particularly so in the living room. Due to the vent being in this corner of the room, in the winter all the hot air tends to collate in this corner, hence the staining being so bad. It’s only once you really look at it that you realise how bad it is. 
So in my recent burst of painting, I decided to also repaint the living white. It’s a daunting task as our living room is on the big side, so I broke it down and painted it one wall at a time, one week at a time. Because to be honest, the idea of painting such a large room in one go is stressful for me. So I figured hey, why not just do one wall at a time?

First up, the small wall behind the single seater couch. Goodbye horrid heater stains.

After two coats of paint and a couple of days, I tackled the wall behind our TV next …

So far, I’ve only painted these two walls, but they’ve already made such a difference. There are things I need to change, such as the TV cable, spray paint the vent which is glaringly yellow now that the walls are white, and one thing I’m certainly avoiding mentioning to people in person, but I’ll say it here. The ceiling. It’s discoloured from years of storage heater ‘smoke’. It’s only obvious how discoloured the ceiling is once I point it out. Depending on how long we end up staying there, I may. May. May end up painting the ceiling, but it’s the absolute last thing on my list. I have an idea how awful painting a ceiling would be. So let’s pretend it looks great, yeah?

I’m itching to mix things up in our living room now that it has some clean walls by rotating the accessories we have to give our living room a newer feel. It’s been locked in this layout for about 4 years so it’s high time to freshen it up. 

But for now, Mr. Murray is pleased.

Also featured – Bill Murray print – crow globe