The Interior DIYer
Uncategorized

Kitchen update – the bones

First up, thank you to everyone who let off steam along with me both online and off in regards to my rental rant last week. I’ve chosen to use my rental rage for good, and so this past weekend I channeled all said rage into bringing our rental kitchen into the 2000’s. It started so innocently on Saturday morning while Robert was asleep. “I’ll just reoganise the cutlery drawer … ” and as I gained momentum, much like Juggernaut, I was unstoppable. I whitened, sanded, scrubbed, stripped and painted our kitchen top to bottom in one day. I’ve got to say, even though I only painted everything white, it has made a world of difference. 
There are bare boned before and afters together below, but if you’d like, you can see a full room tour of what our kitchen looked like before here. Also, please note that our kitchen does not get any natural light, so my photos aren’t as wonderful as I’d like them to be. Yay, florescent lighting …

I started by taking everything off the walls and counter so I was starting with a blank canvas. I then tackled the more finicky task of bleaching the grout along the black splash. I normally clean it with an eco-friendly cleaner, but that never corrected the previous years of neglect [from the previous tenants]. I don’t use bleach unless I have to, so I figured this time wouldn’t hurt and I really had to go in with chemical warfare. I used thick bleach and a toothbrush and scrubbed all the grouting. I washed it off after 30 minutes, but I didn’t see the total effects until about an hour later. The grout came up beautifully. 

The kitchen hadn’t been painted during our time living here. I had white paint leftover from tackling the hallway a couple of months ago, so I got to work and repainted the walls next. That didn’t take long as there isn’t much bare walls. I recharged, then tackled the one thing I had been avoiding for months; the last door. I sanded the kitchen door, frame and skirting boards and painted them WHITE. 

Can we just have a moment of silence please, in honour of me sanding and painting the FINAL DOOR AND SKIRTING BOARDS IN OUR APARTMENT …

I had to take the shelves down in order to open the door and properly paint both sides of it. The shelves will be going back up as we need them for extra storage. It’s a teeny kitchen. I cannot tell you how much I love our kitchen now that it’s not accented with that hot mess of high gloss yellow door.

But stay tuned because on Wednesday I’ll be sharing the fun bit [I think so at least] – the accessorising. I can’t wait to get in there and take a fresh look at our kitchen and reorganise it. Sometimes you just have to start from the beginning again. I picked up some extra goodies over the weekend that I cannot wait to add [and use!]. Woop! 

Kitchen update – before – middle – after
Uncategorized

Renters anonymous

Apologies in advance, as today’s post is a bit of a therapeutic rant for me. Hold on tight … 

Things have been a bit tough lately. For anyone who lives outside of Ireland, at the moment things are a bit tough when it comes to rent and the cost of living here in the Republic. It’s actually getting to a point where – get this – it’s actually cheaper to buy a house or apartment than to rent one. I’m not talking a little bit cheaper. I’m talking exponentially. Rent is skyrocketing and so are stress levels, not to mention people’s mental well being. There are many people I know who are making the leap from renters to buyers because the cost is becoming that ridiculous. 

I’ve mentioned before that I’d love for us to own a house. In the past year, this feeling has become unbearable. I’m an interior designer, DIYer and let’s face it, a blogger. My blog is supposed to be an online portfolio of what I am able to do. As a renter, there’s only so much you can design and DIY when living in someone elses house. There’s a lot of red tape. And what’s worse, as someone whose blog is kinda based around designing and DIYing, I can’t showcase and demonstrate my ideas and skills in a rental. Basically, I’m screaming into a pillow on a daily basis. 

And now I’m being mildly tortured by the thought of buying [see first paragraph]. I’m hoping that if I kinda dear diary about it here, it will stave off my fixation to run to one of the gate houses in the Phoenix Park with a fist full of money, knock on the door and make it rain on the current owners [p.s. I want to live in one of the Phoenix Park gate houses. Badly. If you own one and are looking to sell, let. me. know].

I’ve lived in rented accommodation for a long time. It will be eleven consecutive years this year. That’s eleven years of living with with other people’s furniture. Eleven years of carefully dancing around other people design choices. Other people’s colour palettes. Other people’s uncomfortable and ugly couches with weird stains that I don’t want to think too much about. Other people’s fixtures and fittings. Eleven years of other people’s mattresses. 

I’m supposed to be showing my design and DIY skills here on my blog and all I can really show is painting something a different colour. I want to DIY panels on every wall. I want to re-tile a bathroom. I want to install and repair real [reclaimed] wood floors. I want to choose fixtures and put them into place myself. I want to tare down walls and remake kitchen units. I want to source a neglected claw-foot tub and restore it. I want to upcycle a piano into a kitchen island. I WANT TO BUY A COUCH THAT IS COMFORTABLE AND NOT UGLY. I want to etch glass. I want to make my own black grouting. I want a pantry full of pretty and recycled storage. 
Having said all that, we’re not really in a position to buy a house. Not yet. To me, that seems like a really grown up thing to do. I mean, husband and I still stare blankly at each other at times and say things like “we’re married … that means we’re adults … ” I don’t even know if I’m adulting right. Not to be confused with adultery. Nope. Definitely not that. 
I don’t want to sound ungrateful for the homes I’ve lived in. I am very grateful. And they’ve been great practice. I just feel I’m ready for a home of my own. I had a eureka moment last night where I said to myself, “why not just do all those projects you’ve wanted to do to the apartment? Do them, and when the time comes, undo them.” So do [and subsequently undo] them I will.

This is my desperate attempt at finding a silver lining as a renter. I hope this will keep my buying urge at arms length for a little longer. I hope. 

Uncategorized

Image Interiors & Living – Ask the Experts

Hello Friday, you sexy beast. You are here at last and the cherry to the top this fine Friday – the new Image Interiors & Living is out! The Ask the Experts team is back and in this issue I put my DIY knowledge to good use with a readers’ question about how to DIY a hanging branch for their home. It was a perfect question as it was a culmination of two recent projects I did in our spare bedroom [pendant cord light + branch art], so I was like, don’t worry guys, I got this.

I still have to pinch myself when I see me alongside the likes of Roisin, John and Peadar. I’m just waiting for someone to realise I’m an intruder. Wait a second, how did SHE get in here! Off with her head. But seriously, there aren’t enough awkward words in my vocabulary to describe how humbled I am to be included in this panel. It’s pretty awesome.

You can check out the full mag in all good newsagents as and from today. And happy Friday of course! TFIF.

UPDATE – you can check the full tutorial online on Image.ie here!