The Interior DIYer
Uncategorized

DIY Friday – dapper dresser

I’m not sure if you could call this week’s DIY Friday technically a DIY, but it’s a revamp no less to a piece of furniture I bought 4 years ago. Our apartment didn’t come with storage for one’s small items in our bedroom, so I went online and bought this old wooden dresser. It was cheap as chips and did the trick. It held my garments, husbands manly stuff, and a drawer dedicated to pyjamas. Perfect. 
In the early years of my apartment designing, I painted the top of the dresser with leftover paint; it was a weird greeny-grey paint, and I don’t know what the hell I was thinking to be honest. I quickly gave up on doing anything with our dresser and then 4 years happened. Yeah. For 4 years it sat like this in our room … 

I think the word you’re looking for is ‘fugly’. I hated it and it was such an eyesore in our bedroom. Last month I finally had enough, so I got on my bicyclette, cycled to Rua on Capel Street and picked up a tin of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.

Back in the day I had a major crush on the EDLAND line of furniture from IKEA. I daydreamed of having a house and filling it to the rafters with beautiful EDLAND armoires and dressers. Sadly, that line became extinct, but I was lucky enough to swipe a little EDLAND bedside table in their final sale {sadly, it was the only piece we had room for}. To date, it’s still one of my favourite IKEA pieces. I adore the dark grey, and it inspired me to pick Annie Sloan’s moody warm ‘Graphite’ grey.

Enough of that. Onto the makeover! I cleaned the dresser of any dust and whatnot, took out all the drawers and flipped it over to start. He was in bad need of a pedicure, so I sorted that out while I was down there. Yes, I’m claiming this dresser to be man as no woman would let her feet look like that.
After two coats of paint on the feet I turned it right-side-up and gave the body two coats. Pretty straight forward.

While I was at it, I updated the drawer pulls as well. I’m afraid I picked these up years ago in IKEA – they’re from the GLIRA range which is also now extinct. You can actually see one of these drawer pulls in the ‘before’ photo that I replaced years ago in premature revamp excitement. Our dresser kind of looked like it was winking for a very long time …

I took the old rusty drawer pulls off, filled the holes with decorators calk, let it dry, painted the drawers with two coats of paint and finally added my ‘new’ GLIRA pulls. And ta dah! It was much easier project then I thought it would be.

I’m so happy with the result and I really don’t know why I didn’t tackle this project sooner. I guess it was just one of those things you keep reminding yourself to do, and after years of mental torment, you break down and do it eventually. Please tell me I’m not the only one with ‘guilt projects’ that eat your brain like a zombie?
Anyways homies, it’s Friday and I cannot wait for the weekend to hurry up and get here. Happy Friday! xx A

Uncategorized

Thrifty things – bust must plus

I struck charity shop gold again this week. For some time I’ve wanted something nifty and a little out of the ordinary to display my favourite necklaces. I had seen busts being used all over the internet machine for this very reason, and I wanted in on some of that action. Since I’m cheap as hell, I casually kept my options open for sourcing a sturdy bust perfect for the job. I dropped into Second Abbey {where I found my new / old footstool}, and there he was. Mozart. At the time I wasn’t able to bring him home, so I figured if he was there the next time, I’d buy him. Lo and behold, the next time I ventured in, he was still there. Lonely amidst the chaos …

The poor guy looked like he had been massacred by fake tan. His face says it all. For a steal at €15, I took him under my wing {actually, I placed him in my bike basket}, and cycled home. A little scrub behind the ears and a fresh coat of Montana’s ‘sh. white‘ spray paint, and Mozart regained a little bit of his former dignity. That is, until I draped him in jewels. 
Mozzy, as I now refer to him, is currently taking first place as the focal point in our bedroom, which I’m slowly but surely revamping bit by bit on a budget. He’s perched on our dresser, which I also recently revamped. I’ll be sharing that little upgrade as soon as I can, so keep your eyes peeled! I just gotta get around to taking some decent ‘after’ pictures. 

Chin up, buttercup.

xx A

Also featured – our living room painting. 
Uncategorized

Mini makeover – coffee table tray, round 3. No … 4

Me and coffee table tray have been through a lot these past years. Coffee table tray was originally au naturel. Wood-on-wood was too much meh for one table, so I first painted it light greyish blue. That changed quickly to all Winegum, but since we also had blackboard walls at the time it was all a bit dark, so I spray painted the tray all white. 
Coffee table tray served us well in white. It was cheery, but if I’m honest, boring as hell. I wanted Winegum back in my life, so this week I thought why not have the best of both? I added Winegum back into the mix, but just to the inside of the tray. And I must say, I think it looks well swank and sophisticated. I simply used masking tape along the top and handles then sprayed the inside. 

I’m quite happy with this combo so I don’t foresee me attacking poor coffee table tray again for a good while. So what about you guys – do you have a particular thing in your home you’re constantly changing? 
Before I forget, happy Saturday friends! It’s sunny here in Dublin which = BBQ and beverages. I hope your weekend is full of char-grilled delights and a tall glass of beer / wine / G&T / all of the above. xx A