Knockout

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Thanks for stopping by everyone. I know I’ve been quiet for so long, apologies on my part.

I’ve been focused on completing my Living room in the last few months, and hopefully should do so by the end of the year. In the coming weeks, I’ll post some pictures of the progress. I’ve not been able to sit on my sofa for the last 6 months, due to covering it up from all the dust and debris. I look forward to removing the dust sheets and getting cosy on it again.

One of the things I have to do before the Decorator comes in in November is finish off under the stairs. I ripped out the plasterboard under there, one Friday after work. I was restless and didn’t know what to do with myself, so knocking out the plaster seemed like a good idea at the time. It didn’t require many tools, a saw, hammer, and mallet.

Now that I’ve opened up space, I have to sand the floorboards and replace one as there is a gap. Replaster the wall adjacent to my neighbour’s house and plaster the rear wall. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do this before the Decorater comes in.

I’ll see you again soon, I promise.

Nik-Cre – ‘Making life-less rooms into living rooms.’

Saffron Room Artwork

Saffron Room

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for joining me again as we start the New Year. I am so excited for what the coming months will hold, I hope you are too. I’m planning ideas to start work on my living room and have purchased a few pieces in the last few weeks. I’ll share these with you soon.

This weeks post is rather short. As promised, I did a little DIY art project for the Kitchen. I had an idea with wooden spoons which I didn’t go ahead with as I wanted to do something relevant to my space. Saffron Yellow is the colour of my kitchen, so I did a watercolour pencil sketch of Crocus Sativus; commonly known as Saffron Crocus. When the drawing was complete it was brushed over with water to blend the colours. The sketch was drawn onto a canvas textured board rather than watercolour paper, as I didn’t want it to be texture heavy.

Let me know what you think of the art piece, I look forward to seeing you again next time.

Nik-Cre – ‘Making life-less rooms into living rooms.’

One Girl and A Hammer

Thanks for stopping by again. I hope you have had a great week.

I haven’t been as busy this week, but have been seeing a lot more of my friends lately which is always nice. We are 11 days away from the New Year. It has been a wonderful year for me, God has been so faithful. I haven’t set any resolutions for next year, but have a list goals that I will achieve. I have 16 so far, and I’m sure there will be more added along the way. For some insight into my goals, one of them is staying up all night and watching the sunrise.

Enough about my goals. I took a pallet crate, dismantled it with a hammer; and recycled the wood for a breakfast bar. As you can image thousands of pallet crates go to waste, ending up in skips and landfills. The Waste & Resources Action Programme reported in 2010 4.3 million tonnes of timber were wasted. Can you imagine how much wood that is and the number of things that could have been made? Its saddening how much we waste.

The story of how I got this palette crate is bit shameful, but I got what I was looking for the end. On my drive to work, I always take the route down Northumberland road, if you’ve ever been down Northumberland road it is beautiful; think big grand houses. So one of the houses are having work done and I had spotted a palette crate for a few days but was rather embarrassed to pull up and take it. One morning courage struck me and I parked trying to fit the crate into my baby sized car, but the crate was too large. I then spotted builders working at the house next door and they had crates scattered all over the drive. I started walking over but was hesitant, looked in and then walked back. I then turned around, peering into the drive and when I was spotted I asked for one of the crates. I’m sure they must have thought I was crazy. They said ‘yeah, but it’s heavy.’ That was fine by me. I hobbled back to my car with the crate hoisted against my waist. As you can imagine they watched me go all the way back to my car to try and fit this life-size crate of nearly my height back into my baby car. Thank God it fit otherwise I would have been too embarrassed to take it back.

I thought it was going to be an easy process to work with this crate and that I could just dismantle it simply. When I went on Youtube people were recommending all these fancy tools to dismantle the crate. 1. I didn’t want to buy a tool that I would never use again and 2. We’re working on a budget here. In the end, I took my strength, my foot, a hammer and dismantle the crate by force.

I then chose 3 planks of wood with the most detailed veneering, sanded them by hand to take away the splinters and rounded the corners. Cut shorter planks to the three main slates together. I reused the nails that I took out hen dismantling the crate. I stained the wood with balsamic vinegar. For the first coat, I mixed the vinegar with water, but then decided against it for future coats; and just applied it directly to the wood. I couldn’t tell you how many coats I did, but when I got to a good shade of brown I sponged red watercolour paint onto the wood. I left it to dry for a day or two then oiled the wood down.

I haven’t assembled the wood onto the wall as yet but thought I would give you a visual of what it would look like. I’m nearly done with my kitchen now. I just have to change the taps and the lighting. It won’t be ready by the end of December like I had planned, but some progress is better than none.

Join me next time when I’ll reveal the Surprise DIY artwork. Have a great weekend!

Nik-Cre – ‘Making life-less rooms into living rooms.’

Jute Plant Hangers

Hey everyone, thanks for stopping by my creative space again.

I hope you have been well, the past week has been rather busy for me. I have been travelling across the country due to work, but I also spent some valuable time with my family. My little sister was Baptised on Sunday, which is when someone publicly declares that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior; and that they will live for him for the rest of their lives. I’m so proud of her.

I have been working on earthy elements for my kitchen this week. Yes you’re right, it’s the plant hangers. As mentioned in Kitchen Ideas, I really liked the macrame plant hangers. Instead of using macrame string, or fabric strips, I ended up using Jute String. I bought 3x 35m of string for £1 each (Tiger.) To pot the plants, I bought 8 Eerin Jars £1.99 each from Home Bargins.

The plant hangers are really simple to make, I used this video for tutorials and altered the measurements slightly. My measurements where 20cm for the loop to hang, and 180cm for the 9 pieces of string. I braided these to 30cm and then tied the knots 4 inches apart.

Apologies for not giving you a beautiful array of plants, I am still yet to buy plants as the ones that I am looking for are not in season. In the meantime this is my indoor garden, I really need to buy some compost on the weekend otherwise, these babies are going to die. Please do not think I have green fingers it is hard enough for me to keep these alive. The jar that looks like it is full of mud is a Calla Lily, I kept it alive for a few months and then it died. Surprisingly it came up again in the summer, I’m praying it will come up again next summer.

I haven’t hung the plants on the wall as yet. I purchased these hooks from IKEA, (3 for £2) to hang the plants. I also bought this plant stand (£12) I was thinking to buy another one and to put Ficus in them. Let me know if I should stick to one or buy another one to have a pair?

Join me next time for ‘One Girl and a Hammer,’ take a wild guess of what I’ll have done. I’ll see you next time, have a great weekend.

Nik-Cre – ‘Making life-less rooms into living rooms.’

Light Design

Hey, I hope you are well.

This is just a quick one, In addition to Dyeing Light Shades. I came up with a design for the Kitchen lighting. Again I’m not a technical drawer so the scales aren’t correct.

Hope you like it, any suggestions or alterations for the design are welcome.

Nik-Cre

Fresh Coated Mid Century Stools

Welcome back. I hope you’re all wrapped up warm, and cosy at home. This morning I woke up to frost, and mist at -1. The fields and meadows had an extra ambience of stillness with the settling of delicate ice, on my drive to work today. Anyway, enough about the weather…

I’ve been working on these beautiful Mid Century stools which you previously saw in Kitchen Ideas. I bought these Cast Iron Rattan Stools on Facebook MarketPlace for £60. The legs were previously coated in white paint, which were quite scuffed from daily use. The Rattan seats were in pretty good condition but rather dusty and cob wedded.

It didn’t take much to bring these beauties back to a good standard. I started by dismantling everything. To take the seats of the iron legs, I removed the bolts from under the seat. The good thing about these frames is that you could potentially interchange seats if you didn’t like them or vice versa in terms of seats to frame. As the seats where dusty, I washed them down under the shower and scrubbed them with a toothbrush to get through the small cracks and curves. I didn’t use a scrubbing brush as I didn’t want something too rough that would cause damage. I then left these to dry for a week.

The frames were sanded by hand to remove the white paint. I used turpentine to remove any excess dust after sanding and to ensure the surface was clean. I mixed a tester tub of Grey paint with Silver tile paint to pretty these legs up, it took around 6 coats to create an even finish. Once dry, I assembled everything again.

My only dilemma now is which wall to build the Breakfast Bar on? Below is a birds-eye view of the kitchen please excuse the scales, I am not a technical drawer. The wiggly lines represent where the Breakfast bar could be mounted. Either along the Pantry wall or between the door and cupboard space. Both have pros and cons. For the pantry wall, it would be quite snug fitting both bar stools in that space. With the other, one person could sit comfortably but the other’s legs might get a little squashed against the radiator (don’t worry I’m not going to try to burn anyone.) I guess they could sit back a little. I’ll let you guys help me decide, Pantry wall or above the radiator? I look forward to seeing your comments.

Thanks for stopping by today, next time I’ll be making ‘Jute Plant Hangers.’See you next time, and have a great week!

Nik-Cre – ‘Making life-less rooms into living rooms.’

Dyeing Light Shade

Hey, how are you doing? Thanks for stopping by again.

I have to apologise, I haven’t posted in a few weeks as I travelled to Africa. I was intending to publish this post before I left but wasn’t able to fit everything in before flying out. I’m back now after a wonderful trip. It’s so amazing how each country has it’s own personality, in terms of culture, climate, landscape and more. I was really moved by my visit to Ghana, and hope to travel there again in the coming year.

So, this week we have Dyeing Light Shades. Dyeing these Light Shades has been a painful process. I have been doing so for several weeks now, let’s say it took longer than expected.

I saw a post on Pinterest about dying wood with Tea bags, so I decided to try it out with a few extra ingredients. As you know, Wood already has a natural beige tone to it. My experience was unlike school days when you stain paper with tea bags, a few dabs here and there; job done. No…it took around 6+ coats to bring this to the desired shade.

What ingredients did I use? Well, these changed throughout the course of dyeing. I made the 3 batches of dye with 2 teabags, hot water, soy sauce, and malt vinegar. By the fourth batch, I varied it slightly by adding red, yellow and brown watercolour paint to the mixture to get a stronger solid colour. This is not to say that the dye wasn’t brown, it was a rich colour, but the water was still rather translucent. When I added paint it thickened the mixture. I wasn’t looking for a dark brown colour but a nice Tawny shade of Brown. Here is the end product, with a more tanned look.

On another note, I had a workman come and assess my kitchen to change the lighting. I’m not going to be able to have the two pendant lights as you saw in my Pins, due to access issue of checking the wiring from the floor above. This is my fault as I put down flooring in my bedroom so we can’t lift the floorboards to alter the wiring. I’ve been advised to do some research in terms of different types of lighting, that will still incorporate the kitchen lights in a different form.

I’ll be putting a combination of these idea’s together with wood, spotlights, and pendant lights when I draw out my design. The images can be viewed better at my Pinterest.

If you’ve tried dying wood or anything else with household items let me know how it went. I’ll see you next time with ‘Fresh Coated Mid Century Stools.’

Nik-Cre – ‘Making life-less rooms into living rooms.’

Kitchen Idea’s

Hey, good to see you again. I hope you’ve had a great week. I started a new job on Monday, so I’m feeling very hopeful about the future.

As you’ve probably figured from the last post ‘Pinterest Tile Painting,’ the room I’m working on at the moment is my Kitchen. I got serious with decorating over the Summer, and I’m hoping to finish this room by the end of December. The Aesthetic for my Kitchen isn’t one style, it’s a cross of Bohemian, Rustic and Mid Century. I’m not the kind of girl who fits the pre-made mold. I’m unique, so I’ll need a Bespoke one.

Several ideas came to mind for the Kitchen, due to it being renovated before I moved in. I thought about keeping the walls in the pale latte colour that I already had, and giving it a fresh coat of paint; but my desire was to have a Yellow Kitchen. Yellow for me means warmth and motivation on a cold Winter’s day, despite the chill in the air; having the zeal to pursue the day.

The paint in the image on the right is Saffron Yellow from Wickes (2 for £14.99 as they were on special.) I had a few friends over who helped me paint the walls. It’s amazing how much a colour can transform a space. I didn’t realise how bland my kitchen looked until it met Saffron yellow. The grey and white vinyl is from Carpetright, the name of the pattern is ‘Mardi Gras 91 Magli Vinyl,’ with fitting the flooring came to £228.82.

In terms of what I have done so far, it has been painting the walls, tiles, and the cupboard panels. I had cream panels on the Walnut cupboards, and I painted these white to blend in with the tiles and the floor. I have also changed the vinyl. What’s left? Well…I’ve purchased the Wicker light shades above in the Pinboard, 2 for £15.00 eBay. I’m planning to dye these as they’re actually a lot lighter than they look in the photograph. I currently have an LED strip light in my kitchen, I absolutely dislike it. I’m going to change these out for pendant lights with the wicker shades running horizontally across the kitchen, rather than vertically which is the direction they currently run. An Electrician will be needed for this job.

Having a seating area in the Kitchen is important as I’m not certain about having a dining table as yet. I’ve been making a breakfast bar out of a pallet crate I picked up in Leamington Spa, which should be ready in the next couple of weeks. This will also need to be dyed. I found the perfect stools on Facebook Marketplace for £60, they’re Rattan and cast iron. They match the light shades but are also very Mid Century. I need to retouch the paintwork on the cast iron. The Kitchen taps I currently have are singular pillar taps. The plan is to get a bridge mixer tap, which will require a Plumber.

Lastly, to dress the room and to give it texture; Plants and DIY Art . I love the macrame plant holders that are currently on trend. At first, I was thinking of off-white macrame; but it’s a Kitchen and I don’t want the cooking to discolour the thread. I’ve seen lots of fabric threads in Tiger, so instead of macrame, I’ll make grey fabric plant holders. To pot the plants I’ll be using large Mason jars. The DIY Art will be a surprise for you guys so I’m not going to tell you now… For a hint, I’ll be using wood.

So that’s the plan. Let me know what you think of my ideas, and let me know what you’ve done/ are doing to your kitchen. If you want to check out my Pinterest to get a better view of my ideas, feel free to. I’ll see you next time when I’ll be ‘Dyeing Light Shades.’

Nik-Cre – ‘Making life-less rooms into living rooms.’

Pinterest Tile Painting

Welcome, I’m glad you’ve stopped by again.

Autumn has been setting in here in Coventry. The leaves are lining the streets with an array of colours, and the morning frost is reminding us of what is to come. Wherever you are, I hope the weather is good.

This week it’s Pinterest Tile Painting. You’ve probably seen that Mediterranean tiles are on trend. I wanted to buy some for my kitchen, but the tiles that I have were in pretty good condition when I moved in. As you probably know patterned tiles can be quite pricey.

Whilst adding to my Pinterest boards I found this Pin. When I saw it, it was one of those moments when you think to yourself, ‘Why did I not think of this myself?’ It is genius, honestly. Why buy new tiles, when I can just paint over them? All I had to do was buy the paint and a stencil. If you know me, I’m quite indecisive when buying things. It took me a while to buy the stencil, but it was a bargain. 99p from eBay. I also bought some Tile paints, which were £3.99 each. The colour scheme for my kitchen is Saffron yellow, grey and white. As my appliances are grey, I bought yellow, grey paint and a clear lacquer. The lacquer is to seal the paint.

This project is very simple, but I went through a lot of trial and error. Here were the problems I faced:

The paint kept bleeding. Even though I had a stencil, the paint would bleed under the stencil and would not maintain the shape of the pattern. I tried painting with artists paint brushes, by doing strokes. I tried dabbing the paint against the tiles, it didn’t work. I then made my own stencil and applied the paint to the stencil to then transfer it on the tile. This one wasn’t brilliant, it kept the shape but the paint was rather translucent. Which lead to problem number 2.
The paint was translucent. Using the stencil was hard enough already, but to have to paint over and try to put the stencil back in the exact same spot, was going to be tricky. I gave this project a rest for a few weeks whilst trying to wrack my brains on how to make it work.

Weeks later I resolved the problem. I think I was watching an episode of Mr.Kate and she used a sponge to do some painting. So I went to my cleaning cupboard and got a household sponge. I also bought a small sample tub of grey emulsion paint (£1.) I mixed the emulsion paint with the tile paint to thicken it so that it would lose its transparency. After prepping the wall (cleaning the tiles with anti-bacterial and sticking the stencil on,) I dabbed the paint onto the tiles with the sponge. There was less bleeding and less transparency. I was, and I mean it; streaking with joy.

I worked along the bottom row of tiles, painting them alternately, and then did the same to the top row. As mentioned before the plan was to also use yellow paint, which would have been for the middle row but I abandoned this. I would have been too busy.

I tried to paint behind one of the electrical points in my kitchen, and then struggled to get the fixture back in place. This was another abandoned mission. I let the paint dry for a day or two and then painted over with the lacquer so that when regularly wiping the tiles down, it wouldn’t cause the paint to chip or rub off. This week’s project cost me £9.97 (minus the yellow paint.) I don’t know how much I would have spent on Tiles, but this was less expensive.

I hope you like the tiles, let me if you have tried something similar or going to try it. Next time I’ll be showing you my idea’s for my new kitchen. See you soon!

Nik-Cre – ‘Making life-less rooms into living rooms.’

Watercolour Baby

Hey, welcome back to Nik-Cre. I hope you’ve had a great week so far…

This weeks project isn’t for my home, but instead for my friend’s. I promised a gentler theme this time around, and I think I have delivered.

‘It’s their first child, I want to give them something meaningful.‘ My beautiful married friends, Francis and Luisa were pregnant and I didn’t want to buy them the typical things. I wanted something that would remain a memory forever and not get thrown away.

I’ve known Luisa since Secondary school. She is one of my dearest friends. Whenever I was in one of my states crying in the school toilets, she was always there to ask if I was ok. We went on our first holiday together, without parents; cycling the streets of Palma. I watched her fall in love and marry her sweetheart Francis. I’m so proud of her. She is confident and brave, unafraid and unashamed to speak her mind. She is a wonderful Mother to her baby girl and a beautiful Wife to her husband.

Initially, I wanted to paint something similar to the gifts you see on Etsy. My colleague came across it when buying gifts for her expectant sister. I thought it was great but, it wasn’t personal enough. I checked out Luisa’s Facebook to see if I could get ideas. She had posted a picture of her scan, and also of her baby bump at third trimester. I decided I would paint a colour version of the scan, with her baby bump. My medium was watercolours, painted quite thickly.

I started with a basic sketch and began painting the baby as I wanted to start with lighter colours. Then followed by the darker tones.

When I gave Luisa and Francis this painting, I have to say I was rather nervous. I had mainly positive reviews from friends and colleagues saying that they would love something like this when they have a baby. As always there is the negative/ strange. One of my friends said it looked like a burnt baby, and another said it looked like a chicken. Well, it’s Art so we all perceive it differently, but Francis and Luisa loved it. They even hung it on their wall.

If you like the painting, feel free to comment and let me know what you think of it. If not, I welcome the criticism; it is one of the ways we are able to make improvements in life. Join me next time for ‘Pinterest Tile Painting.’

Nik-Cre – ‘Making life-less rooms into living rooms.’