Monday, January 21, 2008

Make Do & Renew

I've been thinking about my little house the past few days. She's about to get a cosmetic makeover in the form of new paint inside and out, which is exciting and also makes my head hurt when I consider how much work it is going to entail to empty and move all the furniture to make the house painter ready.

(For a start, whose idea was it to buy enough books to fill 7 bookcases, huh? Don't answer that, it was rhetorical. Oh fie my bookish nature!)

I feel like I need to spruce things up a bit in general, as well as making the place a bit more desireable for potential housemates. I've posted grand plans in the recent past about buying new furniture, but the sad truth is that I'm not in a financial space to be able to do that. Especially while I'm paying nearly 50% of my income on double my usual rent. So I'm thinking a little budget makeovering is the ticket. Something like:
  • Getting the carpets cleaned. I need to get the bedroom carpets and my living room rug steam cleaned.
  • Making a new slipcover for my sofa. I can do this, I have the mad skillz required. Also, $100 - $150 worth of fabric (or whatever), and some time spent at the sewing machine, is going to be a lot more doable than forking over for a new sofa. Plus more fun. Well my kind of fun. Fun that involves complicated maths, pattern drafting, making piping.
  • During a throw out at work I scored two big cork pin-up boards. I'm thinking of covering each of these in a cute fabric and putting one in the kitchen near the phone, and the other in my bedroom. I have a huge collection of postcards and ephemera, so filling them won't be a problem. My kitchen's main colour is a fresh green so I might even go for something like this cute retro print by local fabric studio Prints Charming.
  • I need file storage and I also have a non-functioning fireplace in my bedroom. So I'm thinking maybe a secondhand two drawer filing cabinet, or some of those plastic box things that take drop in files. Something that can sit in that unused space inside the fireplace, and then I was thinking of making a folding screen to sit in front and hide everything. The local discount shops in Newtown sell really cheap artist's canvases in all sorts of shapes and sizes, so if I bought 3 or 4 tall and skinny ones, of a size that fit in front of the open part of the fireplace, stapled fabric over them or even painted them, and then joined them in a zigzag pattern with hinges, voila! firescreen. Mad, right?

Projects! It's good to have projects.

That's Ms Stewart to you!

6 comments:

jason said...

a filing fireplace?
genius!

Cecilia said...

You should star in your own home makeover show!

Anonymous said...

What, only seven bookcases? You're really not trying very hard ... I'll have to keep giving you books.

Um, in another attempt to palm my stuff on to you, I do have a two-drawer filing cabinet I'm planning on getting rid of. It's not what you'd call attractive, being painted a nasty brown, but if you're going to hide it behind a screen ...

M-H said...

You are soooo gay. :) I foresee a trip to Spotlight in your future. If you're looking to spend less than about $750 on enough decent weight fabric to cover a sofa, you won't be going to any of the faaabulous interior decorating stores around the Inner West. But Spotties does have quite a good range of interesting fabrics, if you dig through the dross.

The Other Andrew said...

Yes, I am SO GAY. M-H, you've met me... don't act like that's a surprise! :) I have a background in costuming on a budget, trust me I know my way around Spotlight! I only really need the sofa to last another 6 months to a year, so I'm not going to spend too much money on it.

Quatrefoil, sounds great but I'll measure the space first to make sur it'll fit! Thanks.

Thombeau said...

Sounds like a plan!