Create a Party Bar from a Lean To Shed

It would appear that summer is well and truly over now. I was hoping for an Indian summer, but as we head into October and threats of the coldest winter in decades, it's not looking likely. We managed to stretch the summer out as long as we could, and the arrival of our new garden shed meant we had somewhere to shelter in the garden when the rain came.

I've wanted a garden shed for a couple of years, but it's one of those things that we've never got around to organising (or agreeing on), so when we were offered a shed from Garden Site there was no hesitation. I also knew that I didn't want just any shed, it had to be a certain design, as well as being the right size for the space we had. My shed wasn't going to be a place to fill with tools or bikes, nor somewhere to potter with plants, or even a relaxing place to ponder. Nope, my new shed was going to be a party bar, aka The Crazy Corner; a bar and shelter in the corner of our garden.

We started with a 4ft x 6ft Forest overlap lean to shed , which was pretty straightforward to build by myself and the husband one Saturday, despite our ratchet screwdriver being the closest thing to a power tool that we had! It needed both of us to fit the sides to the base, but once they were in place I completed the next few stages by myself whilst he went to football, returning to fit the roof panels and roofing felt together.

We decided to leave the window pane out and instead I replaced it with a pull down plywood shutter that doubles up as a table supported by removable supports, based on this idea. Inside I've only added a plywood shelf and, for now, a camping table. There's not a lot of room for much else inside, but it's big enough for serving drinks and snacks. Outside I've added a couple of bar stools, along with a 4 seater table and chairs and my Bundleberry string chair.

If you're over 6ft you'll find it necessary to stoop a little to stand under the canopy, but once seated most people can sit comfortably!

• 6 x 4 Forest overlap lean to shed - Garden Site
• Bar stools - B&Q
• Outdoor lights - Tomshine (Amazon)
• Bespoke wooden sign - Vintage & Retro Signs (Facebook)
• Outdoor rug - Bundleberry collection at QVC
• Cactus side table - Bundleberry collection at QVC
• String chair - Bundleberry collection at QVC

In collaboration with Garden Site and QVC

Ikea Ekby Alex Hairpin Console Table Hack

I seem to have been painting rooms in the house non stop for weeks. First it was the downstairs toilet, and more recently it's been the teens' bedrooms, which, I'm relieved to say, are finally finished.

Next up is the hallway, and then my office - YES! I get to have an office to myself at long last as the boys are going to have their xboxes in their bedrooms instead of the den. Once my office is finished it will be the landing, and I guess once I've finished that, the cycle will start all over again.

At least once all the walls in the house are white it should be easy to keep on top of, as long as I keep a tub of pure brilliant white on hand.

We've also been having a major declutter, and selling excess pieces of furniture and 'things' on local Facebook selling sites, as well as doing a couple of car boot sales. During this declutter I came across a small set of wooden drawers, filled with kids dvd's, that I've owned for years. I've always thought that they needed legs of some kind, but I never did anything about it, and the drawers remained in a corner holding the dvd's.

A while ago I came across hairpin legs, and fell in love. I wanted to incorporate them into the house somewhere, but there just wasn't a place to fit them in, until I came across the little wooden drawers.

I chose some 35cm 3 rod legs in black from The Hairpin Leg Company on Amazon* for £40 , which transformed the drawers into a piece of furniture that now fits perfectly into the hallway.

My hairpin leg journey didn't end there though, as The Hairpin Leg Company then offered to send me another set of legs. This time I chose 71cm 3 rod legs in copper for an IKEA Ekby Alex shelf with drawers, which I'd bought for the kitchen. It turned out to be too big for what we needed it for so I've been using it on my desk ever since.

After moving some furniture around there was a space in the lounge that was crying out for a console table, and the Ekby Alex shelf with the hairpin legs fitted the space perfectly.

The legs come in loads of different colours and lengths, and are really easy to fit with the screws provided. The legs also come with rubber feet to protect your flooring, which just pop on to the legs.

For hairpin leg inspiration follow The Hairpin Leg Company :

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In collaboration with The Hairpin Leg Company

Creating a Desk area out of an Unusable Space

A few years ago we knocked the utility room out of our relatively small kitchen and extended the kitchen out into a conservatory. Whilst we now have a pretty large kitchen/family room space there isn't a great deal of workspace. There's enough for cooking and prepping food as we also have an island, but I longed for somewhere to organise our lives. I needed a little desk area to keep the family diary, letters from school, the wheelie bin calendar, and other general bits and bobs, without taking up a much needed area of worktop.

A couple of years ago I made a memo board wall, but as it was mostly behind the kitchen door it didn't really work for me, and there still wasn't anywhere to keep the diary apart from in the hallway, and I kept forgetting to look in it!

I then came up with the genius idea to change the opening of the kitchen door. Instead of opening into the kitchen, it would open out into the hallway, freeing up that unusable kitchen wall which would no longer be hidden behind the door. We did similar in our ensuite bathroom last year, and it made a huge difference to the space, making it feel so much larger.

I found a local chippie on Checkatrade, who changed the opening and refitted a new door for £40, enabling us to fit a shelf to the kitchen wall. A few accessories were purchased, and I now have a handy shelf for all our paperwork and reminders, plus somewhere to hang school artwork.

BEFORE - UNUSABLE SPACE

AFTER CHANGING THE DOOR

A MINI DESK AREA

Copper Clock : John Lewis

Wire Memo frame : Maisons du Monde

Stacking mugs : Waitrose

Memo pad & Notebook : Sainsburys

Copper beaker : Sainsburys

Copper bulldog clips in jar : Sainsburys
Copper tealight holder - New Look

Copper vase : Tesco

Shelf & Brackets : Ikea

Half glazed door : B&Q

How to Create a Sideboard with Tapered Legs using IKEA Kallax

I love Ikea and we have many pieces of furniture and storage throughout the house bought from the store. In fact, I don't think there is a room in the house that doesn't contain at least one thing from Ikea, whether it's a picture frame, a shelf or desk. I like the clean, modern look of many of their products, plus the price is always an added bonus. 

Over the years we've bought a few units in the Expedit range, which has now been superseded by a slightly slimmer Kallax. A few weeks ago we ventured off to Ikea on a Sunday afternoon (crazy, huh?), with the aim of bringing home 4x2 and 2x2 Kallax units in turquoise for the kitchen, but when we took a look at it in the showroom I didn't think the colour was quite right. I then spotted the 4x2 in grey and wood effect and I was in love! Unfortunately they only do this size currently so my hopes of having the two pieces standing alongside each other (with the 4 x 2 on its end) were dashed, but we bought it anyway!

En Suite Bathroom Makeover {and ideas for a co-ordinated Bedroom}

The makeover of our en suite bathroom was long overdue. The shower had been out of action since well before Christmas, when I'd squelched onto the bedroom carpet one morning. To be honest, it had been leaking a long time before that morning, and in fact it had leaked, albeit only very slightly, since we'd moved into the house twelve years previous, despite the house being brand new. 

After various repairs were made (all unsuccessfully) we decided to bite the bullet and update the complete room. It's a very well used room and although it wasn't particularly out-dated, it was looking a bit tired.

The room is quite small, and the shower cubicle was a tiny corner unit with a large step up. The sink & toilet, although quite plain, are a bit traditional for my liking, but they did the job, and they were white which is always a huge bonus. I was happy with the white tiles which were still in pretty good condition, but the vinyl flooring was definitely looking tired.

We knew we wanted a larger shower cubicle and it was just a case of moving things around a little to fit one in (especially that radiator that took up the corner of the bathroom & made it unusable). 

I made a wish list and shopped around for exactly what we wanted, although after some discussion about showers our heads won over our hearts and we ditched the large shower head and concealed shower valve in favour of a more practical surface mounted shower. 

The first thing that the builder did was to change the door around so that it opened out into the bedroom, rather than into the bathroom, which meant we could reposition the radiator onto the wall that the door used to open onto, which then in turn freed up that corner, allowing the sink to be positioned further over.

There were a couple of hitches along the way, like the moment that the builder came across a nail through one of the water pipes that had been there, by some miracle, for the past 12 years waiting to be pulled out and spout water over the bathroom and through to the freshly painted lounge ceiling. He also deemed the wall between en-suite and bedroom to be too flimsy to set a shower into (possibly the cause of the leaks over the years), and the drainage hole for the shower tray positioned itself nicely over a joist, making it necessary for us to source an alternative tray with a hole in a different place.

These things are sent to try us though, and it all turned out alright in the end.

A FRESH CLEAN LOOK


FAMILY BATHTIME PHOTO IN A CHEAP IKEA FRAME, AND GREY TILE EFFECT VINYL FLOORING


WALL HUNG VANITY WITH LARGE DRAWER & SPACE UNDER FOR SCALES OR BASKET FOR EXTRA STORAGE


LARGE MIRROR WITH SHELF FOR ACCESSORIES


A SPACIOUS 1000mm x 800mm SHOWER ENCLOSURE


LARGE HEATED TOWEL RAIL. USE HAND TOWELS INSTEAD OF OVERPRICED BATH MATS


OWN PRINTS INSPIRED BY PINTEREST IN CHEAP IKEA FRAMES

All that's left to do now is to get a grey linen look blind to match the one in the bedroom

Stockists

Demar Close Coupled Toilet : Victoria Plum

Odessa Wall Hung Vanity Unit : Victoria Plum

Cubik Basin Mixer Tap : Victoria Plum

Curvaceous Snow Bathroom Mirror : Victoria Plum

Shower Tray : Sanctuary Bathrooms

Simplicity Quadrant Shower Enclosure : Victoria Plum

Bristan Sonique Thermostatic Shower : Ebay

Heated Towel Rail : Bathroom Takeaway

Super Deluxe Kaolin Grey Vinyl Flooring : Rhinofloor

Toilet Roll Holder : Ebay

Wire Basket : TKMaxx

Picture Frames : IKEA

Toilet Brush & Cup : Asda

Hand Towels : Dunelm

Grey Blind : Dunelm

If this has inspired you to think about updating your bathroom, en-suite, bedroom or any other room in your house then take a look at the Quercus Living ranges of oak furniture, who have a fab range of solid wood furniture that's finished by hand, but won't break the bank.

I've put together a collection that incorporates solid oak bedroom furniture along with a few modern accessories that would tie in nicely with the grey and white en-suite.

the Natural Bedroom by thecrazykitchen featuring Quercus Living Oak Furniture ranges

Scandinavian Inspiration for Your Home

Ever since I bought my first home back in the nineties, I’ve loved getting inspiration from, and shopping in, Ikea. There’s something about the clean look of Scandinavian furniture and homes that really appeals to me. Throughout the past 17 years of home ownership I’ve gone through many styles of décor, including bright orange and dark blue walls in my dining room (what was I thinking!), but more recently I’ve returned to that crisp Scandinavian look, with clean white walls and white furniture, and that ‘Hygge’ feel. Hygge is a word that I’ve seen a lot of this year, and it roughly translates as ‘cosy feel’.

We’ve recently had the lounge painted, and gone are the floral brown wallpaper clad and teal walls, replaced by fresh white walls, a newly painted fireplace in winter grey and grey accessories.  This Christmas I’ve completely embraced the Scandinavian look with red, white and grey bunting, cushions and decorations on the tree. I’m absolutely loving the way the lounge looks at the moment and can’t wait to get a few pictures up on the wall to give it even more ‘Hygge’. Our 12 year old carpet will be replaced in the new year and I’m crossing my fingers for a new sofa, but not holding my breath!

Although I love browsing the shops for home interior ideas, I find much of my inspiration on the Internet, in places such as Pinterest, Houzz, Polyvore and Homify. I could get lost for hours on these sites looking for lounge, bedroom and kitchen ideas, in particular the white rooms with pops of colour.

I’ve fallen in love with a few of the collections on Homify, and I can spend ages dreaming of having these homes for myself. As well as showcasing dreamy images the site is full of tips and advice on how to create your perfect style. A few of the tips for creating a Scandinavian feel in your home include the following :

• Choose warm and cosy fabrics
• Use natural materials in their raw state
• Limit colours to no more than 3 tones
• Use clever solutions to  maximise space
• Make the most of natural light

Photo credit :Ekaterine Donde Design/ Homify

Photo credit : Daria Baranovych Interior Design / Homify

promotional post

Pegboard Advent Calendar

The new John Lewis Christmas ad has appeared on our TV's, which means I can now mention the C word on my blog once again. The last few months have flown by and I can't believe that Christmas is almost here again. I'm determined to be organised this year and get the Christmas presents bought before the beginning of December, and it all seems to be going to plan so far. The tree won't be going up for another month as the decorator is coming to finish off our lounge just before then, although I will probably be pestered into putting one in the kitchen at the beginning of the month.

Last year I made a gingerbread house advent calendar, but I've kept it nice and simple this year with a pegboard advent calendar on my desk (waiting for the decorator to come before I hang it on the wall).

It takes only a few minutes to put together, and you can hang your favourite chocolates on it. I used these Lindor chocolate orange truffles, but if you want to go for a Scandi look you could use the milk truffles in red packaging.

You will need :

length of ribbon

24 mini pegs

Sharpie pen

24 sweets/chocolates

• tie loops in both ends of your ribbon & attach to hooks on your pegboard or wall
• number your pegs from 1 to 24 with the Sharpie
• place each peg over the ribbon, gripping both the ribbon and the edge of a chocolate wrapper

It's a simple, yet effective, advent calendar that can be used year after year with your favourite chocolates

I bought both the ribbon and pegs from Ebay.

As always, Lindt has a fab range of Christmas chocolates, including the famous Reindeer, and these mini Santas, bears and Santas Helpers, which make great stocking fillers.

I wonder how long it will be before they disappear from my desk!

I received a selection of Lindt chocolate to use in this post

Upcycle an Old Chair with Chalk Paint

I am currently in the spring cleaning mode - conservatory blinds have been lifted and windows cleaned, and the hallway has had a good lick of paint to brighten it up. I've also replaced the wooden chairs in the kitchen with some white ones to match our bar stools, which brightens the place up a lot. I used to have one of the spare kitchen chairs in the hallway but when I bought the white ones I used the spare one at my desk instead of putting it in the hall, which left a space crying out for a small piece of furniture.

I then remembered that we had an old pine chair in the garage that we've used previously when decorating. It was covered in white, pink and blue paint splashes, but it was a good solid chair that I bought in a clearance around 15 years ago. What it needed was a makeover.

With the help of Rust-Oleum chalky finish furniture paint (previously used to paint my plate rack here) I gave my old chair a face-lift with a distressed finish.

• I painted the chair with two coats of Winter Grey and 3 coats of Chalk White before allowing to dry fully overnight. 
• I then took some fine sandpaper and lightly sanded the edges where, over time, the chair would see natural wear, to reveal the grey underneath.
• Finally, I applied a coat of Rust-Oleum Finishing Wax, which I buffed to a shine after around ten minutes. The wax is by far the easiest furniture wax that I've ever used, and I also gave my wooden kitchen island a going over at the same time.

Before....

Sanding the bumpy paint splashes...

Give the paint a good stir before using...

After 2 coats of Winter Grey...

After 3 coats of Chalk White...

Lightly sanding to reveal the grey...

Finish with a layer of furniture wax...

The finished chair, in situ in my hallway, with a lovely yellow & grey cushion from John Lewis on...

Tips for upcycling an old piece of furniture

• Sand any rough edges, lumps or bumps with sandpaper - no need to sand down the rest, the paint will cover most surfaces easily.
• Wipe the surfaces over with a damp cloth to remove any grease, grime, dust or cobwebs, and then dry it off.
• Tighten any loose screws and fill any holes or cracks.
• Stir the paint well - if it has become too thick then add a little tepid water
• Allow 4 hours in between coats - wrap your brush in clingfilm or a plastic bag instead of washing it every time.
• Stand the furniture on boxes or paint cans (if it's not too heavy) to allow easy access to the bottoms of the legs/feet and the underside

I received paint from Rust-Oleum as part of their Make It March challenge.