Ensuite Before & After

Hi everyone, thanks for putting up with my slackness at not posting this on Friday. I have a good excuse - all trades only left at 6pm on Friday, and as I had just had my laser eye surgery to correct my vision I was a racked out on valium! Good excuse??!!

Anyway, as promised the before and after shots of my bathrooms begin with my ensuite (decided not to bore you all with a really long post on both). Although not totally finished i.e. no towel rails, paint, or pretty things yet (yay shopping). I hope you will all agree it is an improvement.

Please remember, this is no glam magazine worthy bathroom makeover. I had very little time to organise the bathroom renovations, and I was on a really tight budget.

The ensuite below after:

The ensuite below before:

Yes, the ensuite used to be my walk-in-robe which has now been relocated (I'll do a post on this at a later date). As you can see it is not a very big room - 2.5m long x 1.4m wide, but we have managed to fit in a big shower, toilet and vanity. I love the way my new tiles look.

Some of my favourite things would have to be the shelf I had installed with the mirrored cabinets above - lots of storage - yay!!!

And, the rain shower head - love, love!

On a slightly disappointing note: You may notice from the image below that along with towel rails and paint, the toilet buttons are missing on the toilet - unfortunately one of the things I had to put up with when I used the BDW at Springwood. We got a really good deal on all of our fixtures with them, and I don't like to blog badly about anyone, however, I have had a disappointing experience them when it comes to delivery of what I purchased. Although they have been accommodating in fixing up all the errors there were far too many errors for one renovation. I guess we can just put it down to dumb luck, but as you can imagine this put a real strain on my week ...... okay ...... I'll admit I was stressed out rather badly before my operation!

Speaking of which, my eye op was a phenomenal success - I can now see clearly with no contacts! There was no pain, and the whole operation took around 15 minutes! Should have done it years ago - I thoroughly recommend it to everyone thinking of having it done - the doctors and staff at the Laser Sight Centre were terrific.

Enough rambling from me now - I will show all the before and afters of the main bathroom on Friday, along with a thorough budget breakdown (need to add it up myself yet) and also give you all my wonderful trade contacts.

Until then, hope you are having a great Monday.
Michelle

Markets and Winnings!

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend. I had a fantastic weekend which started with a stand at the BrisStyle Eco Markets on Saturday. Thankfully the rain gods looked after us and ensured we had a beautiful sunny day for the event. It was so lovely to meet all of my customers and chat about handmade design - everyone's comments were really encouraging! Thank you to all who popped by to say hello - you made my day!

I had a really big space this time

I now have to get busy creating some more artwork for the BrisStyle Twilight Markets which will be held in King George Square on Friday the 19th November!

Every market day the BrisStyle team hold a handmade raffle by collecting something from each of our stands - the proceeds go towards a chosen charity for the day. On Saturday this charity was Peninsula Animal Aid. As you may have already guessed, I was lucky enough to win one of two baskets filled with goodies from my fellow BrisStylers! I was sooo excited, not only did I have a fab day, but it was topped off with a basket of handmade goodness. As you can see I feel very spoiled. I managed to snap this picture before my 4 year old took claim to a lot of these lovelies.

In aid of all of the lovely BrisStylers who spend hours and hours on their craft, I have decided to add a new segment to my blog called 'Wednesday Wicked Designs' to showcase some of their amazing talent. Every Wednesday I will post about a fellow BrisStyler and let you know about their designs. So watch out for my first post this Wednesday.

Renovation Update: My bathrooms will be finished this week - Tilers finish on Tuesday, Plumber is in on Wednesday, and Glazier is in on Thursday. This means, with fingers crossed, I will be able to show you all the before and afters on my Friday post before I go in for my laser eye operation - followed by a complete budget breakdown the following week. Can't wait to see them come to life this week with all the 'blingy' bits!

Wishing you all a fab Monday.
Michelle

Reno Update & Goodbyes

Okay firstly to my 'goodbyes' - no I am not going anywhere but today I said goodbye to some faithful old friends. You see, I am having laser eye surgery in two weeks to restore my vision and I had to say goodbye to my contacts today - ahhhh! I have to wear glasses for two whole weeks prior to surgery, and as I have come to rely on my contacts, having worn them for more than 15 years now, they were very hard to give up. I must say, I have a headache that could kill people today due to the fact that my glasses to not have transition lenses (never thought I would need to wear them for any length of time). So I'm not too sure how I will last 13 more days without finding some ridiculous looking sunglasses to put over the top!!

Love to know if anyone else has had this surgery and what your experiences were.

Okay enough of my whining - on to our renovation update. Unfortunately there is not a lot to report as we are in the boring stage - you know in the middle - so I will show you where we are at anyway. The image below shows the main bath with some floor tiles that were laid today. I love them already! The tiles are porcelain and even though I only budgeted for ceramic I am glad I went this way.

The image below shows the ensuite - you can kind of get the idea of the shelf we are having down one side.

The following image shows lots of tiles etc. in our bedroom! Oh the fun of renovation!

Hopefully next week I will be able to show more finished images along with a bit of a budget breakdown - oh and I think I might actually have a breakdown when I finally add it all up!!
Happy weekend to everyone. Michelle

BiECO Christmas

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?
Well, I know just the place for you to start - the HOTest place to buy all your handmade goodies this Christmas - the BrisStyle Indie Eco Market!

The green carpet will be rolled out ........

Saturday, 6th November
St Augustine's Church Hall and Grounds
Racecourse Road
Hamilton
9am - 2pm

I'll definitely be there along with many other BrisStylers selling their eco wares.

Along with my usual goodies I will be selling some handmade eco Christmas tags
and decorations .....

and some Christmas cards .....

Along with all the handmade goodness the BrisStylers will be selling vintage, and vintage inspired wares. I'm sure there will be something there for everyone!

Don't forget to mark it in your diary .....

I'd love to see you all there. Once again, I'm inside the hall so if you have time please
pop in and say hi!

Other than sending out lots of orders and preparing for BiECO this week I have been watching my bathrooms slowly taking shape - I'll have some more pictures for you all on Friday. My tiles have arrived so I'm looking forward to seeing them go down soon - yay!!! Hope you're all having a fantastic week. Michelle

mirror mirror on the wall ...

.... who's the fairest of us all?

interior design luxury ideas

I am very excited because we are now past the dreaming stage and in the 'real' planning stage for our bathroom makeovers! It's time to get quotes and start booking in contractors! Yay!!!

In case you have just joined me, part of Stage 2 of our renovation requires an ensuite to be created out of an old walk-in-robe, and the main family bathroom to be completely restyled with new ... well, everything! True to form, when I should be concentrating on where the bath/vanities/showers etc will actually go, I am looking at all the 'fluffy' finishing products!

It all started when I was flicking through a back issue (August 2010) of Home Beautiful the other day, and came across Georgie and Sean's Melbourne home. Georgie has placed a lattice-framed mirror over her vanity, its strong lines really draw the eye - "I find plain fixed glass in bathrooms can lack soul" - "I prefer to hang ornate mirrors to create a softer look ..." she says.

home beautiful
(please excuse the grainy quality of the image
as I photographed it directly from the mag)

This got me thinking ... she is right .... it also follows my philosophy that every room should have at least one statement piece or at least one 'wow' feature. This of coarse started me on a trail of obsessive mirror gazing, article clipping and internet hopping!
Some samples of which are below.

love how 'moody' this bathroom looks - and the white mirror against the black - stunning!

furniture store blog

simple, yet decorative ...

arhzine

hello yellow - a little too much stripe for me - but the mirror looks fab!

interior design luxury ideas

okay, yes I now realise I have a thing for black and white ...

home decor arcade

striking round mirrors ...

momoy

forget the gorgeous mirror - wish I had this space ....

hit decors

So, what do you think? Do you have a decorative mirror in your bathroom - if so where did you get it? I've seen quite a few old mirrors lately at places like the W.A.C which may look great with a little spray paint too! Should I go for it, or stick to plain mirrors for resale value?

Thanks, I love receiving all your comments and suggestions. Michelle

To Ikea, Or Not To Ikea?

Hope everyone has had a wonderful week! This week, in Brisbane, we had a public holiday for Ekka. We decided it was a good idea to go to Ikea .... (ahh)! Not a good day to do this as half of Brisbane had the same idea!
Anyway, I very rarely get my husband to shop at all (let alone at Ikea) so I eagerly took this opportunity, popped no. 1 daughter into the kiddies play land, strapped no. 2 daughter into the pram - constantly watching the clock as I know it normally takes me around 3 to 4 hours to get around that place - not a chance with husband in tow! We had 1 hour before daughter no. 1 had to be picked up so the race was on! Breezing past the isles I would normally linger at .... then, my husband said - what about an Ikea vanity for our ensuite renovation? What? Shock, Horror .... then I took the time to look ..... they actually don't look that bad, and an entire double vanity with taps for $1600!!
So, I was wondering ..... To Ikea, Or Not To Ikea .... has anyone else dabbled in an Ikea bathroom before? If you have, what did you think? Was it durable? Can I make it look expensive? Anyway, my head is full of questions. Of course I went straight to Google and here is some inspiration ...

The Smartest Fish

Love the image above - in this bathroom they have painted an Ikea island bench and used it as a vanity .... who would have thought??

pics digger

Ikea with marble ..... may just be the right balance?

Ikea Fans

The image above shows a similar vanity to the one we were looking at - it comes in other colours and finishes.

Plastolyx

The vanity above shows an Ikea carcass and a concrete top - possibility?

Bathroom Furniture Reviews

Lastly .... is this really Ikea? It looks a little bit minimalist for us, but still can't believe it's Ikea!


Think I need to do a little more research but potentially we may be able to create style on a budget! What do you think?

Hope all you Brissy followers had a fantastic People's Day, and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Michelle

p.s. I left without my usual "I've been to Ikea for 3 hours" headache so maybe there is something to be said for having my husband in tow!!