Daftly DIY a-brewin

Welll I have been ultra slack again this past week. I haven't felt like blogging - probably because it has been hot and sticky and too uncomfortable to do much of anything blog-worthy. I did go back to the Mill Markets again and bought a cool pot rack for $29 and a soap dish. Wiiiew!

Lately I have been pretty pre-occupied with money which is why I have not been doing much of anything that involves casshhhh. The house i bought settled almost a month ago, so I am still getting the hang of it all. I have already made 3 or 4 mortgage repayments (AH) and have collected 1 months worth of rent (as the house is still tenanted until May at which time I MOVE IN YAAAAY!!). So I am slowly trying to work out my weekly budget and also do Christmas shopping and am trying to put money aside for a few things i will need to do to the house. Plus as usual with all this going on we got 2 bills in the mail so it's fair to say I have been quite broke and boring for the last 2 weeks :S

But on the plus-side, last weekend I became inspired to work on some of my dormant DIY projects around the house, and I made a little trip to Bunnings to get some supplies!

I am focusing on 2 projects at the moment: My $5 chair from Camberwell Market and my dressing screen. Let's start with the chair..


I saw this chair at Camberwell Market and was like "oh that's nice, i wonder how much it is...?" then i went over and saw a big orange sticker on it saying $5-. I asked the guy if it was correct and he insisted he wanted to get rid of all his stuff and I should definately take the chair. So i did.

Anyway it is pretty old and pretty ratty but, hey.... FIVE BUCKS! how can you go wrong?? So I bought some sandpaper, varnish and fabric in the hopes to transform this old chair into a nice new looking chair! So far i have sanded it back and applied 3 coats of varnish, and I hope to start re-upholstering tomorrow.

My other project is my dressing screen. I don't have a picture, but basically it is a 3 door screen with hinges. Each door has 2 panels which are hollow. This is the closest i could find...



I bought this maybe 4 or 5 years ago from a salvage yard... i don't know it could have been longer. Anyway, but it was bright purple and for ages i didn't know what to do with it, and how to fill in the panels. I painted it cream, and then for a while i was thinking of somehow putting material or lace or something in it, but I had a brain wave recently involving BLACKBOARD! I want a blackboard pretty badly and have been keeping my eyes peeled for a while for a good one. Then i thought i should get some blackboard cut to size and insert it into the recess at the back.

Nobody seemed to think you could get big sheets of blackboard and i was frankly too lazy to search so instead I bought some thin wood and blackboard paint. The wood is being cut to size today for the six panels and hopefully I can start on this tomorrow as well. I am so happy that these old half-finished things will not be laying around in the garage or spare room any more! Plus it keeps me from spending moneyz hehe! In regards to the old fashioned writers desk.... i still have NFI what to do with it :P one day... one day.... lol that was my first DIY project on the blog and i fear i shall never actually finish it. But it is so pretty... sigh