Tag: interiors addict reno

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Jen's reno RENO ADDICT

My game-changing new wardrobe doors!

Our new wardrobe doors

As regular readers will know, we have been slowly but surely (some would say pretty quickly actually!) updating our family home from the “nanna house” we bought, for a year now. The bedrooms got off to a good start really quickly with carpet, paint, plantation shutters and new lighting. But the wardrobes were seriously letting them down. Until now!

New wardrobe doors in our master bedroom. These are huge wardrobes and the doors have made a massive difference to this room.
One of Seb’s wardrobe doors had fallen off so he’s very happy about the new additions!
Now we can access the spare room wardrobe space so much easier, we’ll be making use of this essential storage! Can never have too much!

Bedrooms are definitely a lot easier and cheaper to refresh than kitchens and bathrooms! But the old wardrobe doors, most likely original from the 60s, screamed DATED. They were wood veneer when we moved in (so much brown!) and we quickly had them painted white which made a big difference but they still didn’t exactly look great.

BEFORE: Seb’s bedroom wardrobes shortly before we moved in.
STOP GAP: His wardrobes looked better painted white but it didn’t stop the door falling off its broken tracks!
AFTER: New wardrobe doors were the last piece in the puzzle of finishing Seb’s room.

The wardrobes not only looked bad, were also really really annoying! In two of the bedrooms, the smaller wardrobes had an excessive three sliding doors which meant the space you could actually access the wardrobe through when they were open was frustratingly small. In Seb’s room they were continually falling off their runners until it got to the point that the bottom track fell out and it was game over. So what great timing it was to be approached by Sydney Doors about working together!

BEFORE: The wardrobe doors in the master were so huge and so brown, there was no missing them!
AFTER: Now they’re a pleasure to look at!

As mentioned, painting the doors white was a decent stopgap but did nothing for the functionality and usability of the wardrobes so we didn’t really use them much. And in under a year, that oil-based white paint had yellowed. Much as we weren’t in love with them, we had so many other competing jobs on our to-do list we didn’t really think about when or how we’d fix them because ripping them out and starting again seemed like such a huge and expensive task. I had no idea it was possible to replace just the tracks and doors.

Sydney Doors, who have been around for more than 20 years, offer the chance to update your wardrobe, or indeed kitchen, for a fraction of the price by simply replacing the doors only. They have loads of designs to choose from and you can have them custom colour matched (ours are Haymes White on White to match our internal doors and trim). They arrive made to your exact size specifications, which is why this works even with decades-old wardrobes like ours, and they’re spray-painted in hardwearing polyurethane with a satin, matt or gloss finish.

A kitchen made over with Sydney Doors doors

There are loads of designs but I was keen for ours to be in keeping with our internal doors and shaker-style kitchen, so the choice was easy. It only takes around three weeks for your doors to be made and then delivered anywhere in Australia. You can then install them yourself or use one of their recommended installers. If you’re not confident of measuring or installing yourself, they definitely recommend you use the services of a professional and can provide a list of people near you.

Our master bedroom wardrobes

An installer came to measure our wardrobes and he suggested we replace the three doors in the smaller wardrobes with two for better access. It was the best call ever! They’re so much more useable now. Meanwhile in the spare room, the existing three doors on the much larger wardrobe were replaced with four, which looks so much better.

I am absolutely delighted with the look of our doors, which have transformed and modernised our bedrooms; they really were the last piece of the puzzle. It’s also amazing to actually be able to use them properly. As we all know, you can never have too much storage and this has made a huge difference to us. The whole process from ordering to delivery and installation was seamless and quick and the end results have exceeded my expectations. This is definitely a great affordable option and I hope something I’ve brought to your attention if you didn’t know about it before, as I didn’t.

READER DISCOUNT 

Sydney Doors are offering our readers a 5% discount on all painted kitchen and wardrobe doors until 30 June 2018. Simply quote the code IA5OFF when ordering.

Get a free quote by submitting your door sizes at https://sydneydoors.com.au/quote-or-order/ or make an appointment for a measure and quote with one of their referred installers.

Photos by Jacqui Turk.

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Jen's reno Outdoor & Exteriors

Jen’s back yard makeover reveal

Let’s face it, one of the best things about upgrading from apartment to house, like we did this year, is having a back yard. Not only has it been amazing for Seb, who even stopped wanting to go to the park for a while because he loved hanging out there so much, but as an extra outdoor room for us grown ups. Being a Pom, I really appreciate the outdoor lifestyle Australia affords me, so I was excited to have a decent sized paved area down one side of the house as well as a grassed lawn at the back. Only problem was, it looked like this:

BEFORE

Hot or what?!

But now we have this lovely oasis:

In the before photo, you’ll note the old and wonky, red-toned pavers (I actually hate anything red-toned in interiors and exteriors, hence my plan to paint our red brick grey eventually!), the fence that could fall down in a stiff breeze and the distinct lack of furniture. That table for two from our old apartment balcony wasn’t really cutting it!

We thought about a deck for ages, until we got a quote ($30 to $40k) and then we quickly forgot about it. Then one day, a press release from Adbri Masonry landed in my inbox and I suddenly thought: why have I never considered pavers?! It’s like everyone assumes you need to build a deck these days. But what’s wrong with pavers? In fact, there’s a lot right with them! They’re super durable, come in loads of colours, shapes and sizes, and you can lay them in myriad different patterns. Not to mention they’re a great safe option in bushfire zones. I quickly settled on their EuroStone product in a 400x400mm size and loved the mid-grey colour of Zurich. It almost looks a little Terrazzo and we all know how on trend that is right now!

As with most things, you can lay these kind of pavers yourself (Adbri have plenty of how-to’s with  TV’s Jason Hodges on their website) but we lacked the skills and the time, so we got in the professionals. All up, it was about $4,000 of pavers (including a path across the front of the house and around the side to the back yard) and about the same again in labour. A snip compared to decking!

DURING: Cutting pavers

It took about a day to complete and thankfully, they were able to lay the pavers on top of the existing ones which saved us having to either remove them ourselves or pay someone else to. I absolutely loved watching the process as it all became so neat and uniform!

DURING

I am so thrilled with the end result. The area looks so much bigger and more modern and when we paint our red brick exterior grey and our pergola white, it’s going to look even better! It was like giving our entertaining area a brand new, clean slate to work with. I couldn’t believe how much difference it made! And now I think of it, a timber deck wouldn’t have really suited the look of the house anyway. And I love knowing this will last for years if properly maintained. And I’m all about long term in this house! Bigger, lighter, neater and more modern: what’s not to like?

AFTER!

But of course, we needed some furniture now we had a space we wanted to entertain and spend time in ourselves. I was so impressed with the range of styles available at Early Settler this summer, not to mention the quality. Whether your home is traditional, country, or ultra modern, with a small or large outdoor area, they really do have something to suit everyone. I thought about the stunning marble-topped outdoor dining table with black legs for quite a while before eventually conceding it was too modern for our space. I love our sweet, flower-filled garden, and it’s something we were really happy to inherit from the previous owner. So I decided on white and the Kanto dining table. I just couldn’t get past its handy legs on castors and it was a great choice for us because we can easily move the table around, in and out of shade, or to create more room for Seb on his trike when we aren’t using it. Genius!

AFTER

The timber top of this table is just beautiful and I think the white legs really modernise it. The Cate dining chairs are so cool. I love that they stack, they’re super easy to clean and they look modern without being too out there. They come in a variety of great on-trend colours too.

AFTER: This chillout area is getting so much use!

As well as a decent-sized dining table, we wanted a small relaxation area to just lounge with a morning coffee or an evening wine, look at the garden, listen to the birds or watch Seb on his play equipment. The Cantina chairs were a very quick choice and I love them. You can actually curl up in them with your book and there’s space for Seb to sit with me on the same chair. We finished it off with the matching Kanto coffee table (also on castors) so we have somewhere to rest out drinks and books! I really love that we can easily move the two tables on wheels, the lightweight, stacking dining chairs and the lounge chairs easily. This creates a flexible space and we can move everything to one side with minimal effort and allow Seb to scoot around the paved area, or when we need to sweep up leaves etc.

I absolutely love this floral outdoor cushion

Just like indoors, outdoor areas need accessorising too, and Early Settler have a great range of faux plants (like the palm behind me in the picture and the convincing succulents on the table ), outdoor rugs and cushions, linen, trays and more, to add those finishing touches.

Faux succulents and napkins from Early Settler
The sun umbrella, which matches the outdoor cushions, is great for shading Seb’s sandpit on sunny days and is easily moved around the garden

When we spoke to our neighbours about going halves on a new fence, thankfully they were all for it! So not only do we have a much better backdrop to our new back yard, we also have more privacy for our entertaining area thanks to a higher fence.

BEFORE fence

So while we haven’t done any major landscaping and there’s still plenty we’d love to do out the back (and will do, one day) we are over the moon with the new look and functionality of this space thanks to new pavers and furniture. And just in time for summer too. We’ll be out here on Christmas Day with our families, enjoying it to the max!

Many of the Early Settler pieces in my back yard are currently on sale! Shop online.

For more about Adbri Masonry.

My kitchen reno | My new floors | My home office

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House Tours Jen's reno

Jen’s home office reveal

Photography: Jacqui Turk

I’m excited to reveal my new home office; once a very dull and boxy little room, otherwise known as ‘bedroom 4’ on the floorplan! It did have a few great things going for it though: the best light in the house and a window and glass doors looking out onto the garden. Our house is very long and the office is right at the back, away from any noise and distraction.

It needed help though. And as this is a long term home, I really wanted to make an effort with this workspace and make it somewhere I really wanted to hang out and felt inspired and happy to work in. There’s nothing that transforms a small and featureless room more, in my opinion, than wallpaper. I’d wanted to use one of Anna Spiro’s designs for Porters Paints for years. Damian wasn’t sure about the pink so I compromised on the blue version. But when I found they were out of stock, I somehow managed to persuade him it was a good idea to revert to pink. At the end of the day, I’m the one who works from home so it’s really my domain. That and the fact the garage has been earmarked as his man cave and I’ll happily have nothing to do with what goes on in there!

Before the wallpaper, I’d already had a plantation shutter put on the window. Since these photos were taken I’ve also had sheer curtains put on the sliding door. They filter the light really well because the sun can sometimes be a bit too much and soften the room nicely.

I don’t need much furniture, being someone whose work is largely online and stored in the cloud. Laptop, printer, paper diary and a few notebooks and pens aside, I don’t need much physical stuff. Which keeps things tidy! I already had the two grey home office storage units from Pottery Barn. I love them because they’re grey and don’t look too corporate or officey. The one with the doors neatly hides the printer (never a good look!) and even if you don’t need storage, you’ve got to have somewhere to display pretty things, right?!

Speaking of pretty things, it was love at first sight for that cut glass lamp. Amazing. I’m still on the lookout for a more interesting shade to swap out for the white one it came with, just to mix things up a little. The rattan lampshade on the pendant light is the same one we’ve used in all the bedrooms. It’s a nice textured neutral.

The magazine rack is actually a bathroom ladder. I think I saw it used this way in a magazine and stole the idea, but I can’t remember which, sorry!

I’m having a major floral moment and these two prints by Kimmy Hogan (right) and Lamai Anne (left) seem to work well together and with the wallpaper.

It took a long time to work out where the desk should go (the doors make this room a tricky one to work with) but Damian finally cracked it and as soon as I realised the chair should be looking towards the door, that was it! I also have a thing about having my back to the door and not knowing who might creep up behind me, so this this works well! I imported that chair from Jonathan Adler years ago and while it is made of resin and thus super heavy and not ergonomically sound at all, I just love it so there. The desk itself is solid timber. I love its generous size, simplicity and the fact it has a small drawer where I store pens (not a fan of pen pots!).

The round blush pink rug helps balance the room a little as most of the action is happening at the far end.

This room is definitely polarising but I’m unapologetic! This is my space where I get work done and earn money so it’s important too. It doesn’t have to be everyone’s cup of tea! That said, I find most women love it and men just shudder and say the wallpaper would give them a headache! Each to their own!

It’s actually really fun and refreshing to have a room which can be so self indulgent (when you’re in a couple you do have to be at least a little conscious of your other half’s tastes!). And the fact that this room feels so good and is a pleasure to work in makes me happy every day. All in all, I’m glad I had the guts to go bold in this room.

The floors in here will be replaced with an oak laminate next month, and the sliding doors will eventually be replaced with French double doors.

What do you think?

Where’s it from?

Wallpaper: Rosey Posey Trellis by Anna Spiro for Porter’s Paints

Installation by AKRA Wallpapering

Grey storage units: Windsor range from Pottery Barn

Table lamp: Zoya table lamp from Lighting Lighting Lighting

Pendant light: Shore pendant in tan rattan from Beacon Lighting

Desk: Altar desk in natural ash from Contents International Design

Chair: Jonathan Adler Chippendale Armchair, available in Australia through Coco Republic

Plantation shutter and sheer curtains: DIY Online Blinds

Art: Kimmy Hogan and Lamai Anne.

Rug: Cochin blush hand stitched rug from Early Settler

Bathroom ladder (used for magazines): Home Republic Bath Storage Ladder from Adairs

Terrazzo MacBook Skin: Uniqfind

Gold stapler: Kate Spade (available at David Jones)

Bluetooth speaker: Bang & Olufsen (available at Myer)

Gold wall clock: Target

See my master bedroom

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Jen's reno Kitchens

The plans for my new kitchen revealed (and the before!).

In partnership with Latitude Financial Services

I feel like I’ve been planning my new kitchen for months. Oh yeah, I have been! It’s been five months since we moved into our new (old) home, affectionately called the “nanna house” due to the old lady who lived here for three decades before us. We have been slowly but surely bringing her into the 21st Century but the first major job on the list was the kitchen and now the wheels are finally in motion. We are looking at an imminent demo, so any tips for surviving without a kitchen for a few weeks, will be gratefully received in the comments (thanks in advance!).

So here’s what we’re dealing with now. A very original kitchen which had a little spruce-up prior to the house going on the market. We’re talking old school solid timber cabinets installed long before soft close doors and smooth drawer runners were invented. They’re not even tall enough for most of today’s mod cons, like the Vitamix and the bigger wine glasses, for example. I haven’t unpacked more than the essentials because despite much scrubbing, you can only get that orange floral lining paper (which has become one with the cupboards) so clean. The laminate benchtop is actually in amazingly good condition and the brown oven and electric coil cooktop still work surprisingly well. But the museum piece dishwasher keeps tripping the electric and leaks every time we use it. But at least we have a working dishwasher!

We’ll be replacing those sliding dining room doors with French doors

Then there’s that random half-wall three quarters of the way down on the lefthand side. On the other side of that is, well, dead space! And the beautiful sliding door to the laundry.

The design was always going to be relatively straightforward: maximise use of space by removing the half-wall and bricking up the back door (we have two others!) and move the breakfast bar back into the kitchen as it is currently encroaching on our already-narrow dining room. Making space for a modern fridge-freezer (ours currently lives in the dining room because there’s nowhere for it!) was also pretty important!

While I had a pretty good idea what I wanted to do, when you have talented friends, you’d be mad not ask their advice, and I have several! So when interior designer James Treble (from Channel 10’s The Living Room) was at our place for brunch one day, I made him earn his food by drawing me up a quick plan! And it suddenly all clicked into place.

Poor James wasn’t actually expecting me to publish this when he scribbled it down in 5 minutes!

We than had a designer from Freedom Kitchens come out to tell us what was actually possible, using the drawings as a rough guide. This was really helpful as there were plenty of things I hadn’t considered. She explained everything really well and I felt much more confident in what we were doing after that. Some plans were produced, which I was happy with, and we are now waiting for a site check and measure this Friday before we can go any further. I am dying to lock in my trades and get going! Our friends at Integriti Bathrooms (they did our beautiful bathroom reno at the old place) are coordinating the trades with me (thanks guys, I wouldn’t trust anyone else!) and this has been a huge learning curve for me too, but it was about time I learned a bit more about the process!

Initial plan from Freedom Kitchens

So, what will be be doing in here? I’m going for classic with a touch of glam!

Shaker-style cabinetry was always going to be my choice. Due to a very tight budget (we maxed out on our mortgage!), we decided to go with Freedom Kitchens’ new and very affordable flatpack option, The Essential Kitchens Range. My handyman will assemble the cabinets, even though it’s apparently a piece of cake. That stuff just isn’t mine and Damian’s forte!

As this is a longterm home, it had to be a stone benchtop. I’ve chosen Caesarstone’s Noble Grey as a nice contrast to the white cupboards while still being quite light (I had dark benchtops in my last place and hated them). I’ll be taking that up the splashbacks too. Our kitchen is flooded with natural light, the best light in the house, so I wanted to keep it all light and bright in here.

Against many people’s opinions on what will date or what is on trend, I am sticking by my decision to go with brass handles from Kethy, a gold Zip tap and even (wait for it) a gold undermount sink. Controversial!

Personally, I think brass is a classic look. Rose gold, I’d agree, may be having an extended temporary moment, but when you think about it, brass has been around in interiors for a really long time! I don’t have resale in mind as we intend to live here for at least a decade so I’m taking the opportunity to specify what I really want. This is one flatpack kitchen that is being seriously pimped!

To add a little colour, pattern and texture, I’m considering a Roman blind made from some kind of navy-based textile (you knew there’d be navy, right?) and some navy rattan stools like these from Naturally Cane.

I love this kind of look. Image: blinds-2go.co.uk

Or I might add the colour and pattern with wallpaper (away from any water or potential oily splashes, don’t worry!) and have plantation shutters instead. Lots to think about!

Appliances were a learning curve! I’ve chosen mine from Ilve and after dreaming of a freestanding cooker for a really long time, at the last minute, I decided a more streamlined built-in look would be better for our kitchen. What I knew I needed though was quality that would last and something big enough to cope with entertaining and a growing (no, that’s not an announcement!) family. I’ve gone for a 90cm oven, a 90cm induction cooktop, a concealed rangehood and an integrated dishwasher. I won’t pretend this European brand’s style credentials didn’t sway me too!

Flooring is still up in the air after a supplier let me down at the last minute (yes, this happens to media too!), but we are looking to replace the floor everywhere bar the bedrooms (which are newly carpeted) as soon as the kitchen’s finished.

I look forward to sharing this journey with you over the coming weeks!

–Looking to renovate your kitchen? Get some tips on how to finance it from our partners at Latitude Financial Services.

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Jen's reno

We bought a house!

(The real estate photos originally shared in this post have been removed since we realised how easy it was to Google image search them and discover our exact address!)

Those who follow me on Instagram will have probably worked out by now that we have bought a house but I thought it was about time I actually blogged about it here as I will be sharing the reno journey with you over the coming month and years. Yes, definitely years! This is a long-term family home for us and there is plenty to do!

We have already done some updates (I have zero patience) but for the purposes of this post, I’m starting from the very beginning with the journey as to how we got here. As you can imagine if you know a thing or two about Sydney property prices, it has not been easy!

So, why did we sell our beautiful, two-bedroom apartment with recently renovated bathroom after just a year (I’m still mourning the loss of that bathroom!)? Long story short, it was a good time to sell. Another unit in our block went to auction and we couldn’t believe what it sold for. We knew ours was a better apartment and was likely to go for more and, doing the sums, it looked like we could just (by the skin of our teeth) afford to upgrade to a more long term family home; a standalone house with a yard! The dream! Not to mention the million and one issues we had with our owners’ corporation put us off living in a strata building for life (I could write a series of angry blog posts but that’s not going to help me move on!). We also have a very active toddler and hope to have another one day (no announcement, no!) and while we could have made it work, we knew more space and a yard would make life easier. Not to mention the constant fear of Sebastian managing to climb over the third floor balcony, no matter how safe and careful we were. Terrifying.

So, we sold the apartment for a great price (if you need an agent on Sydney’s Upper North Shore, James Tasker at Di Jones Wahroonga is exceptional) in early December. Happy days!

We started looking for modest three-bedroom houses in the neighbouring suburbs which we knew from our research were just within our reach financially. Then Christmas happened: nothing on the market for weeks. And weeks. When things started coming back online towards the end of January, we kept losing out prior to auction by frustratingly small amounts, but amounts we didn’t have nonetheless. We started to wonder if we had made a bad move selling the apartment as it looked like we might only have the option of buying a bigger, three-bedroom apartment or a townhouse (strata: ugh). The thing was, prices were continuing to go up all the time.

So we decided it was time to look a little further afield (still in Sydney’s north) and finally it seemed we were in with a chance on our budget. The best thing was we could get four bedrooms and a bigger house and yard if we were lucky. And we finally were.

Our “nanna house” (we used this to affectionately nickname her when discussing the other options and it stuck!) was the first house we saw in this suburb. It was packed at the first open. It had, and definitely still does have, a really good vibe and nice flow about it. It had a huge living room and a separate (yet adjoining) family room (which we immediately earmarked for a playroom we could close the door on and not worry about the mess) as well as four bedrooms. As I work from home, the extra bedroom is priceless as an office. We fell for this house, warts and all. We could immediately see ourselves living here.

The house was/is seriously dated. We’re talking original kitchen and bathroom and even the more modern (I use the word loosely) en suite is pretty embarrassing. The exterior is red brick veneer and UGLY. God bless her, this house has absolutely no street appeal. We have about four different kinds of flooring in here including cork! The same lady had lived here since 1989 and had recently, reluctantly (she loved this house) gone into a nursing home.

But we have space, so much space! And it’s peaceful. The back yard is just the right medium size for us, private and full of established trees, shrubs and flowers. The neighbours either side have kids and seem nice. We have several parks in walking distance (although Seb calls the yard a park now!) and a cafe and little shop right on the next corner (winning!). While we had been looking for a three-to-five-year home, we now have ourselves a potentially forever home.

So, there’s a lot wrong with the house aesthetically and it wasn’t exactly a bargain (clearly there’s no such thing in Sydney these days) but it is ours, it is structurally sound, it can last us forever if needs be, we are in and it feels really great to know we aren’t going anywhere for a really long time. I have had enough of moving.

We have hardly any money left and I’m doing deals and calling in favours left, right and centre to get our hideous kitchen ripped out and replaced ASAP (I’ll share more on my vision for the kitchen soon). We’d love to do both bathrooms but we will have to wait a while and save up and learn patience.

So what have we done so far? We have painted throughout (made a couple of errors there which I’ll learn from and blog about!), we’ve carpeted the playroom and bedrooms and recently had plantation shutters installed by our friends at DIY Online Blinds. These things alone have made a big difference. Next up, we’re replacing all the lights. To save on the electrician’s bill we’re replacing the existing pendants with new, more modern ones rather than going for downlights.

I’ve worked out there are a lot of little things (as well as the glaringly obvious like kitchens and bathrooms) which age an older home and will need replacing. These include lights, light switches and power sockets and door handles (maybe even doors!). And the other thing is, each time you fix up one thing, it makes something else look even worse in comparison! Not to mention the boring yet essential things which cost money and don’t make the house look any better at all (air con and termite prevention treatment being just two of them!).

Once we’ve done the kitchen, we can sort out the flooring situation. I have no doubt having the same floor throughout the living areas will make a massive difference. I’m thinking a medium-toned oak laminate of some kind. And longer term there are so many more plans, including an exterior and back yard makeover.

I’m really looking forward to sharing our reno journey with you and hope you’ll like it and learn from it! You can expect me to absolutely keep it real and if there are mistakes along the way I’ll be sharing them too!

Better get back to tightening my belt and working hard so we can afford to pay the mortgage…