Friday 28 March 2008

Shhh! Don't tell Krystal!

I'm still not really allowed to show you what's been happening with Krystal's D.I.Y. project but she's busy talking on the phone so I figured while she's busy I can blog LOL

Last Thursday I took Krystal down to the second hand shop and we managed to find her a new headboard (bargain at $10) and a new dressing table (another bargain at $65!) We were even clever enough to find a dressing table with the same sort of legs as her current (also second hand) bedside table :)

Before I show you the work we've been doing I should show you the 'before' photos of her room. There is nothing 'wrong' with her room... it's 'functional' but that's about it! Her room has no personality!!! This is her 'work area'... very important for someone doing NCEA!
And here's a wider photo showing her current curtains (sort of):
And here's her bedside table:
When we bought the house I told her that she could do her own room and gave her a budget and knowing my daughter as well as I do I knew that she would shop around until she found the 'perfect' items. She spent a good 9 months deciding what she really, really wanted.... colours, themes, styles etc... and in the end she choose black, silver and grey! She told me that she wanted her room to look 'expensive' without actually being expensive :)

Once she had her theme it was time to start organising what to buy. We started in December when we found the 'perfect' duvet set... since then she's added curtain and cushion fabric, a jewellery holder, a clock, sheer nets, and other miscellaneous items. After we got the the furniture on Thursday night we caught up with the Spotlight sale and got cushion inners, a new duvet inner and some fantastic new pillows!
On Friday Dave got busy with the sander and stripped all the furniture for Krystal.

All the drawers looked impressive stacked up!And here's the new headboard:There was a fair bit of work in sanding back the dressing table too!

While Dave was busy sanding I was busy making curtains:

On Saturday Krystal and I went down to Bunnings to try and get her some new drawer handles but we ran into a problem... all the handles that fitted her drawers (one hole) were either ugly in Krystal's opinion or really expensive. It's amazing how working to a budget can make someone really think about what they can actually have!!! She found one type of handle that she really liked but at $10 per handle she soon figured out that $80 just for handles was a LOT of money out of her budget!!! In the end she talked Dave into filling the original holes with putty so that she could have two holes on each drawer because she saw some handles she really liked and they were only $2.30 each... much more budget friendly!!!We also bought some MDF to make her shelves because it worked out much better on her budget... although she now has some understanding of how much D.I.Y. costs! On Monday Krystal and Dave started priming the furniture... and Krystal was like a 'pig in mud' wearing her old painting clothes again LOLAnd it was back to the sewing machine for me... this time making cushion covers... complete with zippers in the back!On Tuesday (yip we teachers had an extra long holiday!!!) we started painting the furniture with dark grey (Dulux 'The Remarkables) and then after two coats of that we added the 'sparkly' paint. It's a glimmer paint from Dulux called 'Devils Marble' and it is suprisingly easy to use. Krystal liked the roller effect the best so we bought some rollers and got started:Like most things, Krystal takes painting pretty seriously!!!During the week we've done a few other bits and pieces like put up the brackets for the shelves, second coats of glimmer paint, attaching handles to drawers and generally making sure that everything was right. We've left all the furniture in the garage for now waiting for everything to dry properly and the paint smells (not that bad actually) to disappear so tomorrow we're going to get started on getting it all sorted!

Hopefully I'll be able to show you 'finished' photos on Sunday night because I'm off to school camp on Monday for a couple of days!!! Looking forward to going on the flying fox again LOL

6 comments:

  1. I think you're such a cool mum for letting her pick out what she wants and all the encouragement you are giving her to get stuck in and make some of the things herself. Fabulous! I can't wait to see the "after" pics.

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  2. Wow - you lot have some serious DIY skills and how cool is that ... look forward to seeing the finished product.

    Have fun at school camp.

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  3. wow thats looking good, I can't wait to see the final product. I love that Krystal is playing a big part in this she is learning some valuable life skills.

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  4. * whispers * it's going to look really good! How cool you gave her a budget to work with!

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  5. Very cool!! Love seeing this process and I think its awesome you are encouraging this - she will have so much more pride in her room becuase she did it!

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  6. Yet another fantastic effort from you all!

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