how does your decorating style measure up?

Lately I've been thinking of how I like soo many different decorating styles.  I wish I liked only one as it would make my life so much simpler!
If I had to measure up my decorating style it would probably read like this....

                    1 cup shabby chic
                    1/2 cup french provincial
                    1/4 cup french farmhouse
                    and a pinch of country cottage

They also say that your home should be a reflection of your own personality....
so I am sure people must think I am one crazy, mixed up, totally confused nut lady.

But.. as I always do.. I argue with myself.. why should I stick to just one style? Do I like just one flavour of icecream, nooo, I like vanilla, raspberry ripple, caramel and strawberry too!

So I have decided to stick to ONE rule when it comes to MY decorating and that is that THERE ARE NO RULES!

So... my lounge room will be french provincial ..
        my hallway shabby chic
        my bedroom shabby/country cottage     
        my family room french farmhouse
        and my dining and kitchen and laundry shabby chic once again

I know alot of you might be cringing right now.. and I don't blame you but what's a girl to do?

  Which brings me to a question today I am hoping you can all help me with.
I have come to a stand still with my french provincial lounge room because I'm stuck on what colour rods to get for my curtains. The colours I am using in this room are cream and blue being the main colours.. and touches of gold.
Here is the room so far...

I know this is a dressing table but it's going in the lounge as a desk..

   

These are the curtains, cream sheers with blue flowers for the two smaller front windows and I have also purchased ready to hang pinch pleat curtains in plain blue for the french doors. I did'nt want them all matchy, matchy.

I  am also thinking I may sometimes change out the floral sheers for  toile curtains later on.

I have touches of gold in my chandy, sconces, desk, chair and door handles...

 Do you think gold rods would be too much? The lounge in this picture is only there temporarily until I get my other antique lounge re upholstered in cream. You can read all about it here.  It does have however a timber frame around it which I am not sure whether to leave as is or paint it cream aswell, would the timber look out of place? These two issues have brought me to a halt in this room and usually when I'm not sure about something I'll sit on it for a while (sometimes a very long while) so that is why i am turning to you.. I am hoping with your help I can get a move on again.........  

take care, Maryann

Farmhouse cabinet re-do and look what I won!

Well first of all I want to show you what I won from Amy over at Maison Decor!
I was lucky enough to be one of four winners of one of her sketches and the sketch was to be of my home! Yay! I have always loved her sketches, they are soo darn cute... so I was absolutely thrilled when I was announced as one of the winners. Here is a pic of my home.. but if you want to see her sketch make sure you head on over to her blog.

I told Amy how I wished my gardens were finished  (as it's still a work in progress) and she immediately offered to put in the gardens and other features for me! Isn't she lovely! So if you don't know Amy from Maison Decor yet, get your butt over there right now! She has one of the lovliest blogs around and I just love her decorating style.

Do you remember my farmhouse cabinet from a couple of posts ago? If not well here it is again.

I really love it the only problem was the blue. It just didn't look right. Too much of a beachy blue and just didn't fit in with the rest of my decor. So yesterday out came the white paint and it now looks like this..

I just love it.. still needs new handles though but I couldn't wait to show you. I went over it with a dry brush. That is not much paint on the brush so it wouldn't go into the grain of the timber. I painted over alot of the blue and got the sander out to reveal more timber and give it an aged, worn feel. It still has a few underlying tones of blue but no where near as much and gives it a different hue to the rest of my white furniture.  As you can see I changed the inside around which also helped change the look! I'm linking up today too with Kathleen from Faded Charm for 'white wednesday'

Well on another note seems like I am slowly (but surely) heading towards 100 followers! I was thrilled when I hit the 10 mark... (after all who'd want to follow me) so to commemorate this grand occassion I have decided to do a giveaway. Can't tell you what it is yet but I do have something in mind that I will be designing and making myself and am sure it will suit ANY style home...and will go to ANYWHERE in the world. So stay tuned.... have a great week girls.. Maryann

busy bee & hutch makeover

Hi ladies, I hope you are all doing really well!  I have been one busy bee lately. With the onset of spring (my favourite, favourite, season) sunny mornings and a warmth in the air I feel truly revitalised and ready to go!

So lately......... I have been maintaining this...

planting out this...

                                                   building this ...  with hubby ofcourse!

making over this...

and revamping this... I purchased this quite a while ago from a garage sale and yesterday was the day it got it's makeover! Yes it's done.. have a look.. This is the before.. first gave it a light sand..

Now primed ...

painting done.. yeah! Now to distress and decorate..

Here she is!

I had so much fun with this painting it green. I love white but thought I'd have a change! I love a green piece of furniture in a room. Soon I will show you the room this beauty now graces! I am so happy with how it turned out.. take care,  Maryann

forever changing...

Do you have one particular spot in your home that you just can't seem to get right? Well for me right now it's this big black blob of a fireplace!

I have a tendency to keep moving and changing things on it in an effort to make it look good. Being black it really stands out from the rest of my decor. I have had flowers in vases on it, lamps..etc. but I've never really been happy with the look. I can't get rid of it though as it is a definite must where I live.

So for now it looks like this... still not 100% happy with it but it will do till I find the perfect piece to compliment it..

I am thinking a lovely birdcage maybe and have been on the lookout for one, but haven't found one that I REALLY like. So what would you put on it.. any other ideas?

take care ladies, Maryann

mirrors mirrors on the wall...

I have always loved the look of a collection of mirrors on a wall.

So I decided to start my own wall of mirrors in my family room. I have had the centre mirror on the wall for a while now but have had candelabras and even prints on either side. Since doing my extension the room has somewhat become a bit darker now so I thought the wall of mirrors would be the perfect solution in bouncing more light around. So I replaced the prints with 2 other mirrors which I have had for a while but were gold and painted them white over the week end.

It's a bit plain at the moment and I am hoping to add a few small mirrors inbetween. Or perhaps some pretty plates.. what do you think.. mirrors or plates?

Anyhow when hubby came home, as I was waiting for his reaction.. which I pretty much knew what it would be anyway.. he didn't notice it at first but later that day..... he said he absolutely hated it! quote..It looks like you're trying to sell mirrors!

I could only laugh as I knew this would be his reaction. Now hubby has been really good with all my pretty pink decorating.. he has never complained, but I think this is the one thing he doesn't get.

What do you think, do they look silly... personally I am liking them more and more each day, maybe because I can envisage the final look..

Well for now they are staying, I'm hoping they will grow on him...........ps. can you tell I like pink and green!
I am linking this post with Debra at Common Ground for her very first Vintage Inspiration Friday..
take care, Maryann

Painting done and blogger sitting on the fence!

Well, I can't believe it's been a month since my last post! So I will try and go back to fill you in on what's been happening,(which may prove to be a tinsy hard since I can't remember what I had for dinner last night,,)

So, I know for sure I ran out of gb on my computer last month and couldn't use it for a few days, so had no temptation to check for msgs, check out new blogs, check ebay,etc, etc, etc.. It really is amazing how much one can get done without temptation lurking!!  So I have made it one of my goals to stay off as much as possible and use my time more wisely and efficiently. I will still be blogging but perhaps only once a month where I will fill you in with all my boring details...

 Ok.. FINALLY MY HOUSE PAINTING IS FINISHED.... well atleast from the outside. It all looks one colour now... yellow.. I love it.. it makes me happy! I gotta tell ya though that hubby of mine is one slave driver.. if he says tomorrow we are painting this, this and this, there's no changing his mind. Gulp down breakfast and off we go. I really should take a leaf out of his book, and stop thinking about doing something and just get on with it!
Here's some pics,

We are going to pave infront of the house and down the sides and put in a cottage garden as well.

I would love to convert my old front verandah into a sunroom/sewing room and have mentioned it to hubby not long ago( was waiting for my extension to be finished first before I hit him on the head again with another project) Have to say though he didn't say no.. I think, maybe, just maybe, he might do it. Question is when???

I love my french doors, if I could I'd take out all my sliding doors and replace them I would.

Last Friday was Lisa's birthday. She turned 17. She's the one far right being silly with her friends

She is growing up so fast now. She has a boyfriend and will be going for her driver's licence in a couple of weeks. Need I say how I feel?  Sick.. yep totally worried about everything and have the weirdest dreams of her being eaten by sharks... true!  T'was just yesterday she was only a 4 year old who adored mummy, dollys and pink! Atleast she still likes pink.

I just want to also say sorry to those ladies I normally visit and leave a comment on their blog. I have been sitting on the fence when it comes to blogging but I have been reading what you have been up to! Will promise to leave comments at least once a month and honestly you don't have to leave comments on mine all the time too !

I have just started up my sewing again and am working on some orders which I had since before last xmas and some new ones too. I am making a pretty roses quilt for a very special customer and I'm looking forward getting back into it and hopefully some new stuff for ebay. Will post pics as I go.

I managed to get a quote on getting my bargain find reupholstered..

I think now maybe it wasn't such a bargain find, not unless I can do it myself. They want $1850.00 and that's not including the outer material, .. what do you think.. it sounds like alot to me. I think it will be residing on  my back verandah a little while longer.
Well I think that's it for this post.. I do hope all you lovely ladies have been well and happy.. take care, hugs always, Maryann

Painting my house yellow..Yay!

With the Easter break soon upon us Fred has planned to paint the exterior of our extension to match the rest of the house. Then when that's done it will be up to me to paint all the trims and front door white. I hope it's still going to happen as it's been raining since yesterday! Oh well atleast my grass will start to grow where we had that massive pile of dirt right in front of our house, that came out of the excavations. My garden will be loving it too  as everything was a bit dry as you may have noticed from my garden pics.

this is the original front verandah

Sorry about the messy curtain in the back there, that's my laundry which we haven't painted yet and I just tend to throw everything in there right now. That's another post.

I am also looking forward to starting on the landscaping around the front.. but that may take a while.

Hope y'all have a great day, take care, Maryann

My lounge room chandelier..

Have you seen that movie "Castaway' with Tom Hanks.. the part where he's in the cave and he keeps flicking his torch on and then off, then on and then off..... well that was me yesterday with my lounge room chandelier! I just had to show you a pic of it!

 It's been in storage for the last 4 years but finally took it out a couple of weeks ago to work on it.. well all I did was give it a good clean by spraying it with hot soapy dishwashing liquid and then I hosed it down. Yes I had to use the hose it was that dirty and prayed it would still work when it was dry. Ofcourse I covered the globe bits with a plastic sleeves to keep the water out. She came so sparkly. I love it.
She did look like this...

I have to say I was a bit disappointed when I took her out of the box. I forgot what she looked like. I really thought she was 2 tier with a row of globes up top and bottom.. but they were all at the bottom... that's how good my memory is for you! Plus she was filthy, a bit of a let down really to how I had remembered her. I can't tell you how relieved I was when I saw the dirt just dripping off when I started spraying her and her shine was coming through. I just love it now!

I decided not to do the scrunchie thing over the chain as I think its just part of the look of the chandelier.  Have a great day, the electrician's back this morning to finish off a few things so better go get dressed! take care, Maryann