Lounge Room

As i said in my post from yesterday, i have been trying to learn more about my beautiful digital SLR camera. So after watching 12 of R J Bradbury's video tutorials, i decided i would try and take some good pictures on my recently cleaned lounge room.
This house is quiet a difficult house to take photos in as most rooms only have one window, as we are semi attached to the house next door. So getting the lighting to look nice has always been my challenge in photographing the lounge room.
So armed with some new digital SLR knowledge, i played around with the settings and came up with these pictures.

This is the view you get when you enter the lounge room from the hall wall and look to the left.

Here is a list of where the things in the room came from:

Curtains: Already here when we moved it.

Paint Colour: As i said renters.

Day Bed: Was given to use by L's aunty, affectionally known as Buzzy but properly known as Heather Nette King.

Mattress for the Day: Nicked off my Mum & Dad (They have a lot of spare single mattresses from hosting my nieces and nephew, and friends of my brother and mine, when we were younger).

Blanket covering Day Bed: I found this at an Op Shop. I wouldn't have paid more than $2 for it.

Long pink thing on the back of the Day Bed: This is two body pillows bought at Costco for $22 each, covered in blue covers from Kmart (Maybe $4 each), wrapped in a pink blanket from Ikea that i got years ago.

Star cushion: Gift from my Aunty Nicky from the UK many years ago. 

Purple Pillow: x2 European pillows, an engagement present from our good friends Adam & Terry.

All other pillows on the Day Bed: Made by me!

Side Table: Got it at the Vinnies Op Shop in Oakleigh for i think $30.

Lamp: In the 'As Is' section of Ikea for $6.

Arm Chair: Found in council collection many years ago (Seriously needs recovering! Bday present anyone? hehe) covered in 2 blankets, one an op shop find of mine, the other found at an op shop by my Mother-in-Law.

Cushion on Arm Chair: From Kmart.

Rug: An unwanted rug from my In-Laws house.

Coffee Table: Found in council collection, and i painted it in Dulux White on White in Semi Glosss.

Couch: On Loan/Being stored by L's brother.

Frame on wall: See this post from 2009 to see the what i did with the images that originally came in this set of 4 frames, that i got at the Ocean Grove Church fate for $10

This is the view when you are standing in the doorway to the kitchen, facing to the right.

Bentwood Chair with Knitting Basket on it: I found the Bentwood chair in Blackburn's council collection last year, it had a very broken, wicker seat, so L cut me a piece of wood to fit and attached it with liquid nails. I painted it with a sample pot of Dulux's July Quarter. I love it.

And the basket that the knitting is in, i think was from an Op Shop.

TV Cabnet: Found in Council Collection (On the same 'Junking' mission as the Arm Chair was found) years ago. One day will need to be stripped down and refinished.

TV: From JB a couple of years ago for $800.

Frames on the wall: See this Post and vote on weather you like this idea of not! I frames themselves are a collection of Op Shop and Council Collection finds, some painted in a dark blue acrylic paint.

Giant Picture above the Fireplace: This was from IKEA, i think it was only about $120.

Glass Candle sticks: From Kmart.

Candles: IKEA.

LOVE letters: Supply & Demand.

The two end frames: Salvo's Op Shop in Oakleigh.

Middle frame: IKEA (Picture is of my Grandmother).

Clock: Supply & Demand, a birthday present from my In-Laws.

Atrocious fireplace: Came free with the house. Is good at its job tho.

Shelves: 'Billy' from IKEA.

Globe: From Melbourne Map Center, as a 21st present for L.

Brown Leather Binocular Case & Binoculars: A 21st present for L, they were his grandfathers.

Hurricane Candle Holder: Kmart (Candle from IKEA).

So i guess this is just an example of what can be done, even if you are renting. I am constantly frustrated by not being able to do more with the house, ei rip out that ugly fireplace, paint the walls etc, but i know that one day, hopefully soon i will have my own house that i can completely make my own.

My handy dandy trestle table

Yesterday i finally cracked and got sick of sitting at my too small desk, that i could even get my legs under, and decided to re-arrange.

As per usual i get so caught up in wanting to change things and 'do it now', that i forgot to take before pictures. But i had a little look through my photos and managed to find these pictures from a post about the images above my desk, which should give you a bit of an idea of what things looked like before i changed it all up.

I also found an image that our friend Adam took one night, while having some drinks and playing games.

My desk did and still does reside in a corner of the lounge room. I used to have it in Lyle's current room when it was a spare room, but since deciding to rent out that room the computer has lived in the lounge room. 

Tara & Lyle both have laptops so having a desk isn't as necessary to them, tho they are both at Uni, go figure! No actually Lyle has a desk. But because Lewis & I share a room (obviously), there is not a heap of room for a computer in there and we do have a pretty big lounge room.

My previous desk arrangement consisted of one 'table' that i found in council collection, propped up on bricks to try and make it taller, flanked by two 'billy' bookcases.

It was an okay arrangement if you just wanted to jump on the computer to look something up, but if you actually wanted to sit there and do some work or even just a decent amount of typing it was very uncomfortable, i couldn't get my legs under properly, couldn't cross my legs, and couldn't even push in the chair without having to maneuver it over the bricks.

So to remedy this i decided to bring in my wooden trestle table. I have used this table for many things over the years. When i was younger it was a Lego table for my brother and I, it was a kitchen table for a long time at my parents house and most recently it was my sewing table when we had the spare room.

I debated placing the table along the back wall of the lounge room, adjacent to where the table previously was, but when i placed it there it took up more space than i wanted it too and it just didn't look right.

So it now takes the place of the little table and both the bookshelves, with one of the book shelves being relocated to the other side of the lounge room to display at sorts of pretty things and the other book shelve is now in our very wide hallway, opposite Lyle's room carrying all the useful sort of things. eg sewing kit, sewing machine, computer stuff, stationary etc.

(Please excuse the not so great hall picture, my camera was running out of battery and the hall light is broken)

I also placed a little orange table, which was actually one of my first ever junking finds, under the desk to put my printer on and placed a spare box under the table to wrangle all the computer cables.

I am so happy with the new set up and have been so much more productive. Its amazing how such little change in your environment can make such a difference to your motivation. 

And luckily everyone else in the house seems to like the re-arrangement it too!

Do you get it?

With some of the decoration in our house some people either "Get it" (ie: love it, understand it) or they "Don't get it" (ie: why is that like that, i don't understand why thats there)
And the frames in our lounge room are definitely one of those things people either love or hate.

So what do you think...

P.S. Some day i want to paint all the frames white and display them on a lovely coloured wall.

Meet Evan

I would like to introduce you to another member of our household.
His name is Evan...

Evan was being thrown out at Lewis' work and we couldn't resist bringing him home.

Yes he looks like your ordinary everyday mannequin, but at night...

He lights up!

Lewis actually pulled apart one of my lamps to achieve his but its okay, i like my Evan lamp more.

He basically shoved the lamp part inside Evan's chest and put the lamp shade on as a head.

As well as providing some subtle mood lighting, he also holds my bags and accessories that get dumped in the lounge room.

Now when you visit our house, the tour is not complete without an introduction to our white plastic friend.