A Knitting Project

I searched high and low for a cushion cover in the right colours to go into my newly refurbished spare room.........(well, honestly, it was really only a perfunctory look) Couldn't find anything, so I bought some wool and knitted my own. This is knitted on the diagonal, so you start with very few stitches at one corner and increase at the beginning of every row and then decrease once you reach the widest point. The reverse is four squares knitted diagonally in the four colours I used on the stripy side.

I love the complementary pep in this room now - you would think such strong colour contrasts would be a bit hectic, but, on the contrary, I find it restful.
Total cost for renovating this room: around $250!

 

A Bit Of Wabi-Sabi

Yesterday, I dragged out the old table I mentioned in my previous post........and, yes, it was in a pretty sorry state. It had spent a number of years outside as a kind of potting table I think, and all four feet had varying degrees of rot where it had stood on and in the soil. I cut the bottoms off all four legs to the same level to remove all traces of rot. The frame and top were in surprisingly good condition - turned blackwood legs and a deal pine top, which had all the signs of a hard life, but was not warped or split. The base had been painted a grey blue which was weathered and peeling. 
I bought four matching pine feet to glue and screw onto the bottoms of the legs to replace what I'd cut off (remarkably, it is solid on its feet - no rocking at all!) I also braced the corners under the top to reinforce and strengthen it.

I then set to with the sander to sand back the top and remove most of the paint from the legs. I didn't want to obliterate every trace of its former life, so I allowed some of the stains and dents to remain in the top and  I left some of the grey paint on the legs. I stained the pine extension feet to match the colour of the legs and I oiled the top (thirsty, it was!) I'm really happy with the result of a little bit of effort - this cost me nothing except time!

So here it is: my new/old wabi-sabi table  - a perfect addition to finish off my spare bedroom. (Wabi-sabi comes from the Japanese aesthetic - it celebrates and finds beauty in the imperfect, the broken, the repaired............it fits in perfectly with my designer-frugal style! In fact, I really have a wabi-sabi house!

 

A Paprika wall

I had to stop work on the spare bedroom before Christmas, because I needed it for a few house guests over summer..............they didn't seem to have too many objections to the fact that it was not quite finished!
All the summer guests have departed, like birds flying South, so I've been able to get back to work.

I have devised a plan of attack for the coming months.....apart from continuing with outstanding jobs inside, I'm about to start repairing and painting the roof as well as the external woodwork. This is something of a priority, because I want to get it done before the weather gets too damp and Autumnal, so I probably have until mid-April.

I've done a few small repair jobs around the house - my portable fan needed new feet, because the flimsy metal ones it came with got all bent and no longer held it up straight. It's now sporting sturdy new wooden feet! I also repaired the broken frame around a large mirror that was here in the bathroom when I bought the house. More about that later.

I decided the spare room needed a bit of pep, so I opted to paint one wall in a beautiful warm paprika shade - it goes really well with the mainly blues in the room.....

 

This is the mirror frame I repaired - sturdy enough after the repair job, but it was looking a bit grotty and tired, with a sort of dirty cream paint on it........so I went wild with a mottled painterly effect using all the colours that are in the room. It looks great and a real one-off. I'll varnish it later with a matte varnish to protect my artwork. True "designer frugal" style! I'll be putting up some shelves in the blank area of this wall, and I have a lovely old table waiting in the garage for some tlc. That along with another bentwood chair that was a gift and the room should be complete. Except for a second coat of paint on the white woodwork and another coat of oil on the floor, which will then be polished. I love this room!