The Painted Hive

Firstly, I have to say, my home is a major work in progress.

When we moved in around three years ago, we had virtually NOTHING! We lived that way for a while, content in just having our own little parcel on earth. During this time we also learned from the bare-bones of the house what was needed in terms of liveability and aesthetics before imprinting any misguided ideas of our own.

Here’s the floorplan.

The entire house is only 12 meters (39 feet) front to back and a mini 10 meters (32 feet) wide.
Sorry, I don’t have many before photos though I had no idea I’d be blogging about this in the future!

Above: The kitchen, living and dining rooms just prior to us moving in.

(Apologies for the poor photo quality though I took these from the original real estate brochure).

After living in our hollow little cave for a while, I decided I had to simplify and streamline as much as I could to create the most neutral as possible blank canvas. Every ceiling and wall got a fresh coat of paint and every single bit of brown timber trim was dressed in glossy white….it was a breath of fresh air (and I’m NEVER painting again!).
The badly soiled berber carpet was replaced with a simple deep grey plush pile to contrast with the light paint and make the ceilings appear taller. All of the door hardware and window furnishings were replaced along with the more obtrusive of the light fixtures. Our “neutral as possible” blank canvas was born – at last, we had a starting point.

Kristine to Hubby: Hey, do you reckon I’ll need to find a wall stud to hang this?
(Secretly thinking she was just gonna hang it where she wanted anyway regardless of whether there was a stud there or not).
Hubby: It’d be good.
(Commence drilling).
Kristine to Hubby: I think I just hit a stud.
Hubby: That’s good.

Five minutes and three each-longer-than-the-last screws later, my beautiful new convex version of a starburst mirror hangs perfectly in place.

Later that evening….
Hubby goes to have a shower. Hmmmm, the bathroom sliding door won’t budge. Oooops!

What? Don’t try and pretend you’ve never screwed through a wall with a sliding door cavity and mistaken the actual door for a stud. Well, that was about two weeks ago and I still haven’t fixed it yet. Oh well, it’s only the two of us in the house so there’s really not much need for the closing of doors anyway!

Even attached to the door I do still love my new mirror – and playing vignettes!