With a new playroom being something of a novelty to both Addi and her baby sister Berkley, I am still trying to find the best storage solution for all the toys. We have some stairs leading to the ballpit that are hinged and these house all her barbies and teddys, but sadly our toy collection doesn’t stop there.

The Expedit shelving system is one of my favourites. Cheap, easy to assemble and holds a lot of stuff. I think in my lifetime I have bought then sold maybe 10 of these? I love them to bits…

So off to Ikea (3 trips later), I had the shelving unit and some 10+ little boxes to go in the little pigeon holes. The little boxes are fabulous and a steal, starting at just $6.95. For kids things you can’t go wrong. However, I couldn’t let my organisational OCD end there. I wanted the playroom to be accessible to all kids, but even more so, easy for ALL KIDS to clean. So, I got busy making picture tags to affix to the fabric boxes.

I made a tag template on my Mac and then ferreted on the Internet to cut and paste images of the toys for each box. I also typed the names of what goes in the boxes for mine (and hopefully hubby’s benefit). With the trusty laminating machine, I sealed the tags so hopefully they last a little longer.

The beauty of this system is the boxes can be placed on the floor individually, and as the toys grow, the tags can change. If they have the picture tags affixed to the front, kids of most ages can see the images of what goes in them and when it comes time to clean up, they can all pitch in! Ideally, I will eventually get myself a tagging gun (you know the ones that do the little plastic tags that go on garments in the shops), but for now I have used some cute, colourful bulldog clips I got from Officeworks.

If you are hoping to achieve something similar, you can get my PDF template for free here - downloadabletags - and go OTT with a little organisation at your place too!

I hate the crowds, the  grumpy people, lack of parking and the low-stock inventories that happen at this time of year. I pride myself on being good at shopping, and part of this “art” is my ability to get in and out of stores quickly, with a good result!

I do love hand-made and unique Christmas gifts, and for these a leisurely stroll at a local market (like Perth Upmarket) is great. However, for the more generic Christmas gifts I have a tactic. With a 4-year old who loves all things commercial I need a plan. For these gifts I tackle Christmas with lists. As a serial list-maker, I write my list of who to buy for and I do all my research first. I select the gift by online browsing and I know roughly what sort of store to find it in. I am not always specific, for instance I may select a Barbie Doll as a gift but I don’t know which one until I see them…

I load the trolly with everything – always shop at a big department store where I can get all the gifts in one transaction – and I checkout with Christmas sorted. My one tip, don’t forget the wrapping paper! I buy a tonne of it and always generic – a plain white or similar so if there is some left over, I can use for birthdays and other celebrations.

Another thing I love is colour – paint, paper and splashes any way you can get it! One thing I have always wanted to create is a wall stencil, but being too stuck in a market of completing homes for sale has left me with my hands tied, and no canvas so to speak… Until now!

To start, I bought some stencils on eBay. The cheapest ones I could find set me back about $8 including postage, and were 120mm tall. I selected a saying that meant something to me, and also suited my space too – my girl’s playroom. I chose my favourite Dr Seuss quote.

Working out the general look, I chose which words went on which line, I wanted to work over three rows of text so I did have to do some math – lucky I was a bit of a smarty pants at school because that needed a little patience! I had to work out the width of each letter, including spacing and draw a mock up so I didn’t get it wrong when I put it on the wall…

I masked my rectangles and got painting. Working with Taubmans Endure Hi-C Red, I made them the height of the letter, plus and extra 10mm top and bottom (so 140mm total). I got a suitably sized roller and rolled the paint – 3 coats for good measure and let it dry.

To stencil, I went letter by letter, holding them up (I would wear disposable gloves) and use the spray paint of your choice to spray the words. Leave 10 mins in between each letter so they don’t smudge and be sure to press stencil tight against wall so no over-spray escapes… Also, spray a thin coverage – too thick and it will drip. Go line-by-line until you are done and… Viola, your own, affordable and personalised wall art.

Obviously, you can stick vinyl letters down and roller over them too then remove them so that bit remains the wall colour, but I love the look of the spray and think it is far more authentic, even if a little more fiddly.

]]> http://www.christieblizzard.com/diy-funky-wall-art/feed/ 0 http://www.christieblizzard.com/diy-funky-wall-art/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=diy-funky-wall-art http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChristieBlizzard/~3/-ScsVRnKERc/ http://www.christieblizzard.com/colour-splash/#comments Fri, 28 Sep 2012 11:34:03 +0000 christie http://www.christieblizzard.com/?p=737 I love to renovate and design. I love creating playful spaces. I love money, but we don’t have much in the way of surplus…

One thing I love to play with is paint. You can create so many different finishes and feels with a splash of colour, and this season it feels as though everyone is finally hearing what I have been doing for a while, splashing colour wherever I can.

Can’t afford wallpaper? Paint. Got a boring wall? Paint. Got a space you want to define? Paint. Want to give your place a new feel? Paint!

It really is the best tool for every renovator.

Here are some of my favourite projects I have created with a splash of colour, and as always the colours are thanks to the fabulous Taubmans.

It is by no means finished, hec, we don’t even have a kitchen… However, the girls have bedrooms and we have one almost completed bathroom.

The sun sets in 2 hours, we have no working lights there, there is only one door (the front one – none internal yet). The tiler ran out of tiles today and as yet there is no shower head. Thankfully (if things go our way) the toilet will get connected to the sewer in the morning.

Come rain, hail or shine, tomorrow is moving day. 10am the removalists arrive and it is on!

There is nothing like a final push to get things done and nothing quite like the mayhem of moving into a very incomplete home. In saying that, it is the excitement and the challenge that inspires me so… bring it on!

Every thrifty parent loves Ikea for kid’s stuff, but it is even better when it is free. Their gorgeous SPOKA Night Light valued at $24.95 is up for grabs and perfect for scaring the night monsters away.

To be in the running for this little dude simply like and share my Facebook Page (if you haven’t already). Every subscriber is instantly in the running and there is a bonus entry for each friend that says you sent them.

The winner will be drawn at random and the prize includes Australia-wide delivery. Entries close September 24th and winner will be announced on Facebook. So get spreading the news and set this little critter viral, the more likers you refer the greater your chance to win.

I love hand-crafted products because not only are they made with a lot of love and each is completly unique, but I find it inspring and more often than not, you are supporting a local artisan and their family.

I believe that nothing makes a bedroom feel more playful than being able to peep through the door and see a well-loved teddy or doll sitting on the bed, keeping it warm for bedtime. Anyone who has ever been to my home knows there is always a teddy warming Addi’s bed, and now Berkley’s too.

I just came across this super-cute hand crocheted monkey and I think it is a must-have item for any kid’s bedroom. Place it on a shelf or better still on the bed and I am sure he will become a member of your family in no time. Available in pink and blue (I think the blue one looks like he should be riding a gondola) it is my pick of the week for the kiddies!  Available from Aster and Ruby.

http://www.asterandruby.com.au/Ladedah-Kids-Crocheted-Monkey_p_90.html

When the agent listed the warehouse, I had just been accepted onto The Renovators and we had literally just finished renovating our own home and purchased an investment one to make some money on, to move forward and even consider my warehouse was not even an option.

Over the coming-months, the warehouse played on my mind and on one of my many brief visits back to Perth whilst filming (I would often fly Saturday night to arrive Sunday morning, stay a few hours and jet back so I could see my little girl) I saw that it was still available.

When I landed back in Sydney I rehearsed the many ways I would tell my husband I wanted to sell the place we had just finished and embark on another project… I knew it would not go too smoothly.

I can’t remember how I told Dave my grand plan, but I do recall the deafening silence it was greeted with! However, over time I used my well-honed skills as a sales person and somehow “sold” Dave on the idea (I think the promise of a man cave and beer kegs may have done it). We just had to sell our home, finish the other one (that we had barely started), find some more cash and of course hope and pray no one else wanted the warehouse in the meantime (unlikely, given its state and the fact anyone who saw it would run a mile if they had any sense)… But not us!

We nutted out the numbers and if we stuck to budget, we could make a tidy profit and be living in our “forever-pad” designed the way we wanted to live.

We had always talked about our dream home, and I knew this was it. the warehouse sits on almost 900 square maters, boasts a beautiful, quiet street with city views and of course, is a warehouse – 300 square meters of living. What wasn’t in my vision was the rat (and giant flying cockroach) nest in the kitchen, the fact the building had been used as a sweat shop for some 20+ years and the fact that there was so much rubbish and building neglect that it would really take some hard yakka!

Through all my previous renovations, I had always designed with the buyer in mind, to renovate the warehouse for us was going to be liberating, challenging and of course costly…  But the biggest question I kept asking myself was “where do I begin”?

I wanted Charlotte to feel as though she was sleeping in a fairy-paradise, surrounded in flowers. I drew a very feminine bed, something I knew my daughter would LOVE and then I had to work out how to build it.

Once the pieces had been cut out, joined, hand-sanded and finished, I sprayed it with undercoat, a top coat and then finished with 2-days of hand painted detail. To Top it off, I cut out 2 butterflies and “hid them” amongst the flowers so Charlotte could see them in bed. The most precarious part of the whole operation was the transportation – moving the wooden bed on the back of my trailer certainly attracted the odd stare or two!

I am so proud of my creation and so thankful Felicity gave me the opportunity to create such a unique piece.

When I arrived for my first meeting it was like “old friends”. Both Dale and Jo were so welcoming and I knew we were all on the same page. Their salon was tired, dated and needed some life, but as always it was about budget.

They wanted a “glass bubble” hanging, a whole new look, they NEEDED new floors and a space that reflected their style and flair – something their current space certainly wasn’t achieving.

Being one of Perth’s busiest salons, timing was tough. This couple work so hard… Open 7-days a week how was I going to transform the space whilst not loosing too much trade? A job like this needs some careful planning and with the help of my builder we scheduled a renovation over 3 weekends – not an easy feat.

We painted, laid a new concrete floor, gave the staff a new glamorous kitchen, created a pedicure space, spruced up the bathroom and beauty room, added new basins, a massive mirror and gave them all new furniture, including loads of custom pieces designed by moi… And it worked!

My most challenging moment was going into labour early and literally calling Dale and Jo as I was getting wheeled in to an operating theatre to deliver halfway through our renovation! I even gave birth to my baby girl 8-weeks early… At least the renovation was delivered on time!