La Maison Jolie

Tree of love! A Valentine's Day Mini DIY Project

2012-02-13T21:50:00.001+11:00

To celebrate Valentine's Day this year, I thought of making a Tree of Love! A tree filled with all the beautiful thoughts of love and life and how love enriches our lives and touches our souls! Easy to make and looks beautiful as well. I cut out little cards of handmade paper, wrote my favourite inspirational quotes on them and strung them on the dry branches. You could also make a table centrepiece with it and you could use coloured paper.

Looks pretty don't you think? A different Valentine's Day decor!!!
The Tree of Love

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Happy Valentine's Day!

xox

Rani

Maison L! A French Provincial Dream!!!

2012-02-11T22:52:00.005+11:00

Today we visited my favourite boutique store: Maison L on Keilor Road, Essendon North. A French provincial dream!!!! The pieces in this store were absolutely beautiful and right on trend! Each one more beautiful than the last. If you want to own something distinctly French, I highly recommend a visit to Maison L!!

We have so many beautiful things from this store, like the beautiful silver clock in our living room...Does it remind you of White Rabbit's pocket watch from 'Alice in Wonderland'?!

In our living room

And this lovely harp vase!

And this is what we bought today from Maison L, a lovely french clock, with just the right amount of crackle to make me swoon with joy! I'll have to take a few pictures in the day to do it justice.

Back to Lina's beautiful store, Maison L. I took a few shots of the store so that you could see for yourself!

Beautiful French Bedhead and linen!

Exquisite ornate mirror!

Scented soaps and perfumes!

Beautiful cutlery and crockery!

The store is filled with the most beautiful and unique pieces of furniture and other items that will turn you house into the most amazing French home! A real piece of France in your own home!

And that's beautiful Lina Barci, owner of Maison L.

A big thank you to Lina for letting me take photographs of her beautiful store.

Leave me a comment if you'd like more information on Maison L.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great weekend!

xox

Rani

Plant Pot Makeover

2012-02-09T21:04:00.002+11:00

A solitary gray plastic pot sitting all by itself in the garage was the candidate for a mini makeover. (Wish I had taken a Before pic!) Covered it with some spray paint "Heritage Cream". And painted the inside with some glossy black paint. Painted a 5 on it and scraped the pot to make it look distressed and shabby chic. Found a matt black ribbon and tied it around it.

Voila!!!! A makeover complete! It doesn't even look 'plastic' any more! What do you all think?

Would love to hear your thoughts on the mini makeover! Leave me a comment!

Thanks for stopping by!

xox

Rani

Pretty Little Things!

2012-02-08T23:40:00.000+11:00

Bought these beautiful vintage looking glass tea light candle holders this weekend for $2.00 each from Early Settler! Aren't they pretty? I just love collecting candle holders!

Weekend...we are nearly there!!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

xox

Rani

Spray Painting DIY

2012-02-06T15:35:00.000+11:00

OK I admit I have gone a bit insane with the can of paint! I have been spray painting anything and everything!!! Yesterday, I painted a old photo frame with beautiful detail work. It didn't quite mesh with anything in our house and it was a 'milk chocolate' brown colour which I am not too fond of. So sprayed it black with golden undertones! And guess what it looks amazing! Thinking of doing up a wall with just empty frames but for now this was phase one: experiment successful!

Also painted the photo frames in our bedroom and I have to say they look beautiful!

Found a very French wooden decorative carving and again you guessed it - painted it BLACK! Maybe when I'm done with black, I'll paint it all white! But for now I think black looks chic! Not sure where I'll hang it yet but I'm sure I'll find a spot for it!

Till next time, keep painting & thanks so much for stopping by!

xox

Rani

Finally the wait is over!!!

2012-02-05T21:54:00.000+11:00

Finally the chandelier is up and running!!! Spent hours stringing crystals but the result is so worth it!
What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

xox

Rani

A bit of Light fun!

2012-02-01T21:40:00.002+11:00

Decided to zhush up the birdcage for a bit of evening fun!

All you need is a string of Christmas lights and a lovely and obliging husband to untangle it!!! :)

What do you guys think?

Thanks so much for stopping by!

xox

Rani

An overworked mind is a devil's workshop???!!

2012-02-01T11:51:00.004+11:00

The title of this post is weird but so apt...!!! I took a perfectly good IKEA lampshade and experimented with spray paints that I bought from Mitre 10 yesterday. Why??? I don’t know maybe because the overworked mind is a devil’s workshop! The lampshade was fine the way it was. Can’t say I loved it because I didn’t, it did not have any character! If that makes any sense!!!! But since I had a brainwave, I couldn't help but run to Mitre 10 to buy a can of brassy metallic paint and a can of black enamel paint.

This was my first time spray painting anything! So can’t say I did a good job or that it was a breeze because I didn’t and it wasn’t! But I think as the evening progressed into nightfall I was getting better or so I thought. Probably because it got too dark to see what the end result was! I was going to for a vintage brassy look with stencilled fleur-de-lis! Well let me tell you this from personal experience: homemade paper stencils, first time spray painter and a windy evening is not a good combo!!!! But by the end of painting, stencilling and repainting over dried paint, it got too messy and I had used up 90% of the spray can on one shade!!!!!! Not cost effective!

If there is a positive side to this, then at least I learnt the "Don’ts" of spray painting! However, I cant wait to go back home and check. Well I’ll give it till this evening before the big reveal!

Truth be told, I'm a bit scared to even look! Will keep you guys posted!!!

Here's the finished product. Cant say it turned out perfect! But not too bad for a first attempt.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

xox

Rani

Master Bedroom

2012-01-30T22:57:00.000+11:00

Hello everyone! Thank goodness Monday is over!!!! Four more days to the weekend!

Posting a few pictures of our master bedroom which is also a work in progress. The weather is crazy hot in Melbourne and the winter quilt was too much to bear. So I bought this coverlet today from the Manchester Clearance Store on Burgundy Street, Heidelberg at a great price!!! They sell stock overruns at reasonable prices. You are sure to find a good deal there! All my quilt covers and bed spreads are from there too. They have the most amazing designs though I lean more towards the whites and natural palettes.

The vision I have is to create a sanctuary, somewhere peaceful calm and beautiful to de-stress in. I want a stylish but shabby chic theme to it. Have to keep working on it I guess. I keep adding bit by bit instead of doing it up at once. The foundations have been set now its time to keep building!

I still have to find a way to hide the wires under the bedside tables! And also maybe paint or wall paper the wall behind the bed, not sure though, I kind of like white walls. It gives me a blank canvas to play around with. Hmmmm have to have a think about that one!

The frames above the bed are from a shop called Interior Design Outlet. I was thrilled when I found them. The frames matched perfectly with the bed.

This weekend I'm planning on tackling the dressing table! Will take some pictures during the day.

We are planning on changing the ceiling light. Not sure what to get. The light came with the house and I'm not quite sure that it goes with the room anymore. The throw is from IKEA! I love throws and throw pillows!

Will keep you posted on our progress! If you guys have any suggestions, leave me a comment.
Thanks so much for stopping by!

xox

Rani

Decorating with twigs and branches

2012-01-28T10:29:00.000+11:00

I'm so into dry branches right now. Ok that sounded weird! But, its easy and not to mention "free" to decorate with them and they look so aesthetically appealing against a white backdrop.

So the story goes.....we had a tree in the backyard that split and had to be taken down. We stored it in the garage for it to dry out for a few days and then cut the branches off and took the dry leaves off.

It takes a few tries to get it looking the way you want it to. I'm still discovering what my look is, but for the moment I'm happy with the way this looks.

It works kinda well with the chippy ol' rose vase don't you think?!

Have fun decorating!
Thanks so much for stopping by!

xox

Rani

Living room corners

2012-01-27T23:25:00.000+11:00

A few shots of my favourite "things" and corners of our living room. Apologies for the dim lighting...I was kinda going for the romantic setting! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

xox

Rani

Birdcage delight!

2012-01-27T20:10:00.001+11:00

Saw this awesome vintage birdcage on sale and my heart began to flutter! Needless to say, it came home with us!

Absolutely love it!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

xox

Rani

Cane chair makeover

2012-01-26T20:13:00.001+11:00

Had a cute cane chair in the study where it was being completely wasted, so decided to paint it 'vintage white' and create an interesting corner decor.

The pine cone table on the side is a DIY project that we did a few days earlier....its a fun piece and a story for another time!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

xox

Rani

Outdoor Furniture Makeover!

2012-01-24T18:32:00.000+11:00

Over the weekend, I managed to give the outdoor furniture a coat of paint. In true shabby chic style it had to be white!

After

Thanks so much for stopping by!

xox
Rani

Let there be light!

2012-01-24T16:23:00.000+11:00

Just had to post this! Found a gorgeous crystal chandelier in an old antique light store. Bought a few more crystal drops to redo the light fitting. Almost done. Will post the after pictures soon!

Before

Thanks so much for stopping by!

xox
Rani

My Home (a work in progress)

2012-01-23T21:51:00.000+11:00

Guest Room

Guest Room

Will keep you posted on my progress! Thanks so much for stopping by!

xox

Rani

Vintage Bookshelf

2011-12-20T09:56:00.000+11:00

After

Yesterday I felt quite inspired after browsing a new blog that I found called 'paint me white'. So once I reached home after work, I could hardly wait to get started on my next project. I found an old pine bookshelf that I had stored away in the garage because it didn't match with any of the other furniture and always looked a bit out-of-place.

After a spot of light cleaning and sanding, I started painting it white. Its still work in progress but what a difference!!!. I'll post the completed photos soon, but in the meantime I've posted before and in-progress photos. I had to drag the bookshelf back indoors at night since it looked like it was going to pour! Can't wait to go back home and finish painting tonight!!!

Before

In Progress

Big thank you to Karen, The Graphics Fairy for the lovely flourish design I painted onto the bookshelf as an after-thought. I'm so happy with the end result!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

xox

Rani

Joyeux Noël!

2011-12-16T11:41:00.000+11:00

Today we decided its time to put up the 'Christmas Tree'! Our first Christmas in our new home! Im so excited! We went shopping for the perfect decorations.

Glass baubles! Love them so much more than the plastic ones. The antique silver ones are especially nice!

My very first attempt at Christmas Ham! It was delicious! Merry Christmas everybody!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

xox

Rani

My first project !

2011-12-01T15:23:00.000+11:00

My first project was to hang a few pictures to start on the French theme.

www.corbis.com

I did a bit of research and found that actual French posters cost a bomb to buy and even more to professionally frame!!! And since I had a budget to stick to I could not spend it all on French vintage posters. Instead I decided to put the colour printer to some good use. I brought some recycled paper from OfficeMax….ivory or parchment are two good colours to use, to make the prints look vintage! I searched the web for some period prints and came up with a few that were high resolution. (Try to make sure that the pictures/prints are copyright and royalty free! A good website to use is www.corbis.com) Once I had a few pictures that I liked, I printed them out on the recycled paper.

www.corbis.com

Next step was to stake out a few op shops or salvos for vintage wooden frames…..(if nothing catches your fancy IKEA frames are always good). I picked mine up from IKEA, white and black . Initially I had thought of adding a coat of paint to the frames and distressing them to make them look vintage but in the end I decided not to. The black frames make the colourful prints pop and white frames with sepia or black and white prints look divine! All that was left was to frame the prints! Easy! The hardest part was choosing where to put them up. They all looked so good that in the end we decided to make a feature wall.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

xox

Rani

Il n’y a que deux endroits au monde où l’on puisse vivre heureux: chez soi et à Paris!!!

2011-11-28T18:20:00.000+11:00

Il n’y a que deux endroits au monde où l’on puisse vivre heureux: chez soi et à Paris

(There are only two places in the world where we can live happy: at home and in Paris
~ Ernest Hemingway)

Well said Hemingway! So when my husband and I bought our first home, I knew I wanted a shabby chic theme to bring a touch of French vintage into our lives. My goal: On a tight budget, transform a modern shell into a dream home! Easier said than done!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

xox
Rani