So, I painted her a custom canvas, stroke after stroke, dot by dot.

When Isla was born, I wanted her to have something I’d laboured over with love, too. Then Cleo was born, and Holly was born, and Deacon followed, and so did Max and Dani (nb: these aren’t all my children). Before I knew it there were many special little people scattered across the globe, from Delaware to Gisborne to Ferrol, who I wanted to make something special for. I spent many nights, after the kids were in bed, painting dot after dot. I found it deeply relaxing, and it became my Namaste.

Recently, one of my dearest friends had a daughter, Jasmine. I’ve tried several times to put Jasmine in my handbag and smuggle her home, but her mum is onto me. She is just so darn cute. And Max is a giant compared to her. What is it they say about women of childbearing age…that they always yearn to have a baby in their arms? (Everybody calm down, we are not having another baby.)

I’m putting my paintbrushes down for now and, instead, I’m going to be creating digital canvases using the two designs above. Want to give a special little person in your life their own custom canvas? Contact me to find out more…

The post A custom canvas for the nursery appeared first on The Tracy Interior.

I’ve had a few people ask me about the cabinetry, so bear with me while I backtrack a little. During one of our regular strolls through IKEA (What? Your family doesn’t do this?), I fell in lust with this METOD display:

IKEA’s flat-pack METOD system is intended for creating custom kitchens, but why be conventional and install a kitchen system in the kitchen, right?

Using the IKEA Home Planner Tool, we configured the cabinetry to best utilise every inch of available space in our small laundry.

I wanted a cabinet high up where I could store all the nasty chemicals away from the kids, and a slide-out cabinet underneath the sink where I could hide the dirty laundry hamper. Then I had a vision of using the narrow cabinet to the right of the sink to store toilet paper rolls and things I use on a regular basis, like laundry soap and brush. Here is our cute little diagram:

When we arrived home with our IKEA loot, we tore into the boxes and dived straight into the DIY project. We got this far before all work came to a halt:

We could not for the life of us figure out how to attach the doors to the cabinetry. I was convinced there was a page missing from the assembly instructions. James swore he would never buy IKEA again. We resorted to going online in search of answers. The IKEA website says, and I quote, METOD is easy to install. I can see how this would be the case if you have (a) a degree in archeology and can decipher hieroglyphics (b) tiny little fingers to work the Allen key and (c) superhuman strength. But us commoners, well, we still couldn’t work out how to ATTACH THE DOORS!

In the end, James figured it out (round of applause) and our marriage passed the IKEA test.

And we can proudly say that Team Tracy turned this laundry:

Into this:

This is how we did it.

Now, excuse me while I hide from the kids in the laundry. Shhh, don’t tell anyone!

The post Installing an IKEA METOD system into the laundry appeared first on The Tracy Interior.

We saw no point in adding a toilet to a laundry in such bad shape, so we decided to renovate the room from the retro tiles all the way up to the asbestos ceiling. Our logic was: it’s a small room, how hard can it be? Ha!

The first step was stripping the room back to the bare walls, which involved removing the shelving, the non-working power points, the laundry sink and the tiles.

Then we had to remove the asbestos ceiling – a job James took very seriously. So, don’t laugh.

Okay, you can laugh a little.

When we got to installing the new ceiling, we realised we might have bitten off more than we could chew. Gyprock is heavy and I didn’t have the muscles to hold it up while James drilled it into place. We ended up dialing a friend (thanks, Justin) to help out. Next James added beading to the manhole, a dual light/fan, and patched the gyprock up.

Once the new ceiling was in place, James routed a path for not one, not two, but three new power points. Gee, I’m a lucky gal! The laundry renovation then became an exercise in project management. First, we organised for the plumber to come in and route the plumbing into place and then, on the plumber’s recommendation, James waterproofed the floor (even though it’s not specified in The Building Code of Australia, it’s a good idea). Next the tiler leveled the floor with concrete whilst we went tile shopping. Intentional shopping, I nailed it (for once!).

The concrete was left to set for 24 hours, after which time the tiler returned to tile the room. The next day, he came back to grout the tiles and the kids started treating him like a long-lost uncle – he’d been around so much. Once the tiling was complete, James cut the cornices for the ceiling and I helped him to install them. I will never look at another cornice in my life and not appreciate the pure genius that went into getting the corners to fit together. Honestly, you need a degree in mathematics to work it out.

We worked late into the night to set up the IKEA cabinetry, ahead of the plumber returning the next day to fit the toilet and sink into place.

Here’s a work-in-progress ‘during’ shot of the laundry renovation:

Stay tuned for the finished ‘after’ picture, coming soon to a computer near you.

The post Renovating the laundry & adding a second toilet appeared first on The Tracy Interior.

You see, I’ve been wanting to set up a ‘landing strip’ in our entryway for a while now. A place where we set down our belongings as we walk in the door: keys, phones, sunglasses, mail, school notes, you get the idea.

I was specifically after a narrow console table with two drawers, so I could use one as the ‘in’ drawer and the other as the ‘out’ drawer. The ‘in’ drawer holds paperwork like incoming mail, receipts, school notes and the kids’ artwork, until I get a chance to sort through them and either bin (my personal preference) or file them.

The ‘out’ drawer holds things I need to fix, return, gift or send packing from our house, like outgoing mail, books I’ve borrowed, friends’ Tupperware®, toys that have mysteriously come home in my bag from a playdate.

The landing strip has a dual purpose: it acts as a filter for incoming clutter, and it’s a strategic way to enter and leave the house.

To take things to the next level of OCD, I bought a set of hexagon jewellery trays from Kmart and re-purposed them as ‘his and hers’ trays, so James and I each have a place to dump all our small essentials as we walk in the door: keys, phones, wallets, sunglasses. Et cetera.

On the wall above the console we’ve placed a mirror for all those last minute banana-in-hair/toothpaste-on-clothes checks. Lastly, I performed a very complicated Kmart hack and turned a copper plant stand upside down to create an umbrella stand.

So far, my fantasy of never getting asked, ‘Have you seen my…?’ as we’re about to walk out the door (usually already late) has been realised. I’m yet to get in the habit of checking the ‘out’ drawer every time I leave the house but, once I do, I’m going to be super-duper organised! No meltdowns by the front door, no forgotten or lost items. That’s the dream!

The post Setting up a ‘landing strip’ in the entryway appeared first on The Tracy Interior.

Let me take you on a quick tour of our clutter.

Exhibit A: Soft toys

A quick head count revealed 34 soft toys. That’s a lot of soft toys for a family whose members are allergic to dust mites. What is it about soft toys that kids love so much? Asking the girls to narrow their collection to five each brought about tears and tantrums (mostly from me). I ended up succumbing and letting them keep ten each, five of which will be kept in storage (just as soon as I find some).

Exhibit B: Amelie’s desk.

I was tempted to sweep one arm across the desk and scoop everything into a garbage bag. I had to force myself to walk away. When my blood pressure had stabilised, I sat down with Amelie and, together, we assessed each item by asking: “Do you use it, need it or love it?”.

One by one, we sorted her belongings into four boxes: ‘keep’, ‘throw’, ‘recycle’ and ‘sell’.

The off-putting thing about decluttering is that the targeted area often gets messier before it starts to look better, and it’s tempting to give up midway. But eventually, after the boxes were removed, we were left with this picture of beautiful order:

Ah, I feel so much calmer already.

Exhibit C: Bedroom dresser

Why-oh-why do all the flat surfaces in our house become dumping grounds? Sheesh, anyone would think we live in squalor and hoarding. Here is a before shot of our bedroom dresser, where the kids dump things they want Dad to fix or Mum to put away, where James leaves things with a plan to ‘put them away tomorrow’, even I unload things here when I’m on the run.

And an after shot:

I always thought the best way to tackle clutter was to throw out all the things nobody would notice were gone, and the second best way was to organise the things I couldn’t get away with throwing out. But I’ve been decluttering for the best part of a decade so I’m clearly doing something wrong. It recently dawned on me that decluttering begins outside the home: in the mailbox, at the shops, on the nature strip during council clean-ups, at the home of a well-meaning friend who gives you bags of hand-me-down clothes. It’s pointless (not to mention time-consuming) getting rid of material possessions if they are continuously being replaced by new ones.

So my new year’s ‘revolution’ is to slow the flow of incoming clutter into our house, in the hope that we can live more fully with less.

It is now day 12 of the new year and I think I’ve made great progress (insert pat on the back). Here is a list of my accomplishments so far:

1. Placed a ‘No junk mail’ sign on our mail box. I’ll miss the Aldi and Ikea catalogues, but my recycling bin will love me for it.
2. Unsubscribed to email lists, 27 to be exact. I really don’t need to know that if I spend $300 at Witchery I’ll get a free handbag because I might then spend $300 at Witchery and come home with a handbag I don’t need. My inbox feels lighter and I’m spending less time deleting emails.
3. I’ve adopted an intentional shopping attitude. I’ve always considered shopping a pastime; something I do when I’m feeling down, when I’m feeling happy, when I’m feeling bored. Yes, okay, something I do a lot of the time. Going to the shops with the intention of buying something in particular (rather than wasting time window shopping or wasting money buying impulsively) is going to be challenging. Let’s face it: it’s going to take practice. I’ll let you know how I go with that one.
4. Introduced an odds and ends basket into the hall where we can place ‘floating’ objects so we can find a home for them.
5. Placed a donation bag in the laundry for items we no longer use, need or love. When the bag is full, I’ll take it to Vinnies. Repeat.
6. In a similar vein, I’ve placed a clothes donation bag in each of the kids’ closets. When they’ve outgrown an item of clothing, I place it in the bag. Once the bag is full, I take it to a donation bin. Repeat.

If you’ve got any other decluttering ideas I’d love to hear them.

Wishing you a clutter-free year!

The post My new year’s ‘revolution’: live more fully with less appeared first on The Tracy Interior.

If I was a teenager again I could totally get into graffiti.

But because I’m a mature, law-abiding adult, I’ve contained my spray painting addiction to my own home. I’ve literally been going around the house looking for things to spray paint. The kids know when I’ve got a wild look in my eyes to stay well out of my way, or they might end up a different colour.

My addiction began when I spray painted a shadow box for Isla, followed by one for Amelie:

Then I had to spray a shadow box for Max, too:

See the rabbit and gorilla in the above photos? I superglued the animals to jar lids and then spray painted the animal and corresponding lid in the same colour. Why? Good question. I was tired of collecting trinkets off the floor or fishing them out of Max’s mouth. I had seen similar animal jars on Instagram and thought they would be the perfect vessel for storing the crap clutter kids love to collect. Not only do glass jars keep similar trinkets together and clearly visible (yes, I’m anal, but I can’t help it…I’m a Virgo), they also upcycle glass jars.

upcycle:
ˈʌpsʌɪk(ə)l/
reuse (discarded objects or material) in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original.

This new project called for me to broaden my spray paint collection. I didn’t even finish the word ‘Bunnings’ and James was already in the car with the engine running. It’s true we have a mutual love for the place. I especially love how the spray paint cans are kept in a locked cage, and you have to call a sales assistant over to open it. It feels so, I don’t know… illicit. (We don’t get out much.)

Here is a sample from my upcycled glass jar collection:

Guess what everyone’s getting for Christmas this year?

Ho, ho! Ha.

The post Putting a lid on clutter appeared first on The Tracy Interior.

So you can imagine my hesitation at introducing plants into my current home. For me, it signaled that I was one step closer to becoming my mother.

But then, one day, whilst researching ways to improve the wellbeing of our daughter Isla, who suffers from allergies, eczema and asthma, I stumbled upon the NASA Clean Air Study.

In the late ’80s, NASA studied houseplants as a means of providing cleaner air for space stations. They compiled a list of the plants most effective at removing contaminants from indoor air, including benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, xylene, toluene and ammonia. (Try saying that fast three times!)

And, no, these toxins aren’t confined to the cosmos. They are inconspicuously floating around the homes on planet Earth, too.

Common household items like furnishings, upholstery and cleaning products can emit a variety of toxic compounds, contributing to ‘sick building syndrome’. Yikes! I don’t know what ‘sick building syndrome’ is, but it sounds like something I need to see my GP about.

With this newfound knowledge and Isla’s wellbeing in mind, I began introducing plants into our home. First, the Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum), the only plant proven to remove all the pollutants tested by NASA.

The Peace Lily is a great introductory plant for brown thumbs like me, because the leaves droop to indicate the plant needs water. (I’ve since learnt this is an indication of plant trauma, so don’t try this at home, folks!)

Next, we welcomed a Warneckei (Dracaena deremensis) to the family. This striking plant has green-and-white-striped, sword-shaped leaves that add bold colour and texture to the home. The plant also removes benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene and xylene from the air. Bonus!

When, to my surprise, these two plants didn’t die right away, my confidence grew and I added a Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum) to the family. This was a sentimental one, propagated from a cutting of one of my mother’s plants, still going strong in her garden even though my mother has been gone 15 years. When a spiderette sprouted under my care I almost shed a tear.

Finally, I put a Mother-in-law’s Tongue in each bedroom. (This sounds wrong on so many levels.) Also known as the Snake Plant, it converts carbon dioxide into oxygen at night, so my family can breathe better while we sleep.

Now, picture this: I was watering my plants, dusting the leaves, fertilizing the soil, and whispering sweet nothings, with one-year-old Max on my heels. I turned my back for a moment, and in that split second Max took a fistful of soil and shoved it in his mouth.

So there I was trying to clean the air while Max was eating dirt behind my back.

I rushed to wash Max’s mouth out with water, and then, still in a panic, I called the Poisons Information Centre (13 11 26, just FYI). I explained my poor parenting moment to the very sweet lady who took my call. I think I made sense, but it’s possible that all I said was, “baby, fertilizer, mouth, help!” She calmly explained that there wouldn’t be enough fertilizer in the soil to cause any harm to Max other than a sore tummy and runny poo. Phew. I might have imagined it, but I thought I heard a chuckle before she hung up the line.

Now, with six plants and three children in the house, I think I’ll take a break from adopting another living thing that depends on my care – for a while, anyway. But, incase you’re wondering, here is a link to the NASA-approved best plants to clean indoor air.

The post The best plants to clean indoor air appeared first on The Tracy Interior.

So, I stuck a fork in it! (Literally.) I’d heard that you could use a fork to make pom-poms, so I decided to test the theory. And, guess what? It was so easy!

Even the girls could make pom-poms by themselves using the fork method.

Here are the steps I took:

1. Wrap the wool around the fork approximately 70 times
2. Cut the wool from the ball and tie the two loose ends together
3. Cut a small piece of wool, thread it through the middle of the fork and tie. Gently slide the wool off the fork and tie the knot as tight as possible
4. Snip the looped wool on either side
5. Trim the pom-pom to give it a more circular shape. The closer the snip, the denser the pom-pom

In the absence of a fork, you can use your fingers instead, but when I tried I only succeeded in cutting off the circulation to my fingertips. So back to the fork it was.

I went a bit pom-pom cray cray and made so many of these fluffy little creatures that I had enough to make several garlands and to decorate a couple of gifts.

In the end, making pom-poms was an easy and fun craft to do with the girls. Even if they did lose interest way before I did.

The post DIY pom-poms using a fork appeared first on The Tracy Interior.

This is my family on the way home from our trip to Berry. We’re all exhausted from the sheer excitement of visiting Tracy’s family in their new home for the first time. Thankfully, James is still awake as he is the designated driver!

A highlight of the visit was Tracy, our mutual friend, Annemarie, and myself going out on Saturday night, after the kids and husbands had gone to bed.

Where do three young(ish) girlfriends go on a Saturday night in Berry, you ask? To the nearest big town, of course: Nowra. And, more specifically, the 24-hour Kmart.

Yep, that’s right. Nowra has a Kmart that is open 24 hours.

The 24-hour Kmart was like a parallel universe where shoppers were leisurely pushing trolleys full of goodies down the aisles, dressed in their best lounging clothes, unencumbered by trailing husbands or toddlers throwing tantrums.

And the homewares! Oh my. Affordable and on trend. As we strolled down the aisles, filling our communal trolley with homewares, my mind was ablaze with ideas. I could turn that stool into a side table, or those teardrop wall stickers into polka dots. It turns out (thank you, Tracy, for removing the rock I’ve been living under all this time), that there is a Kmart cult following. It seems Kmart hacks are old school, and I’m the newcomer.

I was home for about 3 minutes before I got started on my first Kmart hack, using the humble hexagon shadow box:

First, I spray painted the entire box with several coats of Dulux Duramax Vivid White Gloss/Flat. Then I spray painted the outside panels and edging with White Knight Squirts Pink.

Next I used a 20 cent piece to trace circles on the pink and green Kmart Roomates Teardrop Wall Stickers. I’m not the best cutter-outer (that’s the technical term I use with the kids), but if you look at the dots with one eye closed, the edges look neat enough.

The next step was hanging the shadow box on the wall (this is where James came in with the drill) and decorate the wall with stickers (this is where Isla helped). Lastly, I cut up a Tiger Tribe mobile Isla had been given as a baby and stuck the individual butterflies to the wall.

Isla was thrilled to have a place to display her favourite keepsakes. Amongst her display are a magic wand I bought her on an outing with Tracy’s daughter; a wooden elephant she painted; and her collection of buttons.

Now Amelie would like a Kmart hack of her own. My work is never done…

The post A ‘Berry’ tiring trip appeared first on The Tracy Interior.

I do my spring cleaning in short bursts, usually while James is at work as he has a tendency to hoard things (if you’re reading this: I love you, honey!) and I like to declutter a room at a time so I don’t become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff we own.

Even though our home leans towards the minimalist end of the spectrum, an amazing amount of stuff keeps creeping into the house, usually via the kids’ pockets or Grandma’s handbag.

I began the spring clean in our bedroom, decluttering drawer by drawer, shelf by shelf, discarding all the clothes that were looking ratty, passing on the ones we no longer wear to charity, and packing away all the winter warmers.

Then, with my nesting hormones still in full swing, I decided to take my spring clean to the next level and refresh the whole bedroom. I dreamed of creating a little sanctuary where James and I could hide from the kids, err… I mean, relax and unwind. A space that is fresh and colourful, as well as comfortable and contemporary, but wouldn’t break the maternity-leave bank. You probably know by now that I have an unhealthy obsession with cushions, so it was tough restraining my urge to rush out and buy new ones. Instead, I invested our pennies in a new bed head, side tables and lamps:

Here is a pic of the new furniture and decor in place:

Now I’m on the hunt for a rug and some art for the walls. Stay tuned for the next update!

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