Upcycled bedside tables

This week I have been updating some bedside tables. I want to decorate my bedroom this year and I don't mind doing it slowly but I want to do it on the smallest budget as possible as we want to move house early next year. I have a mood board and I would like to work as closely as possible to create that.

I came across a pair of bedside tables on ebay for £15, they were literally down the road from me so I didn't need to pay for postage.

Once I picked them up I realised they had already been upcycled and stained from a light pine. So I sanded them down with a little help from Millie (or little red riding hood!) I did them one at a time just because I didn't have the time or space to do them together.

 I didn't use a primer because I had plenty of paint, so I just did a thin coat of the paint I had and it covered really well.

After two coats it was almost covered and I was tempted to leave it as you could just see the wood slightly underneath but the hubby didn't like it!! So I went with a third coat and I must admit I much preferred it. But we won't tell him that.

I decided to experiment on one of the drawers with a blue on the outside I actually really liked the effect but decided it was pointless as you would't really see it as the drawers are always closed! But it's definately something I would do in the kitchen or living room in the future.

I bought 4 new handles for a very reasonable price from ebay, these are the exact ones, although there are loads to suit your own taste. I thought they might look really tacky with them being so cheap but they look great and you certainly can't tell they are cheapos!

I'm really pleased with the finished result. In fact I was going to shabby chic them and rub them down but I just loved the perfect finish these had. They look brand new and expensive I honestly don't think people wouldn't know if I didn't beg them to come inside and look what I've done! 

I decided to add a bit of extra luxury to the drawers mainly because they weren't too good inside. They were a but dirty and had a few scratches etc. I actually had a single piece of wallpaper hanging on my wall for ages trying decide if I liked it or not. When I decided to go for a duck egg colour I thought this would be perfect. Wallpaper is great for lining drawers with because its so thick. So it should be hard wearing. 

I'm super pleased with how they turned out and now they are all full of my trinkets. 

Next I need two lamps, I was hoping to get to the car boot sales today but the weather hasn't been too good so we gave it a miss. 

I know I have two lamps up to the attic but they have a patterned glass shades... has anybody got any good tips for upcycling them? Please feel free to leave your link in my comments if you do I would love some ideas!

Competition: John cotton Christmas bed bundle

It's that time of the year again when you get unexpected guests and expected guest that end up staying the night.

Now wouldn't it be nice to have brand new clean and cosy bedding for them?

I have got a John Cotton double bed bundle to give away that contains:

• 13.5 tog duvet
• 2 pillows
• pillow protectors
• mattress protectors
• A bag to store them in.

If you can't wait to win one, the bundle is currently on offer at Argos for £19.99 until 24th December.

What are you waiting for? Enter below...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms and Conditions

• UK entry only
• The prize will be posted out by myself
• Closing date 10.12.13
• Prize provided by Slumberdown

Listed on The Prizefinder

Review : Travelogue scratch maps

In the Summer I bought a Luckies scratch map for my sister and her husband as a wedding gift. They love to travel and once I'd had it framed it was a perfect gift. The quality and looks of it were very impressive.

When I got the chance to review the Travelogue which was also made by Luckies of London I expected the same quality and my expectations were high.

I am pleased to say I wasn't disappointed.

The Travelogue is in a plain, thick cardboard wallet and has two sides once you open it. The left hand wallet contains your 8 mini scratch maps which each has a different region of the World. Although we aren't yet 'World' travellers as a family, we have visited quite a few places in Europe. I scratched off the places we have been and it was really easy and fun to scratch off.

It also includes a travel journal that you can write in your travel plans, record your visits, useful information and contact details. Its a good sturdy journal and I would say that it would be very robust on your travels.

This would make a great gift for anybody that like to travel or is interested in the World.  This would also be a perfect gift for my 7 year old son who is fascinated with maps, countries and travelling. It would be lovely for him to start writing about his travels and where he would like to visit next and when he is older. Its defiantly something you would keep forever.

You should really have a look at all the other Luckies products iwoot.com sell.

The only downside to the Travelogue is that it makes you want to travel more and my bank balance doesn't think this is a good idea...

*I was sent the Travelogue free to review but all opinions are my own.

My perfect Wayfair item

When I saw Sarah at Life in a breakdown hosting a competition with Wayfair.co.uk I had to enter, there are always things you need for the home and especially in the run up to Christmas when you have a lot more visitors. With £150 to spend I knew exactly what I was going to go for!

These beauties:

A bit boring you might think! But these Lamboro Aldo Bar Stools are just what I have been dreaming of for quite some time. At £44 each I would be able to get 3 for the £150.

These would make my life and Christmas so much easier because...

No more trying to squeeze onto the kitchen table to eat breakfast in the morning I can eat it in peace while the children eat theirs and usually have their 'stuff' (colouring, crafting etc.) next to them.

I can actually use my breakfast bar for what its for...

Instead of somewhere to put our bits and bobs and piles of washing ready for ironing...

And as our kitchen is the largest room downstairs its our gathering point for visitors so with three extra chairs there will be no more standing up, sitting on foot stools, or boxes piled on top of each other.

These would really *really* make my Christmas soooooo much easier not to mention stylish :)

My New Fireplace

Over the past few days, weeks, months.... years, I have been trying to declutter my house and now the children don't touch and mess with everything they aren't suppose to, I want to make it more homely.

One of the things I have done is spruced up my fire place abit. It used to be the dumping ground for things that the kids shouldn't have.. batteries for the remote when they figured how to ping off the back... lose bits of change they found down the sofa, bits of receipts and other unuseful bits and bobs... please say you know what I mean!

My uninspiring fireplace used to look like this:

And no your eyes are not deceiving you- we actually don't have any coal in our fire place. We don't use it and when the boys were little they used to use them as balls, missiles, snacks... and anything else they can possibly think of.

I've been on the look out for different things I can buy to make it look nicer. I wanted bargains as usual :) So after trips to Instore and Matalan this is what it looks like now.

I still want to add I few things as it just looks like something is missing. I think the fire surround would look much better painted- my the hubby is having none of it. I think dark grey, what do you think? The 3 hearts are from B&M a while ago. The single heart and the white heart candle holder are from one of the local garden centres.

Clock £6 from Matalan, we have lived here nearly 8 years and never had a clock in there!

I really liked this simple glass candle stand for £5. I like the fact it will go with any colour and you can change the colour of the candle with the season, I think there will be red ones on there soon!

More candle holders (I'm slightly obsessed with candles at the moment) I want some small light pinky ones to go on here.

And this is what inspired me to start, I thought it was really cute, not only that its a steal at £1.99. Instore have loads of cream pillar candle too.

I like that candles instantly update an area and when your a bit bored of them you can burn them and replace them with different theme or colour etc. Its a really cheap way of updating.

So that fireplace what do you think? To paint or not to paint?

Review: Slumberdown quilted mattress protector

My little man is five now and still has problems with bed wetting. He's not an anxious child or one to worry out things in fact he's quite the opposite. I often wonder if this is the problem he's not actually bothered his does wet and can't actually be bothered getting up.

I carry him to the toilet every night and he has a huge long wee even though I make him go before bed. Some times I don't make it up to him time, in fact this very often happens.

As you can imagine we need a good mattress protector for him as  it gets so much use! We have currently been using the Slumberdown kids waterproof quilted mattress protector. We are hugely impressed.

Firstly I was so surprised at how thick it was, which is great because it just makes the bed more cosy. Its a generous size and we don't have to stretch it over the corners. The biggest difference is that it doesn't crackle and squeak during the night when he's turning over. 

Its a perfect fit!

Sure enough the first night it was on he wet the bed. It was so impressed with the protector. There was no puddle of wee lying on his sheet or protector- it had completely soaked it all in. When I took the protector off, the mattress wasn't wet or the slightest bit damp, it was bone dry.

Straight away I bunged it in the washing machine with his sheet, and dried it on the radiator the next day. Its perfect still and back on his bed.

Its really thick!

You can buy these at Tesco for £10.50, and for that you get a comfy, thick, QUIET mattress protector. Its well worth the money. Everyone should have one.

* We received the mattress protector free for the review. All opinions are my own.

What's wrong with a bit of fakery?

Now we are coming to the end of the year I spend lots of time reflecting on what we have done over the past year. We always set little or big targets at the beginning of the year outlining what we would like to achieve in the house. This year has been a big and very busy year.

Our main project this year was to do our driveway, it was just a single tarmacked driveway with a falling down wall at the side. We wanted to create a double block paved driveway with a smart new wall at the side and we wanted to do it ourselves - mainly to save costs. We dug it out, packed it up and block paved it and built a new wall. It looks great!

During all this we used some of the mud from the driveway to level out our back garden and the rest just got dumped on the front garden. Both garden ended up being such a mess but we had a lovely driveway!

When we finally got round to doing the back garden we wanted fuss free and as low maintenance as possible, so we decided on just a plain lawn, we cut every bush shrub and tree out! We really wanted artificial grass, we looked online and in many stores. Its as low maintenance as you could get! But at the time we really couldn't afford it so we just turfed it. This is what it looks like now:

It needs mowing regularly and strimming just as often, admittedly it doesn't take forever but who wants to spend time mowing? Can you notice the worn grass patches already in the right hand corner, its worn down so quickly.

As for the front garden we never got round to doing that before the winter set in. Its larger than the back garden and it seems to get over grown more than the back aswell. The grass doesn't grow the same, it all different kinds of grass and green weeds. I think it really lets the front of our house down especially with the new drive. 

In the spring I would really like to invest in the artificial grass. I just feel we have invested so much of our time and money in the drive and I don't want to be gardening every weekend for the rest of my life! And we need something to keep up appearances. Artificial grass is such low maintenance we wouldn't have to bother getting the mower out, watering it in the summer, or worry about weeds and the kids ruining it.

Now a days you can hardly tell the difference between the two either. Take these two lawns for instance – can you honestly identify which one is real and which one is fake…and trust me, one of them is:

Photo: Hi-techturf / Couch Grass Suppliers

Come on you can't even tell the difference! The only thing is if we had real grass it would NEVER stay green!

I am completely sold on artificial grass and I can't wait to start looking into it again for next year!

What are your thoughts and has anybody else already got it?