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We have always had a media room....even before media rooms were the trend! Unfortunately, it has been neglected as it has suffered all of the side effects of having small children. In simple terms, it was 'child trashed'!
Now that our kids are growing older, however, I decided to give it a 'joojsh' albeit a reasonably inexpensive one!
Firstly, I rearranged the furniture and gave the whole room a good clean. By moving the two single lounge chairs side-by-side, adjacent to the sofa, it made a huge difference in the feel of the room. Thankfully, the tv and cabinet were only a few years old, so they stayed!
Being the avid shopper that I am, I obviously had to force myself to go bargain hunting to add to the decorations. We bought a cabinet and cane basket inserts from Ikea some weeks earlier (great idea but don't get me started on how I asked DH to pick up one colour and he came home with another!). Then I picked up a mega bargain mirror and black rug.
One of the best hints that I can give is to reuse furniture to save money. Remember the make-over that I did in Miss Ten's room? I took her old bedside drawers and put them under the mirror. They make the perfect place to store remote controls. Then I placed the cheap and rather old Big W (or was it Target???) lamp on the top. It makes a wonderful feature in the room. I also dug out an old print that was in storage and got it reframed for $50. It goes perfectly in the room but I only picked it up today so didn't get a photo...sorry!
Finally, I decided that the whole look needed black cushions (hello Target!) and a black throw rug. Voile! Room complete!
The whole look cost less than $500. Ok, one day I will need a new lounge suite (I am thinking red!) but in the meantime, this room which started out as one I avoided has now become a place where I want to spend time!
I so wish that I could do this all day!!! And no, she is not supposed to be there! I found this picture on my camera when I was downloading others that I'd taken. I wonder who took it??? Hmmmmmmm!
It's been ages since I've done a run-down on my favourite things at the moment, so here goes......
Favourite Book
This is hard cause I haven't been doing as much reading as I should be lately! I have completed the final book in the Riley Jensen series though and loved the ending! I am also currently reading a book called 'Haunted Brisbane' by Jack Sim. It's a great little read about supposed haunted parts of the city. The family historian in me loves how the author has been able to maintain anecdotal history which would otherwise run the risk of being lost through generations. And it's a great read for the locals amongst you readers who are interested in that type of thing!
Favourite Television Show
I have many of these at the moment. Still love Packed to the Rafters and am soooooo loving Nathan at the moment. The actor who plays this character is improving before our eyes!
My other all time favourite at the moment is Offspring, the Channel Ten series about a doctor and her neurotic ways in dealing with her life. I love Asher Keddy and have been a huge fan for ages so it seems natural, I suppose that I would love this show. And I must say that the romance between Nena and Dr Chris on this show is hot, hot, hot!!!
For those of you with cable tv, I can also recommend Spirited starring Claudia Karvan. Although the final episode of series one aired last night, they are having repeats this weekend on Channel W, I think. I love this show and I love the character of Henry Mallett. My only complaint is that the final episode left me itching for season 2 to begin. What a pity, it won't start again until next year!
Favourite Movie
I don't know if I have a favourite at the moment but I did see Eat, Pray, Love yesterday. I had read the book and heard all sorts of negatives about the movie, so I went in with little expectation. The reality is that I really, really liked it! I thought that Julie Roberts was excellent as Elizabeth Gilbert and the scenes in Italy made me want to go back there! Definitely worth the effort to see it, however, don't expect big whopping emotional roller coasters during the film. Like the book, it just really bubbles along the pathway of the author's life.
Favourite Music
I started off revisiting my youth and all the songs that reflected it, after some conversations with my teenage son. What has followed is a love of the new music of Mark Seymour (aka, ex-Hunters and Collectors lead singer). He really is fabulous at singing those melodic, soulful tunes. I cannot believe that there isn't a greater commercial market for the amazing music that he is making today. I am now a huge fan!!!
.....Noah of the flood variety, that is! All that is missing is my ark! Lol!
Yesterday, we in Brisbane experience a massive dumping of rain! They say that in one night we had our monthly average of rain. Although it rained non stop all night, at around 7am, it decided to come down in bucketloads!
At that time, I was getting ready for work and sleepily headed out to the kitchen to start breakfast. A quick look out the kitchen window and I discovered that my back pergola had turned into a lake. As I ventured out, lifting pyjama legs as I went so that they didn't hit the water, I turned the corner of my house where my clothesline is and discovered more lake....only this time getting dangerously close to entering the house!
Now, I am not a photographer and don't profess to be one, but you can get an idea from my photos exactly how much water there was and how dark and heavy the clouds were! At this point, DH decided to take the day off work and spent his morning standing out in the pouring rain, digging a channel to open up a gravel-covered drain and help water escape. I left him to it, of course and went to work but thankfully, the rain did ease off enough to prevent any further disaster!
About a month ago, I spotted a gorgeous butterfly lamp in a Pillow Talk advertisement. It was lime green and looked so nice that I decided to buy it for Miss Ten's room. What followed was a month long decorating frenzy that saw, not only her room revamped, but a few extra odds and ends bought for other places in the house as well.
Miss Ten has always had the small room! A lot of the decor was mish-mash and left over from other places in the house. Her old bedside table was a hand-me-down and her 'desk' was an old table that I used as a baby's change table at one stage! Her drawers were bought for $10 at a garage sale and were falling apart and her curtains were cheap Big W ones that were bought before she was born. My BIL, at one stage, gave us a set of wall shelves for her Beanie Kid collection (which is brilliant), but apart from that, the whole room had a 'thrown together' feel!
So, on the day that I went to Pillow Talk to buy the new lamp, I came out with....new curtains, a new doona cover and a new bobble bed cushion.....all in lime green! I then went to the local shopping centre and bought a bobble lime green mat, a hanging thing for more soft toys (I really really dislike the oversupply of soft toys, btw!) and lime green bucket-style containers!
.....And then I discovered Ikea!
Ikea is a long drive from my house and involves going over the Gateway bridge toll road! Regardless, we made the venture in search of a new desk that would fit Miss Ten's little room! We found the perfect one, of course with an additional hutch! Two trips back to Ikea later and we also have a new bedside chest, a new chest of drawers for her cupboard, a lime green wall mirror and a great lime green throw rug! I think I love Ikea now!
So I have included photos of bits and pieces of the new room! What do you think?
Butterfly lamp above from Pillow Talk. I love this colour!
Green throw rug only $5 from Ikea. Doona cover and curtains from Pillow Talk.
Aneboda bedside cabinet from Ikea.
Aneboda chest of drawers fit perfectly inside the wardrobe!
Micke desk and hutch and Snille chair all from Ikea.
Miss Ten loves the Micke hutch as the backboard is a magnetic white board...perfect for holding old Littlest Pet Shop toys (don't know why that $5 was there though!).
Green hangy thing from Target...although I noticed that Ikea has them, too! I also bought a green mat from Target but didn't take a pic for some reason!
