Good Moaning!  What’s cooking? 

Well it is hot hot hot here in Sydney.  We have been to the beach this morning to cool off, but found it closed because of the surf conditions so we headed over to the ocean pool and took a swim in there, the water was icy cold…but it was that hot that even I found myself diving in (well ahem I can’t dive but in my mind I did).

In other news, this weekend I have spent, in between surf carnivals, making tomato relish and running around with my taxi driver duties, much time de-cluttering…something is in the air in Beach Cottage Land…and if you happen to be passing the big Vinnies on the main road, you’ll find a whole heap of the contents of this old cottage, including stripey cushion covers, and most of Mr BC’s wardrobe in there..hee hee. 

I have no idea why we were keeping half of the stuff or indeed, how it seems to accumulate almost entirely on its own, I mean it has nothing to do with the fact that I spend a large part of my life hunting out vintage things and stashing them so that they cannot be found.  Nothing. 

So the whole point of this clearing out of the cr*pola is to get the study into a calm, free environment, where one can sit down easily and where one can make it out the door without having to do an odd little shimmy to manoeuvre oneself around various boxes, the ironing board and a huge pile of craft supplies owned by someone who doesn’t do craft…

First of all I had decided that the Lack shelving unit from IKEA, that used to be in the Breakfast Room would come in here and be used with these baskets for storage. 

But, my friends, a very very strange thing has happened. 

Since I have relieved myself of, oh about 20 sacks full of clutter, a la Flylady, there doesn’t seem to be much left to store…and I now am wondering actually what I will put on shelves.   (Here’s the window…thinking some kinda burlap/linen blind)

And now I don’t really know where to start with this makeover…I do know that somehow in here I want to put this old filing cabinet that I recently found at Salvos for $30.  (Shown here after two coats of primer)

I have had my eye open for one for a while now…I wanted one with these old cardholders on the front and chunky handles, but what I always found were newer old ones, if you see what I mean.  

So one day a few months ago, out treasure hunting this caught my eye.  It had no price on it, which in this particular Salvos is ominous because it often has things like ‘vintage, an oldie’ blah blah blah and thinks of itself as an antiques shop rather than what it actually is.  

So I asked the assistant for a price and what ensued was a long drawn out affair of fetching the manager, umming and ahhing, getting another girl in to take a look, nigh on having a conference about the cost of this cabinet. 

By that stage I had already in my mind discounted it, thinking that these girls all knew something about this vintage style cabinet that I didn’t.  

That perhaps its inside was lined with gold. 

When the manager turned to me quizzically and asked ‘how does $30 sound?’

I gave her a resounding ‘done’. 

Anyway that’s it from me my friends, I will be seeing you all tomorrow…

Yours in de-crappifying 

G'day lovelies!  It's gorgeous weather here, sadly I am a little sunburnt from yesterday.  I spent much of the day on the beach for one reason or another and now have patches of sunburn to show for it…

Anyhoo, here's the Glory Box in the Study (if you want to see the Work In Progress post, go here). 

 She turned out quite nicely, don't you think?  Though, actually, I had a vague idea about painting black first and then the white and rubbing back so the black showed through (saw this on a blog somewhere) – there were two reasons I didn't do this, firstly I had no black paint and couldn't be bothered to shop for it and secondly I thought that it might mean more than two layers of white if I did that, and I couldn't be bothered with that either.  

So I just did my regular treatment, too easy, a coat of primer plus one of Dulux Whisper White or White on White (which this one is) and has a very slight warm tint to it…

As you know we found her at a garage sale, on a day when we just scooted out for a very quick look with a coffee and came home with lots of lovely finds including her for just 10 dollars and a pie crust mirror which is now hung in the WC (yes I'm still procrastinating over that sink skirt that I threw on the floor in disgust). 

This is the most basic of makeovers, but in my book, no less lovely for it.  

I want to emphasize that to makeover an old piece of furniture, such as this, you don't have to be a master DIY-er or anything so fancy, all you need is a paintbrush, some paint and limited skills.  I think it really is a good idea to take the time with a good quality primer (there's a video on how I do it here), and if you buy a decent one (I use Zinsser), it's hardly an arduous job to slap on a quick coat…

Oh and there's a new episode of { Beach Cottage TV }, click here, if you fancy seeing us find this old lady…

See ya

p.s. found some rocking vintage doors at the weekend…stay tuned!

blogged for the 42nd Met Monday, thanks Susan