What's your decorating style?

I was feeling all depressed about the lack of progress I've made on the furnishing and decorating front. There's always something that requires massive amounts of money to be spent on it (cars, kids' teeth, stuff like that...) and nothing much left for a new couch or artworks. Reading blogs and forum posts, it seemed as though everyone else had beautifully furnished homes. I'd look around at our old, mis-matched furniture and empty spaces, and sigh...

But I've decided that my decorating style will be Scabby Chic. I'm furiously restoring, recyling and finding new uses for things that we already have, plus I've been hunting down some bargains. eBay is always good for small furniture and decorator items, and I long ago discovered that K Mart and Target offer some surprisingly stylish bits and pieces.

I also have the world's best $2 Shop near my work. They stock a huge range of high quality silk flowers, some lovely vases, photo frames, trays and candle holders, among other things. I see the exact same stuff in fancy homewares stores for five times the price. And no, I'm not telling you where it is. It's my secret.

K Mart find:



Vase, hydrangeas and tea light holder from the $2 Shop, books from our bookcase, and the birdie I picked up in a gift/homewares shop this week.



I have a few DIY projects on the go - I'll post some photos when they're done.


In case anyone's wondering, the definition of Scabby Chic (which I just made up) is spending as little as possible to achieve the look you want. Reinventing the mass of crap that you already own has to be the starting point.

My favourite spaces

Right now, one of my favourite spots in our house is the dining room. Apart from the bifold doors opening onto the al fresco room, which let in heaps of light, it has a nice big window that faces north (well, NNE, to be precise).

So in winter when the sun's shining, it's a lovely place to sit and have a cuppa and/or read the paper with the sun on my back.




Excuse the shrouded outdoor setting - with all the construction still going on nearby, dust is a big problem around here. And since we're not eating outdoors much at this time of year, it saves a lot of cleaning if we keep the table and chairs covered.

Blah

Development of our estate has been racing along for the past few months. For ages it seemed like nothing was happening, and now they're apparently in a big rush to roll out the remaining land releases.

We bought in stage 4 - at the time we signed our contract in early 2007, stages 1-3 were complete, although some of the lots in stage 3 were held back for later release. I'm not sure what that was about, but they were reserved for builders to knock up spec homes on anyway. It took forever for our stage to be completed, and then BAM! stages 5 and 6 were done and settled before we even moved in. Probably because it took so bloody long to build our house *rolls eyes*

Right now, the roads and services for stages 12 and 13 are under construction. On the plus side, the connecting road to the neighbouring estate looks like being finished in a matter of weeks, including a bridge over a very nice billabong and surrounding reserve. On the down side, those stages are only about 100-150m away from us, so the constant roar of trucks rattling to and fro with loads of fill, and the chunka-chunka of the rock breaking equipment is getting a little wearing. I'm almost glad to be going back to work tomorrow, just to get away from the incessant noise.

The mud and mess also drives me mad - I like to walk and run around the neighbourhood, and I'm sick and tired of cleaning mud out of my trainers.

Just thought I'd have a whinge. Back to what you were doing...

;)