Author: suzanne

I confess – I have been absent from my blog!  …all for good reason.  We were so busy with the finishing touches on our house, and the snag list (which seems like a forever list) that it has stolen all my precious time that I would have spent decorring (is there such a word?)…

My bathrooms are not tiled, but they have a cement finish done in a colour screed (allmost like cemcrete), but it is done by a company called Cape crete, in the colour bone. Both the walls from top to bottom, showers as well as the floors are done with the same finish.  The counters for my basins, are just done in cement, with a plain crete stone finish with freestanding basins on top.  (I must admit that expensive taps are in my long term planning – hopefully 2015).  I have white painted wooden shelves in the open cement counters for towels and other accessories.

Decorating other rooms come naturally to me, but when it comes to bathrooms, I usually like to follow a “less is more” approach, with clean lines and surfaces, pretty towels and good quality hand soap and hand cream.  I am hungry for new ideas on how to decorate my bathrooms without too much clutter.  I have found tips and inspiring pictures on the website, The Inspired room on how to decorate bathrooms.  White remains a favourite to me when it comes to decor, and there is a lovely old bathroom with a cabinet redone in white and new inspirations for an old bathroom.

My current thoughts are leaning towards getting basic accessories like getting a magazine and toilet roll holder for the guest bathroom for Mr Price home, and perhaps a kubu Utility basket or two for the white selves. Another think that would be absolutely crucial is to try to find an old wooden container that is desperately shouting out for some white paint!

Anyway, these are my bathrooms currently – watch this space by next week and who knows what it will look like!?

If all else fails, fresh flowers in one’s bathroom beats any bought item ; )

It has been two weeks since my last blog, but being a winemaker and being busy with the harvest season, I find that I have little time for anything other than grape picking, grape pressing, inoculations, punch downs and pump overs!

However, I can only go so long without feeding the creative decor animal inside of me : )

You might remember I was looking for pedestals / bedside tables to paint for my new main bedroom?   Well, because I have mostly been cellar-bound, I have not had the time to do the necessary browsing in shops.  I thus resorted to my parents garage, a snifflers dream!

I came across two bedside tables which my late grandfather made himself.  He was quite a character, and a real “cowboy” as my gran used to call him.  Living on a farm, he always had a trick up his sleeve and found pleasure in doing the most daring things; he also told the most amazing stories about his apparently outrageous adventures.  Nevertheless, he had a love for carpentry and made so many of these exact bedside tables – enough for his entire posterity!

These are not particularly pretty, but I was determined to make them pretty! On my way home from the winery,  stopped at my nearest Paint & Decor store in Stellenbosch.  It is a great place for inspiration with good advice from knowlegdeable staff, and they are always busy with some project themselves.  With the convenience of Annie Sloan’s chalk paint, that was my product of choice.  Herduck egg blue looked a bit green to me, and I wasn’t sure whether that was what I wanted.  There is also a Louis blue which is more a light blue.  As I have my grandfather’s genes in me, I decided to be adventorous too and decided to paint one bedside table duck egg blue and one bedside table Louis blue.  Who says they both need to be the same colour?

The operation began, and I removed the cupbourd drawers to get a more open shelf look.  I also got new drawer handles, and I was very satisfied with their new look!

One day when I am big, I will have more time for my creative animal and hopefully also have a creative living studio like Irene Hoofs, and have my friends write blogs about my beautiful projects.

My 16month old daughter has learned the word “make up”, (although it really sounds like “maauik up”) and everytime I am busy in front of the mirror, she too grabs one of my make up brushes and all her dolls/teddies get a brush stroke across the face.

What is it that gives magic to a bit of paint?.. or should I say “how is it that paint can give something a touch of magic?”

This past weekend we spent our 5 year wedding anniversary in the beautiful West Coast village of Paternoster.  The interior of the little cottage called Villa Sophia inspired me to pick up my brushes again to breathe new life into my worn furniture.

Red was used more than once, and see how this little desk and old fashioned school hall chair easily becomes the centrepiece of the room.  There is no fear in mixing painted furniture with natural wood furniture – even the red cupboard in the main bedroom says: (if I am this classy, imagine the clothes inside of me” .  A side table’s form is accentuated – and makes it just as pretty to use as a pedestal.  The green display cabinet frames the vintage ornaments inside.

I also spotted a sweet pink stool on a great blog called Decor8.  It is painted in the latest trendy colour Radiant orchid.

My next project is to paint my oak coffee table with Annie Sloan’s chalk  in Country Grey… or should I rather opt for Henrietta?