Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Kitchen Make-over

Hi guys!

Today I decided I would finally share my kitchen make-over with you!
Of all the rooms in the house this one has undergone the most drastic change and I am absolutely thrilled with the results!

Here is what my kitchen looked like a few months ago. It's a good size with lots of storage but as you can see it's very dark and there's a LOT going on! Yellow walls, brown cabinets, different coloured surfaces. It was in desperate need of simplifying!


I knew I wanted it white and bright so I put together this little mood board for myself.


As you can probably guess the first thing I did was take a paintbrush to those cabinets and get rid of that dark wood! Enormous piles of mess aside I think you'll agree it already looks a LOT better!!


Next I targeted the tiles. I'm renting so there's no chance of re-tiling (and even if there was it's a little out of budget).

I bought some self-adhesive vinyl from Homebase, cut it into squares the same size as my tiles and simply stuck them over! Here's how they looked before and after.


I chose a vinyl from a company called Designs Folie in silver to help reflect light back into the room. If you're wondering how these hold up when they get wet the answer is very well! They've been in place for two months now and even the ones around the sink are still going strong! I have a feeling that the quality of vinyl differs from brand to brand though coz I lined my bathroom cabinets with a different brand and it's not doing quite so well!

I also used white vinyl (the good quality stuff) on the over-head cabinets. They were already covered in a sort of marble effect, laminate so there was no way of painting over them. Here's the 'before' although it's difficult to see exactly how the marble effect looked.


I started at the top edge and worked my way down before moving on to the middle section and finally the top and bottom edges. I cut each piece slightly wider than the width of the section I was covering so that it would overlap onto the wood and metal areas seamlessly.

 
Here you can see what a difference the white vinyl made to the cabinet!


This is how it looked once the whole thing was covered.


I lived with it like this for a few weeks before deciding it was still a little flat so I added some colour! I couldn't paint the inside of the cabinets so I bought some thick card from a stationary store, cut it to size and wedged it into the back of each cabinet.


In case you're wondering, the walls haven't been painted, these pictures were just taken at different times of the day.

To continue the blue and red theme I added a pegboard pot holder (with the help of my boyfriend) to a spare wall along with some other accessories to tie everything together.



I absolutely LOVE my pantry door handles! I got them on sale at Zara Home. My rug cost just £15 from IKEA  and my tea towel (which I'm planning to frame at some point) came from Pretty Berlin

There's still a few things I'd like to add like a blind for the window and maybe a few more accessories here and there but for now I'm very happy with it!


And that's my kitchen!! Thanks so much for reading! Come back soon for more make-overs, decorating inspiration and fun home accessories. Until then have a Happy Hump Day!! :)





Monday, December 16, 2013

Organising Spices

Hi guys!

I just recently redecorated my kitchen (photos to come soon) and I've been having more fun than I care to admit implementing some of the fantastic organising tips that I've been drooling over on Pinterest! One of my many favourites is this drawer organiser which I found on fakeitfrugal!


I absolutely HATE riffling through a shelf of almost identical bottles, inevitably knocking some over and having to have this conversation with myself, 'wait...did I just check this one? nope, don't think I did. wait...no, that's not it either...did I just check that one...?' At this point I normally become convinced that I don't have any *insert literally any spice here* left and go to buy some only to find it during a later search for cumin. All my rambling aside, spices are annoying and I'm very glad someone had the good sense to find a way of taming them!

Here's how my spice organising went! These are my spices before.


Below is one of four corner pieces of protective packaging which came with my oven. Heather at fakeitfrugal used something else but I believe in making use of what you've got (which is why I've been happily tripping over these in my laundry room for nearly two months now)!


I started by cutting the cardboard into three pieces the same width as my drawer using a saw.


At this point I could have just inserted them into place and added my spices but I went one step further and sprayed them blue to match my cabinets :)


And that's it!

I am in love with this solution!!! It's completely put an end to all the rummaging, it cost me nothing AND it took like 5 minutes!! Now all I have to do is nag my boyfriend into putting things back label up! Wish me luck :)



Saturday, December 14, 2013

Last Chance Deals

Hi guys!!!

If you haven't been checking out the DENY Designs 12 Days of Holiday Deals don't worry coz there's one more chance to save money on their wonderful products!!! Head there now to get 25% off all decorative trays!!! Simply use discount code SERVEITUP25 at checkout!!


To see all available Aimee St Hill trays click here.

You can also find matching and coordinating products by clicking here!

Thanks for reading, happy shopping!!! :)



Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Dining Accessories & Christmas deals!

Hello all!!

If you've been following me on Facebook (if not you really should be!) then you'll know that my licensing partners have been taking things up a notch this holiday season with lots of amazing deals on all sorts of products!!!

Today's deal is $6 off all mugs in my Society6 store! So with this in mind I've put together some inspiration boards of some of the fantastic dining accessories that are now available just in time for Christmas!!!

 Paisley Mix-and-Match Collection


 Shop this collection:
1) 'Leela Orange' Coaster Set                                            3) 'Paisley Orange' Tray
2) 'Patchwork Paisley' Mug                                              4) 'Baroque' Place Mat


Illustrated Mix-and-Match Collection

 Shop this collection:
1) 'Gems and Birds' Coaster Set                         3) 'Illustration' Tray
2) 'Chevron' Mug                                               4) 'Pink Bloom' Place Mat

 Ayanna Mix-and-Match Collection

  Shop this collection:
1) 'Leela Navy' Coaster set                                         3) 'Ayanna' Tray
2) 'Stripe2' Mug                                                          4) 'Pink Modern Baroque' Place Mat


If you're not a fan of mix-and-match you can also get a number of matching sets like these!


Decorative Collection 

Shop this collection:
1) 'Decorative Blue' Tray
2) 'Decorative Blue' Coaster Set
3) 'Decorative Blue' Mug

Amirah Collection


 Shop this collection:
1) 'Amirah Red' Tray
2) 'Amirah Red' Coaster Set
3) 'Amirah Red' Mug

To see all available place mats click here, for Square and rectangular trays click here, to see all coaster sets click here and for all mugs click here!


Thanks for reading!! Don't forget you can find out about daily Christmas sales on all my products by following me on Facebook. Click here to do so!

Happy shopping! :)

UPDATE: Today is the last day of DENY Designs holiday deals!!! To bring an end to the sale, all trays are now 25% OFF when you use discount code SERVEITUP25 at checkout!!!! Click here to see all Aimee St Hill trays! 




Tuesday, December 3, 2013

12 Days of Holiday Deals



Deny Designs 12 Days of Deals starts today!!! We're kicking things off with 30% off throw pillows!!
Use code COLORPOP30 at the checkout to redeem your discount on all these throw pillows and much, MUCH more!!!

Click here to see all available Aimee St Hill throw pillows! You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook to get up to the minute deals this holiday season!!