How to re-stained a wood table with Ronseal Varnish

Hi guys,

Hope you all had a lovely week.

After my last week DIY Nightmare, I thought I'll share with you something a little less risky.

I've bought my current (and first) dining table just over a year ago.
At the time I was hesitating with going for a modern and crisp white extendable table from Next.co.uk or a farmhouse table with a pine top from the Good Shelf Company.

I liked both and spent days agonizing over which one to choose.
At the end, I went with the farmhouse one and to this day, I could not be happier.

I love my table. I love it so much that I have always refused to cover it a tablecloth.
I do occasionally style it with a table runner when I have friends over for dinner but most of the time, I let the wood shine. The problem is that my five-year-old daughter and her friends are not as kind to it as I am.
So after countless ketchup, ribena and butter stains, I've had to re-stain the tabletop.

The hardest part was to strip it of any varnish. I sanded the table for about an hour with my mouse sander.

I wiped off the mess with a damp cloth and water.

Then, I simply followed the instructions on the Ronseal tin and began to work.

I didn't have any white spirit to clean the table so use some surgical spirit instead.
It did the work!

I applied the varnish with a large bristle brush and was done in about 10 mins.
I let it dry for an hour before applying a second coat.

 And tada!

That's what my table looks like now.

I've decided to cover it with a PVC tablecloth because I am not ready to go through all that sanding anytime soon.
It won't look as nice but then my heart doesn't stop every time my daughter accidentally spills water on it!

xoxo

DIY Nightmare!

Hi All,

After weeks of researching and saving, I've finally bought myself some nice curtains for the living room.

One of the first thing I did after moving into the flat was to remove the things used to cover the windows in the room. I can't bring myself to call them curtains as I cannot explain enough how monstrous they were. Not only were they ugly and dirty, but a horrible stench emanated from them.

I truly doubt that these things had ever been watched.

The things: Moving day 

Source: Zoopla.com

Anyway, I bought my brand new cute and sassy curtains from West Elm and a nice satin nickel curtain pole from Homebase.

I couldn't wait to put them up. I had spent nine weeks with no curtains in the front room and I wasn't going to wait a minute longer.
Originally my intention was to use the holes already drilled in by the landlord and simply use the new screws that came with the pole.

However, after three attempts I had to accept that these holes were too big for my new brackets.
I was worried that I would damage the wall by putting pressure on them as I could see that they were already caving into it.

So, like the good DIYer I believed I was, I took my drill and nails out and began to drill a hole into the wall next to the exiting ones.

Within a second or two of drilling, a never-heard before sound and hot water came rushing through the hole!

Yes, dear you got it. I drilled straight through a water pipe!

I can't explain to you enough what went through my head at that moment.
I was flooding the carpet. That I could see. But gosh, I was probably flooding my neighbor's flats too!

How much was this going to cost me? Was I going to jail for this?

I got on the phone to Thames Water as quickly as my phone and their numerous automated options would allow me to and hysterically begged them to send me someone.
I also called about three plumbers before oneaccepted to come over.
By then, I was sobbing uncontrollably.
My poor 5-year-old kept saying: 'Mummy, mummy, there's water coming into the living room! How did that happen?'

About 40 minutes later, the Thames Water engineer came and turned off my water supply.

By then the water had stopped coming through the hole but we could still hear it running behind the wall.

Andy, the magnificent plumber arrives shortly after and I have to say: he was a Godsend.
I was still crying, but he managed to calm me down.

He reassured me that I hadn't been a silly woman because he could not understand why somebody would put a water pipe so close to window, right were anybody would drill holes to put up a curtain.
He even said that if I had paid an handyman, he would have very likely done the same thing.
I was just unlucky to be the one to have done it (and to have to pay for the repair costs).

He also told me that the neighbor's flats were fine and that the only person who was impacted by this was me.

However, imagines my horror when Andy told me that he had to knock down the wall to see the pipe.
My knees buckled.
Again, Andy talked through it and promised to minimize the impact.
By then it was nearly 8 pm. I was so worried about the neighbors but we had no choice.

Andy started knocking down the wall while I kept on crying.
Bless him, he had to come back this morning to finish the job and again, he was kind and comforting.

So now, instead of enjoying my first evening with a bit more privacy in my living room and lovely new curtains to admire, I am writing this post looking at the hole in my wall.

The damaged pipe and the hole after Andy left yesterday evening

The landlord's original holes which were already caving into the wall

Full view of the window

The new pipe and the hole now

Andy will be coming back later on this week to plaster it and bless him, to put up my curtain pole for me.

I guess now, the new tool I need to get before even attempting to drill anything is a pipe and cable detector.

xoxo

Kitchen update

For many renters, the kitchen is often the most frustrating and difficult room to decorate and make feel like their own.

Landlords are often reluctant to part with the cash necessary to modernized it so renters tend to be obligated to live with outdated counter tops, cabinets and dodgy flooring.

My kitchen is not much different.
It is just spacious enough to fit my dining table but that's it.
Everything else in in need of TLC. In addition, I am in desperate need of storage space.

Painting the cabinets and changing the counter tops are out of the question. I doubt that my landlord will not allow it and in all honesty, I really can't be bother.
Landlord is happy for me to paint the walls so I might do so at some point in the future.

However, one thing has been bothering me from the start: the roller blind.
I have nothing against roller blinds. I did however, hated that one. It was cream and brown with dodgy stain all over it. I did not use it or rolled it out. Not once.

A couple of weeks ago I took my daughter to our nearest Homebase and bought a simple grey blackout roller blind for £22.99

I took it back to the flat, chopped it to size, cut the metal blade with my newly acquire mini saw, drilled 4-new holes to fit the wall brackets et voila! I had a fresh and clean new blind which match the interior, my kitchenware and my dining table.

Not bad, hein? Did I mention that I did all that while I had a sore throat, temperature and a very painful lower back? What a trouper am I (or a mad cow, whichever way you want to look at it)!

Next update planned: changing the cabinets hardware.

Updating the hardware is one of the cheapest and most effective way to bring color, new life and class to a piece of furniture. Kitchen cabinets are not exempt.

Stay tuned and in the meantime check out those impressive Renters Kitchen Makeovers!

Source: Design Sponge

Source: Apartment Therapy

Source: The Everygirl

xoxo