Robert's Bedroom Update

ROBERT'S BEDROOM UPDATE SPONSORED GIVEAWAY AFTER MANY WEEKS working on Robert’s new bedroom, I’m happy to show you the end result. He wanted to be involved in the whole process and it was fun to work on a project with him. I showed him fabric samples, we went shopping together for table lamps and other items and because he has been so involved he loves showing visitors his new room and giving them a rundown of all changes. Thanks to Sleepmaker we were able to give Robert a new larger bed to sleep in and his other bed has been passed onto Christopher for when he is ready to transition into it. We painted the walls in his bedroom the same colours as the rest of the house - very light and bright whites was really important for this room as it doesn’t have much sun for a large part of the day. I ordered a bedhead using this very beautiful cockatoo fabric. The green colour was picked from wallpaper in the same design and colour matched to use on fabric. I also asked for piping to finish off the bedhead and I think this gives it a clean, finished look. The bedside tables were very much a splurge. After never having had bedside tables in his bedroom I wanted to give him something special. As soon as they arrived he filled them with books and his favourite toys. We wanted to add very subtle white wallpaper to the area above the chair rails but we haven’t settled on a design yet so for now I painted some very subtle triangles in the corner of his room which can only be seen when the sunlight hits it from certain angles. It’s our little ‘surprise’ touch, if you will, and best viewed in person.	There is also lots more storage added and a bench seat to read books and relax. SLEEPMAKER GIVEAWAY Sleepmaker are offering a sleep set valued at $750 to one ish & chi reader. The sleep pack includes: 2 x pillows 2 x pillow protectors 1 x waterproof mattress protector 1 x quilt  To enter, simply leave a comment on this post describing “Your Dream Bedroom”. I’ll announce the winner in January. Good luck! Congratulations Lndeang, you are the lucky winner! Please send me an email to viv@ishandchi.com and we will arrange to send you your prize.
ALL THE DETAILS Bedhead: BedNest with Cockatoo fabric from Signature Prints Bedside tables: Imported - contact me if you are interested in purchasing Table lamps: Freedom Bedlinen and blanket: Sheridan Picture frames: Country Road Boy + Girl artwork: David Bromley Giraffe artwork: Watercolour painted by me Elephant artwork: Wallpaper sample by Abnormals Anonymous Macaw artwork: Sharon Montrose Bow tie: Seed Heritage - part of pageboy outfit worn at our wedding Cabinets for bench seat: IKEA Cushions: Custom upholstery, fabric from No Chintz Animal figures: Schleich Scatter cushions on bench: Ferm Living Wooden pig: A holiday souvenir painted by Robert  If you would like assistance putting together a room for your home, feel free to contact me about my design services.

Goodbye, tree

Last winter, the largest tree in our backyard dropped its leaves. We thought it was a seasonal change and the leaves would return when the weather warmed up but it never did. Turns out our beloved native has died and has become a bit of a hazard with large branches falling off almost daily. We have had to keep Robbie from playing in the garden until we have it removed.

An arborist checked it out and he thinks it may have been hit by lightning. Trees usually die very slowly and a quick death could mean it has been burnt. Our council has approved its removal and it will be cut down tomorrow. Sad to see this beautiful tree gone!

The council conditions for tree removal is that we plant two Australian native plants in our garden. Do you have any recommendations for what we should plant in this shady part of the garden?

Robert's New Bedroom: Selecting a Mattress

This post is sponsored by Sleepmaker.

When I last wrote about Robert’s bedroom we were not sure if he would swap rooms with the study / spare room or if it was to remain his bedroom. I did not know at the time of writing the post that I was pregnant with Christopher and all our plans would change. We set to work preparing the spare room to be a nursery for the new baby and fixing the house overall so that it looked less like a demolition zone and more like a house that we could raise two children in.

So while Christopher has a nice newly decorated bedroom, Roberts’ bedroom was freshened up but not completed. We simply ran out of time. Below is what his bedroom looks like now.

Some of the changes to his room you may have seen previously and these include:

• Fit new tall timber skirting boards (in his bedroom and throughout the house so it all matches)
• Install chair rail (in all bedrooms)
• Rip out the old 1970’s wardrobe and design a new built-in wardrobe. The wardrobe was installed on an adjacent wall which makes more sense for the configuration of the room.
• Strip the circus wallpaper. The new wardrobe was installed on the wall that featured this wallpaper and so it regrettably needed to go. We did leave a large piece of the wallpaper on the wall behind the wardrobe to keep it as a piece of the houses’ history - I’m sentimental like that.
• Swap the weird privacy window glass with clear glass panels
• The new glass now lets more natural light into the room so we also needed to order and install window blinds. While we were at it, we ordered block out blinds for all bedrooms.

Yep – the work snowballed and we still weren’t done! The house does feel fresher than it ever did and these seemingly small changes have made a difference but Robert’s bedroom walls remain unpainted and he has a mismatch of furniture. Basically, no real thought has gone into the decorating of his new bedroom.

When Sleepmaker approached us offering a budget to decorate a bedroom and to select a new mattress from their range, it was the push that we needed to complete his bedroom. Robert loves decorating and rearranging his room (not sure where he gets that from?) so when I told him the news he was excited and even drew me a picture of the style of room he wanted.

His brief to me: “Jungle theme with dinosaurs and really tall trees in each corner of the room, grass on the floor and a large T-Rex dinosaur, please.”

Now I don’t like to disappoint my clients so I knew that we needed to negotiate here. Keeping in mind the timeline to complete this project (next month), I didn’t think I could source a real T-Rex in time. So we discussed the plans and the revised brief is to display his collection of dinosaur toys, a potted plant that he will take care of and animal print fabrics that he approves of.

The more detailed plan, which has his seal of approval, is as follows:

1. A new ensemble and mattress, with thanks to Sleepmaker, in a Double size. His bedroom can accommodate a larger bed and we will keep his current bed for Christopher for when he is ready to move into it.
2. A custom bedhead in bright fabric to act as the centerpiece of the bedroom.
3. Robert and I read books before bedtime but the lighting in his bedroom isn’t the best for this. He has a floor lamp and a pendant light but he really needs table lamps by his bed and these ones from Freedom have adjustable heads.
4. Robert doesn’t currently have bedside tables and I wanted to splurge here and import two beautiful bone inlay bedside tables from India.
5. New soft white bed linen
6. We will also finish painting his bedroom walls and the new built-in wardrobe
7. Hang new artwork incorporating some of his own drawings (of dinosaurs most likely)
8. Add a soft rug for the floor

We selected his new mattress ensemble using the Sleepmaker Mattress Selector Tool. Our requirements were for a good quality mattress that supports a growing spine and is suitable for a child that suffers from allergies. The selector tool is a simple questionnaire and based on our selections we were presented with a list of recommended mattresses to try in-store. So off we went to try the recommended mattresses out in person. This involved me lying on them while trying to stop Robert from jumping up and down on them.

The winner was the Vega Cushion Firm mattress from the Together Alone collection and we selected it because it met our criteria. It also supports optimal spinal alignment, regulates heat (which is great because Robert is often complaining about being too hot when he sleeps) and is good for controlling allergies, as it will not harbour mould or bacteria. I also liked the pocket spring technology in which the system consists of individual coils, so if there is movement on one side of the mattress, the disturbance is minimised on the rest of the mattress. This is because each coil acts independently and is not connected – perfect for those nights I might find myself sleeping next to my little wriggler.

The mattress and ensemble were delivered last week and Robert didn’t waste any time jumping on it. I am in the process of completing the decorating of his room and will share with you the ‘after’ photographs in the next few weeks along with a special giveaway!

Nursery (progress)

Goodness, it has been a while. Hello and I hope you are well!

We are excited to welcome to the world our little boy Christopher who is the reason for the radio silence here. He is 6 weeks old and we think he is totally adorable.

Over the last few months we have been working on various projects around our home including his nursery room. We installed new skirting boards, chair rail and bedroom door and had this beautiful bespoke Florence Broadhurst wallpaper hung. Photos don't do the wallpaper justice I'm afraid. The metallic paper base picks up the morning light and it is such a joy to be in this space. The artwork, titled 'The Alchemist' is by Melbourne artist Carla Fletcher and the koala reminds me of a curled up newborn baby.

This room used to be the study and it was a very small room until we tore down a large and very old (and smelly) built-in wardrobe which opened up the space and gave us more room to play. We still have plans to sand and polish the floorboards and have an upholstered seat cover made for the window seat. Of course, Christopher will also leave his special mark on his room as he grows into it. We have mid-long term plans to either renovate our home and create a new, larger bedroom for Christopher or to move to a larger home for our growing family. Keeping this in mind I designed the room to be able to function as a home office again in the future and the finishes were selected to be versatile enough to convert to such a space when the time comes.

Some pieces you will recognise from Robbie's old bedroom. The chest of drawers doubles as a change table again and Robbie has 'lent' Christopher a couple of his toys. I'm on the hunt for a new lamp and some more special items to personalise his room. There's no hurry to 'complete' the room though. It works just fine for us as it is and for now I am spending my days enjoying time with my boys.

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+ If you would like assistance putting together a room for your home, feel free to contact me about my design services.

In progress: Robbie's bedroom

When I shared these images on instagram I didn't anticipate the reaction I would get. The wallpaper in Robbie's bedroom covers an entire wall and part of an adjacent wall. I have a sentimental attachment to wallpaper and it is nice that others love it as much as I do too but I'm pretty sure the 'Dislikes' would have outweighed the 'Likes' if there was that option. Circuses are pretty cool so I understand! David and I had planned to remove all of the wallpaper in the bedroom but I couldn't bring myself to do it (yet) so he removed a small strip that looked odd on its own after we removed the built-in wardrobe in his room.

Okay, let me take a step back for a second.

You might remember a million years ago we wanted to swap the office room with Robbie's bedroom. The main reason for the swap is that the office has much more natural light. The downside to the room swap is that the office is smaller than his current bedroom. After discovering some issues with the wall and ceiling in his current bedroom right right where the built-in is located, David and I made the decision to temporarily move Robbie into the office and to go to town ripping out the wardrobe and fixing the wall and ceiling issue. The wardrobe was old so there would be no love lost there.

It would only take the weekend, right? Wrong. I had a vision of the wardrobe coming apart in nice whole pieces but it was super bonded to the wall and held on with all its might. After a few hours and high kick manoeuvres, David worked out a way of kicking out one part of the frame that would cause the whole wardrobe to come down like a pack of cards. It was dramatic but it was done. But we weren't anywhere near completing this project and there were a few hiccups in store for us.

Firstly I became paranoid that the walls behind the built-in were asbestos. We brought in an expert to check it out for us and he thankfully gave us the all clear. I could have kissed him but that would be weird. The plaster walls were very old though and they needed more work to get them up to scratch than we originally thought. Also, the walls didn't join at the edge and there was a one inch gap in between that also needed filling.

While we were in the hardware store looking for materials I had the bright idea of swapping out the old skirting boards with new ones. Easy, I thought. We have already created a mess we may as well make this room look better than it was. I didn't factor in though just how crappy the plaster walls are. David used a whole lot of patience to install them and I kept myself out of his way busy laying on a second coat of paint to the walls and ceiling of the entire room using the smallest hand roller ever invented while balancing on ladders and furniture and with both of us rushing to finish before Robbie arrived home that afternoon.

We got there though and we now have a beautiful and freshly painted room with one wall of circus fun still intact and fresh new skirting boards. It would be nice if I could tell you that the project ends here and to show you a few fancy 'after' shots but we aren't quite done.

The floorboards that were hidden under the built-in were stained a different shade to the rest of the room so now we are looking at either trying to match them or to sand back the floorboards THROUGHOUT THE HOUSE and giving them a new lighter finish.

I have also thrown the idea out there of replacing the high horizontal window in the bedroom with large doors that open out into the garden and replacing the privacy glass of the other window with clear glass to bring in more natural light. We may never be done with this project and it is still to be decided if he will want this room as his bedroom again. I'm proud of us getting this far though.

Christopher Farr fabric for the cane chairs

It is nice to complete a (small) project. The cane chairs arrived back from the upholsterer. Here is one of them with new beautiful box cushions and piping to complement the shape of the frame. Beats the way they used to look with the puckered edges, I think. The cushion is from Trina Turk which we purchased in L.A and it travelled with us on the long haul flight home. It makes me crave another holiday!

Accident, what accident?

Thank you to The Home for featuring my living space in their online magazine. The story was delayed because of the accident with the artwork above the sofa and I wanted to share the space with it in there. The artwork is back on the wall again and fingers crossed it stays that way!

Exotic Birds

David and I visited Signature Prints on Saturday. I wanted to see if there was any suitable fabric in the offcuts pile that could be used for a couple of projects. We both share a love of art and not surprisingly we were distracted by the artwork hanging on the walls.

Relaxing outdoors.. oh yeah, and I painted the front door red!

When I was holidaying in Greece years ago we stayed at my grandmother's house for a week. It was a tiny one bedroom house with a small doorway that you had to bend down to enter through otherwise you would hit your head. My grandmother was a short lady so it was fine for her!

We spent much of our time relaxing at the front of the house, sitting on old chairs, playing cards and eating figs we had picked that morning. I have such great memories of that trip. We met many locals who would stop by to say 'hello' and chat to us over the fence. Sometimes they would come in for a coffee, other times they would continue on but the conversation was nice. The village had a wonderful community feel to it and everyone knew each other.

Home Tour updated

I have been working on the blog layout, small improvements which I hope will make navigating the website easier for you. The Home Tour has been updated to include quick references of the changes made to the each space of the house. Here's an example:

Hovering over the images will reveal the product sources for some of the main items in each space:

It is beginning to look like Christmas

We have been getting ready for Christmas. The tree is up. Holidays planned. Still need to buy gifts!

Last weekend David pulled the tree out of storage. Christmas snuck up on me too fast last year and I hadn't put it up. I have to be honest it doesn't really feel festive if we don't decorate the tree.

Enjoying home life

All these years that I've been working on the home means that we can now enjoy it as it is. It still needs work and repairs but it is a happy place. Our happy place. I spend much of my time right here on this sofa with a book, watching Robbie play or lying here watching a movie with my partner. It has become one of my new favourite spots and I find I'm spending more time at home these days (have I become boring?).

Do you have a favourite spot in your home?

Planning

We are well into the planning and organising and packing and unpacking and all the other fun stuff that goes into moving into a new home, in this case with my partner moving into our home. I'm not moving! I am using this as an opportunity to also clean out years worth of things that I have hoarded and to also dream up a new plan for our space. Until the budget allows this may stay as a dream, but how gorgeous do these items look together?

How to make your house stand out on the street

Hang a large street number out the front. The postman now has no excuses! I picked up this metal number from Doug Up On Bourke. Every time I visit this shop, even if I promise myself to only browse, I leave with something in my hands. Purchased, of course. It is literally filled to the brim with goodies with antiques hanging from the walls and ceilings. Be sure to visit if you are in Sydney.

Leaving the past alone

Last night I came home to a clean house. My mum knows I have been busy lately so she ducked in to give me a hand. Thank you, mum. The garden is the toughest to look after. Lugarno is a very leafy suburb to live in and the council here loves trees. When I first moved in a neighbour filled me in about the previous owners of our house. One was a lady with a passion for plants, especially Australian natives, and was the person the council turned to for advice on which trees to best to line our street.

First sprouts

Despite all the rain we have had here in Sydney and a vegetable patch that looked more like one big mud puddle, a few sprouts have appeared. Almost three weeks of sun and rain (but mostly rain) and the garden is looking a mess but there is a sign of life.

And I am still determined to grow these vegetables.


Please keep your fingers (and toes and eyes) crossed for me!

Vegetable planting

Okay so I'm back into it again. Vegetable planting. I did well last year! I couldn't kill off the spinach for the life of me.

This time I enlisted the help of my partner and we planted beans, carrots, beetroot, lettuce, bok choy, garlic, silverbeet and broccoli. Something has to survive from all that don't you think?

The front garden

I have to start this post by saying Robbie has become quite the photographer lately. This is a photo he took of me yesterday. Of course I was caught unprepared. He took a few shots of the garden too but they turned out a bit blurry. Below are the ones I took. I found it rather cute though when he pointed the camera at a tree and said 'cheese'!

Overdosing on wallpaper

How much is too much?

Macaw

When I had Robbie's print framed I also had this photograph framed too. It only took me a year to finally get around to doing it! (the above photo was taken this time last year)