90% - 5 minutes. 10% - 5 days

I've worked out some sort of ratio to renovation projects. Some days you reach this point where you're working on a project and in a matter of hours, the whole unit can seem transformed. A day where you really feel like you've accomplished something. The before and after of this, at times overwhelming, transformation is a lot of preparation, moving things, cleaning up and finishing off. While a project is underway, there are days spent working, days with friends and family and days researching.

Finally, today, after 2 weeks of mess in the kitchen, we have finished the wall. Days of touch ups and I am finally satisfied enough to put back the racks and dishes.

Rock Oyster

I have finally gotten round to painting the wall in the kitchen. Continuing on with Wattyl paint, I have used 1 litre of Wattyl ID with a colour called Rock Oyster in a low sheen. The wall is 2 meters wide and 2.6 high so 2 coats was fine for the 1 litre can though I wouldn't want to paint much more than that as there was only really just enough left in the tin to finish the job. We are waiting for the paint to dry so have not yet put back our racks but I will update this post soon so you can check the final look.

For a while I was tossing up between two other greys (Snowdonia and Colourbond Windspray) but settled for this shade of "Greeny, natural grey" called Rock Oyster as it was more fitting with the natural shades of the floor (yet to be installed) and the wood finish benchtops in the kitchen.

We All Live in a Yellow Submarine

I found this image a long while ago and always loved this combination of yellow and white. I like it because its utilitarian, its techno and retro in one. Its neon and makes an impact.


These swatches of green are by Wattyl. They made the shortlist as a feature colour I wanted to use in the bedroom.


The colour we opted for was Perfect Flower. Its shockingly bright from the paint tin and after the first coat on the wall it just looked like fluro yellow! Now that we have finished off the third coat (The instructions say two but it really needed three for a totally streak free finish) It's worked out exactly the way I thought.



Here's a couple of shots of the finished result. What I love about this colour is how it almost glows at times. Its in a sneaky corner in our bedroom where half the wall is behind the door. The colour changes so much depending on how the light hits it at different times of the day. Sometimes it looks golden, at other times more like a deep lime green.

PS: That bedroom door is original and its life is just about over. Its been over-laquered, its got flaked bits and chips, dints and paint flecks on it. It's catching on the frame and scraping off paint on the architraves.

Manhattan Apartment

Late in October, we had two plasterers come in and finish our ceiling. Very professional and very tidy, as well as reasonably priced considering they visited three times. They were a recommendation from one of Petes workmates. The best tradesmen are always from recommendations! The "after pictures" are of the ceiling after just two coats of undercoat. We probably could have gotten away with one but the 10L paint tin was on sale and 4 litres wouldn't have been enough so we thought we may as well use it up. We used Wattyl all purpose undercoat. The top coat is Wattyl "Manhattan Snow". Tinted using Wattyl TradeMax (the trade equivalent. Cheaper than the Design id range and the salesman assured us its pretty much the same thing and no harder to apply).





The wardrobe is now ready for the internals, rails and doors which will be installed this Thursday. Supplied by Impressive Wardrobes, they were the best price around and THE best service. We added some extra drawers with molded handles to the basic layout.




The image above, where the wire sticks down and has black tape on it, will be a pull switch for the light that is to be installed. We found a pull switch by Clipsal. They are actually pretty expensive for what they are, around $25.

The shadow line was a bugger, we had to fill the gaps with pollifilla around the whole perimeter of the unit. Its also a bugger to paint, getting into the gap with a tini-tiny brush. Awesome finish though. It looks really modern, spacious and clean. Just what you need for such a small space.





Still two coats of ceiling paint to go. Its a horrible job. Hurts your shoulders and back, I don't know how people do it as their full time job. Renovating is exhausting! The walls are much more fun with instant gratification. The image above is after just one coat of paint. So much nicer than that horrid yellow colour that was there before. If that was a paint sample it'd be called something like "smokers stain".