Tag Archives: diy

Revamping Your Kitchen Cheaply!

Posted on by Abi

I’ve talked recently about my bathroom and it’s need for a makeover, but the other common woe for householders all over the world is disdain for their kitchen.

Supposedly your kitchen should be the heart of your home but with a new fitted kitchen often costing an arm and a leg, plus all the associated mess and disruption it’s not always easy to revamp quickly. Home style TV programs often tell us that it increases your houses value but a 2012 survey by HSBC found that it only actuallyupped the selling price by £4,577.

So today on the blog we have a few options to spruce up your kitchen with a bit of DIY. Even if the end result doesn’t make you love your kitchen anew, it might tide you over until you can afford a huge makeover or make your house more saleable. Also don’t underestimate the value of a few new appliances, they can lift the whole room.

Get painting!

Instead of replacing whole units, restyle your existing cupboards and storage. A new coat of paint can instantly brighten and modernise a space, whilst replacing handles adds a fresh, clean look.

Change those worktops

Chipped, scratched or outdated worktops (countertops) can be given a new lease of life by replacing the work surface, rather than the whole unit. Laminated worktops are a good option being both durable and mimicing the look of more expensive finishes like granite, marble and wood. If you’re handy with a saw or jigsaw cut and fit them yourself for maximum savings.

Create more space

Suffering from a small kitchen? Don’t grab the sledgehammer just yet, create the illusion of space by removing wall cupboard doors and replacing with glass, if the contents isn’t pretty just use some frosted glass 🙂 Make sure tired pots and pans are kept neatly tucked away, and instead use these shelves to display colour-coordinated crockery or elegant glassware. You could even pop down to your local charity shop and grab some vintage gems.

Retile!

Many jobs don’t require calling in a pro, and a DIY attempt can often achieve the same effect. A tiled splashback can inject style instantly while keeping clean and tidy for a lot longer than a painted wall. Small mosaic tiles in neutral tones look amazing but come in easy-to-apply sheets. If you’d prefer larger tiles just purchase some tile spacers (little plastic crosses to keep your tiling perfect).

Theme your room

Keep your kitchen makeover framed around a defined theme. Neutral rooms look great with a signature colour focused on bright textiles and accessories: look for coloured or printed chair cushions, vases and wall art. Or, for a really sleek finish, try out metallic cupboard handles, a steel-look light fitting and dark-tiled splashbacks.

Take advantage of payment plans

The thought of finding the money to update appliances can put many people off getting stuck into their kitchen re-style, but these purchases can actually be surprisingly affordable if your payments are staggered. Big ticket items like fridge freezers on credit is a great option offered by household companies like Littlewoods, enabling you to spread the cost over a number of months should you need it, avoiding an instant hit on your wallet.

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Advent Calendar Sewing Tutorial

Posted on by Abi

With the festive season fast approaching I decided to share my tutorial to sew your very own advent calendar! I originally wrote this for the Boden Community which has now become the Boden Blog. You might just be able to find it if you scour through the archives, but it seemed far simpler to share it direct with my readers over here.

You Will Need

A hanger (I chose a lovely old wooden one)

2 pieces of fabric to make the background (mine measured 34cm X 48cm but this may vary depending on the size of your hanger)

1 piece of fleece fabric 34cm X 48cm

4 pieces of ribbon approximately 28cm in length

35cm piece of ric rac or ribbon

5 pieces of fabric measuring 12cm X 36cm each

24 mini luggage labels

24 mini gold safety pins

24 Sweets of your choosing.

Step 1

Begin by pinning the two background pieces of fabric together (right sides facing). Then place on top of the fleece fabric (I used an old blanket to cut the fleece from). Sew down one long side, across the bottom and back up the other side, leaving the top free. Iron the pieces together and then trim the fleece back close to your stitches, also trim the corners to aid turning.

Step 2

Turn the fabric the right way out and iron flat again, tuck in approximately 1cm of fabric at the open edge and iron ready for sewing. I chose to hang the calendar using pretty ribbon. Fold the 4 pieces of ribbon in half and tuck into the top open edge of your calendar. Sew across the open edge of the calendar, making sure to catch the ribbon as you go. For a little extra decoration I laid a piece of matching ric rac across my stitches at the top and sewed into place (ribbon would also work). You’ve now completed the background piece.

Step 3

Time to make the pockets! On each piece of fabric turn over 1cm of fabric along one of the longer sides. Iron and then turn another cm over and iron again, this is the top edge of each set of pockets. Now turn each remaining edge over 1cm and iron. Machine stitch just the top edges of the pockets, leaving the other edges free.

Step 4

Position each set of pockets evenly across the background fabric and pin. Machine stitch across the bottom of each pocket and then around the entire edge of the calendar. You will now have 5 large pockets. In my example the first 4 rows have 5 pockets and the final row has 4 larger pockets. To create this you need to machine across each large pocket several times to make smaller pockets. On the first four rows I did this at approximately 6 ½cm intervals. On the final row I sewed at approximately 8cm intervals.

Step 5

To make the calendar numbers I bought some small luggage labels from a Stationary shop. I cut them down just slightly to make them smaller. Using a red and green crayon I then stencilled a number onto each label. These are then pinned to each pocket on the calendar using mini gold safety pins (again picked up from a Stationary shop).

Step 6

Decide who the calendar is for and fill each pocket with an appropriate sweet or gift. It could even serve two or three lucky recipients, just pop a couple of extra sweets in each pocket. Now you have an attractive and reusable advent calendar that should serve you for many years to come.

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