DIY Archives - Ginger Bisquite

Creating a Beach Hut Playhouse

October 23, 2014 by Jenni Clutten | 2 Comments

Finally I’m allowed to reveal my post on creating a beach hut playhouse. It’s been a really exciting project to be a part of the Waltons Make It Your Own Playhouse and the transformation below was achieved with a budget of just £50. waltons playhouse challenge

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Let the kids line up those sand castles and search for treasure on the beach of this stripy beach hut in the comfort of your own garden. Create a picnic feast to enjoy at the hut table and cuddle up in the seating area for story time as you all stare up at the fisherman net ceiling and watch the breeze gently move the driftwood mobile.

THE INTERIOR

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The beach hut playhouse interior was put together with a collection of thrifted finds, mainly from items we had lying around the house.

The Walls and Ceiling – I used a quick splash of cheap white emulsion on the interior walls and ceiling we had leftover really lightened up the playhouse, and gave it that extra beach wood feel. Once dry I stapled some pea netting from the green house to the ceiling, to create a flowing fisherman’s net and added some dried seaweed we picked up from the beach.
The seating area – I used a woven beach mat from the garden center, (£1.50) to create a comfortable floor then for the seat I used a pregnancy pillow (or you coud use a few old pillows) covered in an old blanket and added a cushion we had lying around in Nye’s bedroom.
Toy Storage – An old picnic basket or wicker basket creates fantastic beach style storage. Wicker is perfect for storing away any tray toys and keeps them clean and dry.
Furniture – I used a spare set of table and chairs from inside the house to showcase all our other beach finds from our holiday. These are fantastic sensory treats, and they look just perfect displayed on a nautical paper tray from Tesco (50p)
Driftwood Mobile – Create a perfect holiday momento with some free beach driftwood and some string. You’ll seed a drill, some drift wood (and shells) and some string. Select a drill bit that is slightly bigger than the thickness of your string and drill holes through the center of each piece of wood and tie knots into the string where you’d like the wood to sit.

diy driftwood mobile

Painting furniture with Farrow & Ball

September 25, 2014 by Jenni Clutten | 0 comments

painting furniture with farrow and ball

Are you looking to create a personalised piece of furniture for your home with Farrow & Ball paint? Then look no further, here you’ll find tips on just how to get a great look, painting furniture with Farrow & Ball Estate Eggshell.

The photos above were taken by me, and the whole look took just two days to complete, including sanding and cleaning the chest of drawers. Turning an old piece of battered furniture into a zingy, fun and function chest of drawers.

To get the look, you will need:

Electric sander or sand paper
Cloth
Plyers
Hammer
Primer (I used cheap white emulsion)
Paint
Paintbrush(s)
New door knobs (optional)

What paint do you need?
First decide what you want to paint, then you can work out which paint would be best and how much you’ll need. For this project, I selected the Estate Eggshell in Yellowcake No.279 which has a lightly glossed finish. I used a 2.5litre tin and once I had finished my two coats I still had over half a tin left. I lam so in love with this wonderfully retro colour and already have some plans to upcycle a play table for Nye’s beach hut playhouse too.

How to prepare your furniture?
Next look at your piece of furniture and assess what finish it currently has. Has it been varnished, waxed, painted or do you have a plain pre sanded piece that is ready to go? Most older furniture tends to be varnished (as mine was) and the easiest way to get rid of this is by using a good sander. For this reason flakey pieces of furniture are the easiest to sand as you’ve already had a helping hand! Before sanding I removed all the handles, taking the bolt off the back with a pair of plyers then using a hammer to loosen the handle from its hole. Next, is the sanding and you can either sand by hand (time consuming), or use an electric sander. We have the which is far superior to anything else I’ve used, to do the entire unit I think it took me about an hour and wasn’t as much hard work as you’d imagine. yellowcake farrow and ball

How to paint?
I started the process by using a white undercoat, painting the drawers and overall unit with two thin coats, then left it to dry overnight. I painted any bits of the drawers you would see day to day, so the draw fronts and edges but left the internal drawers Most paint companies seem to suggest that you leave 4 hours between coats, I admit I did cheat a bit on the undercoat as the wood just sucked it all up. I used a bog standard brush for both the undercoat and the top coat and for . If you wanted a brush stroke free look you can use a small roller to great effect but you may need to do more coats.

Finishing Touches
Adding or repainting handles is a great way to modernise a piece. (I find Ebay and Anthropologie a great place to find unique and unusual ones.) To finish off my chest of drawers, I managed to pick up some cute handles, in what happened to be the exact shade from TK Maxx which were £4 for 4. I mixed these in with a set of original handles and I really like the two tone look it gives.

So, dare I ask, what do you think? Do you have any furniture knocking around that you’re dying to update? What colour paint would you choose for your house?

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Disclosure: This feature is in collaboration with Farrow & Ball, all thoughts words and opinions my own.

Personalising a playhouse #mywaltonsplayhouse

August 31, 2014 by Jenni Clutten | 0 comments

Over the next few weeks they’ll be plenty of playhouse updates, as I’ve taken up the Waltons Playhouse Challenge, to decorate a playhouse for just £50.

You may have noticed from my media feeds that I have been going a little playhouse crazy and now you know why. (Not that I ever need any more of an excuse to while away many an hour on Pinterest.) This happens to be the second playhouse I’ve painted in the last few months, as we recently bought and assembled one for Nye’s pre school. Thankfully this time, I have the pleasure of keeping the playhouse though.

After already painting a cute cottage playhouse for Pre School, I wanted to do something totally different for our garden. So, in the end we decided to go for a beach hut theme. I have already had so much fun, thinking up thrifty ideas and you can see an amalgamation of all my plans and inspiration on my board below.

Making a start

I learnt from my previous playhouse painting experience that once the paint is dry it develops a slightly plastic quality which means once you’ve started painting you can’t easily paint over the top. So personally I start with the painting, especially any specific design work I want to include.

To go with my beach hut theme, I decided to paint an anchor onto the front of the playhouse. To do this I simply found a simple anchor clip art, then enlarged it to fit on one side of A4. I then held this in place and used a biro to trace round the outline, leaving a clear mark on the surface of the wood. Once completed, I could then fill in the outlined shape with my paint.

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Once the anchor section was done, I continued to paint the other panels in cream. I’ve used a lot of garden paint this year but discovered when researching colours that, B&Q, Homebase and Wickes now do their own brand of garden paint which is cheaper than the normal brands. We already had a little blue paint left, but I bought the cream from Wickes for £15.99. I’ve now painted the whole house, and only have touch ups to do, and 2.5litres has been the perfect amount to do two coats all over.

You can now see the progress I have made so far, with the blue and white colours coming together and the anchor taking shape. Another thing I learnt from the last playhouse is that there is sticky back plastic on the windows so there’s no need to worry about neat edges as they will clean up perfectly when it’s all finished.

And finally here’s a quick breakdown of what I’ve spent so far. My next challenge is to find as much sand as possible to create a beach for the front and start making the finishing touches that will bring it all together, including a palette sofa, curtains, DIY beach mobile and a fishing net hack.

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Disclosure: Post in collaboration with Waltons, all thoughts, words and opinions my own.

Creating a garden office

May 23, 2014 by Jenni Clutten | 3 Comments

We are still in the process of creating a garden office as a new and productive space for us to inhabit. Our plans began when we bought our house and inherited 2 sheds. One is quite large and with a little TLC we knew it would be a perfect way to give us an extra room without resorting to an extension.

A lick of paint:
It is quite amazing what a quick lick of paint can do for a place. I painted our shed before winter set in last year and after just one lick of paint it was already looking unrecognisable! And why stop there? By painting the inside you can create a light and bright environment too. Don’t forget to raid your local community repaint scheme.

Get wired up:
If you don’t already have an electricity supply, then I’d invest in having one installed. This way you can work without fear of your battery running low or even work away long in to the evening. A power supply is vital for sewing machines, lighting and turn an old shed into a executive office space! For internet access, you may find your wifi extends as far as the shed, but otherwise a wifi signal booster may be required.
Keeping Warm:
Insulation heating and flooring are a must. With minimal expense they give that homely feel to a place as well as ensuring that . I am a big fan of vinyl flooring, which is easy to lay, warm and looks luxurious. There are a few ways to insulate a shed but for the long run, foil bubble wrap works well with plasterboard over the top. To keep warm I’ve also bought a fan heater which will enable use to keep the chill off in the winter and works as a fan in the summer.

Personalisation:
Pictures, posters and soft furnishings all transform a space to make it unique and a joy to work in. A garden office should be comfortable and inspiring, a place where you actually want to spend time! I just love the idea of adding beautiful curtains, practical as they will keep the drafts out but adding a chic tone too.

Disclosure:
Post in collaboration with Carpet Right, all thoughts, words and opinions my own, unless otherwise stated.

First Time Wallpaper’er

April 11, 2014 by Jenni Clutten | 4 Comments

wallpaper,beforeafter.TEXT I have an admission to make – despite lusting over many a design, I have never actually hung wallpaper. Many times have I admired it, shared it and dreamed of it but never had it graced my walls. I was a first time wallpaper’er.

That was until I moved into a house with floral wallpaper all over my sons bedroom and no time to remove it. That’s the thing with wallpaper isn’t it, it’s so personal. I wonder if anyone has ever moved into a house and kept the previous owners wallpaper long term. We’re planning to live here for many years to come so when decorating our house I’m going for designs I really love without giving a second thought for resale potential.

I tested the ground of wall patterns when I installed cloud decals in the nursery and I absolutely loved the fun look they gave to the room. So, on with the wallpaper show!

You will need: (I watched the video tutorial on the channel before I started)

Wallpaper Paste
Bucket
Stirrer
Wallpaper Brush
Sharp Knife
Scissors
Wallpaper
Microfibre Cloth
Ladder/Step Stool
Tape Measure
Spirit Level
Pencil

hanging wallpaper SONY DSC

As novices, it seemed best to start with some inexpensive paper as a trial run. This wallpaper is called Brooklyn and I got it on clearance in B&Q, £5 for 3 rolls! We originally got it for our bedroom but I realised it would look great in Nye’s bedroom. It’s paste the wall wallpaper so we mixed the wallpaper paste to its thickest setting and applied it straight to the wall before lining up the wallpaper. (And no, we didn’t remove the old wallpaper or start in the middle). In the end we used about 1 1/2 rolls and it was easy to line up because it has a very busy repeat pattern.

In terms of timing, this first wall took us about 2 hours. Because it was our first time with wallpaper we double checked all the measurements and then had to rehang the paper after I got a bit snap happy and trimmed too much off the bottom of the first sheet. (At that point I was pretty fed up, but carried on regardless). Despite this, in the evening we decided to hang our Marimekko Kippis wallpaper in the dining area (A cheeky Ebay purchase for £30). Because we still had a huge amount of wallpaper paste lying around unused and all the tools still out it seemed sensible to continue. The dining room wall only took an hour, as we already had a good wallpaper work flow worked out.
SONY DSC There’s still much to finish off in the bedroom and dining area but I’m so pleased to know that we’ve at least started to put our own stamp on the house (and learnt a new skill). They’ll be more to share in the next few weeks as the rooms start to take shape.

How about you? Been lusting after some gorgeous wallpaper prints? Are you a pro or a first timer like me?

Recycled Container Gardening

April 3, 2014 by Jenni Clutten | 15 Comments

Following on from my diy thrifty childrens garden earlier in the week I’ve been at it again, this time creating a tower of lettuces out of recycled bottles. It’s all thanks to joining this amazing on facebook where someone posted their bottle tower. I used the guide on the container gardening website to make mine but only went up 5 bottles high so it was a bit more child size. SONY DSC recycled container gardening
Don’t those lettuce leaves look good? I just love the red tinged edges, I can’t wait for them to start growing bigger. I find it quite amazing myself so I’m sure Nye will be intrigued. The lettuce seedlings have grown fantastically well from seed, I used ‘Mortons Secret Mix’.

To make your own recycled container garden you need:

5 plastic bottles
Scissors
String
Compost
Salad Leaves / Herb Seedlings

Then watch this .

In other news I am also so thrilled to say that my first seedlings planted directly into the ground have made their appearance. I was just about to plant some more peas, thinking they’d failed when I saw their little heads poking proudly from the soil. I literally can’t tell you how out of this world excited I was to see them. It made me feel like a proper gardener.
SONY DSC And then I turned my attention to the rest of my seed packets to find that there were more things to plant so I’ve sown some green headed calabrese, white strawberries (wishful thinking I reakon) hollyhocks, and then thought I’d be brave and sow my carott seeds in drills straight into the soil. As a precaution I have planted a row of onions next to them to try and deter the dreaded carott fly that everyone seems to go on about! SONY DSC Then there’s all those other exciting things, blueberries starting to flower, sweet peas getting bushy, that black hyacinth emerging, and having a go at regrowing celery from the root.

p.s I started painting the veg patch wall black, and I’m kind of in love! Can’t you just imagine all that fresh green vegetation against that slick black backdrop. It is all kinds of awesome and amazingly a complete flook that I picked up some black masonry paint at the scrapstore. P.s concrete blocks are a real pain to paint, all those nooks and crannys. Total transformation though, it changes everything from drab to fabulous.
black garden wall

Mammasaurus and How Does Your Garden Grow?

Rejoining the How Does Your Garden Grow crowd this week.

DIY thrifty childrens garden

April 1, 2014 by Jenni Clutten | 3 Comments

DIY thrifty childrens garden My toddler just loves to be in the garden pottering. Digging and watering are his loves and these activities have maintained his interest for at least 6 months, so giving him his very own space seemed like a great opportunity to get creative.

Initially I was going to buy a willow vegetable planter, but I realised it reminded me of something we already had… Oh yes, our old picnic basket, sitting unloved and abandoned at the back of the shed. I admit I was chuffed to be able to re-use it because it is a relic of our relationship as a couple. Neil bought it to take me on a trip to Brighton, back in 2008 when we could just take these random romantic trips. How life has changed! To make it last a bit longer as a planter, you could add a liner, but I left mine with just the gingham as I was worried that adding a something would stop the drainage.

Carrying on the thrifty theme I used the wicker cup holder, a recycled ready meal lid, some unused cups and an old plant pot holder as a small planter. We added a pumpkin seed to each hole in the cup holder, replanted some lettuce leaves into the recycled ready meal lid and some wallflowers seedlings into the plant pot.

diygarden.collage SONY DSC To give the garden a fun personalised feel I used some tin cans to add my sons name to the edge of his patch. To do this I simply used a nail and hammer to add letters to the ends of some tin cans and dug these into the soil. You can’t see it but I also added a star, for more complicated patterns it’s probably best to use a marker pen to draw the outline. They’ll look better when the mud subsides and I can’t tell you how satisfying it was hammering holes into tin.

I’ve so many gardening ideas lined up for the summer, I am already loving every minute spent outside with Nye. The time seems to fly by, and every day everything is growing bigger, there are new flowers in bloom and creatures to discover. Here are just a few of my plans from my board. Plus, here are a few unusual planting ideas to get your DIY thrifty childrens garden started.

Thrifty Planting Ideas:
Picnic basket
Tea cup
Welly
Bucket
Trug
Old kitchen tins
Recycling containers
Tea pot

March 18, 2014
by Jenni Clutten
3 Comments

Energy Saving LED Light Bulb Review

Since we’ve moved into our new home we’ve been slowly replacing all the light bulbs. We seem to have a knack of buying houses without a single energy saving bulb in them, and as soon as we move in they … Continue reading →

Create a heart photo wall

March 8, 2014 by Jenni Clutten | 11 Comments

SONY DSC Here’s a quick and easy DIY heart photo wall that will leave you with a fantastic and personalised piece of artwork for your wall. The most difficult choice you face is where you’re going to put it!

You will need:
36 photo prints (it works best with square pictures so instagram is perfect. I used printed.com to print mine.)
1 roll of washi tape
1 Blank wall

How to:

Choose where you want to place the photos. (You’ll be surprised by how big the final image is.)
I started by selecting 9 photos for the longest row,
Add a small piece of washi tape to the top of each photo
Attach each photo to the wall starting in the middle and working your way out.
Working your way up, add 7 photos for the row above and then 4 photos for the top of the heart.
Next work down from the row of 9, with a row of 7 then a row of 5, 3 then the final row of 1.
Admire your heart photo wall

Heart photo wall

Willow and Hall Interview

February 28, 2014 by Jenni Clutten | 21 Comments

Willow and Hal

I was recently lucky enough to be given the opportunity to interview the lovely Sarah Massouh, owner of Willow and Hall. I had been aware of their wonderful sofas and sofa beds for a little while due to the post on Tigerlillyquinn’s blog and I loved the designs instantly. At the time I hadn’t realised that their products are made in the UK and that their sofa beds also include a wonderfully luxurious mattress (with an affordable price tag.)

Want to know more? Carry on reading to get the full low down on Willow and Hall including which 5 products Sarah has in her own home. (A true sign of believing in your brand I hope you’ll agree.)

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Q: What made you want to start Willow and Hall?
A: My passion for British furniture/interior design and my frustration with the lack of availability of high quality British furniture at more affordable prices resulted in me setting up Willow and Hall in 2012. The creation of the business and what is still central to everything we do today is to design British furniture which looks beautiful and is stylish whilst also being really high quality and comfy. I wanted to provide all of this for our customers at fantastic value and combined with a high quality and personal service.

Q: In a crowded market place, what do you think makes Willow and Hall unique?
A: We believe the success to date of Willow and Hall is down to a number of factors: Firstly we are able to offer our furniture at much lower prices than the high street and even our online competitors as we focus entirely on the products removing the need to pass on other costs to customers such as shops and warehousing costs. We are also able to offer our customers a custom range of options (they can choose from over 70 fabrics and leathers; choose their seat fillings; and the sofa beds all come with a choice of three different mattresses); delivery is speedy (3-4 weeks for all items); the materials are of very high quality (all hand-picked ourselves); and a fantastic amount of British craftsmanship goes into every single item. All this is combined with a passion for providing excellent customer service (we’ve just been awarded a Gold Trusted Merchant award by the independent feedback service FEEFO).

Q Which products do you have in your own home?
A: I have five products in my home – I can’t squeeze any more in with our older furniture at present! We have a sofa bed in our living room (the Elmley) for when our family and friends come to stay as we are a very sociable family so wanted a super comfy sleeping option without compromising on the style and comfort. We then have an Apply 1 seater in the corner of our study. This gets used more as a sofa for people to come in and sit on and have a natter when I am working too late but it is also nice to know it can be pulled out into a bed if we should need it. Finally all three of our beds in our bedrooms have our mattresses. They are quite simply the most comfortable mattresses my husband and I have ever slept on – guests say the same too. I could not imagine having any other mattresses in our house. I can’t wait to bring our bed range out so that more customers will be compelled to purchase these beautiful mattresses.

Q: What influences your product designs?
A: It’s absolutely about designing furniture which looks beautiful and is stylish whilst also being really high quality and comfy. Once we’ve achieved this we work extremely hard to make sure all the smaller details are just right for that particular model from the feet shape to the piping and zips. All the “ingredients” must always be of the highest quality and used in the right way by incredibly skilled craftsmen in Wiltshire.

Q: Which designs and fabrics would you recommend for young families?
A: Firstly I would advise families to carefully consider how they will be using the room the furniture is going in. Young families are often very busy and require multiple uses for rooms such as using a living room as a TV room, play room and social space. I would therefore recommend that they pick a design which size does not over-power the room/ fits neatly into the space taking into account its uses. A sofa should always fit around a family and their lifestyle not the other way around.

Secondly, I would recommend picking a fairly neutral fabric so that it fits with changing family decors but that is not too light so that it shows up a multitude of sins which are inevitable with a young family. Greys are a good choice as they are still relatively neutral yet dark enough to not show up every mark. Other fabrics which work well are patterned/ striped fabrics or two-toned fabrics such as out Textured Linen. You can always add further colour/ lighter colours through cushions and throws – a far safer way to bring these colours into your furniture. Also consider the functionality of the fabric – this is just as key as aesthetics here. Find out what the rub counts and cleaning instructions are for the fabrics to get an idea of their durability and practicality. As a rule, synthetic fabrics are more durable, colourfast and cleanable. Tightly woven fabrics and fabrics that are heavy will stand up to wear and tear better, as will leather.

Willow and Hall Swatches

Q: Would you like to expand the business into other areas?
A: Absolutely! We want to be able to offer great quality and affordable British furniture to even more customers and to more parts of their homes. With this in mind we will be introducing new sofa/ sofa bed 2 and 3 seater designs as well as some stunning new sofa/ sofa bed corner units in March this year. We will also be introducing a beautiful range of footstools and blanket boxes to perfectly complement our furniture in early Summer as well as a completely new bed range to accompany our hand-made bed mattresses.

Q: I understand you’re opening a show room in Surrey, what made you want to branch out from the online world?
A: The opening of our first showroom will give customers the chance to view our lovely products before they purchase without us having to compromise on the value we offer. We believe this provides our customers with an even better service over and above our 100% free returns policy that we currently offer. We will never open up shops or a large range of showrooms as we don’t want to pass these costs onto our customers however opening up one showroom does give this option to those nervous to purchase entirely online.

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So a big thank you to Sarah for taking the time to answer my questions so thoroughly, I thought her ideas on family friendly options were especially useful and I can’t wait to head to the showroom for a nose. My personal favourite is the rather stunning Dunsmore Sofa Bed which I’ve been showing my husband suggestively all day. I think it would make a gorgeous addition to a nautical themed living room or an art deco bedroom and the leather makes it very practical and long lasting.
Willow and Hall

Disclosure: Post written in collaboration with Willow and Hall, all words and opinions my own unless otherwise stated.

Ginger Bisquite

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