Buying New v Using Old

Moving house is expensive! Most people can't afford to buy all new everything to decorate the new place. We've recently moved and can't (and wouldn't want to) buy all new for the new house straight away so I'm looking at ways to adapt things we already have.

buying new v using old

A step by step tutorial to make this little gold heart pot can be found here I've been mostly working on our bedroom in the last few weeks. In the old house it was natural colours (cream/beige/brown) with quite a lot of splashes of turquoise picked out from the wallpaper as an accent colour.

In the new house we have inherited cream painted walls with one wall a gold strip wallpaper and white woodwork, included built in wardrobe doors. We also have these beautiful glass light fittings left by the previous owners. 

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A little while ago we visited Dubai and on that trip went to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque at Abu Dhabi. It's VERY beautiful and I loved the white and gold colour scheme.

the grand mosque in Abu Dhabi

So in a spirit of using what we have and not redecorating a perfectly nicely decorated room (that's SO not going to happen around here) We're adapting some things to fit our new classy cream/white/gold look. Luckily a lot of our stuff already goes as the colours are not that different to what we had before, I've just been doing a little tweaking.

Remember how I made this earring holder with the pom pom trim. This was one of my first ever blog posts!

I pulled the pom pom trim off and left a bit off a mess.

damaged top.jpg

Do you remember this trim I added to a little cardie to make it fancy for evenings out? I had a little bit left over.

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I super glued the trim on to cover the damage and gave it all another spray of gold paint. 

spray gold.jpg

I think I like it better than ever (though I do still love pom poms of course!)

Updated earring orgainser

We had a complete absence of drawer space in the new bedroom so we bought this IKEA Hemnes chest of drawers and matching bedside tables.

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bedside table.jpg

They are a great size with masses of storage but those black handles are not right with our new look, I like them but it just doesn't fit with the rest of the room. I can't decide if they give it a country look or an industrial look, maybe both? Industrial country chic?

It was so quick and easy to switch the handles for these pretty amber glass ones from Trinca-Ferro which they were kind enough to send me to review.

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I love how a simple change like switching the handles can make a piece of furniture look so different.

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I just unscrewed the black IKEA ones and the new ones screwed right in the same holes. They were a perfect fit and I didn't need to drill anything or make any other changes.

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They are very pretty, classy (which is what I am aiming for here!) and really catch the light.

Trinca-Ferro have a website chockablock with beautiful cabinet and door knobs of all shapes, colours, materials and sizes and they ship internationally. Mine arrived in just a couple of days and were well packed so no chips or breaks even though they are glass.

bedside table top.jpg

On my bedside table I have an amber coloured bud vase that I inherited from my mum, it matches the new glass knobs perfectly. Flower arranging is not really my thing (though I do have a pinterest board where I collect advice and tips) but the white flower is pretty! 

I made the little ring dish from ThermoMorph, see the tutorial here and used to use the turquoise version - now I'm glad I tried a gold version too.

chest of drawers 3.jpg

My wooden jewellery box is staying as it is - for now. It has little gold handles and key so it kind of goes, I may revisit this decision one day, who knows? 

I've got quite a few more things to share where I've just tweaked our old things for this room, but I'll share them in a part 2 another day as I think this post is quite long enough!

Do you like to use things you already have or do you prefer to buy new when you decorate or move? Or a mixture? Would you consider a simple knob or handle switch on a cupboard or drawers to give it a new look?

Julie

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