When we purchased our first home almost 3 years ago, the one thing I really didn’t like about it was the choice of window treatments. They were not on the best condition or what you would describe as “Insta-worthy”. Our living room vertical blinds especially annoyed me, and is the main reason I never shared styled photos of the room to my social media accounts or blog. The only before photo I have to share with you is this one from the real estate from our homes listing before we took ownership. As you can see, the area has a large window and a sliding door. So we decided that roller blinds would work best as a replacement to the existing verticals.

Riva Blinds is a part of the Smart Home Products family, who I have worked with a few times now. Their products are on trend, great quality, and of course affordable. And are of course available at Bunnings stores, Australia wide. Riva offers a range of window treatments including roller blinds, roman blinds, pinch pleat curtains and more which are all custom made to size to fit your home. The process from ordering to receiving the products is an easy one. So easy in fact, that even I did it 😉

1. CHOOSE

• Select your blind type.
• Choose your fabric colour at your local Bunnings store
• Or order your free colour samples online.

2. MEASURE

• Measure your windows using the easy to follow instructions.

3. ORDER

• Confirm your selections & retrieve your design number.
• Take your design number to your nearest Bunnings Special Orders Desk to place your order.

4. COLLECT & INSTALL

• Your order will be ready to collect in 15 working days

 

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As you can see from the simple steps above, using the Riva website to order your blinds and curtains really easy. And in a matter of weeks, they are ready to collect from your local bunnings. Now the fun part, installation.

Don’t be scared of this step. I think people often feel that home DIY projects are too hard and often seek professional help to install items such as blinds. Which is absolutely fine! But if you are on a budget and want to save a few dollars, give it a go installing them yourself. My husband and I installed the 4 blinds, two for the large window and two over the sliding door, ourselves in a matter of hours. It’s simply a matter of measuring, drilling and installing. Our home is double brick, so we drilled, inserted wall plugs and then used screws to hold up the blinds. Our blinds are inside mount, meaning that they are installed inside the window from rather than over it. I chose this as I feel it gives a neater look.

 

In regards to cost, it is of course going to depend on the type of window treatment you choose, as well as the additional items such as chains, rods etc. The type of fabric you choose will also alter the overall pricing. We went with the single roller blind in the Tuscan block out fabric in the colour natural. The perfect fit for our neutral colour palette. The overall cost for the 4 blinds in the room was approx $1300. The quality of the blinds is fantastic and they look amazing! They have changed our living room for the better and have made it a room that I will now happily share on my feed!

To view the extensive Riva range, head tp their website here.

 

 

 

 

 

Zoe Gilpin – The DIY Decorator

Decorating with prints is one of my favorite ways to spruce up a room or give it a whole new look, without breaking the bank. If you’ve been following me for awhile now, you would know that I am constantly changing up the prints around our home. As well as everything else home decor related…

When decorating your own home, my top tip is to select your wall art first. From it, you can extract your theme for the space as well as the colour scheme and then match soft furnishings and decor pieces to it to tie the space together and create a harmonious room. To save a few dollars (to spend on home homewares perhaps!!) look at purchasing art prints which are a lot cheaper that original pieces.

Today I wanted to share with you some ideas of how the best way to display and use art prints in your own home using some gorgeous pieces from your one stop online print store, Desenio. Their print range is huge! And filled with not only on trend designs suitable for so many interior styles. But also in a range of different sizes and all at great prices. Not only are their prints stunning, the paper is fantastic quality and their customer service gets 5 stars from me. I ordered my prints online and had them in my hand within a week! Using just a few different prints from their range, I was able to create 3 different looks in our master bedroom as below. 

 

 

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Frame your prints yourself. I am a self confessed scrooge who is always looking for a bargain. Which can be hard when you have a home decor obsession… However, I save dollars where I can by framing prints myself. These days you can pick up some really nice frames in an array of finishes from places like Kmart, Spotlight and Office Works for a great price. A tip for home stylists who often photograph their framed prints, is to remove the glass or plastic so that there is no reflection or flash showing in your styled shots.

 

Consider using a picture ledge to display your prints. Recently I added a picture ledge on the walk above our bed and it was the best decorating decision I’ve made for the space! Perviously, I was constantly changing the prints I had hanging on the wall and our poor walk looked like it had been sprayed with bullets with alk the holes I had made in it…So when we updated our master bedroom, I decided that the IKEA Mosslanda picture rail was the perfect solution for me to avoid another ruied wall in the future. Available in 2 sizes (55cm $7.99 & 115cm $14.99), the rail allows you to rest your framed prints on it and simply change them around or remove them when needed. The ledges are also great for displaying small homewares on with your prints as well.

Position your prints right. Something which is very important when hanging your framed print in the wall is to make sure its at the right position. Too often I see prints hung either too high or too low on a wall, which takes away the impact they should be making and can throw off the vibe of a whole room. The center point of either a single picture or a grouping of works should be at eye level. Don’t hang the artwork too high or too low and close to furniture. If you have a small piece, put it in a frame that has a larger mat. A tiny piece on a big wall can end up looking lost and out of place. when hanging multiple frames, leave approximately two inches on either side and below between them. Hanging pieces too far apart from each other can also look odd.

Create a gallery wall. Who doesn’t love a gallery wall? They look amazing and make for a great statement piece in any room in the home. My tip for creating your own gallery wall is to use prints which have a theme; be it a colour theme or a style theme. This gives it order and will look more cohesive overall. There’s no real rules for setting out a gallery wall but do play with using different sizesd prints and frames. Before commiting to a layout, cut some butchers paper or card to the size of your frames and blu-tac them on to the wall until you find the perfect layout before drilling any holes in to the wall. Also consider using something like the 3M command adhesive strips to hang your frames which are easy to remove and means no drilling. Perfect for renters or those who change around their decor a lot like myself.

When selecting your prints, look for ones that fit your own personal interior style rather than ones that are trending. This way you’ll really love them and won’t feel the need to replace them in a hurry. Below are my own picks from the Desenio range which fit my neutral, natural inspired style. Click below links to view prints.

 

1. Dried bouquet No.2 poster
2. Bouquet of Autumn reeds poster
3. Marc Jacobs beautiful poster
4. Texture line faces poster
5. Ceramics poster
6. Mark Twain poster
7. Abstract reeds No.1 poster

Use discount code ‘DIYDECORATOR‘ at checkout on the Desenio website to recieve 25% off your purchase. *Valid from June 18th to 20th 2019. Not valid on frames or handpicked/collaboration/personal posters.

 

 

 

 

Zoe Gilpin – The DIY Decorator

Wallpaper has come a long way over the years. No longer do we need to be scared of the time consuming process of both putting it up and also removing removing. Ask anyone who has worked with it in the past if they enjoyed working with it, and I’m pretty sure you’ll be met with a firm NO! In recent years, we have seen the introduction of fabric, reusable wallpapers and decals. A product which is well and truly a game changer! Easier to put up. Easier to take down. And you can use it again and again. Amazing! Now, I’m going to be honest. Although I knew that reusable wallpaper was a far better product to work with when doing a DIY project, I was still a little skeptical when it came to the installation of it. I’m a need to try kind of person before I can form a proper opinion and recommend it to you guys. So when the opportunity arose to install some myself, I jumped at the chance!

Tiny Walls is an Australian small business specializing in a range of gorgeous wallpaper and wall decals for children’s rooms. Every design is printed by Tiny Walls in Melbourne, Australia and they use an extremely high quality gabric media to print their designs on which is made from a fine woven polyester weave and features a low tack adhesive on the backing. This enables easy removal and reuse of their products over and over, without leaving behind residue or damaging your walls.

 

The Tiny Walls range of wallpaper and wall decals include designs to suit a variety of styles. From floral, watercolour, Boho and Scandi, they have something to help you decorate your Nursery, Boys or Girls bedroom. Some designs I think are even suitable for other areas of the home, or for retail spaces as well. The wallpaper I chose is the ‘gone fishing‘ design and it was to go in Jack’s room. He and his Dad love the beach and fishing so I thought it was very fitting. And also, it’s a style that will grow with him over the years, meaning I won’t need to redecorate any time soon.

 

Installation: My top tip is to make sure you don’t attempt installing wallpaper on your own… I did think I would be able to but thankfully I enlisted the help of Em from Stilettos & Bricks and am SO glad I did!! You definitely need more than one set of hands when it comes to lining up each sheet and getting it up. For the one wall in Jack’s room we used 5 sheets which were pre-cut and labelled so we knew where each panel was to be positioned on the wall. To apply, simply peel back the backing sheet to reveal the adhesive side of the paper which is to be stuck on to the wall. Line up the top of the sheet with the bottom of the cornice or ceiling line. Then using the supplied squeegee tool, push the paper on to the wall in an up and down, vertical motion to both attach it and also to smooth out any air bubbles. Keep doing this until you reach the bottom/skirting board. Trim off any excess by scoring/cutting the edge with a Stanley knife. Keep in mind that walls are rarely 100% straight so the paper may not meet up square with the edges of the walls. Ours didn’t, but it was so minimal that you couldn’t tell unless you closely examine it. Also, remember that if you do create a large air bubble or if you haven’t lined up the paper properly, you can slowly lift it back off the wall and re-apply. The beauty of a reusable wallpaper!

Repeat the process for each remaining panel, but now making sure that the images from each panel line up. We did have a little trouble with this, simply because we had never done it before so thought it would simply be a matter of sticking the panels exactly side by side. Where infact, you need to overlap them slightly so that the designs meet up smoothly to create the final look. Take your time making sure each panel lines up. Due to our uneven walls, some of the little fish are a little odd looking, but overall they look fine. If you have any items such as light switches or power points to wall paper around, you could measure it out and cut in advance, or do what we did and simply cut the holes while we were applying it by again using a stanley knife to cut where needed.And that’s it! Told you it was easier than traditional wallpaper installation!! No messy glues. Less chance of making a mistake. And it looks bloody good! (If I do say so myself 😉). So if you’ve been wondering about using reusable wallpaper in your own home but weren’t sure if you had the skills (or the patience) to tackle the project, remember than Em and I were able to do it with no prior experience of using wallpaper (and a lack of patience from me) So, you’ve got this!! 🙌

Below is the mood board I compiled when redecorating Jacks room. As well as a list of where each item is from.Cork board – Officeworks

Quilt cover – Kmart

Tan cushion – Kmart (old stock) 

Floor Rug – Bunnings (old stock) *IKEA has a similar design

Desk – Kmart

Timber book shelf – IKEA

White metal chair – Kmart

Blue knit throw – Madras Link

Whale plush toy – Kmart

Desk lamp – Beacon Lighting

Plush raccoon wall decor – Adairs

Tray side table – Freedom

Blue seat cushion – BigW

Small prints – Desenio

Large pier print – Boho Art Styling 

Fishing print & hanger – Adairs

Wall hook – Freedom

 

 

 

 

Zoe Gilpin, The DIY Decorator