Glossy Black Goodness

In case you haven't noticed, I seem to have a bit of a thing for glossy black things.

My dining table...

My bathroom vanity cabinet...

All the frames that I spray painted and hung on our lounge room walls...

So it's agreed. I like glossy black things.

So now let's change the subject for a moment.

This is our bathroom.

Well, that's our bathroom on its best behaviour, all lovely and clean and tidy for the picture. That's not exactly the reality of our every day existence.

This is what the little corner between the end of the bathtub and the wall usually looks like (on a good day).

That plastic container piled on top of an upturned plastic bin is the solution I came up with for storing all the various shower products within easy reach of the bath, since clawfoot bathtubs don't really have any capacity for storing bodywash and shampoo. Complete with a gorgeous orange power lead in the background running from the powerpoint out the window to give us access to electricity downstairs. Could it get any more classy or attractive?

I've always planned on getting something for that little corner to help us store our bits and pieces a bit more attractively, but it's not exactly been the highest thing on the priority list.

That is, until I randomly entered a competition that Replica Furniture was offering to people who 'liked' their Facebook page. I didn't really think anything of my entry, since I believe I could safely say that I never win anything. Ever. But then a few weeks later, I got notification that I was a winner of a brand new replica Componibili storage unit! I couldn't believe it!

Source

So guess what colour I chose?

Yep. Gloss black. I dithered, as always, wondering if getting a white one would be more sensible since it could possibly be a bit more flexible - bedside table, future toy cabinet (no, I'm not pregnant), any number of uses! But I had to go with the black. Because I wanted him for that spot in the bathroom!

Unfortunately I'm having a bit of a fight with my camera since it doesn't seem very interested in automatically focusing anymore (must get it serviced), so I apologise that these shots are a bit hard to see clearly. For the moment I've kept one of the ugly plastic containers on top for holding most of the brightly coloured bottles, since the shelves inside the cabinet are a bit too low for easy access while standing in the bathtub. Nothing worse than losing your footing in a slippery bathtub trying to reach for something!

So there it is! The ugly (but much better photographed) before, and the new Componibili after! Once I find a more attractive water-proof container to rest on top with all the bits and bobs inside, it will look even better!

But why stop when I was ahead? I was flipping through some junk mail recently, and caught a glimpse of a brochure for 'The Reject Shop'. Got to love that name! They had these ceramic garden stool advertised for just $40 each! Let's paint a picture here. I've been eyeing off these ceramic stools at places like Matt Blatt for ages for prices in excess of $165 each for well over a year now, never able to justify making the leap and spending that much money. So at a quarter of that price, I was very willing to leap! In fact, I leaped into my car almost straight away and dashed off to the closest shop in determined pursuit of these stools.

And since I figured it was less than half the price of one elsewhere, I bought two. A white one and a black one. The white one doesn't have a permanent home yet (although I've got ideas!), but the black one now resides on the other end of the bathtub!

Pretty, huh? I might even switch it out with the white one if I'm feeling extra daring. I live on the edge, don't I?

So that's it! Our already very glossy, very black and white bathroom got a touch more gloss black added into the mix. And I love it!

Ikea-ness and Spontan-eity

Back when we made our last pilgrimage to Swedish homeware heaven, we bought this guy. I can't seem to find him on the Australian IKEA website, but I assure you, he exists!

Seeing that most things in my office are painted either grey or white though, he was clearly the wrong colour.

 
So he sat around for a while, until we finally pulled out all the drawers for a few coats of paint.

And after letting it dry for a nice long time, I surveyed the office for a home for him.

I particularly liked the view of this area.

I decided that the section of wall beneath my stationery pegboard was the best place for him. Here it is from a much less cute view.

So I drilled a few holes in the back (and one side) of the little cabinet...

And then set up a very sophisticated support system made up of a side table and a stack of paper to hold it in place where I wanted it.

I then went a little overboard screwing it into the wall on the back and side.

I popped the drawers back in...

And voila! Some much-needed hidden storage space for things that don't fit easily into the jars above!

Since my dining table turned desk doesn't have any drawers at all, it's nice to finally have a place for post-it notes.

It does stick out a bit from the door frame, but because we painted it the same colour as the wall it's kind of camouflaged. Please excuse all of those unsightly cables hanging around. My cable-wrangling extravaganza didn't stretch as far as this other side of the desk. In reality, it's just my laziness. All of those cables can disappear when I finally get myself to a store that sells electronic things and buy a network cable that is long enough to run from our modem (which is in the lounge on the other side of those doors), under the floor of the house, and up to my phone. That's all it will take, and yet I still haven't done it!

As you can see from the shots above, the puppy dog was displaced during the cabinet installation process, but she didn't go far.

But that's not all of the IKEA-ey goodness happening in the vicinity of my desk! I convinced (it didn't take much convincing) a friend to go on another pilgrimage with me over the weekend, and I picked up one of these! It's the Spontan newspaper rack.

And I had the perfect place to put him. See this wall on the other side of my desk, which is no longer overrun with power cords?

Perfect spot for some Spontan-eity! Who just happens to be just the right colour to play the camouflage game as well!

I think I'm getting very close to being able to claim that every single little bit of potentially useful wall space is occupied in my office!

Since I spend most of my time in there, that's a good thing, right?

Cable Wrangling Part Two

Just in case the first instalment of my office electrical cable-wrangling extravaganza wasn't thrilling enough for you, I've got part two!

This was the sneak peek I gave you of the cord mess going on under my desk:

Well it wasn't nearly accurate enough. It's actually more like this.

That black thing in the right there is my laptop, perched on a little footstool. And if I shove it out of the way for a bit, this is what I'm left with. Mess mess mess mess!

So I decided that I wanted to get all of that junk off the ground and...not mount it on the wall, but under the desk. So I took that poor overworked power board...

And cut a little piece of paper to the same size as it. Then, I marked on that piece of paper where the two screw holes in the back of the board sit.

But before using my little paper template, I first tried holding up the power board in its spot under the desk. And with the prongs facing up the right way, the cord was on the wrong side! I didn't want the cord running down my pretty little turned desk leg.

So I decided to hang it upside down and see what happened. I held up my little piece of template paper under the desk and popped in some screws in line with the holes I'd marked...

And put in the power board.

And then I tried my first plug in the board (and tied up all of the extra cable with a freezer bag tie). That worked ok, but the second plug was too much. Because I'd hung the board upside down, the screws couldn't slot into the little narrow section of the holes on the back of the board, so it simply fell off the screws with the weight of the extra plugs hanging off it.

I cursed myself for not having just paid attention to the little voice in my head that had first known that hanging the power board upside down wasn't going to work. I searched the rest of the house for power boards that might be oriented the other way so that the cord would face the wall, and all we had were the same style of board. So I called it a night.

A trip to Bunnings later, and I had a righty instead of a lefty for a grand total of $10 (with child safety protection cover thingies as well, yay)!

And phase two of Cable Wrangling Part 2 began. I repeated the paper templating process...

And held it up against the underside of the desk.

 

And then slotted the board in place. Right way up works well, go figure!

Adding in the plugs makes it look slightly less neat...

But this is the important part... I could still afford to pin the cable neatly along the skirting board and up the wall to tidy it up more, but it's still a dramatic improvement!

I wasn't quite finished yet, though. Don't forget my laptop on its little stool! I had grand ideas to make it a little under-desk shelf of its own. this was the spot.

I found these metal brackets at Bunnings...

And scavenged a white melamine shelf from the shed. No idea where it came from. Much contorting under the desk with my drill and a packet of screws later...

You can just see my laptop peeking out from its little spot there.

So now... I am so proud to announce that this is what the underneath of my desk looks like. Improvement or what?

I do have some concerns about whether the laptop has enough space around it to not overheat on its little shelf, so I might consider switching the melamine board out for something that allows some more airflow through. I'll keep my eyes peeled for the right option.

In the meantime, Allie is very much enjoying her much clearer space while I work each day!