Ta da...

It's surprising what you can do with a little bit of imagination and creativity!

It helps if you can find what you need for nothing or very little spending and I found both!

I bought the pine bedside off eBay for $20 and the hardwood dining suite was given to me by our lovely neighbours who was selling it on eBay to which no-one had bid for.

And he cut it to size for me since he's a builder and has all the tools...woohoo!

Because the wall that I wanted it to go on was 3300mm and the table being 1900mm x 1000mm, cutting it down the centre to give 2 halves (width now 500mm each) would've been too long, so he took 250mm off the end to make the 2 halves at 1650mm x 500mm each which was perfect as the bedside would be the support for the centre.

Since there wasn't going to be anything heavy on the desks, I felt that there was no need to put any battens on the back wall however, I put a batten on each end to keep it stable

By the time I got around to sanding it last Thursday, I finished it completely by Saturday afternoon and I think it's turned out pretty damn good considering I had no help!

It took a lot of elbow grease I have to admit, and quite a few sanding discs too...phew!

But I'm flabbergasted by how much more room it gives me and how it makes the room look sooooooo much bigger now!

Oh, and I had to pop on some 40mm round timber feet on the bedside to raise the height that the table would've been with the legs on 

I also scavenged around my neighbourhood for some timber (saves me buying it) that I could use as a batten to fix the top to the side walls, a very accommodating tradie allowed me to hunt in his rubbish pile to find the right one...a 1metre piece of 4x2...purrrrrfect!

I cut that at 450mm x 2 and fixed them to the walls using (3) toggle bolts in each as the studs didn't line up

I had to cut a piece out (on either side) of the decorative top on the drawers (using a jig-saw) to allow me to fit the facing on as i didn't want any gaps

I also cut a hole for all the cords in the top with a hole saw and placed plastic cover on it

I'm really happy with the colour of the stain and it matches up perfectly with the buffet that I bought off eBay a couple of weeks back see here

After putting it all together on Sunday, I went and done a little decor shopping and seen these frames at K-Mart for $6 ea and bought some wooden letters (x & o) from Spotlight too and just painted them black and white and hot glued them to the (painted) backing of the frame

I printed off a nice saying that I've always loved..."If you can dream it, you can do it" how fitting is that saying?

I printed off black and white stripes to put in this one














I also bought some floating shelves from Bunnings @ $21 ea

So here is a reminder of what the room looked like before...

looks pretty small and somewhat compacted hey?

So the end tally for my new home office is...

Table - $0
Bedside drawer - $20
Buffet - $50
Floating shelves x2 - $42
Orbital sander - $79
Frames - $24
Material - $10
Wooden lettering - $13.50
Toggle bolts - $9
Timber batten - $0
Timber feet - $20
Elbow grease - priceless!

Bal = $267.50
Less sale of old desk - $250

Total cost = $17.50

The prep...

I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Boy what a job it was rubbing these back! It probably took me longer than it should've but I'm happy with the job done so far.

I know I probably should've used paint stripper (to make it easier), but I just couldn't wait to finally get started and the last thing I wanted to do was wonder around Bunnings for 3 or so hours like always!

As it turned out I had to after my once faithful sander gave up on me after sanding back the drawers of the bedside table....bummer!

So only spending about 45 mins (I'm so indecisive), I ended up buying a new one in the form of a Ryobi orbital sander ($79) complete with 8 spare discs ranging from 60-240 grit, a dust filter and a bag...woohoo a new toy!

I felt like a kid in a candy shop when I got to the counter

So after getting back home and completing my first mission of taking it all back to bare timber, I was finally ready to give it all its first coat of Black Japan stain

I let the first coat seep through and had to let it dry for a couple of hours

Completing the second coat this afternoon on the first half of the desk and bedside, as much as I love how it looks, I'm worried that it maybe just a little too dark so I'm going to let this dry overnight and see how it is once I sand it back a little to prep it for the wax and buff

As fate would have it!

Well after cutting up my table on Saturday to make my dual desk for the home office, I would have to say that I'm quite pleased.

Once I get to sanding it all down, it shouldn't take too much longer to have the office finally up and running.

I found a bedside table to use as a support for the desk in the centre and use the drawers for my stationary on eBay that was ending soon and later that night, I noticed that the seller had another 2 bedsides (the same) for sale as well!

Since the bedside was only $20 (starting bid price), I sent the seller a message to say that I would like to buy all three and if she would take $50 for them.

She replied later saying that she would consider the offer since no-one had started the bid (on eBay) and she would get back to me when she finished work.

The auction finished jest before midday on Sunday and no-one had bidded...phew!

So I sent another message to say that I still wanted to buy the items and she replied that she was only going to sell one as her daughter had changed her mind about the other 2...bummer!

I still wanted the one so I replied and said ok I'll just have the one.

She rang me on Monday morning to say that she would drop it in to me on her way to work! I was quite happy to go and pick it up (only half hr away) at her convenience, but when she offered to drop it in to me, I took it.

I've got a big job ahead of me with all the sanding back and re-staining, but that's the good 'ol D.I.Y for ya.

I'm guessing I'll have it done in a couple of weeks give a day or two hehe.

So so far, the tally for my office spend is:

$50 - sideboard (eBay)
$20 - Bedside table (eBay) free delivery!
$0 - Dining table & chairs (eBay) free delivery!

Finally taking shape

Well I'm slowly getting my home office in order. I've sold my old desk and bookcase for the asking price of $250.

I did advertise it on eBay however it didn't sell although I had a couple of watchers and well over 100 views so it re advertised the next week automatically.

Whilst I hesitated at first, I decided to drop the price (just to get rid of it) to $125 to which I got more watchers this time but less views...bizarre!

So when it (again) didn't sell, I advertised it on a local buy and sell site where I put the original price on it of $250.00 and sold it within 20minutes of advertising...bizarre!

So now that I have a blank canvas once again, it's a lot easier to get the room organised for what I want to do

Over the prior weeks to writing this post, I've come up with the idea of buying a timber dining table wide enough for me to slice down the centre to give me (2) halves which I'll turn into a double desk...simple!

So during the 2 weeks that I was selling my old desk, I was watching a few dining tables suitable to my needs on eBay however, I wasn't prepared to pay more than what they ended up going for so I was left feeling that this may not be the way to go!

That was until the other day!...keep reading your gunna love this!

What a bargain!

I couldn't believe my luck when I won these items the other day from my favourite on-line store... eBay!


The first picture is a timber Buddha wall hanging that is 1200x800 which we want to hang on the large blank wall (outside) near the front door. I'm not too fussed with the colour of it at the moment so no doubts I'll wave my magic wand...aka paint brush, and stain it a little darker.

We've been after something for the entry for sometime now but everything we see is really expensive. I only paid...wait for it...$20 bucks, well $20.50 to be exact (the bid started at $20), what a bargain!

The timber buffet next to it is from the same seller and I bought that for the office...that I'm still in the process of doing up!

It was another bargain at $122.50, and solid as...and look at all that storage! I'll go ape filling this little beauty with all my craft...and office stuff of course!
I love the colour too, dark chocolate perfect for what I want to achieve in the office (bidding started at $75)

The little black leather chair is still yet to be won (finishes today) but I thought I'd show you what I wanted it for and yes again it's for the office as I'll have a spare corner which will be perfect to house it. It's currently still $20 bucks and I won't pay anymore than $50 as it's a little warm on the bum but otherwise it's perfect

The desk was won last Sunday at a bargain of $300 (bidding started at $300) and currently still worth $1000 brand new! It's in perfect nick with no scratches and a leather in-lay and 2 filing drawers....not that master J will need them but they're there if he should one day!

This will be going in the activity room in the alcove already provided. I wanted to just have a slab of timber (floating so to speak) but we couldn't get anything decent and didn't want to pay mega bucks for so this will have to do and besides, it came with it's own leather high back chair and once again...in perfect nick!

We'll be picking the items up on Saturday, so once we put them in place, I'll do another post!

I tell you folks, eBay is the way to go and you can always...always grab a bargain if you know what to look for and do your homework.

My personal tips:
1. Never pay more than what it's truly worth
2. Be patient and don't bid over your head just because you want it.
3. If you miss out the first time....there's always something else that'll come along and sometimes something better and or cheeper!
4. If you have been bidding and still miss out, you may get a second chance if the sale doesn't go through.
5. As with the step above, always let the seller know your still interested
6. If the pictures are not clear enough, ask the seller to send you extra, they won't mind and after all, a sale is a sale. Alternately you can arrange to view the item before bidding depending on time
7. Sometimes the item isn't described in great detail, so ask the seller every question you need to to be sure your getting what you want.

If your selling something on eBay:
1. Always take more photos than needed, there's nothing worse than seeing something for sale with only one picture to go by.
2. Take nice photos of the item/items just like you would see it in a shop...dress it up a little and if selling furniture, have photos with a little decor and definitely no MESS!
3. Always include correct measurements
4. Describe your item clearly and if there's any marks or defects, make sure you take a photo and add a clear description of it, people will appreciate your honesty and you'll be covered should anyone say they weren't aware when picking up
5. Make sure you have some type of change when they come to collect their item if paying by cash

Until next time...

Home office...part 2

In the process of going back and forth with the design of my new office space, I decided that following the Feng Shui rule just wasn't going to work for me and so still keeping Feng Shui in mind, I came up with this design instead.