The Cosy Creative Perth

It's cooling down in Perth, still beautiful sunny days, but cool in the evenings now. So it was time to light the chiminea 🔥

I made a couple of new stencils today and then stenciled them onto some outdoor pavers using outdoor paint so that they can last outside for years.

Our very old fence was updated a few months ago to a Colorbond fence. The neighbours wanted a retaining wall, which, unfortunately, ended up on our side of the fence due to our block sitting lower. I painted the retaining wall the same colour as the fence to make it a bit less noticeable. Then I found these brilliant raised beds at Bunnings. We added four of them along the fence line, which we then filled with native plants. It's going to look beautiful when they all grow a bit more.

When I was researching what to do to make the fence line look pretty, I found some fabulous solar lights from a company called andi hooks, the lights hook into the top capping of the Colorbond fence. They are brilliant; they look so stylish. They're on a sensor, so they stay on low all evening but brighten up if you go near them. They look so good on this fence line. This particular company also makes hanging basket hooks that click underneath the capping of the top of the Colorbond fence, so you don't have to drill anything into your fence. Ingenious idea! I definitely need to buy a couple more of these lights for the new fence and perhaps for the side of the house aswell.

A few more garden projects are now complete. We updated the shelves in the back garden. I added a few new decorative items and a couple of new potted plants in cute striped pots from Kmart and glass candle holders from Bed Bath & Table. We also added wood behind, modifying some old extension panels which were originally on top of a fence that was replaced a couple of months ago.

We pulled out our trusty old wood-fired pizza oven last night and had some pizza for dinner. My husband roasted a chicken in there afterward. I love cooking in this pizza oven; however, it is quite time-consuming to get it going, and my hair smelled extremely smoky afterward!

A bit of a front garden refresh recently. I updated the colour of the chair, and added some new outdoor cushions from Early Settler. Also updated some plants in the pots by the door and stenciled the pavers under the chair. We've updated the garden bed edging and added some native plants to a section of the garden under our bedroom window. These plants were part of a free plant giveaway program by the City of Stirling. Not much to see yet, as those plants are still very small.

On my very long list of projects to do while I'm at home enjoying some free time after my position was made redundant, was to change the colour of one of the walls in our bedroom. I decided I wanted to do something with some texture and found that Porter's Paints makes a limewash paint.

I decided on a sage green colour. I thought it would be easy to put that colour over a blue wall.

I actually thought that painting this kind of effect, creating something with a non-smooth surface, would be quite easy. I was very wrong. This was quite a time-consuming wall to paint.

I had to patch up the wall after a hook fell off after I had finished painting. Unfortunately, patching up, then painting that section later, left a noticeable difference in the paint coverage. So I ended up having to paint the whole wall again!

Its not a bad result at my first attempt using this type of paint.

I've been working on quite a few projects lately, both inside and outside, but my hardest project is yet to come.

About six years ago, a house was built on the boundary next door to us. I've spent a lot of time trying to obscure the view of the house; it's extremely close to ours and very visible from our garden. I've done a pretty good job of making the fence line look nicer, extending its height using old louvered doors (more great finds from Mulberry Tree Vintage), plants, and various other things.

A couple of weeks ago, I came home to find that the neighbours had installed a massive air conditioning unit on the roofline directly above the fence, right where our outdoor dining area is.

Not a very considerate placement in my opinion. Anyway, challenge. accepted. How am I going to hide it? It's quite difficult to know exactly what to do, because it's very high.I don't think i'm going to be able to hide all of it. I at least want to hide some of it. It can get very windy in Perth, particularly along that fence line. So whatever I do need to be able to withstand any wild western Australia weather!

I'm thinking of adding some sort of metal trellis to the top of the wood panels so the plant that's already growing on the left will eventually grow over it in a kind of arch shape.

What do you think? Anyone got other suggestions.

Loving my colourful water filter from Australis Water Purifiers! It's both practical and decorative. 🌈💧

I was in Bed, Bath & Table last weekend. Looking for a trinket box to put in the bathroom when I came across this picture that I really liked, I was quite drawn to it, not sure why. Perhaps because I liked the colours. Anyway, it was on sale, so I decided to buy it and put it in the room that we use as an office. I think it looks quite nice on the wall above the small sofa.

How beautiful are these flowers I received on Tuesday.

It's an enormous floral display!

My colleagues bought these for me as a leaving gift when I left my job of thirteen years due to changes that made my position redundant.

It's time for something new 😄

I quite like having mirrors in the garden, especially ones that look a bit like windows. This was a cheap mirror I bought from Kmart a few years ago. It was just a plain black metal-framed mirror and cost about $40. I wanted it to look a bit like a window, so I marked out how I wanted it to look with masking tape. Then I used a can of black spray paint to replicate the look of a window. I stenciled the top half just to make it a bit more interesting.

Mirrors anywhere on walls do give the illusion of a larger space, and that works in the garden too.

This mirror is at the front of our house, mostly protected from the weather as it's under the eaves. However, I did paint the plywood backing with outdoor paint just to give it a bit more longevity.