Towel ring and toilet roll installation dilemmas. Help!

I finally managed to find and purchase a towel ring and toilet roll holder that I liked, for the downstairs powder room. But being the person that I am, and making a big deal over every single detail... I am putting off their installation because I am not sure where exactly to fix them.

What is the optimal height/distance from the back wall for installing the toilet roll holder? What about the towel ring, should it be in the center of the width of the vanity with the folded hand towel hanging 3cm from the top of the bench top? Or should it be closer to the front of the vanity?

Raymor Boston Towel Ring Chrome

Raymor Boston Toilet Roll Holder Chrome

Do you think the fixings they came with are secure enough? I have a fear of them coming loose and falling off... :(

B

Styling practice...a photography shoot at my house

I had the absolute pleasure of having a wonderful photographer come and photograph my home last week.  Hope to share more about Maite and the photos with you soon.  
It was surprisingly hard work!  Not only does the house have to be show home tidy and full of flowers, but its amazing what needs to be moved because its reflecting in the windows or distracting from the shot.  A hint that all those magazine homes are not quite as they seem.

I was very pleased with how the house looked, it felt like all the years of planning and building and finishing (still finishing) were worthwhile.  And it was a real treat to have the house full of fresh flowers, these ones above were on my coffee table.  

I spent a lot of time tidying up those corners of the house that had got slightly out of control, and styling areas like the front door and our bedside table and en suite.  
I am thinking it should be a quarterly project - big tidy and organisation weekend with lots of fresh flowers and new candles as a reward.  

New Master: Moving in

Dropping in for a quickie Friday post!

Literally within an hour of hitting publish on my last post, Brad decided it was time to move the furniture back in. And so we did.

We have a king sized bed, which takes up almost the whole room, so there were not a lot of layout options. Luckily, there was just enough space to include our nightstands and dresser.

First we had to center the rug and reassemble the bed frame:

Once that was ready, we put down the box spring, bed skirt and mattress:

And finally, we reattached the headboard using the same french cleat (see how we did it the first time  here)

Beauty-full.

I also picked up some fresh new linens from Target's Threshold line:

They are so soft and striped and yummy. We haven't changed out our pillow cases yet or added any of the other new bedding, so that will be coming.

We lucked out—the nightstands fit perfectly on either side:

At first I had set the mirror horizontally on the dresser like it was in our bedroom...

But after a few days of no TV, I started having withdraws and decided it was a necessity in our room. I just can't give up my bedtime TV ritual.

Brad agreed and we removed it from the wall mount in the office and set it on a TV stand.

Here he is hooking it up:

I thought it made more sense to rotate the mirror vertically so the TV wasn't in front of it...

For now, we set the cable box on top of the TV (for lack of anywhere else to put it), but we may re-evaluate this later:

As for the empty space above the TV, I've already figured that out. I have a craft or two up my sleeve to fill the wall.

And that about covers it! It's definitely a tight space... but that makes it more cozy, right? Cozy is what I'm going for here. 

The 5'11" x 8'2" Tarnby rug actually covers most of the floor. You can see how it's only around 8 or 9 inches from the door here:

We are far from done here, people. I have about 7 weeks worth of projects planned until we can call this room "Finished."

Next week I'll attempt to convert my bamboo window shade into a blackout shade, and we'll also swap the existing ceiling light for a fan. Getting there, slowly but surely...

Hope everyone has a happy Easter filled with extra chocolate and peeps!

Feature Friday: The Long and Short of It

I am really excited today to be sharing the beautiful home of blogger Jessie Short with you today. She blogs about fashion, design and all the pretty things she's loving over at her blog, The Long and The Short of It. 

Enjoy! 

L I V I N G   R O O M

D I N I N G   R O O M

K I T C H E N

 

D E N 

B E D R O O M

Thanks so much to Jessie for sharing her home with us! Make sure you check out her blog here. 

Go here to check out past Feature Fridays. 

Photos by Cyn Kain

We've gone solar!

Not sure if I mentioned it before, but we had a 4.68 kw solar system installed at the end of last year. It was connected earlier this year (45 days before the end of the billing cycle to be exact). Our last electricity bill was reduced by $200 by having solar connected for 45 days, which works out to about 5 dollars a day. Not bad. We will see how much it produces in the coming not-so-sunny months.

Our house faces North, and due to the roof shape we had a "split" system put in, which means that half the panels face West, and half face East. I am told that our system would be producing more if the panels faced North instead, but that wasn't an option for us. Oh well!

B

Spring Handmade Gift Exchange

This week my friends and I got together and had another fanatic Handmade Gift Exchange. You may remember when I blogged about our exchange during the Holidays. This time it was all about Spring gifts. I was overwhelmed with happiness to see all the creative crafts my friends came up with. Here is a little tour of my loot! 

My friend Ashlynne made some adorable spool magnets. Check out this tutorial to make some magnets of your own! 

My cute friend Lisa hand painted a watercolor quote for each of us. Love it! 

You can't go wrong with a succulent! I love them. My friend Erin planted us each our own in these cute bowls. 

Katie made us each a honey body scrub and filled a notebook with her favorite quotes. 

Kim created a really cute paper spring banner. 

Trisha made custom fabric bunting banners for each of us!  

Shyla created a fun anchor using her silhouette machine and washi tape similar to this method. 

Kathleen made us each our own bath soaks using essential oils. 

Camilla made each of us our own Moss Monogram Door Sign. You can get instructions on making your own here. 

So here is how the handmade exchange works:

There are 10 of us in the group so we each make 10 of the same gift. Then we get together and exchange so we go home with 10 different gifts! The exchange is a blast. We each talk about what we made, how we made it and why we made it and then pass it around. There is always good food and lots of laughter!

I'll be posting what I brought to the exchange next week so stay tuned!