When I received an email from Bosch I wasn’t even sure I should bother opening it up, but I did because I was curious and I’m so glad I did. That one simple yet personal email has offered me more than an opportunity to work with a new brand, it’s helped a friend in need, become a bonding project between us as well as given me an outlet to work on some feelings I’d been repressing… PR to the rescue! Bosch wanted me (and fellow blogger Belinda from The Happy Home) to review their fancy pants cross section self leveling tool the “Quigo” and were giving us $600 worth of materials to do some odd jobs around the home… pity I rent.

My friend Monica and her partner Geoff on the other hand were currently renovating their house and I knew that with so many other major projects on the go around the home the tiny little nursery would be the last thing on their list, despite Monica already being 32 weeks pregnant. I called Emma from PR and pitched my idea and she loved it, I hadn’t even spoken to Monica yet so I hung up, called and pitched it to her and she was beyond excited and maybe even a little bit relieved. Whilst I sorted out a renovation schedule, planned on supplies and a design concept Monica set about clearing out the room, preparing a blank canvas for us to walk into.

Crappy curtains, no storage space, badly made book shelves and lots and lots of stuff.

It was going to be a huge job, bigger than anything I’d taken on before and I loved Monica for trusting me. The ceiling had to be repainted, bookshelves were ripped out, holes puttied up, sanded back and primed. It was a Tuesday afternoon when we started and  we had to finish the room prep by Friday morning for the arrival of “The Bosch Man”.

The room is small and was originally painted a lime green shade by the previous owners and then a quick slap of beige was put on when they moved in. You can still see parts of it at the back of the wardrobe. The whole room had an errie greenish glow to it despite being repainted.

Paint swatches, highly detailed room dimensions (written on the back of an envelope just like the professionals do) and sketch in hand I headed off to Bunnings. We’d settled on a lovely soft grey for the walls, glossy white for the wardrobe doors and trim, matte white ceiling and a pastel lilac feature wall. All the paint was from Taubmans.

Shake it up baby!

With my freshly mixed paint, brushes, rollers, tape, drop sheets and all  sorts of other painting things I headed back to Monica’s where I was greeted by a stripy, pink, wall-puttying, pregnant lady who was extra keen to get the project started.

Monica and I had never done anything like this before. The renovations going on at her house were mostly carried out by her partner Geoff and as he leaned on the door frame, pointing his finger and instructing us on how to get the job done correctly, we looked at each other for a moment and wondered what we’d gotten ourselves in for.

The glossy trim and wardrobe doors were going to take the longest to dry between coats so we battled that first as we were short on time. I knew it was going to be a looooooooooong night.

This is me at midnight.

This is me at 2:30am… don’t underestimate the power of paint fumes!

The next day “Bosch Man” arrived with Emma. He showed us how to set it up, adjust it and turn it on. It was nice having someone from PR schelp all the way out to Monica’s from Melbourne to get down and dirty and help us with the project.

You could put the handy little cross level tool on anything, anywhere, slide up the little latch and it works. One simple little rotation and that cross point was on the other wall, hardly any fiddling at all so we were sold.

Monica thought the Quigo was pretty awesome in comparison to the leveling tool they’d used in the past, especially for the tasks we had on our to-do list.

The floating shelves were meant to be our first project but after a quick scan of the stupid instructions we decided to wait until Geoff was home from work. (See PART TWO soon)

We decided to move onto one of the projects that didn’t require power tools or a man. We put up double curtain rods and made sure they were level with the Quigo. Letting a pregnant woman get up on a step ladder wasn’t my finest moment but there was no stopping her.

I’d selected two thick white curtain panels from Spotlight for the front on the first curtain rod and a beautiful white lace panel from my favourite op shop to go on the back curtain rod. I loved the idea of pulling the thick curtains apart and sunlight peeking through the lace… so pretty and girly.

Curtains were done and we were onto another DIY home decorating project that a lot of people do… wall decals! When I’ve used them in the past I’ve just ‘winged it’, I was quite happy to just judge with my eyes and hope for the best so I was interested to see the difference the Quigo would make.

Turns out, quite a lot.

We measured placement and the height of the cot then used the Quigo to line up where we wanted to place the decals. I already owned this decal set, it’s sadly been sitting in my studio closet for the last two years after nabbing it on sale from Cotton On for $5. I don’t know why I bought it that day, all I knew was that I needed to take it home with me.

I couldn’t think of a better place for it and neither could Monica.

The last thing I want to show you today is this super cute mirror I scored from Spotlight for just $25. We used the Quigo, lined up the mirror with the corner point and with four large 3M velcro strips to keep it in place. It’s a bit hard to see in this picture but the white mirror against the soft light grey walls looks brilliant and I like how it reflects the purple off the opposite wall.

To see the rest be sure to read PART TWO next week!

 

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