Brad ran off with the kids over the New Year weekend. It was quite possibly one of the best New Years I’ve ever had; the quiet, the lack of yelling, mess and shrieking and best of all, the lack of cartoons on the TV.

While the children and their grubby hands were out of the city and visiting family in Bunbury I took the opportunity to give our little kitchen a bit of a makeover.

Nothing too drastic, there were no Jamie Durie style makeovers or Oprah style throw-everything-out-and-put-in-new-everything. No, it was just one new thing: a new kitchen counter.

Before:

I know what you’re thinking, these pinkie/salmon/pale-yuck coloured bench tops are divine and don’t need to be touched up at all! Well if you feel that way then you are definitely on Team Brad, he see’s nothing wrong with anything in the house and loves everything as it is.

But if you’re on Team Jacquie you won’t be listening to any of that and will be all for a makeover. And just as well, as I’ve already done it.

I used a product called Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations to cover the kitchen counter. I picked it up at Bunnings for around $300 and spent New Years Eve and New Years Day recovering the counter.

The effect is not, I’ll admit, perfect like a marble or laminate counter but for the price I’m thrilled with the results and it’s only a temporary solution until we can save our pennies and buy a new stove and oven. When we buy those and install them I’ll definitely need a new counter.

The new counter is pretty smooth and feels tough and hard wearing. But there are flaws all over it, places I didn’t smooth down the base coat as well as I could have, or spots where the varnish top coat is a bit less smooth and thick. But all in all it’s a much better looking counter than it was a week ago.

It’s really simple to do but I will warn you, there is a lot of sanding involved. The old counter needs to be sanded down and then once the tar-like base coat and a million little flecks of black and silver chips have been applied you need to then sand down the counter again to a smooth finish.

The sanding, without a doubt took the longest to do out of all the steps.

During:

This is a quick snap of the counter during the transformation process. I’ve just applied the colour chips and they’re everywhere. You can see them on the floor, in the sink and covering the stovetop. Despite the plastic covering cupboards little flecks still got in and I’m still wiping them out of all sorts of places. You had to fling them at the base coat with a special dispenser so they would stick but it also meant they flung about all over the place.

You can see the blue tape I put on the tiles and it’s also all over the sink and stove but you can’t see it because it’s all covered in the chips.

Next up is replacing the tiles I have with nicer ones. I’m so sick of roses which dominate the theme in every room that I can’t wait to tear them down.

My office has been annoying me for forever. It’s never looked nice, not once since we moved in three years ago. I’ve kinda thought about doing it up but never really had a clue where to start and the thought of spending money sends Brad into palpitations so it’s always been overlooked and put on the back burner.

To give you an idea of what greeted me everyday I took a quick snap.

Mmmmm, very nice. It’s hardly inspiring really, there is nowhere to put anything so paperwork piles up and spills over every possible counter space.

But just last month things started to look up. My sister was moving and throwing out most of her furniture to make room for fancy new items. I got hold of two very ugly drawers and with a little sanding, priming and painting they transformed into lovely white desk bases.

It was then a quick visit to the salvage yard where my dad and I picked out an absolutely enormous piece of MDF which we cut into the perfect shape for the bay window. A quick sand, prime and painting also transformed that into a lovely black desk top.

Suddenly I was sitting in front of this.

It’s not a particularly descriptive picture because today I was more interested in the ugly wall that the sticky taped notes and half finished Christmas decoration where hanging on. But you can kinda see the desk.

So I ripped the rubbish off the wall, packed away the Christmas decorations and put up an entirely appropriate decoration.

Appropriate for me because I’m a Doctor Who nerd.

Sure it’s not a massive, amazing improvement but it makes me smile and the room suddenly feels a lot less cluttered.

I’m not the only one who likes this room too. The girls have been known to bring almost every toy they own and play with them on the desk and another little girl has discovered the hidey hole underneath the desk.

There’s a tonne of space under the desk and one little member of the family makes great use of it.

You can also see the printer which I’m keeping under the desk for the foreseeable future. I like it off the desk as it keeps things less cluttered and will probably move it to the other side of the room once I figure out how to make it wireless.

But for now I’m happy with the office progress and it’s a nice way to start the new year.