Back with a bang!

Before:

After:

I have been absent for some time, and am once again guilty of letting other things get in the way of my little corner of heaven in Blogland where I share with you all the things I do. But my hiatus has not been in vain. I have lots of exciting new things to share with you, including my lounge room makeover. Best of all, the total cost came in just under $100.

I have really been drawn to industrial kind of furniture lately, and I think you all know how much I like reusing old things, so it seemed only natural to combine the two. I scored the wooden pallets free from one of the business near my office (working in an industrial area may not have many good cafes for lunching, but it does have it's benefits). I also got the foam mattresses off Gumtree, one of my favourite places to go scavenging for bargains (they were $10 and are in pretty good condition — and so comfortable!)

The next step was to cut the pallets down to size to fit the foam mattresses. Admittedly I did do this step the hard way and cut each pallet with a hand saw, but I was a little afraid of botching them to use my jigsaw for the very first time. And Dad wasn't around to help me. I then sanded the fronts of the pallets, not bothering about the sides that were going to face to walls to save time.

Some single fitted sheets (50% off on sale) and a few new throw pillows topped off with an hour of one Saturday afternoon spent putting it all together, was all it took to finish off my brand new lounge room. It is perfect for chilling out to watch a movie, read a book or to gather around when friends come over. Just ask my girlfriends, we recently spent a Sunday afternoon watching Bridesmaids together lounging around. My housemates are also justifiably pleased.

I also dug my round coffee table (below) out of the garage, an old favourite thrifted from the side of the road one particularly entertaining afternoon in St Lucia with Smiley. I had some left over contact paper that I had bought to line draws with and covered the table top with it to blend it with the red cushions on the couch.  I love the little shelf underneath and my stack of vintage hardcovers.

My new couch is also a handy little shelf for storing magazines. I don't want to shove too much stuff into the pallets but it IS a rather convenient little hideaway.

Stay tuned for more of my makeovers, and let me know what you think about my extremely comfortable pallet couch. 

xo