It’s that time of year when we look back over the last 12 months and all that we’ve achieved in the house, renovation-wise. I do one of these posts every year, so if you’re interested in seeing our home-reno journey so far, then do check out the following years below:
2018 has been a pretty good year for us, although as you’ll see a few of these renovations haven’t actually been in our own home! Yep, we just love giving ourselves more work, ha. Because of this, we haven’t gotten quite as far as we’d have liked but isn’t that always the way?!
We’re still very far from finishing the house, but I do still reckon we’ve made a good dent in it this year! So without further ado – here’s all we achieved last year!
1. DIY Pallet Seating and a Conservatory Makeover
Not only did the Conservatory go PINK this year, but I also built a pallet-seating sofa with hidden storage for this room too. This was the first project of 2018 and I have to say, one of my faves! It was super simple to do and the hidden storage is so useful for gym equipment, garden cushions, picnic blanks and even dog towels!
As well as the seating, I painted the wall in here PINK and it’s unlike anything else we have in our house! I have to say, I LOVE it! Every room needs a good injection of pink, in my opinion! I added shelves made from pallet wood, a whole load of plants and named this room the ‘indoor garden room’. You can see the full reveal here, but I can’t wait to get back in there again in a few months when it’s a bit warmer and finish the room off!
2. Living Room Renovations
Just as the snow started to fall mid-winter, we decided to move onto renovating the Living Room. I ripped off the dated 80s decor wallpaper, perfectly repaired the walls without the need to replaster (try it – it’ll save you a fortune, but potentially cover the place in dust!), removed the old gas fire, sanded back the floorboards and then DIY installed some gorgeously stunning wallpaper from Little Greene. This room looks so different 12-months on, but it’s still very much unfinished and hugely unfurnished. I know, I know, I really need to get back on it! This is definitely a room on the 2019 list!
3. Turning a Cupboard into a Pantry
In April, we took a step back from our own renovations and headed over to Grants parents house where we turned a dis-used cupboard into a pantry. This is probably one of my all-time fave makeovers as the transformation was certainly something huge! It’s basically unrecognisable from the before.
We used cheap panelling on the walls, made the shelves and brackets from pallet wood (it’s rustic AND beautiful!) and then tiled the floor with some feature Laura Ashley patterned tiles. It’s SUCH a great use of space now, and I’m kinda jealous it’s not ours!!
4. Tied Up Some Loose Ends in the Garden
We’ve been working on the garden since moving in 4.5years ago; every year we do a little bit more and this year wasn’t any different. We finally finished off the DIY Scaffold Decking (it features hidden ladder storage – one of my more genius ideas if I do say so myself!), added an outside sink, gravelled the pallet-seating corner and also created a little ‘lower patio’ for our garden table and chairs. It’s finally coming together out here and we now have very little left to do! Could this be our first finished ‘room’?!
5. Made Fencing from Pallet Wood
As well as finishing off some loose ends, elsewhere in the garden we decided to install some fencing above our low-level brick walls. But not just any fencing mind, DIY fencing made from pallet wood! Because obviously, you can never have enough pallet wood in your life. It was so easy to do, inexpensive and luckily for you, I blogged the whole how-to!
6. DIY Garden Gate
Another pallet-project in the garden was the DIY gate. I’ve done this DIY before for Grants parents, so it only took me a day from start to finish to build. It cost less than a tenner, and if you’ve never built anything before – this is probably a good place to start. It’s suuuper easy, bespoke made, and I think, looks rather good.
7. Transforming the Alley
One of the less talked about areas of our house is the alley at the back of the house. We co-own this with our neighbour and it provides the only access from the garden (aside from walking through the house of course!). For the last four years, it’s been a space filled with weeds, unkempt and just ugly. We re-used some of our leftover bricks along the sides to create a border and then filled inside with some gravel leftover. It’s simple, but oh boy, what a difference it made!
8. DIY Bike Shed with Log Store
One of the biggest projects this year was building the bike shed. I couldn’t find anything on the market that fitted the brief of what I wanted, so of course, decided to build my own. This was probably the biggest build of 2018 and was quite a challenge in many ways as I’d never built anything quite so similar and I certainly didn’t have any previous experience roofing! But all in, I’m super pleased with how it’s turned out! And yes, I painted this pink too… #sorrynotsorry
9. The Laundry Cupboard
As Autumn kicked in, we headed back to Grants parents again where we transformed yet another cupboard. Yep, their house is cupboard mad! This time, it was to create a laundry room! I haven’t blogged any of this yet (I know, I’m so behind!) but trust me, it’s a good one! It took us 4-days which mainly involved a lot of plumbing, but here’s how it looked afterwards:
10. DIY Dining Table
The last project of 2018 was a DIY-build dining table. This was on my project-list for 2018 and I just managed to get it in in the nick of time! You’ll see the blog post for this very soon, but I couldn’t be more thrilled with how this project turned out! Here’s a little sneak peek:
So that’s it for 2018! We have tons planned for the next 12 months, so stay tuned as I’ll be sharing our 2019 plans veeeeery soon…
What did you achieve in 2018?
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