DIY: Terrarium

Terrariums are a great way to capture some greenery in the home without the mess of a pot plant, and are a really low maintenance way of keeping a 'garden'. My girlfriend and I got together for a craft date yesterday and got our hands (sorta) dirty making some terrariums. 

To Make a Terrarium You will Need:

• A container or vessel to hold your plant
• Gloves (potting mix and charcoal are a bit yuck)
• Potting Mix (see tips below for more info)
• Activated Charcoal
• Gravel
• Sphagnum Moss
• Plants of your choosing (and some decretive statues if you like)

Tips, Tricks and To-Do's (and don'ts)

Selecting Your Terrarium

To make a terrarium you need a container. You can plant your terrarium in virtually any container you like (google terrariums for inspiration), however you will have to keep your plant choice in mind when selecting your vessel. If you choose something with little ventilation, like my laboratory bottle above, you will need plants that are tolerant of high humidity such as ferns and mosses. 

Plant Selection 

If you would like to grow cacti and succulent you will  need a vessel with a greater air flow, cause cacti live in dry arid places, not in wet humid forests. If you do want to do cacti and succulents in a closed vessel, you can do what my friend did and use one with a opening 'door' so you can open your closed space and give you plants room to breathe.

Layer One

Before you start planting your terrarium its a good idea to give the inside a good wash (can't be doing this once your plants are in). For the base layer (Image 1) of our terrariums we put in equal amounts of activated charcoal and gravel. As there are no drainage holes in a terrarium, this acts as a 'reserve' for the water and prevents the plants from staying too wet. The amount you use will be determined by the size of your vessel. For this example above layer one was around three centimetres deep.  

Layer Two

The next bit involves creating a layer of protective and absorbent sphagnum moss, to form a barrier between the gravel and the soil to ensure drainage levels remain optimal (Image 2). Insert a dense layer of sphagnum moss on top of your gravel and press it down (I used a metal skewer for this hard-to-reach into bottle) to ensure that the soil won't mix into the gravel underneath. 

Layer Three

The final layer of your terrarium (Image 3) is soil. Choose one suited to your plant. Mine was a relatively dense mix to keep the humidity high and my fern and moss happy (think forest floor soil), where a succulent may prefer a sandy soil medium (ask the folk at your local garden centre when you purchase plants if you are unsure). 

Layer Four

Finally the fun part (Image 4), planting your terrarium! To place plants in a bottle I used a long handled set of tweezers, but you will tailor your planting to suit your vessel (I have seen a video on large bottle terrariums where the maker has used coat hanger wire to make a planting implement). I really enjoyed planting my fern and arranging the moss around it, so much so that I went on to make another succulent terrarium and a mini 'mug-o-terrarium' (which looks pretty funny at the moment but will look good when my succulent grows a little larger). 

Placement and Care

Glass magnifies the suns rays (think mean boys burning ants with magnifying glasses), so be sure to take this into account when placing your terrarium. They prefer indirect light to sunlight or darkness, and a nice comfortable consistent temperature. So a coffee table out or bench out of the sun is a great location. You will need to keep an eye on your plant for watering times (check the care ticket that comes with your plant on purchase for guidelines) but you can generally see when its time to water. A mossy/ferny terrarium should always maintain a bit of moisture and humidity, while a succulent/cacti terrarium will remain quite dry. It is easier to visually tell when a humid terrarium is dry due to an absence of dew droplets, but a cacti/succulent isn't as easy to tell so a general rule is a one a month water (again depending on what your care tag indicates). 

Bedside Table DIY Results

So this is the result of a few hours of sanding, polishing, and screwing some wheels onto part of our old desk set up. The original crate was a deep mahogany stain so it required some serious sanding. I think it really suits its use as a bedside table as opposed to a storage cube on a desk. Now all I have to do is paint the bedroom (get rid of that awful pink and purple) so it can be used to its full advantage.

One Hour DIY

DIY projects often seem completely unattainable if you are on a tight timeframe. Fortunately I am one of the lucky ones with plenty of time to spare (thanks to a well paying part time position). However, there are times when I just want to create in a hurry. This morning I decided I need a comfy place on the deck to read my books. We currently have two deck lounging options, one is a fold up camp chair, the other is a disgusting couch that came free with our house, which the dog has claimed for his own. So a quick and easy DIY was in order.

I bought an outdoor cushion two years ago with intentions of making furniture to go underneath it. Fortunately for me this cushion happened to be half the size of an old pallet that again, had come free with our house. You can pick these kinds of pallets up from pretty much any store, rubbish dump, or building supplies place, usually for free.

I used a hand saw to cut lengthwise down the middle of my pallet. Once your pallet is in two sections give it a bit of a tidy up to make sue when you stack one half on top of the other that you have a neat clean match up. I had to saw three sections off mine to make the whole thing roughly match. The finish of your final product will determine the amount of effort you put into sanding. I used an electric hand sander with a rough grit (40) to give my pallets a quick clean up. This is earmarked as outdoor furniture and I was not worried about the finish as we are likely to take it all apart and use the wheels etc, to make different furniture when we do our deck renovation. If you want a forever piece its worth putting in the extra effort and giving the whole thing a course, then fine sand.

Next up I used a white gloss enamel to give the pallet a 'white washed' finish. If you were after a really high sheen I would recommend using an undercoat (the wood on these is really absorbent), then applying a couple of coats of paint. Once these are dry lay one half of your pallet on top of the other and secure together with flat brackets, using a drill and some screws. I screwed castors to the bottom of my pallets to make it easy to manoeuvre on the deck.

In under an hours with of effort (sandwich break or two in the middle while the paint dries) you have yourself a comfy rustic looking perch.

Floor Sanding

The beautiful hardwood flooring throughout our home was one of the reasons we purchased it. Having timber floors has been a dream of mine after years of mouldy/flea ridden/glass riddled/hairy carpeted rental homes. We gained access to the property before settlement in order to do a bit of a clean up. One of these tasks was to remove the carpet and sand the floors before we moved in. 

The not-so-beautiful carpet above is what we had to work with. It was ripped, stained and best of all, smelt like dogs. It wasn't tacked down very hard so the initial carpet removal process was the easiest part of the whole process. The carpet ran through from the living/dining space, down the hall, and one of the bedrooms (the office room) was carpeted also. Two bedrooms were already polished floors, but were a high gloss varnish and a mahogony stain, which we didn't really like.

Once the carpet came up we realised we were dealing with a MDF covering over the dining (and kitchen once we ripped the lino up) floor. This took a little more muscle power to remove than the carpet but was a relatively easy job.

Prepping the floors for sanding was honestly the most time consuming and difficult process we faced during the whole sanding experience. The hard work wasn't made any easier by a severe heat wave, that saw temperatures reaching the low 40's and sweat beading from our brows. We each took a skateboard and worked our way across every inch of floor, removing the boarding that the carpet was tacked too, and pulling each and every nail and staple out of the floor. The MDF in the kitchen and dining room was tacked down with thousands of ridicuoulsy small staples which our removers were too big for. With some creative use of a screwdriver and a hammer they were painstakingly removed at half the pace of the regular staples.

Once all theses extras were removed each flooring nail had to be punched into the floor to ensure they didn't tear sanding pads as layers were stripped off the timber during the sanding process. Lucky for us my parents (DIY floor sanders from way back) came to visit and lend a hand. So each of them grabbed a hammer and assisted in this process.

We hired a floor sander and an edge sander from Bunnings for two days, and worked solidly taking layers of old flooring off (starting on a course grit and working up to a fine one), until the floors were at our desired consistency. The edge sander was back breaking work and a little difficult to get an even finish with. We had to use mouse sanders for the tricky corner areas as the large sanders just would't fit.

Some areas of the floor (the edges and corners) look a little 'rustic' and DIY but we are overall quite happy for our first ever floor sanding attempt. I never thought I would know a floor as well as I know this one. I have seen every plank of flooring SO many times over I feel I could draw a picture of it with my eyes closed.

Once the sanding was finished we coated the floors with two coats of Cabots CFP Floor. This product was selected for its water based clean up, low odour, and fast drying time. We wanted a low sheen finish and the natural wood to shine through.

Normally you would mix some sanding dust with the CFP and use it to fill the nail holes. My man and I decided we liked the 'industrial' look of the exposed nail holes and decided to keep them to theme in with the rest of our decorating.

The supervisor was kicked out for the polishing process. He isn't really that impressed with being outside, or the fact that his doggy door is a little undersized.

A few days later we we finished the move and the dreadlocked removal crew (my man and one of my good friends) cooked our very first BBQ for our very first night in the new house. Following on from past moves, the first meal is eaten on a cardboard box table!

The most exciting part for me was getting to read the RUSSH magazine that I had bought prior to the move and hadn't yet had a chance to read. So I sat on my thai cushion, on my floor and spent an hour devouring every page with a nice cup of green tea.


First pic credit here

A Good Nights Sleep

  

Bedrooms have been one of those areas that I have found difficult to find inspiration for. Sure, there are thousands of pictures of beautiful fluffy pillow covered beds, or romantically crowded bohemian spaces online, but a bedroom must provide the users with a good nights sleep. My man suffers from mild sleep apnea and one of the key factors for dealing with it is having a restful bedroom. Our bedroom at our rental was crowded full of clothing as we had much less space and no wardrobes. We both agree since moving that it was causing us to have a restless nights sleep. Our new bedroom should be minimalist, functional and most of all comfortable. 

The picture at the top is my bed-spread. I absolutely love it and the story that goes with it. As a poor uni student I saw it in Myer on my way home from class (I caught the bus to and from uni at the shopping centre). At over $200 there was no way I could ever have afforded it. Several months later I was thrift shopping and found a really familiar pillow case. It was from my dream linen set! I hunted around the linen section of the thrift store and found the entire set, which looked like it had never been used. I went and purchased a new woollen filled doona to fit it and for under $100 ($5.00 for the cover and pillow slips, and $95 for the doona) I had my dream bed. Two years on and I am still not bored with it. 

Our bedroom will consist of a bed, two side tables, and a small dresser for my mans socks and jocks (this has been a dream of his for a while since our crowded rental didn't have space for it). I think a welded metal framed bed would suit the colours of my doona cover. Again, the walls will be white, but I wouldn't be opposed to a bedroom feature wall. 

This purple disaster below is what we have to work with.

Comfort is Key

A lounge-room should be comfortable, open, airy and welcoming. Our lounge is the entry point of our home, and being the highest elevated point of the property, overlooks the neighbourhood and several of the Sunshine Coast iconic mountains. I plan to paint all the walls a stark white and bring homeliness in with some cosy furnishings.

Our couch, while only a year or two old, had definitely not aged well. The fabric has pilled and discoloured to the point where it just looks dirty all the time. I am going to attempt a DIY couch cover venture in hope that it will come up looking like the ones in the picture above.

Again I am sorry these photos are all off my computer archive so I can't put a source list. Let me know if you know who they belong to!

The area we will be working with is below. Please excise the dog photo bomb, he certainly isn't camera shy.

Sock monkey yoga

This is 'Mr Stripey Pants' (as named by my sister) the sock monkey I made for my six month old nephew Noah. Mr Stripey Pants is quite good at yoga. He perfomed a sequence of poses for you; sukasana, pascimottanasana, halasana, upavistha konasana, and parivrtta janu sirsasana.

The instructions for creating your very own  yoga ready sock monkey are available at craft passion

My nephew really enjoyed chewing on Mr Stripey pants' tail.