Anna's Old Queenslander - Renovations & Decorations

[Anna Williams]

So Julie-Ann was asking about the projects I was whinging about on Twitter so I thought it was about time I finally put up some pictures of my own place.

Most of the clients I work with have a more modern, stream lined style, or a country feel, but my style is probably a mix of both.

My own house is a mid-century Queenslander which has some very traditional features like tongue & groove walls and casement windows, and some very mid-century features like the retro kitchen. It has also had some terrible 80s renovations where the original lighting was ripped out and replaced with strip fluoros (behind pelmets in the bedrooms), and all the original 20cm high skirting have been removed. *Sigh*

I've been slowly doing up rooms a little bit at a time, with the limited time I have free. I have started off working on the cheaper updates, and we are working toward some more serious work later in the year.

So, first off...the before pictures! (Shield your eyes, please).

The Entry



The Kitchen/Dining




Master Bedroom


Bit of a disaster, right!

[Anna Williams]

Second Bedroom



Third Bedroom



The second bedroom is soon to be my office (when I say soon, it might be a couple of months!) and the third bedroom will be converted to the living room.

[Anna Williams]

The first room we tackled was painting the main bedroom, which includes sanding and fixing the old casements.

Last year I made a headboard and new curtains for the room. The curtain pelmets were designed to be a more attractive covering for the fluoros, but I actually quite like them now!

We are lucky enough to have 3m high ceilings, so adding pelmets make the walls go on forever.

There's still lots of work to do here but at least it's liveable!





I'm undecided whether to keep the green headboard or change the pattern. I might use a patterned floral fabric which includes green (to tie in with the curtains). I also need art, new bedding and to finish a built-in wardrobe!

[Paris Girl]

This is going to be great and huge improvement already! I would love to do up another Queenslander one day.

[clp]

What a great place - it even looks lovely in the before's apart from the choice of colours.

[Julie-Ann]

What a fabulous house Anna. What a great use of your skills and talent.
I love your headboard. Can you tell us sometime how you made it?

[LDH]

Your place has AMAZING bones - so much to work with. The room you have done looks fantastic! Love the colour of the headboard!

Im sure everyone will disagree, but im just going to put it out there. I love the kitchen cupboards! That old style is so sooooo cool. I dont know how it goes for functionality but old style wood cabinets just look great to me.

[Anna Williams]

I have to admit the retro style cabinets has really grown on me. Originally, the plan was to replace them with a galley style kitchen. In the meantime, I painted them white which made a huge difference.

Now, I'm thinking about re-working the layout, using the existing cabinets and replacing the benchtops. It does suit the era of the house, so it would be nice to create a modern kitchen that still reflected the retro style.

I've got some more progress pictures to show everyone - will put them up later today!

[thisisme]

Can't wait to see more photos

You've done an AMAZING job so far!!!

[rosierose]

Love Love love it..........have actually seen some pics on your blog... Just lovely....... wish we can Queenslanders here in Victoria.......is that possible?? Would they be called Victorias??? ROFL... Don't mind me bit nutty today......

I have seen the odd one now I think of it...

Oh and I guess we are building a Californian bungalow and are not in California...... Oh righto I hear u ..... off to take some medication.....