We’re too old now to live with things we don’t love, and whilst we love our Marri floorboards, having furniture made of the same wood just wasn’t doing justice to them. So the furniture just had to go. The Marri soldboard was sold around the same time as we sold our Marri dining suite. In its place an old pine sideboard for up-cycling.

As you can see, neither the Marri, nor the pine sideboard do justice to the floor boards. However Paul has worked his magic – and now we have something we love.

An added bonus – we sold the Marri sideboard for $800, and purchased the old pine sideboard for just $50. I just love seeing old things get a new lease of life.

Here are before and after photos side by side of both the sideboard, and a photo of the dining room with the completed up-cycled furniture. Some people will prefer the wood look, but we love the clean brightness of the white. What do you think?

Are we there yet? Not quite! We still have a coffee table to go (already purchased and waiting for a make-over), and an entertainment unit (as yet not yet found to purchase). After that we have a girlfriends pine dining suite, that we’ve promised we’ll tackle for her. But for now, it’s break time. Next week we leave for a couple of weeks in Bali.

We’ve only been to Bali once before and that was around 25 years ago. We hated it at the time, but we’ve been told there’s something in Bali for everyone. Having sold our caravan last year, we’re determined to find what there is in Bali for us. Of course there are loads of places in the world worthy of a visit, but if we can find something in Bali to suit us, that’ll be just grand. It’s less than a four hour flight to get there from Perth, and it has the perfect climate to give us some warmth and sunshine during our cold winter months. We’re not that interested in sight-seeing, or doing the tourist run around. Just some warmth, a massage or two, and a good book to read around the pool, and we’ll be happy. We’re giving it a good trial this year – firstly 4 days in Sanur, then 4 days on Nusa Lembongan, and to finish off 5 nights in Nusa Dua. Then we’ll go over for another 9 nights in September and try out the Padma in Ubud, which I believe isn’t actually in Ubud. It’s north of Ubud in the misty mountains, but Ubud is the most well known place closest to the Padma. We’re hoping to find our little piece of Bali paradise to enjoy for some respite from our winter in the years to come. I’ll let you know if we think we found it.