salvaged roadside finds

    Rescued old kitchen cupboard from the side of the road with fabulous lino on the shelves

 The Jolly cat checks out the mysterious piece of furniture

                              

The old kitchen cupboard is now at home in my studio 

A couple of weekends ago I spied a couple of old 1950's / 1960's kitchen cupboards my neighbours had put out on the street as hard rubbish..... they didn't last long on the side of the road before me and Mr B whisked them into our garden for a clean up.

The first one we cleaned up is this very long cupboard with two shelves and three sliding glass doors.  It has the most amazing retro floral lino on the shelves which came up a treat after a good wash (I think the cupboards had sat in the neighbours garden shed for sometime!)  

The Jolly cat was most interested in the new addition and gave everything a good sniff to check it out!

We never had 'hard rubbish' in England.  I can remember a few months after we moved here, we started to notice piles and piles of furniture, random house objects, garden things and general rubbish piling up on the street outside peoples houses. We had no idea what was going on and were very confused!  Now we are very accustomed to hard rubbish - and it has actually become one of my favourite Australian sports ;-)

The rescued cupboard has found its way into my studio and is perfect for storing some of my bits and pieces - thanks neighbours!

New old furniture finds

Ooops - look what I happened to buy!  I've been after a large unit to store books and knick-knacks for a while, and spotted this one in Kyneton a few weeks ago.  It's a fab 1960's unit with plenty of storeage space - perfect for books and magazines etc.  I'm sure it won't stay this empty for long!  

I also found this cute little chair (1960's / 1970's??) at our local Salvo's.  The orange colour is perfect, and I love the splayed out legs - like a space ship!

I think I might have to stay home for a while and stop visiting second-hand shops, as our little house is beginning to get full up!  Somehow I always manage to find room for things though.....

Lost & Found Market

After my recent trip to the Lost & Found Market I thought it deserved a post all of its own.  Lost & Found Market is based in Smith Street (near Gertrude Street) and is jam packed with funky vintage, retro, second-hand and gloriously kitsch items!

Its quite overwhelming at first as there is so much to see spread over four levels, so you need to allow plenty of time to rummage!  There's furniture, bric-a-brac, fashion, kitchen goodies, books, records etc etc....

I can happily lose myself for quite sometime whenever I pop by for a looksy, and it takes some serious will power not to go mad!  The only downside is it's cash only - although this can help to curb the spending!  Happy shopping - I might see you in there! :)

Kitchen things

A few months ago we headed along to the closing down sale at the Mornington Antiques Centre.  I was kind of sad the day I discovered it was the day it was closing down - typical!

We picked up this cute little sideboard - I actually think it may have originally been designed or used for a record player and housing records (yep remember those vinyl round things we used to listen to music on!!) because of the tall thin compartments on the right hand side, that don't seem to be suitable for storing anything apart from wine!!

We decided anyway to use it in our kitchen, as its perfect for storing sideplates, teatowels and some of my teapots and kettles - such as this little retro beauty complete with whistling spout!

I also bought this orange patterend enamel dish - which matches the coffee pot I already had.  Perfect!   

And how about this gorgeous metal tin with fabulous illustrations all the way around.  I've no idea of the age or origins of the tin - but I just loved the very cute kitchen themed patterns and colours and for a whole $4 I thought it was a bargain!

If you're interested in all things 'kitchen' you must head over to Liz Jones' (of Betty Jo Designs) new blog You Will Always Find Me......  She has started a blog all about 'kitchen goodness' and like me she has a fondess for all things vintage, retro, colourful and quirky in the kitchen! 

 

It's going to be a fabulous blog and features some images of Liz's own amazing kitchen (see above).  You can submit your own kitchen pics too - which I will be doing very soon!  The blog has gone straight to my bookmarks poolroom (if you know what I mean!) 

Spring planting.......French update!

I've got an update to my spring planting using recycled and quirky old homewares items.  My dad read my recent post and sent me these images he took a few years ago whilst living in France.  He was driving around Caylus, South West France, and came across this cast iron bed festooned with hanging pots outside the owners house.

What a fabulous way to recycle an old bed frame - and doesn't it just look gorgeous!  It just goes to show what you can do with un-loved utilitarian housewares items and a little bit of creativity.



Thanks dad!  My dad has his own very lovely blog full of his paintings from time spent living in France and Ireland that you can see here:

Kitchen details

A few weeks ago I posted about my trip to the fabulous Mill Markets at Dayelsford (see post here). Whilst I was there I spotted this old shelf unit - and I just knew it would be prefect in my kitchen!

It was actually sold as a hanging shelf and was originally the other way up - however I removed the hooks and turned it around the other way so it now sits on top of my kitchen bench!  I love having patterned things on display rather than hidden behind cupboard doors, so this is perfect to display some of my favourite kitchen items as well as being very functional. 

I also found a use for the glass jug I bought at the market too - it's a perfect vessel for housing wooden spoons!

New second-hand shop finds!

I had a pretty busy week last week as I was back working at the textile design studio where I used to work full time. I left working there last year to freelance and to set up Me Old China , but I've been helping out in the design studio whilst a few people are away. It's been nice to work in a busy studio environment again and get to work with a bunch of really creative people. Freelancing can sometimes be a little isolating and lonely, and I do miss interacting with creative people and getting inspiration and learning from other designers.

However, one of the best things with being back at the design studio is getting to visit all the second-hand and charity shops in the area - and I managed to pick up a few great finds!...

... such as this very cute map desk!

It 's in great condition for it's age - I'm guessing it's from the 70's as some of the geography is a little out of date.

I also found this fab retro patterned bone china tea-cup and saucer by Colclough China, England. Colclough China was founded in 1890 but sadly ceased to manufacture in the mid 1990's. In the 1950's they merged with Ridgway and this pattern must have been produced sometime after this as the backstamp denotes the name Ridgway as well as Colclough.

I love that it's in olive green and soft ochre colours - and whilst it's floral in nature, the pattern is a stylised and retro interpretation. Too cute!

Along with the tea-cup and saucer I picked up this sweet floral oval shaped plate. It depicts a small cluster of flowers, leaves and berries but in an autumnal colour palette - and I like it because it's unusual to find this muted colouring for a floral plate.

I'm back working at the design studio this week as well - so I'll definitely be making a few more trips to the local charity shops at lunchtime! Fingers crossed for some more great finds...

My little house on The Design Files!

I was really excited today when my little house was featured on the ever brilliant The Design Files!
You can see the full post and more images at: The Design Files

A big 'thank you' to Lucy over at The Design files for making my house look lovely and for featuring my home and it's treaures on her wonderful blog (it really is the best blog!)

It's quite nerve-wracking knowing your home is going to be looked at by lots of people - especially as we're still in the process of renovating it. It's also nice though to share it with people, and I love having a peek at other peoples homes so I guess its only fair I share mine! Enjoy :-)

Fire mantle before & after

When we moved into our house a few years ago the lounge room had an original fire mantle in front of a boarded-up fireplace. As part of our on-going house renovations we decided to try and restore the fire mantle....
Fire mantle - before
First of all we stripped it all back to reveal the original timber, and gave it a really good sand and polish. Although it looked lovely after stripping it back sadly it no longer went with the rest of the room post reno's (especially since we opened up the original fireplace). Instead of getting rid of it we decided not to waste our hard work but to find other uses for it....

Fire mantle - after

Part of the mantle legs created a wide shelf in the exposed fireplace, we knocked out the centre panel and replaced the wood backing with mirror to create a mirror in our hallway, and finally we used the top of the mantle to create a shelf above the old stove in our kitchen!

It's lovely to be able to re-use something that was originally part of the house and recycle into 'new' furniture.