1960's chairs....before and after

About 6 - 8 months ago I picked up two fabulous 1960's chairs in our local second-hand / antiques shop. I loved the shape and size of them, but they were old, a bit fusty and whilst I loved the original green woven fabric, they were in much need of new foam cushions and re-upholstering.

 

The first thing we did was to set about stripping back the old dark varnish.  Mr B tackled this job over winter, at night and in the garage - I don't think it was much fun, whilst I trawled through fabric books and ordered a heap of fabric swatches to chose from.        

Removing the dark varnish transformed the chairs, revealing a lovely pale Scandinavian looking wood (which apparently is Myrtle) and we then simply finished this by rubbing over a wax to protect and seal the wood.  I decided to cover the chairs in different fabrics, rather than having them as a matching pair, and I settled on 'Baxter' in Wasabi from Warwick, and 'Bubble' in Yellow Chrome from Zepel Fabrics.    We used a Stephen Read, a great local upholsterer in Woodend to re-cover the chairs, as I fear my average sewing skills and very old sewing machine might not have been up to the job!

New house bits and pieces

Five weeks ago we picked up the keys to our new house and began the upheaval of shifting all of our belongings into a new space. On the one hand it's exciting to be moving, but it's always an exhausting and overwhelming process.  We were lucky with a sunny day for the move, and with our things piling up in the garage Mr J checked out the new pad, whilst Jolly cat was a bit bewildered with it all!

Slowly we have been unpacking, cleaning, dusting and trying to locate things buried in forgotten boxes.  The empty new house we moved into is gradually turning into our new home.  Books are finding their way onto shelves, clothes are in wardrobes, pots and pans are in cupboards, and I'm trying to find new 'safe' homes for teacups, coffee pots and all my ceramic bits and pieces - having them all out on display was fine before having a two year old running around!

My studio space is a lovely light filled room overlooking the garden, and I've got all my favourite pieces of reference material / inspiration images pinned on a big wall in front of me to gawp at.  I'm trying to be organised, de-clutter and have a big clear out - but I'm such a hoarder that I struggle to let go of a lot of things!  Consequently my studio is packed full of things I love - which makes it a great personal workspace for me :)         

The kitchen is relatively new, so I'm doing my best to 'de-newify' it by getting all my favourite second-hand tins, retro cups and general vintage kitchenalia out to break up some of the plain white cupboards and laminated work surfaces.  I'd like to put up some more shelving to display kitchen stuff I use on a regular basis......but I'll have to persuade Mr B to get his tool kit out for that!     

Here we go again!

It was just over a year ago that we packed up our life in Melbourne, and did our own little Escape to the Country, moving north and settling in Kyneton. We've absolutely loved making the move out of the city, and have formed great friendships (with many other 'ex-pat' Melbournians) as well as enjoying fabulous local food, wineries, markets and lots of new vintage places to explore.

We've made our life in the country a little more permanent, as a few weeks ago we purchased a house here in Kyneton. And so I find myself again surrounded by boxes, packing up daily life and carefully wrapping treasured items for the short journey across town to our new home.

Many of the items I'm carefully wrapping up aren't worth anything - teacups and teapots found in the bric-a-brac section of the local op-shop, plates gathered at vintage markets and miscellaneous ceramics and kitchenalia from garage sales. However, I'd be devastated if I lost my collection of bits and pieces. If my TV / DVD / bike / kettle / toaster etc breaks - so what - I just get a new one. No big deal. Go to the shop...choose new item.....purchase....bring home. Easy.

However, my favourite teacup or plate might only be worth $5 - but I bought it because it was different, unusual, individual. I bought it because I loved the pattern, the shape, the colour, the old-fashioned feel and look of it. I bought it because it's not something you find everyday in every high street shop - but because I might never come across that same item ever again. Not so easy to replace.

It will be exciting unpacking and finding new homes for all of our belongings (many of which need a little dusting!) and I'll look forward to sharing some of our new house adventures here.  Above is a sneak-peek of the house - we've gone for a cheeky 1970's number.  Wish us luck for the move and fingers crossed my ceramic treasures survive the journey!

Moving on....

Our little house......sold!

Looking back on all the renovations we did - this is what confronted us after a

'simple' re-stumping process!!

Plaster was removed, with architraves and skirting boards removed to insulate internal & external walls. 

The front garden before......

......and after

We lived in the house throughout all the renovation crazyness.... here Mr B combines studying for a Masters whilst also working full time and house renovating in evenings and weekends!

                                                           Mr B installs the new kitchen.......

......with help from Jolly cat!

The living room & kitchen before.....

.....And after

Some favourite house details

Last week our house sold!  It feels quite exciting, but also quite sad at the same time.  Its the first house myself and Mr B have owned and is full of lots of happy memories.....and also full of some horrible renovation nightmares. 

We lived in the house for a year before organising a 'simple' re-stumping to level the house.  Unfortunately this is where it all went wrong.  We came home to find the house was level, but in the process floor boards had been ripped up and crudely cut, the original plaster was popping off the walls - and the house just looked like it was falling apart! 

Over a two year period we put nearly all our belongings into storage and embarked on a steep learning curve of how-to-renovate-your-house-on-a-budget-on-weekends-and-evenings!!  We lived in the house throughout the experience, whilst both working full time and Mr B studying for a Masters degree.  Although it was dirty, exhausting and pretty horrendous, it also gave us the opportunity to transform the house and garden and make some serious improvements to our little 1940's weatherboard. 

The house was featured on The Design Files a few years back (before all the renovations were completed) as well as being included in Sanctuary magazine and the Herald Sun Home magazine.  We managed to renovate on a budget (although this did mean doing a lot of the work ourselves) and utilise a lot of second-hand and salvaged furniture, building materials - and generally being quite inventive with resources. 

So we'll be moving away from a very special house, some very good friends and an area we're very familar with - but we're looking forward to a new adventure and experiencing life in the country!  Wish us luck with the house packing and moving - eek!!

Studio clean up!

My clean and tidy studio space!

 

I made a big effort at the weekend to give my studio space a tidy-up.  After a very busy few months the studio was looking a bit chaotic and was in desperate need of a good clean and tidy.

Artwork and designs have been filed away, piles of papers sorted out, books are back on bookshelves, art materials have been tidied up and magazine tear-outs are sorted into archive folders.  I've even gone through my old magazine collection and binned any magazines pre 2009. (Always quite distressing throwing away magazines - but I did go on a tear-out frenzy prior to binning any!)

I'm not a really messy person, by nature I'm quite organised so I hate it when I'm working in a cluttered environment.  It's nice every few months, or after a particularly busy period, to have a good clean and tidy and get organised again!

Home-made, recycled baby bunting

Some of the second-hand children's clothing bought from the Salvo's for the bunting

Pinning the paper triangle template onto the washed fabrics and cutting out the shapes.  A very interested Jolly cat comes to investigate the crafty activity   

All the fabric triangles pinned face-to-face ready for sewing.  Jolly cat 'helps' by pressing the triangle pieces so they are nice and flat!  

After sewing the sides together the fabric triangles are turned inside out - so the front of the fabric is now on the outside   

The fabric triangles are stitched to the tape mixing up the colours and patterns 

And here is the finished bunting suspended from each corner of the ceiling - very cute!  

I've also made a few toys recycled from gloves and socks below (the monkeys rather fabulous jumper is an old pair of my thermal leggins!!)  I used the book Sock and Glove - Creating Charming Soft Friends from Cast-off Socks and Gloves by the very clever Miyako Kanamori.  There is a link here with some images of people who've made much better toys than me!   

Well, things are getting ever closer here in preparation for the baby!  So, I've been busy making a few things for the baby's room.  I recently made some bunting recycled from second-hand children's clothes, some old pyjamas of mine, and some offcuts of fabric.  

It's been fun to make the bunting, and I love the mix of all the different coloured and patterned fabrics!  I've used different fabric on each side of the bunting, and as we don't know what 'flavour' baby we're having I wanted to make something suitable for a boy or girl - and using the children's clothing has been perfect to get some cute patterns and colours for either.

The bunting was really very easy to make, and just requires a sewing machine and some time.  You could use any old or second-hand fabrics for different looks - vintage fabrics and teatowels would be cute, or un-used clothing and bedding for example.

Here's what I did:

1. Firstly I washed all the second-hand clothing (and pressed any particularly wrinkly fabrics so they were nice and flat), and made myself a paper triangle template.  Because I decided to have different fabric on either side, I made sure my triangle was about 1cm larger than I wanted the finished pieces to be, to allow for stitching the pieces together.

2. Then, I pinned my paper triangle template onto the different fabrics and carefully cut out the triangle shapes.  I made sure I had lots of triangular pieces of fabric in different colours and patterns - including some plain colours.

3. When the triangular fabric shapes were cut I pressed them to make sure they were all nice and flat, and then started to pair them up, making sure there were different colours and patterns on each side.

4. I then pinned each pair of fabric triangles face-to-face (i.e. so the front of each piece of fabric faces each other) and using the sewing machine stitched along the two sides of the triangles only - leaving the top unstitched and open.  The stitched pieces are then turned inside out - so the front of the fabric is now on the outside.

5. When all the triangles have been stitched and turned inside out, press them again so they form nice flat and neat little triangles!

6. Organise the tape you want to hang the triangles from, I went for a natural coloured twill tape - but there are lots of different coloured and patterned tapes depending on the theme of your bunting.  I made sure the tape was quite wide (about 2cm) and thick enough to support the weight of all the fabric pieces.  Measure the length you need the tape to be depending on your room size (or wherever it's to be hung) and make sure you include extra to allow the bunting to drape. 

7. Then pin each triangle onto the tape, making sure you get a mix of different colours and patterns dispersed along the tape length.  To do this I placed the top (open) part of the triangle halfway up the width of the tape and then folded the tape over, this way you should have an even amount of tape on either side of the fabric triangle (about 1cm each side) and when pinned the triangle should be firmly attached to the tape.  I also left about 10cm of tape at each end free of triangles to allow for hanging.

8. All you need to do now is to stitch the tape to the triangles using the sewing machine.  Et Voila!  Your own bunting is completed!           

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.....

Latest second-hand finds

Busy, busy week this week!  I've been pretty flat out with some freelance design work, but I did manage to find time to pop into the fabulous Lost & Found market in Smith Street yesturday.  Always very dangerous - as I always manage to find things to buy! 

I bought this retro tomato ketchup sauce bottle in the shape of a tomato - genious!  I've actually wanted one for ages as it really reminds me of visiting old-fashioned cafes in England as a child!  Tomato ketchup, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce and HP sauce - ahh the best of Bristish!!  

I also picked up this rather stunning long-length vintage green leather coat!  Green is my favourite colour and this leather coat is a beautiful dark British racing green colour.  Its in superb condition - the brand is Merivale which was apparantly the first specialty fashion boutique in Melbourne.  This quote about Merivale is from The Powerhouse site - which I found via Circa Vintage Clothing;

Established by John and Merivale Hemmes, the landmark House of Merivale and clothing designed by Merivale revolutionised the Australian fashion scene. John and Merivale Hemmes were mavericks in Australian fashion. Modelled on London’s famous concept boutiques and catering to 18-25 year olds, the House of Merivale was the first specialty fashion boutique in Australia.

The House of Merivale was not just a shop; it was a phenomenon that significantly influenced a generation of young Australian’s attitude to shopping and the fashion experience. The House of Merivale was the place to go to for the latest trends in music, fashion and make-up and was the first store in Australia to sell the mini. The popularity of the boutique was such that teenagers would be lined up outside the door.

My little house in Sanctuary magazine

My little house has been featured in the latest edition of the fabulous Sanctuary Magazine! 

Sanctuary is a magazine dedicated to sustainable and environmentally conscious house design, and showcases a range of homes across Australia all with the common theme of being sustainable in some format - but without compromising on design and aesthetics!   

 

The article focused on our recently completed house renovations - which were done very frugally on a minimal budget - and maintained the original features of the old house.  We deliberately made features of the old aspects of the house, instead of tearing things down and plastering over, which is sadly what we were advised to do on many occasions!

 

We used bamboo as a sustainable alternative to installing new floorboards, recycled second-hand old wooden doors (including one from the local tip shop with original retro yellow bottle glass for $20!), kept all the original windows and light fittings, insulated the ceiling and walls throughout, and used salvaged and recycled furniture for the interior.

 

A big 'Thank You' to Sanctuary magazine for including our home in it's beautiful glossy pages, and for highlighting sustainable homes and interiors can be acheived with a small budget and lots of imagination.  

Sanctuary Magazine is published by the Alternative Technology Association, a not-for-profit organisation promoting environmental design, and water and energy conservation in the home. Yay!