furniture

it’s coming up to chair o’clock

Art4All is looming on the horizon.  Which means I need to start thinking about creating a chair for the chair auction.  SO MUCH FUN!

I channeled all of my creative energy into Gumtree over 24 hours last week.  To discover a beauty in the making in the form of a cane chair – already painted white.  For free.  Just a hop skip and jump away in Thornbury. Then I fidgeted my way through work til 3pm.  And jumped in the car to go pick it up.

 Thanks Jessica for leaving it out on your front porch for me.

And, now I am just pinning away all things related to ‘rattan/cane chairs’ on Pinterest.  Given that it is already painted my first step is choosing a new colour.  Here are some options I am contemplating … 


I am drawn to the pink and gold … But am wondering how many potential bidders are out there for these more outlandish options.

And then on to the fabric.  I am thinking perhaps a jungle theme.  Maybe some leaf screen printing …


Or I have been meaning to do some shibori dying like … forever!

Which reminds me.  I really need to get my sewing machine serviced.  

Any thoughts?  I’m very undecided.  I’ll let you know what I choose and when I am finished I’ll post some pictures (of course).

free coathangers (found)

Yesterday I was driving along minding my own business (on Chifley Drive to be specific) and stopped at the Bell Street lights (heading north) where I noticed about 10 big cardboard boxes on the side of the road full of coathangers.  1000s of them I reckon. Accompanied by some serious looking shop fittings.

On my way home from Bunnings I pulled over to take a closer look.  

And I couldn’t resist so I picked up some coathangers … and used them to transform Clive’s wardrobe last night … such a nice friendly thing to do on my behalf … don’t you agree?  (in our house this is definitely beyond the call of duty – we’re strongly of the school of thought that your own clothes and how you choose to store them is your own problem)

And if only I had a station wagon I might* have picked up a glass display cabinet or two for the Art4All shop.


I wonder if it’s all still there today …

*probably definitely would have.

making (closer) friends with IKEA 

A school mum came to our house the other week and commented that she liked the fact that the vibe of our home was ‘very un-IKEA’.  

Which is funny because our wardrobes are IKEA and our kitchen is IKEA.

And we have the obligatory Expedit cube  bookshelf.  And some Billy bookcases and 101 IKEA photo frames …

This last month I have been working on the girls room.  Tidying up.  Moving the wardrobes from one wall to another. Decluttering.  Some sanding of the super bumpy lath and plaster walls. A splash of paint.  Oh, and the addition of more IKEA stuff.  Front and centre this time. 

In particular I invested in more cube shelving.

And did you know that they’ve replaced Expedit with a newer version called Kallax?  And it doesn’t match?  Aagh.

It’s a complicated and somewhat boring story.  But I had 12 cube Expedit shelf, and I wanted an 8 cube shelf (to put longways under the window) and Elise had an 8 cube shelf, and wanted a 12 cube shelf … So most excellently we swapped.  Well Mum, Dad and I wrangled the bloody heavy shelves on to the trailer and off the trailer and up and down the garden path etc. etc. in a heavy lifting project morning (thanks once again Mum and Dad).

All good.  

But then.  

I thought an extra 4 cubes would finish the room off. So I measured up and popped over to IKEA … and bought a new 4 cube Kallax shelf … and realised that the Expedit shelf was 1cm thicker all round.  And a different colour white.  And looked pretty average next to the new Kallax cubes.

And so I just* ducked back to IKEA and bought another two 4 cube Kallax shelves to replace the old 8 cube Expedit.  At $40 each they were pretty great value.

  
And so … Voila.  And matchy, matchy.  And I am happy.  Now I just have to find a home for the 8 cube shelf.

* It took, like, forever … geez I HATE Kew junction in peak hour!