Projects

Trade Me: Amazing What Sells

Posted by on Mar 1, 2013 | 0 comments

We are selling our lives on Trade Me in preparation for the big move later this month, and it always surprises me what ends up having all the attention.  I have had these two wrought iron gates stored under the house for so long.  They used to be part of an outdoor wall that I had to remove.  I love them and always intended to use them in the garden again, but that time has come and gone so I put a crappy photo up on Trade Me and listed for $20.  I had thought about just selling them at the garage sale next week, but I had time, so why not?

The gates from my Spanish Mission house.

It was worth putting them on.  There are still 4 days to go, I have 54 watchers, 7 bids and they are up to $51!  I didn’t expect it.  I guess vintage gates are hard to come by, and if I love them, maybe other people have similar taste to me.  You can see the listing here.

Retro Renovation: Seagrass Matting

Posted by on Dec 3, 2012 | 0 comments

While doing our big retro renovation, I decided I wanted to get a mat for our kitchen floor.  As it’s a narrow space, I wanted something like a runner carpet, but being a food zone it needed to be practical.  I love the squares of seagrass matting – seen recently in my post about the Marlborough Sounds bach here – they remind be of baches and growing up in the 70s, but they were surprisingly hard to find.  I guess they are not in fashion any more.

Retro bach with seagrass matting squares on the floor

I did end up finding one mat store online that sell the seagrass matting tiles.  The squares are 30.5cm squares and come off the roll in 9 square widths – at $40 each row.  Then you just decide how many rows you want.  You can see more here.

You can see a peek of the mat in front of our fridge

I got 3 rows wide and it fits our kitchen perfectly.  It’s a practical choice as the bits of food and muck don’t stick to the matting, instead it falls through, so you can just vacuum it up every couple of days.  It’s soft under foot, and helps to stop things breaking when you have a 2 year old rummaging in the cupboards.  I wish I’d done it before!

Seagrass matting squares are perfect for grubby areas.

Photo: A Simple Life Afloat

Retro Renovation: Home-Office Study Nook

Posted by on Oct 16, 2012 | 0 comments

I thought you might like to see the home office study nook the American built into one of the alcoves on the side of our fireplace in our living room.  Our house is a 1940s Art Deco/Spanish Mission style house and that means we have arches everywhere – and I love them!  So my first request was to keep the arches next to the fireplace.  In keeping with my love of all things retro, we decided to build in a study nook.  It isn’t fabulous Danish wooden joinery,  instead it is white – and it works with our house.

The built-in desk and shelves fit nicely in next to the fireplace

The desk folds up so I can tidy my usually messy desk away if we have company.

The desk part folds up and hides my mess

The hinges holding my desk together

If you are interested in reading more about the art deco fire guard the clever American designed, I have written about it before here.  We bought the chair off Trade Me new from this seller, we use them as dining chairs mostly.  They have a curved back and a cushioned seat so are super comfortable and stable.  I see they have them in white vinyl now – I am coveting!  We looked for a long time for chairs but they were either too expensive (these have gone up a little since we bought them) or too uncomfortable.  These ended up being a great solution – until I found a vintage Danish dining suite in an op shop…but that is a story for another day.

Birch ply dining chairs $125 on Trade Me

My white ware collection has a place and is lit!

I have some little pieces of art that I hung on the strip of wall next to my desk.  The chalkware woman’s head I bought many years ago.  It has a crack, but I still love it.  The gold lacquer picture is from Vietnam from my mum and the seed pod is by ceramic artist Renee Boyd.  We get a photo calendar sent to us every year from the American’s parents, which is really sweet.  This years one is full of pictures of the kid.

My little pieces of art next to the nook

Some of my pretties: the acrobatic clown book end is stamped “Japan’, the dish is Sylvac, and I found the Maori warrior bust in my local op shop. My sister gave me the picture of my grandparents.

And of course right now, it is tidy!  A minor miracle in itself as it is a dump zone for papers and junk.  I set the timer for 1 hour when the Kid was being looked after and dealt to it.  Amazing what you can get done in an hour.

Retro Renovation: Grasscloth Wallpaper

Posted by on Oct 10, 2012 | 0 comments

The 1950s house I featured yesterday had grasscloth wallpaper in its living spaces and it made me wonder if it is still around.  And it is!  It is so perfect for a retro renovation, and actually fashionable again as it is a natural wallpaper.  It’s not the cheapest wallpaper around as each drop is a unique handmade panel – which is why it is so great.  I have a room I would love to wallpaper in this, but I’ll have to think carefully about it as it isn’t completely low maintenance – it might not go well with a toddler!

For some inspiration, you only need to go as far as the sets of the show Mad Men:

The Draper living room has both wood panelling and grasscloth wallpaper.

Grasscloth wallpaper as seen in Bert Cooper’s office

Resenes stocks a grasscloth wallpaper, which I have sent away for a price – so will update this post when it comes in.

Resenes stocks this grasscloth wallpaper

If you do like this look, here are some key points though about grasscloth wallpaper to think about:

• This textured wallpaper is not as hard wearing as other wallpapers – it is not suitable for particularly heavy traffic areas like hallways
• Grasscloth wallpaper is absorbent, so not good for high humidity areas like bathrooms, or places that need wiping down like kids rooms
• The best way to clean this type of wallpaper is usually vacuuming as it shouldn’t come in contact with water due to its natural  dyes and finishes
• One of the great things about grasscloth wallpaper is that you can get it undyed , and that means there are natural differences in colour
• Grasscloth wallpaper doesn’t come prepasted
• This wallpaper is like a fabric, so it can retain odours from things like smoking – and it isn’t like curtains that you can have cleaned.
• Might not be the best choice for someone with a grass alergy!

It doesn’t look like the easiest thing to hang, perhaps a job best left to the professionals.  Although if you are interested in doing it yourself take a look at the article here (PDF) for tips on hanging grasscloth wallpaper.

Retro Living: Converted Ferry Liveaboard

Posted by on Oct 9, 2012 | 0 comments

I love being out on the ocean, but I’m not a hugely into boats.  This Trade Me listing caught my eye though as it is so unusual to see.  This 1914 kauri carvel designed ferry has been completely re-done inside so you can live aboard.  It looks amazingly done, what a lifestyle!  I knew a few people in Seattle that lived on their boats, but I don’t know anyone here.  This is your chance!  Personally I’m not sure that I could limit myself to the little amount of stuff needed to fit on board…and of course the stress of having a toddler by the water all the time would be huge… but if you don’t have those kinds of worries, take a look at this baby!

This converted ferry is selling for $98500, or near offer.  You can read about it here.

The converted ferry ‘Olive Rose’

Living the dream (well, in summer…)

It even comes with a king-size bed!

Fiat Bambinas in Italy

Posted by on Oct 5, 2012 | 0 comments

I was going through some old photos and found these Fiat 500 photos from our trip to Italy.  How I love this car!  It’s a few years ago now, so I’m looking so young!  One day I would love to have a Fiat Bambina – we had a pale blue one when I was growing up.  My most vivid memories of it was being towed (quite often!) and that the rust was so bad that you could just see the road through the floor when driving along!  It always felt like you were driving very fast, even when you weren’t.

Loved this Fiat 500! It has floral linen upholstery.

An orangy-red Bambina

The new-ish version of the Fiat 500.