Touching Up Timber

September 22, 2015 By

Whether we’d like to accept it or not, there’s no denying that Spring has officially sprung.

spring

Despite the weather in Sydney being sporadic over the past month, with temperatures over 25 one day and drizzle and cloud cover the next, people and their homes are taking on new life. Whether this be through summer clothes shopping, attending barbeques or spring cleaning, everybody seems to be embracing the new season. Being a Virgo, cleaning and tidying the house is an all-year festival, but there’s something about Spring that makes even the grubbiest of home-owners feel like picking up a duster and dancing around the house like Snow White. However, when spring cleaning it’s easy to get caught up in arranging and dusting rather than really looking at the damage areas of your house may have. It’s easy to forget about the chips and scratches on timber floors, doors and furniture which can easily detract from the most beautiful of homes.

snowwhite

Luckily for you there’s an easy solution. The new Touch Up Pen from Cabot’s can quickly disguise imperfections on timber surfaces around the home that suffer the most knocks and bumps, such as tabletops, chairs, doors, floors and the corners of furniture. Designed to closely resemble the colour of most timber finishes, Cabot’s Touch Up Pen range is suitable for use on all interior timber, and is available in five popular stain colours – Black, Walnut Brown, Golden Maple, Honey Oak and Jarrah Red gum – as well as Clear Satin and Clear gloss.

Colours

What a great way to refresh and renew slight imperfections the patina of life gives to floors and furniture. So if you’re Spring cleaning or have noticed scratches or chips in the timber work around your home, pick up a Cabot’s Touch Up Pen for only $8.50.

Hallway

That’s less than what you’ll find under the couch cushions!

coins-sofa

If you’d like interiors advice for Spring, or help with timber furniture and flooring contact us for an appointment.

Filed Under: Furniture, Interiors, Renovations Tagged With: , , ,

Upcycling To Win

August 4, 2015 By

Following a successful online charity auction, Feast Watson will present $10,000 in charitable donations to the Salvos Stores as part of the Feast Watson Re-Love project. The fortunate top-bidders have also procured some exquisite furniture items which were upcycled into unique statement pieces by a group of talented designers.

Before Side Tables
The eBay auction which closed at 5pm (AEST) on Saturday 18 July, reached a combined total of $6,115.58, with all proceeds from the auction to be donated to the Salvos Stores. Feast Watson provided further funds to bring the total to $10,000 in donations.

Side Tables
Feast Watson’s Brand Manager, James Fisher, says “This year’s talent produced captivating designs, and it is through the support of the wider public and their love of design, impressive results for the Salvos Stores could be achieved.”
Before Single Beds
Upcycling continues to grow in popularity as one of the leading craft trends. The Re-Love Project shows just how a little time and effort can take a second hand piece of furniture and transform it into a something beautiful.

Single Beds

Design Lovers are now invited to get involved in the Re-Love revolution by sharing their own upcycling projects on Instagram. Simply share a before and after image of a recent upcycling project on Instagram using the following hashtags for a chance to win exquisite Mark Tuckey furniture to the value of $3000!

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Step 1. Follow Feast Watson on Instagram
Step 2. Upload a before image with hashtags #before #relove2015
Step 3. Upload an after image with hashtags #after #relove2015
Competition closes 4 September 2015.

My Grandmother's breakfast room table before

My Grandmother’s breakfast room table before

My grandmother's breakfast room table after

My grandmother’s breakfast room table after

So what are you waiting for? Get down to your nearest Salvos Store and pick up a piece of furniture and get creative.

Filed Under: Dining Rooms, Furniture, Interiors Tagged With: , ,

New App for Renovators

July 23, 2015 By

There are literally thousands of apps to help make renovating easier for the home renovator. But now there’s a new one available for those of us who want to incorporate timber in our homes. And let’s face it, timber floor boards are the one element nearly every home owner desires at the moment.

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Intergrain have created a great little app to assist you visualise what the floor will look like stained or treated with their range of colours and finishes. You can take a snap of the flooring and then choose from their colours to get an idea of what the end result will look like.

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Maybe you’re half way through a job and need some advice? You can just click on the Solutions tab. Not sure how much stain you’ll need? Click on the Calculator. Ready to roll but don’t know where to buy the product? Click on the Store Locator.

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I can see this will be a very handy app for me to use as well, when I’m trying to assist clients with their flooring needs. It works for both inside and out, flooring, decking, fencing, doors, windows, panelling, stairs, garage doors and furniture. You can download it right now, for free!

Pool Deck

If you would like assistance with choosing timber species and colours for your home, contact us for an appointment.

 

 

Filed Under: Colour, Furniture, Interiors, Outdoors, Renovations Tagged With: , , , ,

Upcycled Furniture

July 16, 2015 By

Time is ticking for you to own a unique piece of furniture lovingly restored and remodelled by some amazing Australian design aficionados and help charity at the same time!

Before Single Beds

The Feast Watson Re-Love Project is live on eBay and taking bids right now. You have until 5pm (Eastern Standard Time) tomorrow to make a bid and secure one of these pieces for your home. There’s a beautiful sideboard by Steve Cordony, a funky set of side tables from Tara Dennis and not one but TWO timber single beds from Mark Tuckey. There’s alot more as well so why don’t you click on over and check out all the amazing work and do your bit for charity.

Single Beds

The Feast Watson Re-Love Project is now in it’s third year and has raised thousands of dollars for Salvo Stores. “Salvos Stores are delighted to once again benefit from the outstanding efforts of Feast Watson and the Re-Love project. We’re incredibly grateful to the eight talented designers who have generously donated their time and talents to the project. We can’t wait to see the auction outcome,” CEO, Allen Dewhirst said.

Before Sideboard
While upcycling continues to lead as one of the more popular craft trends, it seems it hasn’t quite extended to medium and large furniture pieces, with people still inclined to throw them away rather than consider their potential. The Re-Love Project shows just how a little TLC can inject personality into second hand furniture to give it a new lease on life.

Black Sideboard Feast Watson’s Brand Manager, James Fisher, says the designs showcase how timber furniture items of all sizes can be transformed into something truly special and unexpected.

Side Tables

So have a look and make a bid or maybe head out to your nearest Salvos Store and purchase a piece to remodel yourself. We’d love to see the end result.

 

Filed Under: Furniture, Interiors Tagged With: , ,

Upcycling for a Cause

April 23, 2015 By

For the third consecutive year Feast Watson has just launched the Re-love Project.

Feast Watson Re-love Project

If you remember, I was involved with the inaugural Re-Love Project and had a lot of fun finding a suitable piece of furniture from a Goodwill store and then deciding how I would upcycle it and then doing the work. The great part is that the items are auctioned off on eBay at the end of the project and all proceeds are given to the Salvos Stores.

Chairs Before and After

This year the designers include interior and event Stylist, Steve Cordony, iconic furniture maker, Mark Tuckey, Editor -in-Chief at Real Living, Deb Bibby with dedicated craftsman David Moses, TV DIY personality, Tara Dennis, Interiors Addict staff writer, Olivia Shead, Kristine Franklin from one of my favourite blogs, The Painted Hive, as well as Simone Barter returning for a third year and Helen Edwards from Recycled Interiors.

Chest of drawers before and after

You can follow the progress of the pieces on Instagram and Pinterest and don’t forget to make a bid on eBay from 8 July.

Lamp Before and After

I can’t wait to see what the creatives come up with this year.

Filed Under: Furniture, Interiors Tagged With: , ,

It’s on again in Sydney

March 3, 2015 By

That’s right, it’s Sydney’s turn to host Indesign 2015. Get out your calendar or diary and mark the dates now! 13-15 August.

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Many years ago, when I was completing my Diploma in Interior Styling, I attended what was then called Saturday In Design. It was a fabulous day of open showrooms, installations and displays. Most of the showrooms were in Surry Hills and Alexandria and little shuttle buses would whiz (well maybe crawl in the Saturday traffic) between the showrooms and you could alight as you pleased. This even has now blossomed into Australia’s premier design event for architects, designers, specifiers, developers, manufacturers, product supplier and design lovers and alternates between Melbourne and Sydney each year.

SydneyIndesign_20

The concept of open showrooms remains as do the shuttle buses but now instead of being on one day it takes place over three days offering members of the design community a chance to connect and interact through numerous touch points. This year the show will spread across four major design precincts (Surry Hills, Waterloo/Redfern, Chippendale and Alexandria) with over 40 showrooms participating. It’s a fabulous way to check out what each of the suppliers has on offer and store it away for future reference. Many of the suppliers choose this weekend to release their new products too.

Installation

There is also a seminar series which invites local and global though leaders to nut out key issues surrounding the disciplines and industry of architecture and design. Another major highligh is the launch of exciting new Australian designed and Australian made product.

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So block out your diary for at least one of those days and make sure you register. It’s free! And to whet your appetite, follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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Hope to see you there.

 

Filed Under: Furniture, Interiors, Sydney Tagged With: , , ,

Furniture Placement in Tricky Room Shapes

January 20, 2015 By

Every now and then a client throws me a curly one. I’ve been asked to come up with a floor plan for an L shaped living room.The previous owners had a dining table in the L but the current owners don’t want a second dining table. It’s really in the wrong place anyway as it would mean walking right though the living room to take food from the kitchen to the dining table.

Furniture layout of previous owners

Furniture layout of previous owners

So I’ve been wracking my brain as to how to set out her three sofas and single chair without it looking like a furniture store yet look inviting. The L is too narrow to place a sofa and it will make accessing the windows behind difficult.

We want something statement like in there so it forms a part of the room yet not too bully to cut it off.

Suggested floor plan for L shaped living room

Suggested floor plan for L shaped living room

I think a round dining table as a display table will work. Something with an interesting base and then we can add collected objet d’art to create a vignette that reflects the style of the house and the owners.

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dining table1

Placing a lamp and occasional table beside the chair will create a spot for reading, reflecting, phone calls or even doing the crossword.

chair with lamp

I hope the client agrees.

If you would like assistance decorating tricky spaces in your home, contact us for an appointment.

Filed Under: Furniture, Interiors, Living Rooms, My Work Tagged With: ,

Recent Interiors and Exteriors

October 28, 2014 By
Before

Before

After

After

It’s taken me a week and a bit but I’ve finally uploaded to my website, photos of interiors and exteriors which I have completed this year.

Before

Before

After

After

My lovely friend and talented photographer, Lyn Johnston, took these great shots. We spent a day touring around the suburbs visiting clients again.

Kitchen Before

Kitchen Before

Kitchen After

Kitchen After

It’s a fun day and lovely to pop back in and see houses that have been completed for a while. I’m very grateful to my clients for allowing me to come back, some whilst they are not even there!

Love me a red front door

Love me a red front door

You can see more images of these houses over on my website.

Bedroom Before

Bedroom Before

Bedroom After

Bedroom After

If you would like your home to have a new look, contact me for a consultation.

Filed Under: Bathrooms, Bedrooms, Colour, Furniture, Interiors, Kitchens, Living Rooms, My Work, Renovations, Sydney Tagged With: , , , , ,

JA @ CR

September 2, 2014 By

Do you understand that speak? JA = Jonathan Adler and CR = Coco Republic.

Jonathan Adler at Coco Republic

Jonathan Adler at Coco Republic

Last week I attended the launch, here in Sydney, of Jonathan Adler furniture and homewares which is now available through Coco Republic. If you type Jonathan Adler into the Search Box on the right hand side here, you will see I’ve mentioned him on numerous occasions. I love everything about Jonathan Adler – his quirky style, his OTT decor (just check out The Barbie Dream House) and his fun outlook on life.

Jonathan Adler at Coco Republic

Jonathan Adler at Coco Republic

To have access to the fabulous products will be fantastic and add a touch of glamour to any space.

Greg Natale Wallpaper looks at home with Jonathan Adler furniture

Greg Natale Wallpaper looks at home with Jonathan Adler furniture

Coco Republic put on a great night with lots of blue decorations including a very popular lolly table. You’re never too old for a lolly table, right?

Lolly Table at Coco Republic Jonathan Adler Launch

Lolly Table at Coco Republic Jonathan Adler Launch

If you would like to add some Jonathan Adler furniture to your home, contact us for an appointment.

 

Filed Under: Furniture, Sydney Tagged With: , ,

Mixing Industrial Style with your Existing Style

August 26, 2014 By
This post has been sponsored by The Orient Express.

Industrial Style is such a great style to incorporate into your family home. It has that raw, utilitarian look which is just right for all the knocks and spills a family will give it when used everyday.

Industrial style kitchen from The Block

Industrial style kitchen from The Block

And surprisingly this designer look is not that expensive to create in our homes as it’s a blend of furniture and objects preferably worn, salvaged or recycled. The style incorporates raw timbers, castor wheels and metal frames. Light fittings, which were once used on outside tennis courts, now hang above kitchen island benches and tractor seats are used as bar stools. There’s also the use of man made industrial type substrates like concrete, metal, glass and dark, moody, industrial colours like black, charcoal, red and green.

Industrial style coffee table with iron legs from The Orient Express

Industrial style coffee table with iron legs from The Orient Express

It’s one of those styles that will be translated in many different ways and incorporated with other styles and pieces to create a truly unique look. If you’re not keen on having an entire house of industrial style furniture then it’s perfect for the casual living areas. Just one or two pieces will give that industrial flair to your home as it mixes so well with furniture items from other styles and eras.

Industrial style shelving unit from The Orient Express

Industrial style shelving unit from The Orient Express

Our friends at The Orient Express have a great range of industrial pieces. Any one of these blended with your existing furnishings will give that edgy vibe. These items can be purchased directly from The Orient Express in Abbotsford, Vic or your selection can be shipped to you anywhere in Australia.

Timber Bookshelf from The Orient Express

Timber Bookshelf from The Orient Express

If you would like assistance creating the Industrial Style in your home, contact us for an appointment.

 

Filed Under: Furniture, Interiors, Style Tagged With: , , ,
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