Monday, April 7, 2008

Decisions, decisions

A few more decisions have been made about the house and its occupant, out of necessity. I was getting awfully confused as to what to try to put into, what style to do and what was just being ridiculous so I've set myself some guidelines.
The owner of the house is a stylish, environmentally conscious girl in her early thirties. She lives alone but has a boyfriend (who leaves traces of himself around the house). She has travelled a little and has collected trinkets along her travels. She loves textiles of all sorts and collects them. She likes to cook and entertain with good friends and good wine. She grows her own veg and fruit in her garden and loves animals.

I may have to tweak these as a go along but just getting them sorted has helped me heaps already. I was wanting to try to make some little toys, but why? This girl has no kids so they would look silly in her house.

I think I want to be this girl.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

My next BIG project.




I have decided that my next crafty project will be a major reno on my derelict dolls house. At the moment only tiny stray cats and tiny homeless people would use it as a squat.
When I was a little girl a friend of my Dad's made if for me and it was just magnificent. It had a bright red roof (just visible on the fascia of the eaves)which will be returning, and the inside was beautifully decorated. My Mum wallpapered the rooms with offcuts, carpeted it and hung beautiful little broderie anglaise curtains in the upstairs bedrooms. She even hung tiny pictures on the walls. I had beautiful small scale furniture for all of the rooms
So how did it end up looking like the before shot on a home renovation show?..................Well it was loaned to a family member for her young daughter as I was beyond playing with it and she loved it too. Years later I asked for it to be returned ( as it was only ever a loan) and this is how it was returned to me. Mission brown roof and an all white interior.
So the time has came to revive it to its former glory. Well, sort of. Mum did originally decorate it in the seventies but a face lift is well over due.
The upsairs left room is going to be my starting point, it will be the bedroom. I've decided on a Japanese look in there. The back wall be "wallpapered" with the same beautiful Japanese paper the I used on the 2 Geisha girls on the right in my last post. The bed linen will be a pink silk that perfectly matches the pale shade in the background of the paper. And the drapes will be black silk. (the colours look terrible in the photo because I couldn't find good light).
Don't know what to do in the rest of the rooms yet but I have pretty much settled on a layout. The middle section upstairs will be a small bathrooom, the bottom right will be the kitchen and the bottom left will the the lounge. I'm still undecided as to the fate of upper right. Library/office? another bed room? Any suggestions?
I want to try to make everthing out of recycled materials as this is going to be a "green house" where possible. (I've already decided that it will have a water tank made out of corrugated cardboard) Any suggestions on this front will be greatly appreciated too.
I will update with photos as I finish each room. Maybe it will make it onto Absolutely Beautiful Things one day.