The Bach 'Dining Furniture and Kitchen Inspiration'

Monday I headed off to the Freedom Excess Outlet on the Pacific Highway, Turramurra.  This is a well kept secret I might add, Freedom does not advertise this outlet but as I am always snooping around looking for furniture bargains I was lucky to be given the heads up on this store by a local.  Not only will you find stock selling for up to 50 per cent below it's retail price here, you will enjoy wandering around the beautifully decorated display living areas. This store is always worth a browse before you buy elsewhere, most of the stock is discontinued lines, samples and overruns.

Success

Bargain basement priced dining room furniture.  

 The 'Providore' console and 'Carpenter' table I picked up for a steal at Freedom Excess Outlet.

The 'Providore' console perfect condition. I paid $650

 'Carpenter' table a few surface scratches on table top.  I paid $700

Cross back chairs I purchased online  $130 each

I love the big open dining room table, it's going to look amazing when I stencil something on the table top.  Would love your  ideas?  For the seating I purchased a bench seat off ebay it will fit snug under the table and will look amazing with brightly coloured cushions.  I love these cross back chairs, they look so fresh and happy in the white and yellow,  it was either these or the Tolix chairs, but you know how I feel about my curvy thighs sticking to metal. The French provincial style console was such a great price I had to have it on principal, I am not flash about the baskets, but it has great storage.  Will it work?  We'll just have to wait and see.  Maybe I'll have to tweek it a touch!

Yellow, love it, such a happy colour,  I want the kitchen to sing out sunshine and happy days...

Yellow splash back, a touch retro, looks clean and crisp.

Wow, love these yellow floating shelves.  Colour blocking displays, beautiful.

More stencilling ideas... how fresh does yellow and white looks in these kitchen images?  At this point I'm very happy!

The kitchen as is, the removal of the glass splash backs and tiling will totally change the look.

This is my tiling plan using Johnson Tiles below in gold crest and gloss white. As you can see I'm, tiling up to the top of the cabinets.  I'm hoping that I can still hang a floating shelf.  I would love to stencil a wall space but it's either the wall or the table and when the room is semi finished I will have a better idea.

So, what do you think?  Is yellow your colour?  I have been doing a lot of thinking about colour lately and just when I thought orange would be my 2012 colour, yellow just got up there and smacked me in the face, full of it's citrusy beauty.   Have you any yellow projects on the go?

This Friday I will be drawing the winner of my of my 'Vintage Giveaway' if you haven't already entered or spread the word pop over on over and say hi!

The Bach 'Vibrant Dining Inspiration'

Good morning,  I hope you all enjoyed a relaxing weekend, soaked up some sunshine and shared some fun family times.  I had such fun in weekend in Auckland, doing a few touristy things,  I wore my new prescription sunnies and managed to find some treasures for the beach house and a wonderful op shop find for myself, which I'll show you later.  But it's back to the drawing board, this week I must drive  the beach house renovation along as time is ticking away,  Easter is just around the corner .   The bathroom is ready for tiling, the back deck is underway and the painting continues inside, I think it's time to start the interior styling and my favourite room, the dining room is where I will begin.

A beach house holiday is all about relaxation,  swimming, walking, reading, cruising around on push bikes and of course eating.  I have wonderful memories of big breakfast fry ups when the girls came back to the house wet, salty and starving.  Huge platters of ham and salad sandwiches, served with jugs of icy cold cordial for lunch whilst they played board games and sausage sizzles and steak burgers for dinner after a long walk along the beach in the afternoon to gather sea shells.  I see the kitchen as being a fresh and colourful, creative environment,  the existing kitchen has great appliances, loads of storage and is quite new so all I need to do is freshen up the area and add some Roberta quirkiness, the flow on into the dining room is where I can really shine and make this area a colourful and happy area for the family to enjoy board games and meal times.

Firstly the dining room will be bright, colourful, fresh and quirky

I particularly like the look and feel of a natural wood tables and let the chairs do the talking.  Oh my love of turquoise is huge but not for the dining room, I have other plans for you, beautiful colour.  The chalk board is a creative option for wall art.

You really can't go wrong with white chairs they look clean, fresh and simple but too SAFE for me.  The ming chairs are funky as is the country style chairs with painted seat and backs, no doubt the inspiration for the paint job came from the eames chair.

I love the look of the light industrial edge of the Tolix chair, what I don't like is sitting on metal seats especially if you are wearing a swim suit or shorts, your legs stick to the chair and that is very uncomfortable and let's face it when you're crawling back from bankruptcy in a marathon monopoly I love the look of the light industrial edge of the Tolix chair, what I don't like is sitting on metal seats especially if you are wearing a swim suit or shorts, your legs stick to the chair and that is very uncomfortable and let's face it when you're crawling back from bankruptcy in a marathon monopoly you could be sitting here for a while.

What ever table I choose I am definitely doing a stencil!!

Now this is groovy, the surfboard table and matching flower painted chairs, fantastic beach house decorating here..

 So with all this inspiration, I am hitting the shops today.  All the usual furniture stores to begin where I will be looking for the big pieces, then over the next few weeks Rowan and I will taking the auctions houses by storm!

I have been sewing up a storm over the past weeks.  'Rowan's beach collection'  I hope to have it photographed and up on my blog soon!

A little Kiwi bonding

I'm heading over the ditch this afternoon for a little kiwi bonding,  the sailor and I are catching up with the family and cussi bros for some general kiwiana. Whilst the sailor will be enjoying his sailing and beers I will be out scouting for some objects' de art  for the bach.  I'm thinking anything maori, oars, tikis, carvings and some native kiwi art.
I had to give Rowan one huge cuddle and a million kisses this morning as I won't see him until Monday. Yes! I will miss him a zillion.  I'm one lucky nan, who gets to hang out with the best guy in town most days of the week.  Not only does he love hanging out with me, going up to the bach, going around all the crazy shops I frequent, he listens to all my stories, laughs at all my jokes, devours all my cooking and rocks my taste in music.  I can't explain the joy that this wee man brings me.

If you haven't entered my vintage knickernoo giveaway  head on over and have a peek at some very delicious gelato coloured baby bloomers.  Have a brill weekend!

Rowantree Design 'Knickernoos Vintage Giveaway'

'Knickernoos, delicious, gelato coloured bottoms'

In my studio

 Lou Lou

 Hildy

 Jean

Polly

You might ask where the dickens I came up with a name like 'Knickernoos', I didn't, my gorgeous mother did along with lots of other peculiar names for personal belongings.  (My primary school days were hell)  My mother the gatherer of remnant fabrics and old curtains would run up a few pairs of these such bloomers a week and yes I wore them, I wore them under everything, at this early stage of my life I was a free wheeling toddler with no particular fashion agenda.  She started out making the plain pant style bloomers but when she got the momentum going, she added frills, flounces, trims, you name it any haberdashery item that was left unstitched would end up on my pants.

With a trunk full of my mothers beautiful vintage fabric remnants I set out making my own, my three daughters wore them and I have made hundreds of pairs along the way for family and friends.
I have a beautiful and unique collection of these 'knickernoos' in my studio all made in delicious gelato colours.  I still love and enjoy making these gorgeous bloomers and the fun part is matching the frills and flounces with the vintage fabrics.

To celebrate putting these beauties into my shop, I want to share my mother's love of vintage with you, she'd totally love this, I am so excited to make a gift of a pair of these vintage beauties to a lovely little bubalicious.  All you have to do is tell me what your favourite gelato flavour is (Yum) and what size (00 - 2), then kindly post  my vintage giveaway so your readers get a chance to join in the fun, follow my blog and  liking my facebook page will also make me really happy  (so I can feel the love).  I have many gorgeous and unique vintage fabrics and colour ways and  I'm sure you'll love what I choose!

Hmmm I'm off for a gelato!

The Beach Bach Progress

Wow!  Look at this old girl she really is starting to shine!

This week we added a trellis foyer to the front entrance.  An initial tidying up of the front garden has refreshed the house and  opened her up to the lovely northen light.   I can't wait to get stuck into creating a new garden,  the choice of plants can really make a difference.  I'm thinking of hydranges in front of the trellis, agaves under the right front window, and big old stags on the trees.  Yeah! I'm excited so far!  If you have just popped across and thank you if you have, take a peek here of the before's.

 I love the space the trellised foyer has created, a with minimum cost I have added an outdoor room which will be perfect for a morning coffee, and a bit of a read, Nah!  a bottle of bubbles in the afternoon will do just fine!   Im thinking deck chairs, tall white pots with lush plants..........Any suggestions?

As you can see there are a few colours going on here?  I just can't decide?  I think I am leaning towards the lemony/limey colours.  What do you think?

The existing stairs have been removed and  today we put in the footings for the deck.  I am expecting the new sliding doors to arrive this week, then open sesseme, the lounge area will enjoy a beautiful vista of the lush back garden .

Specs - tacular Random Picture

Sunglasses Karen Walker 


I can't put it off any longer,  I need prescription sunnies, and I want to look as fantastic as this.....


FULL STOP

It's All About Rowan Over At Bondviile

Carnival horse, red wrought iron chair, vintage throw.

I woke to two surprises today, firstly a glimmer of sunshine greeting me through my bedroom shutters and a post on Rowan's bedroom , by the lovely Steph Bond Hudkin author of the super stylish for Mum's only Bondville blog.  If your not following Steph's Blog, click here straight away, but come back and have a look here at what Rowantree was up to in 2010.  

Rowan's Bad Hair Day 'Revisited'

One of my lovely blogger friends emailed me this picture today.  How could I not share this with you!

Two Cute

Rowan's Bad Hair Day

 Oh no, I can't believe I look like this.  Seriously Mum! What have you done to me?

 Oh yukky, I really hate it.  I look like Jim Carey in 'Dumber and Dumber'.

 Let me just have another look......

 Yep, just what I thought, I have a really, really bad doo.

 What will I do (sorry for the pun)?  Don a hat for a couple of weeks?

 Ohhh so embarassed! Cant look anymore.

Some doo, you did on me mum!  I'll just take it on the chin this time.  Can't wait to show Nan, then you'll really be in trouble.  Where is she going to take me looking like this!

How many of you lovely mums have done this to your children.  Like, I'm only going to snip his fringe to keep his hair out of his eyes and that one little snip ends up looking like this!  I'd love to hear your stories of home haircuts and love to see some pics if you'd email them my way.  

The Beach Bach 'The Work Begins'

 Over the past two weeks I have become one with the F3 commuters,  driving up to the bach almost daily to get stuck in and do the work that I can manage.  Rowan and I have a few favourite songs we sing along the way, last week we sang 'Morning Town Ride' by the 'Seekers', such an oldie, but a goodie, and I love to rock this song.   This week, I promise him a new tune.  The weather here in Sydney has been dismal, so 'Nina'  I think it's time to pack up your un Sydney like weather patterns and take them off somewhere else! I have seven weeks to go before the Easter holidays, seven weeks until I promised the makeover would be complete.  If you've just popped over to read this blog see the before pictures here.  

The bedroom windows have been replaced,  the frames will be painted white with wider facia boards around the windows.  So far, big improvement on the windows with little effort!

Gutted bathroom!  This is the biggest job of the project.  A good bathroom is essential.

 

Bedroom one.

 We spent many hours, prepping the walls, removing old power points and generally tidying up the surfaces, first coat of paint on bedrooms ceilings.  I'm really happy with the Lexicon white, it's a good base colour to start with who knows what will happen later, I' very fond of a splash of colour here and there and I love to use wallpaper.

 The kitchen ceilings were a mess, hence my sore neck tidying up the joins of the gyprock that ran across the ceiling.  Perfect now!

 Removed the nasty range hood,  and this week I will be removing the glass splash back,  and replacing it with with some vibrant tiles.

Getting ready to replace the existing sliding doors with bigger ones.

 My gate for the new picket fence.  I salvaged this old gate some years ago from a home demolishment site.  The sailor has often asks me what's the story with the gate and now he knows! 


Ooppps, and not going with the orange!

 Rowan's feathered friends, who stop by to have a laugh at my singing.