Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Happy Mardi Gras!


Up here in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, we have the largest LGBT community in any regional area of Australia. Tropical Fruits is a Lismore based LGBT social group that has been running for (almost) 25 years and this year they're off to Sydney Mardi Gras to join in the parade. To honour our beautiful community and wish you all a Happy Mardi Gras, we've done what we do best... chairs!


Here's the Tropical Fruits Pride march through Lismore CBD. That's our gorgeous Alesha Nicole up top and our beautiful friend and Bundjalung Queen, Destiny Haz Arrived on the bonnet of the car (she's is leading the Mardi Gras Parade again this year with the First Australians Float).


 A remedy for bland old mouldy vinyl chairs x 6, hmmm, no problem darling!


They're 'Elite' dining chairs, solid teak, fully sanded and Danish oiled, new foam and re-upholstered in Sustainable Living Fabrics 'eco-wool' (100% wool). $1800.




HAPPY MARDI GRAS!!

Friday, February 17, 2012

The Rod Stewart (the old Scottish Rocker)


Seeing as this chair is currently featured in Home Beautiful magazine's 'Design Profile' (thank you Home Beautiful and the lovely Bronwyn McNulty who was good enough to tell me to adjust my skirt for the profile picture!) we thought we better tell you its make-over story.

Remember back here when we pulled two chairs out of a skip? Well this was one of them, the other one had special undergarments attached, this one had cockroach eggs and hellish dirt.



The curse of polyurethane varnish had to be dealt with - paint stripper - we use Citristrip which is biodegradable and non-toxic, but it's a hell of a job.


Sanding complete and layers of Danish Oil applied. We kept the original Don Rex label and reapplied it to the new base cover.


With the left over wool from the recycled kilt, we piped and buttoned and then styled with our own thistle cushion which was bought by Fiona for her 96 year old mum who spotted it in the magazine.


Why the Scottish theme you ask? Well, my clan motto is 'we will Flourish again' hence Flourish and Blume. Needless to say, my poor ancestors were pretty well hammered by the invading forces from the south and their landowning puppets. And it irks me to see all these Union Jacks all over the place as 'British Imperial' style becomes everyones favourite as if it was a period in history we should be celebrating. Not that I'm saying an English man or woman shouldn't proudly wave their flag but I find it strange and a tad obscene that Australians are sporting the Union Jack all over their furniture and homewares at the moment especially considering the British Imperial era of this country. The flag cushion being the most popular, we've taken a stand and printed the Saltire cushion and here it sits proudly on the Rod Stewart.


This is the first and only Don Rex rocking chair we've ever come across. It's constructed with beautiful Queensland maple. SOLD!

An Interview with an Interiors Addict

The extremely prolific blogger Jen Bishop of Interiors Addict did an interview with us the other day...


You can read it HERE

Jen has also been a very diligent reporter on the Herman Miller vs. Matt Blatt court case and the design reproductions debate. She has great interviews from both sides of the debate and I highly recommend
http://theinteriorsaddict.com/post/12824909099/kylie-tyrrell-replica-furniture and make sure you read the comments - brutal!
And http://theinteriorsaddict.com/post/12863899936/anne-maree-sargeant-replica-furniture a passionate advocate of original designs and intellectual property rights of designers.

No prizes for guessing whose side we're on!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

"the best seat in the house"


Photo by Bec Duff @ www.kambamboo.com

Bec Duff from Kambamboo approached us about upholstering a chair in her hand screen-printed upholstery fabric. We had 'the best seat in the house' for her and combined her teal coloured 'Whale Tail' design with an acid yellow eco-wool felt from Instyle fabrics.

We picked up this little beauty, a 1960's Wrightbilt Australian 'T.V. chair' from our favourite (secret) seaside town, it was covered in a floral tapestry which we valued so much, we left the seat cushion on the roof as we drove off. I thought that all the headlight flashes were warning me of imminent danger - snake on the road, police, etc but no, we realised an hour later down the road...


It's first portrait after first stage wood and upholstery stripping (above). That's the original footstool which we modified to suit the chair.

And a very special introduction to my siren...


I know this is an 'ad-free blog' but adverts from the 60's seem a whole lot less offensive than their contemporary counterparts, and you'll love this and have the added bonus of a catchy tune in your head for the rest of your fun-filled day. It's featuring this very chair..

                             

Here she is posing for her portrait before she left home.