FabriKate

I love being busy, I almost always have a project on the go, whether it is mastering a new cooking skill, learning to weld (really!) decorating, house renovating or re purposing old furniture. I've a couple of things on the go currently that I thought I would share with you.

First a couple of weeks ago the Significant Other and I did a "welding for beginners" course at
the Workshop Chippendale I had expressed an interest in trying this and our lovely son and daughter in law gave us a class for a Christmas present. I got to try stick and mig welding and managed by the end of the class to weld a couple of pieces of steel together. Not sure when I'll next do anything but at least I know what is involved.

I've had a old bedroom slipper chair I got from Vinnies about 12 months ago for the bargain price of $15 and I've decided to have a go and reupholster it myself. You can see in the picture it's a pretty grotty old brown velvet chair and I have plans to cover it is a pink flamingo fabric.

Here is the work in progress, I have taken off all the old fabric and am working out how the place the fabric, I think it will look quite lovely when it's done, I might even offer it as a prize for some lucky reader!

Below is a old piano stool that I recovered recently for my "Paris" room I'm pretty pleased with the result what do you think?

and yesterday I got the mother of all finds, we were visiting one of our daughters in an nearby suburb and they must have been having council cleanup because the streets were full of stuff! I managed to find these chairs which are right up my alley of mid century modern design

planning to make some funky cushion for the chairs

  and then these lampshades which I am planning to cover in the flamingo and Paris fabrics too.

Testing the fabric to see what it could look like

Test driving the flamingos!

so as I get the projects done I'll put them up for you to see.

Do you have any projects on the go?

Do you like a bit of DIY?

I have been musing the last couple of days about things, really important things, like why do people (me, included) like to have Eiffel tower candle holders, diaries, phone covers ( in fact for me anything with an Eiffel tower is a given that I will purchase it)  pictures of the New York city skyline etc etc, you get my drift when we live in Australia?

There a number of shops here in Glenquarry Goddess land that survive on selling such paraphernalia and whole furniture stores devoted to recreating the whole french country home experience right here in the southern highlands. So I am not criticising, I just started to wonder if people in USA or Europe feel the need to have an essence of the Australian way of life as part of their home decor?

I imagined there were homes all over Europe and North American that had Opera House lampshades and Harbour Bridge coathangers 

Made from hard wearing Australian made polypropylene, these funky lamps add atmosphere to any room. They are easy to assemble and come in a variety of colours.
Product Number: 3409
Price: $89.95
(All prices are shown in Australian dollars)

or how about something really useful

or something a little retro..

a doily from the Powerhouse museum collection, 1941.

So on this Friday afternoon, I will leave you with those thoughts and perhaps any readers from outside Australia might like to share with us if they like a little bit of "down under" in their home decor.