For the record ... furniture before

I spent this morning moving some pieces into the bedroom to see what works. Needless to say I washed the floor again. The room is quite large and allows us to have a sitting area at one end. This will change with time because we have no bath upstairs and this end of the room will eventually become an ensuite and walk in robe. Of course that is waaaaaaay down the track as we wait to save up the money for this part of the project.

 

On to the furniture. I wanted to keep a record here of how things started out and how I worked on bits and pieces. The waterfall dresser is an art deco piece we picked up Newmarket Lifeline thrift store quite some time ago. We have had a couple of pieces of the chipped veneer replaced and I still need to stain and refinish it. I love doing this sort of hands on work. I'm hoping this is my project for next weekend. The leather chair is one of a pair of Robert Dunlop Tanderra chairs from the 70s. I like to mix up my eras. The screen is the rear side of a student piece I bought at auction when I was in design school. The other side is very elaborate with veneer and perforated metal but I think for the moment this brushed aluminium side is a good foil to the rich caramel colours that are starting to develop in the scheme. You can see to the side one of my 40s plywood chairs found on eBay. I have restored 2 but I still have this one and another to danish oil. The seats I covered in vintage bus roll fabric.  Finally a small love seat in flame stitch fabric. The fabric doesn't work colour wise in the room and is in bad condition anyway. I see an upholstery project coming on. I have a couple of striped kilims I'm thinking of recovering it in.

Of course there are rugs to go in and art for the walls. The fabric for the curtains still has to be bought then made up. Lamps need to go in. I have a fabulous brass 5 arm arc light that might just be perfect for the corner beside the love seat. Jewel like colour will be added in small doses through accesories and the art although most of the art is black and white. You'll just have to wait and see it develop over time with me. And I still have to show you the bed end of the room!

Curtains

Cruisey Saturday. Coffee, thrifting, shops, got some great bread, chatting to friends. Thinking linen for my black bedroom curtains. Can get a good deal on the fabric (yes those are napkins but I can get the linen by the yard). Natural or ecru. Not sure. I'm leaning towards the ecru except now I don't want to call it ecru. It's more grey natural. Anyway .... that's my vintage suzani that will be my bedspread. Maybe some tortoiseshell cane blinds behind the linen drops. Reminds me I better buy a sewing machine. My old one is dead. Oh ombre! Maybe I can dip die the ends of the linen drops to get an ombre effect. Maybe not. There will be an awful lot of curtain!

I can't get enough of these inspiration images of Scott Newkirk's Brooklyn home on Michael Mundy's An Afternoon With ... but with black walls and a slightly more grey natural (let's not call it ecru) linen.

Back in black

I can't stay away from taking photos of my black room. I'd say it was because I was practicing with my new camera but you wouldn't believe me. Still haven't got the perfect picture yet. I'm sure you'll get sick of it soon :) The painter did the stairs today. I'm stuck upstairs on the computer listening to Adele and blog surfing. When the stairs are dry I can clean up the dust in the room and wash the floors. Didn't want to risk dust floating through the air and settling on my new old black stairs. Treads and risers only. Cedar rails, balustrades and stringer just tidied up with a matt estapol. Love love love love love. Everything stinks but hey that's the price you pay :)

The dark side

I got home late. The sun was down. I couldn't find my tripod. I had to use flash. The floor is dirty. Etc, etc, etc. Still couldn't take a decent photo. It looks fabulous in real life. Dodgy in this out of focus flash photo. Think I'll wait until the weekend. Clean up. Move some furniture in and snap again. Welcome to the dark side.

P.S. That board across the corner is the old clothes hanger. Think wooden pegs shaker style.

UPDATE: I got home earlier today. Found my tripod. The sun was setting so still not great. I took these photos. A bit better. God those floors need a wash!

I see a red door and I want it painted black

Apologies to the Rolling Stones but I have always wanted my burgundy doors to be black. Now they are. Lovely gloss black. You'll see in the post below that my office has gone gallery white but my bedroom has turned to the dark side. Black, black and more black. Walls, trims all black. The ceiling is starting white but may just go black as well. We'll wait and see on that one. Once again the ugly ceiling fan combos are going but I'm not sure what light fitting will replace it just yet. You can see the befores and my original ideas for the room here.

And here's one of the early morning light flooding into my office across the hall. Our bed is currently jammed in there along with all the other furniture. Can't wait to start putting things together at last (the distressed orange cupboard is normally to the left of the fireplace). 10 months since we moved in and finally ..... finally my "treasures" will find a proper home.