Dear Bubby...It Takes Boules

I am currently bidding on this lot of antique English lawn bowling balls and have had to explain to Bubby, that no, I have not lost all leave of my avian senses!

Apparently he was under the misguided impression that there was some kind of design strategy happening with the flat, and has now come to the realisation that, instead, the theme is just plain random 'I like-y, therefore, I want-y', with the belief that it will all tie in somehow in the end!

At my first car boot sale a few weeks back I saw a woman selling these for £8 each. She had them stacked in a big bowl, like below. They looked lovely.

image via Shepton's Antiques

Here are some more basket shots:

What a fantastically styled flea market stand! Yum.

They do seem to look better in a basket/bowl when you have enough to pile up on each other. This display below looks a little lonely.

images above via Velvet and Linen 

Here are a bunch of mixed balls in a grouping.

image via Graham Atkins Hughes
 

If you only have a few, this minimal kind of display is more effective. The row of three looks quite nice.

A solitary minimalist one?

Or maybe a pair, like these two 'nailed' (or cloutées) antique French boules. 

image via Home and Design

During my research on the different kinds of lawn bowling, from country to country, I discovered something interesting. The French balls are a little smaller than the English, and they frequently covered them in metal nails to make them stronger and also to repair cracks.

They developed an amazing array of techniques with different nails to cover them, some looking like fish scales, other like hob nailed little wonders. Of course, decorations began popping up and everything from numbers to initials were worked into the designs.

Here is a gorgeous old sign from a French Boules manufacturer in Paris via website on the history of boules, Les Boule Cloutées. You can see the star and circle designs that they would have done in the illustration.

The workmanship is absolutely stunning. Here is an real example of the star design:

An example of the overlapping 'fish scale' method:

It is pretty amazing to see the difference in before and after restoration of the boules.

Here is the rusted, neglected before:

And the carefully polished after:

images above via Les Boules Cloutées

How satisfying a project would that be?! Below are some boxes awaiting restoration. Would love to get my claws on these.

Some lovingly restored examples.

images above via Joy of Bocce

images above via Ruby Lane

What beautiful objects, with such a rich history!

It makes you wonder what will happen to this sport over the next few years as the few, older people still playing the game trundle off to aviaries in the sky.

Maybe it is time to take up a new, gentle on the joints, sport as we creep into our own old age?

Boules, anyone?

Rental Renos 2 - Adding more Colour and Pattern

Section 2 of my suggestions on perking up your rental home without investing money into things you can't take to your next place!

Here are a couple more ideas to add colour and pattern to a bland space.

Paint something up in bright stripes - a canvas, sheet of fabric, large sheet of paper or board.

I did the canvas below when we first moved in to brighten up the hall, and just blue tacked (yes, I couldn't live without the stuff) the rabbit mask on afterwards as a second thought.

I stress that this is NOT a painting...but merely a bunch of stripes on a canvas...painting snob that I am! Super easy to do for anyone, not just artists or the craftily-inclined. Just mock up the colours you want by playing in photoshop or using strips of coloured paper and moving them around until you get a combination you like, then tape up the canvas into varying size stripes, mix the paints and go. Done in a few hours.

Suggestion- if using masking tape and acrylic paints make sure you take the tape off BEFORE it dries, or you will peel away paint with tape! (have done this before, and it sucks)

A much quicker fix would be to take boldly patterned fabric, a la Marimekko (they have been selling their fabrics stretched on canvases as 'art' for ages), and just stretch it on a canvas frame.


Maybe a chevron print?

Here is an example of a Marimekko print used to great effect:

Another idea is to cover a board or card with pattern and slide it into place.

I had mocked up this foamcore 'table top' for an ikea tv stand I hacked into a entry table when we first moved in, and when I replaced it with an mdf top discovered that it was the perfect width to tuck into this space under the bathroom cabinet as a temporary hit of colour in the bathroom.

As you can see from detail below, it is covered with cheap wrapping paper from Paperchase at the moment, and will not survive in the humidity, but for the moment, it is adding some much needed punch to our taupe-ly drab bathroom.

Here is another shot , demonstrating the old adage of making the most of boldly printed textiles!

I made these curtains out of bargain priced fabric from Ikea and edged it in black (with blackout liner). I love the oversize print on these and found another image of someone using the fabric for curtains as well, but without a liner and edging they look much different:

Here is an interesting idea from Sibella Court that would be easy to do. Looks like she has cut up a bunch of paper 'scales' and attached them to a wall.

Or what about bluetacking a bunch of book pages to a wall as wallpaper? I have seen this done really loosely with flapping edges and overlapping pages and it looks lovely.

Have a collection of old photographs? How about a photo wall like the one at Bluebird on Kings Road?

Here is a glamourous idea from the owner of VV Rouleaux, an amazing trimings store in Marylebone.

You would have to have a good wad of money to do this one, but if you could afford the crystals, a length of moulding and some screw in hooks...fabulous!

Vintage Tray Joy

Uh oh. I think I am becoming an ebay addict.

Won this metal tray today, though, and it is causing me much joy...

Yesterday I impulse purchased a series of jewel-like postcards of collages by John Murphy that he has done for Habitat (£3.50 for 10 and worth every penny!).

They are in a similar style to the image below:

I plan to attach one of my favourites to the metal tray with some cool, wooden, animal-shaped magnets, also from Habitat (it was a chance find whilst picking up things for work! Oops.).

I may even win another vintage tray in a few days that I am bidding on, and then I can have them both side by side on a wall. Oooh. Joy. Fingers crossed.

Think they will have a similar 'feel' to these yummy trays  by cool french design company ibride that I have been covetting for months, which you can get at Lifestyle Bazaar in Soho and Shoreditch, but just can't justify spending that much money on at the moment.

Here are a few:

What a gorgeous shot:

As I was checking their beautiful website for photos, I saw these Volubilis stacking stools, which are not just elegantly styled, but stack into a sculptural shape (the woman is sitting on a stack).

Also chanced on these miniatures of their larger tables. Wonder how much these sweet babies are? They would be such unique plinths for little treasures on a shelf or table.

I can't resist adding this shot of the 'Bambi' chest of drawers.

Also this one, the 'Diva' console. One of my favourites.

Their 'alice in wonderland' themed advertising photos are wonderfully whimsical and show their cheeky designs off.

I will try to remember to post an image of the final postcard/tray project when they are done!

Rental Renos

For many of us in London, living in rental accommodation presents interesting design challenges. Saddled with ugly, cheap ikea furniture in furnished flats, and boringly bland spaces like bathrooms and kitchens which are notoriously difficult to 'dress up' without physically changing fittings, tiles etc., many of us struggle to personalise the spaces whilst trying not to spend money on things we can't take away with us to the next flat.

I thought I would do a post looking at a few ideas on how to have the rooms you want, without breaking rental rules!

The first idea I love is the invention of tile stickers - vinyl stickers for tiles which can be removed. These are a great idea and long overdue.

These ones by at  Lotta Kühlhorn Retro Etc. are amazing:

 Even one stripe would make a huge difference to a space.
A bit tough figuring out where she is selling them though, but if you contact Retro Etc. in Sweden, they should be able to let you know.

Unfortunately our boring, beige tiles are textured, so we can't use these. Sigh.

This next idea is a wacky one of mine...though surely SOMEONE must have come up with it as well:

Blue tacking wallpaper!

I have done this in a few flats now, and it works really well. I just hang the wallpaper from pins or nails at the very top and then you just have to have the patience to tack all the edges down with blue tack.

It is not seemless, as you can see the shadow of the edges in places, but I think it works well enough, and lets you indulge in being able to use wallpaper in a rental without losing your deposit. Also, you can take the paper with you when you leave and reuse it elsewhere.

This was the first time I tried it. One Habitat roll for £30 and a world of difference to a room (sorry for the lacklustre picture, it is the only one I could find):

The following is my most recent go - prefaced by the comment that the bedside tables are the landlords and will soon be in the closet, as their ugliness offends me (!):

...and because I love the 'before and after' format so much...

snoringly boring before

ice queen wonderland after

A world of difference.

I suggest using a pattern, with vertical emphasis for example, which doesn't show the unpasted joins in the paper as much.

I have some more projects/suggestions and will be posting them soon...

Chair After

Always a sucker for 'before and after' segments in other blogs, here is the first of many.

Below is a refresher of what the chair looked like 'before' with it's tatty pleather seat and wobbly joints:

Here are the 'after' photos of the chair newly glued and with it's new peacock linen seat. Having a bit of a swing off the back of the chair is my mate Finbarr (as per a friend's suggestion that I include more of them in my photos!)

I am still undecided about leaving the plywood of the chair back exposed, as it isn't the nicest ply and looks a bit cheap, but think I will leave it for now, as is.

Seaside Charity

Whilst trolling the charity shops on my seaside excursion this weekend, I found a few great things that will keep the projects going for a while.

The  most exciting find was this chair for a fiver, and the gorgeous peacock linen fabric that I am going to recover the seat in! Needs a bit of glue as the joints are loose, but in pretty good nick.

Waffling a bit about whether or not I will cover the back of the chair as well, as it is only plywood, with a bit of damage on one corner. Think I will wait and see what it looks like when the seat is done.

Got to love a deal.