Home Making!

Ok, it’s been a while since I last updated. Hopefully this isn’t a running theme. In my defence I’ve been a busy boy. I moved house, changed career, gained a cat, went on holiday, y’know the all usual stuff that devours any concept of spare time. Anyhoo, since I’ve been absent from here I have managed to get a lot of things done. Like this:

Yep, I turned my attention to personalising some of that mass production furniture we’ve got. I also started making a few things, seeing as how my new career has got me a great supply of pallet wood! Like these:

I built this. It’s a *very* basic wine rack. 

Also built a couple of these. One of them is in the kitchen, holding all the extra utensils and such. The other one is in the garden holding the succulents.

Here it is, being modelled by the cat 🙂

So, yeah… with the winter bringing the rubbish weather, I’ve mostly turned my attention to decorating and interior things. Come the summer I’ll get back in the garden and build more things! Don’t hold your breath though. I am in the UK after all…

Spatial Awareness!

Ok, the first of many moves happened at the weekend. My wonderful Girlfriend is now in the new place and spent the first evening arranging things, unpacking, storing, swearing. It’s a pretty small place so we’re having to be mercenary regarding the ‘stuff’ we’ve both accrued. A few ideas have been scrapped since getting in there. The palletwood coffee table idea is one of the things that got cut, along with a gorgeous set of oak Edwardian drawers and her solid oak wardrobe. We simply don’t have the room, that’s just the reality of the situation. The drawers will be making an appearance on eBay soon…

So, about “living small”…my attention has been turned to storage solutions. Now we don’t want to be thinking about these pedestrian solutions, do we? No, no! We are still looking at the nice things out there, after all! Where better to look for ides than the industrial period? I mean, those folks had tons of stuff to store in difficult places, right? …Obviously they didn’t have the strict Health and Safety regulations that we are bound to in this day and age (not that I’m knocking the regulations of our modern world, no! They are in place to keep us safe and sound and business insurance premiums low!), so they just went crazy with the design! Shit, who wouldn’t!?!

Here’s what I found:

Industrial Rack

Reclaimed Sideboard

Tank Console Table

Reclaimed Pine Coffee Table 

I already said there’s no room for a coffee tables and the like, but I just couldn’t help putting those last two buggers in there… One day we’ll have room for all the nice things!

Moving and Shaking!

Yeah, I know… It’s been a while since we last fraternized. My bad 😦 In all fairness I have been pretty busy since I got back from Thailand (which was amazing!). Plans to move house, job and location are fully underway. As are plans to decorate a new (albeit very small) place with my wonderful girlfriend! Yep, the interesting bit! We agree on a hell of a lot of design based things, so it’s going to be easy. I know previously I was banging on about all that purpose built furniture, designed especially for the proles, but when it comes down to brass tacks; Ikea… I’m not even going to bore you with the details of that because, well it’s boring, pedestrian and utilitarian. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! It’s functionality on a budget! Possibly a false economy, but hey! None of us have money for those *special* things at the moment…

Sorry, I went a bit off piste there… Anyway, having a wonderful, intelligent and super resourceful lady in my life means that there is ample opportunity to liberate ‘business’ things headed for the skip (crates, pallets, etc). So we head to Pintrest for inspiration. I obviously don’t need to explain, do I? I’m guessing everybody is on there now, right? You know the skinny. The sheer amount of D.I.Y. ideas on there is completely nuts! We found a few totally doable things, amidst the general carnage, that really piqued the interest. Behold!

Reclaimed Pallet Wood Coffee Table on Castors

Reclaimed Wood Covered Expidit also on Castors

So, yeah… Go get your build on! My plans are solid! Hopefully the furniture will be too, otherwise we’ll end up with a load of fine contemporary sculptures. No biggie either way! hahaha!

Legitimate Absence…

I’m back, after a short break, consisting of a long weekend down south and worrying about a very ill girlfriend who’s battling with pneumonia as we speak… Poor little bugger 😦 Hopefully she’s through the worst of it now. Speedy recovery, Ace Face. xx

I’ve had a bit of time to gawp at some internetland stuff out there. eBay has been throwing some interesting stuff up again, but that’s not why I’m posting today. No, no, no… Check these guys and dolls out – Attic who are based in Middlesex and have got some seriously pretty stuff for sale! LOOK!

Vintage French Solicitors Cabinet £750

 

1960’s Pigeon Holes £350

That’s a quick peek at some of the things that caught my eye. Go give their page a gander and see what tickles your fancy! They’ve got a ton of different things to offer and an archive section that’ll have you kicking yourself that you didn’t get there first! GO SEE!

I also found this place: Peppermill Antiques based near Cannock, in the Midlands. Now, I showed some of their furniture in a previous post but totally forgot to add the address or link. I’ve been on this site a few times and get serious envy every time. Check THESE –

Sideboard with metal storage boxes £1600

Industrial Bar Stools. Set of Six £450

 

See what I mean? See all the pretty things? Yep, I’ve got a pretty deep shade of green going on right now…

Chicago’s Finest!

Ok, I’m supposed to be working… It’s a slow day, dammit, get off my back! I’m pretty sure I can be forgiven when you see what I found. In fact I think I should get a bonus for this! Urban Remains website… There’s so many beautiful things on here that I think I could actually cry. I just want to move into the showroom and rub my body against the pretty things like a cat. …I’m not even sorry for any mental scarring that image may cause. LOOK AT THE STUFF!

1940’s Distressed blue enameled factory flat file 

1920’s office index card and filing cabinet

There are so many weird and amazing things on the site that I could sit here all day and just drool. Aside from some truly beautiful furniture (actual and repurposed!), there’s a plumbing section, lighting, signs, even a miscellany section with all manner of things! Honestly, I think I’ve quite possibly peaked with this…

So, I might have been looking at this for most of the day, but there’s no way that’ll stand up in a work related tribunal. You’ve got my back, right?

More Internetland Finds!

I got the usual array of crap emails in the ol’ inbox this morning, but one kind of stuck out. It was your standard eBay email, telling me they’ve found a few items I might be interested in: A bunch of sports shirts for £10? Maybe a luxury leather slim mobile phone wallet in pastel – £4.29 each? How about a stainless steel blackhead remover/extractor for 99p? I don’t even know WHY the internet robots would think that I’d be interested in ANY of that shit, I’m fairly certain I’ve never searched for anything even remotely like that guff, but hey! I guess you never know, right? Anyway, to the point! Right at the bottom there was this:

Now this little stunner of  bank index file is currently priced at £129 but there are 15 people fighting over it. The auction ends in 30 hours, so lets see how much it ends up selling for, eh? I’ll post the results here!

Ok, another couple of things I found while trawling around. One was this solid oak filing cabinet. It’s listed as having a few marks on the top, but presently at £75, I reckon it could easily be rectified. Again 30 hours to go on this badass!

How about a solid oak (Hmmm, I see a running theme here.) six drawer library filing cabinet? It’s the small desk top kind, super cute, and will sell for a hell of a lot more than the £23 it currently sitting at!

I don’t know why I’m torturing myself will all these nice things, call me a masochist, but I do like to seek out pretty things! feast the eyeballs, so to speak. There’s no harm in that, right?

Historic American Homes

I’ve recently been checking out houses for sale in America. There are some stunning old properties out there and, let’s face it – we’re going to need a suitable domicile to house all that stunning vintage furniture and wonderful old stuff we’ve amassed! You ‘Murican’s are truly lucky buggers when it comes to old buildings! I guess I’m kind of lucky too, because I get to look at them on the internet, from the comfort of my rented home, in the cold, damp Midlands, in the UK… See how lucky I am?

Anyway, this site oldhouses.com lists properties all over your great country. It also lets you search by location, style/period or price. This is an awesome tool if you know, definitely, what you like! It’s also amazing because you can see fixer-upper properties for sale too! Honestly, I think I’ve spent that non-existent lottery jackpot a thousand times over on this site… I’m not going to ruin the fun with liberated photos from the site, because NO SPOILERS! Go click the link, search and drool!

Another site I’ve spent many hours (and again, my non-existent jackpot win) on is Vanderberg Townhouse Experts These folks list prime properties in NYC. I love this site so much because of the feature sheets and floor plans (I have a serious and deep love of floor plans and blueprints, I don’t know why…just because!). Go see for yourself and don’t forget to check the prices. We have to be realistic with our non-existent jackpot win, it isn’t going to last forever!

A Small Victory for Old Noise Junkies!

Buying band merchandise can be a stupidly expensive affair, especially if, like me, you’re in to old Punk and Hardcore. Aside from trawling the merch stands at gigs (which can turn up some gold) you’re at the mercy of import/postage/mail order prices. Generally speaking these can cost more than the items in question, which is annoying and has been a major factor in stopping me from buying stuff in the past. That along with the overly-inflated prices of the merch itself can create a sad state of affairs… So, like every dirt poor Punk out there, I feel a massive sense of victory when I find a DIY site that’s selling nearly everything your heart could desire! So, over to these folks at Negative Reinforcement! Based in the US, they’ve got tons of shirts, shorts, a few records, etc listed at solid prices. Even though the price of postage is a bit crazy, it still works out a hell of a lot cheaper than the other internet based competitors and most alternative shops. This is a truly wondrous day for every broke punk out there!

New Old Finds!

Hey! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I managed to get out and about to visit Les Oakes & Sons, an antiques/house clearance/you name it, they’ve probably got it yard (a highlight of the journey being: narrowly avoiding death-by-my-nonchalant-driving around some of those berserk Staffordshire Moorlands country lanes). It was a pretty interesting place, a little bit upsetting to see some old stuff being neglected and left to fend for its collective self out in the elements… I guess you can’t save everything, eh? They did have a few little beauties in their showrooms though. Such as:

That would be (left to right) a 9 foot mill table (made from 300 year old oak, reclaimed from an old cotton mill!), a stunning pine workbench (complete with broken vice!) and a beautiful reclaimed kitchen island (with a solid oak top and cast iron wheels). I assume credit *ahem* for the photography goes to the company…

I also ambled across another droolworthy site in internetland too The Old Cinema. This place looks fucking awesome! They’re located in London (W4, to be exact!). These folks have some super sleek, envy inducing objects up for grabs… I was almost reduced tears after 5 minutes of, what I can only describe as, coveting their stock.

…need I say more. Head over via the link. They honestly don’t disappoint.