Category Archives: lucy

Whiskey Cabinetry

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My latest project was one of the first things i bought for this house. It was a few weeks before we moved and i promised Malcolm i would find a whiskey cabinet that appealed to us both. We were headed out to North Berwick beach and we stopped off at Sam Burns place in Prestonpans. I frequent it less now than i used to as it seems to have been ‘discovered’ by a wider group and more often now i come home empty-handed, which rarely happened in the good old days. But on this merry occasion, i happened upon this delightful vintage glass cabinet. We searched around for an old bottle to make sure it would accommodate said item. This is more than i would usually do but my pal Ali brought some essential pragmatism, as is often the case. We established that bottles fitted neatly on the top shelf.

Having no measurements for the new place, i took a chance on the cabinet in terms of the overall dimensions. I was certain it would fit beautifully to the left of the fireplace. I was eating my proverbial words when we discovered shortly after moving in that it was wide by about 6 inches. Alas it was merely an issue of height in that if 4 inches shorter, it would fit if tucked gracefully underneath the mantle. So it was that on day 4 when my bro came to stay for a night he found himself issued with a hacksaw and a tape measure, tasked with cutting the ornate claw feet off (the word ‘butchering’ was used but i chose to ignore such blatant overstatement).

The cabinet looks to be mahogany, with the most stunning vintage floral paper inside. Its quite weathered so i reckon it is the original decor.

Once slotted into place, it was immediately evident that the cabinet needed a little lift, something to help it stand out from the crowd (of other vintage friends in the room). And there’s nothing like a bit of moody lighting to raise the tone, add some class…..

A few Ikea spotlights later and the cabinet really does shine now. Here you can see my clumsy wiring lurking in the background (just like the Lord Calvert, but that’s another story), waiting to be tidied up. Plus evidence of further power-tool action. Poor little cabinet!  So, anyone for a wee dram?

Under cover

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Having just moved house, you would think that making our files look pretty would be quite low down on the list of priorities. Not so. What could be more important than making a group of quite ugly yet functional and highly necessary objects into a visual vignette of vintage fabrics?

Here’s how i do it. I am sure there are better tutorials out there for this kind of thing but this is my quick and dirty version.

1. Use spray mount to attach the fabric. This gives a clean and non-rumpled finish. However its not great for going around corners so…

2. I use PVA on the other side. I also de-bulk the corners…..

3. …to make the edges a bit neater. That’s basically it!

4. I’m a big fan of plain old packaging labels. Really, any kind of label i could say i am a fan of. But most people know that.

5. Now for display. Line them all up in pretty rows and complement with other pointless but aesthetic items like a broken 1920’s typewriter.

Here’s the full set. I originally had them all in a big happy row but it somehow didn’t make the most of them. So i’ve gone for the interspersed look.The bottom row consists of magazine racks covered many moons ago. Oh, and another typewriter….

 

Pastures new

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The salvage sisters blog has lain fallow for a few months now, but the time has come to bring out the bugle and announce a new season of all things decorative, thrifty and creative! Earlier this year, as summer approached, the sisters both became busy with other things and the salvage projects began collecting dust in the corner. This started for me in May when I decided to drive a big bus across America, blogging our way through via this travelogue. After our return my energies were focused on preparing to leave our shared house in Hailes Street and finding a new place to buy, whilst at the same time Gemma moved into a big manse in South Belfast.

Hundreds of boxes later, we have now successfully moved into our beloved new home in Lauriston Gardens. Our very own blank canvas.

Moving from a rental to one’s own home creates a whole new untapped world of salvaging and décor heaven! The flat has 3 south-facing rooms which was a big sell for me. Having gazed at endless pictures of dreamy homes, natural light gives any place an immediate head start. The kitchen needs a full over-haul which was, oddly, another selling point for me, as a kitchen re-work is a challenge I will certainly relish! (Country Kitchen in the City coming up…) The flat on the ground floor with a main door which meant we did compromise other things inside (a 3rd bedroom perhaps), but as you will shortly see, a little space outside to carry out projects was a priority for me.

If the current pace is anything to go by, the place will hopefully be shadow of its former self by Christmas. With boxes unpacked and screwdrivers at the ready by the middle of week 2, we got to work removing all the old pine doors ready for stripping. The Dip ‘n Strip folks in Edinburgh provide a great service, picking up your paint-clad doors at 6am and returning them, pared back to their former glory, by lunchtime. As each door came home there was an entertaining running commentary from the guy about the various quirks and stories hidden beneath the gloss. The apparent woodworm was actually the result of someone’s poor dart board aim; there was once a cat or puppy (which chewed the corners of every door); one door actually turned out to be two half doors.

The doors needed sanded down, waxed, and despite our excellent organisation, a great deal of time figuring out which fittings go where.

The now stripped pine doors already add such warmth to the place. We are pretty pleased with our story-telling doors!

Craft Night

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One of the advantages of living in a hippy commune is the shared evenings. Its much easier to commit to a creative evening each week when there is someone else in your home doing the same. Kathryn and I have been sewing together every monday for a while now, while the boys go and exert themselves on the football field. Evenings usually involve sprawling ourselves across the kitchen table with multiple half-finished projects in the hope of them turning into three-quarter finished projects. This week i was making cards – not quite a sewing project but the aim of the evening is creativity in general.I have recently been going through a birdy phase, as noted in previous posts. I got these bird stampers for Christmas from Cox & Cox and they have come in very handy for card making, something i have up until recently not been finding much inspiration in.

I have experimented with a few different designs, combining colour and texture (hand-made paper, recycled brown card, paper doilies) with various bird images.

This doilie/stamper combo works well, apart from the squashed up lettering (done with individual letter stampers).

Vignettes 4

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Every thursday there’s a secret place one can go in Edinburgh to buy wonderful things. This place is not well publicised and for good reason. I once wrote about it here on the blog and was berated for ‘spreading the word’ with abandon. Suffice it to say that you need cash, time, and a good strong pair of elbows.

The following finds are the best of the bunch, and the stories behind them.

I’m always on the look-out for vintage Tala. They have re-released some of their classic baking products, but its the originals that really are the icing on the cake (he he). So when i saw this quite unusual cake tin, i was not going to let it slip through my fingers. It came to me for £10.

The real beauty is in the restoration job i achieved on it. Here is an instagram of it before i attacked it with bleach (no surprises there). Looks like someone was using it as a tool box (the cheek!). I had to sacrifice the lettering a bit to get the grime off, and then paint them on again afterwards. But it was worth it to bring up that beautiful duck-egg blue colour.

I’ve written about clocks before in this series, but am not intentionally building a collection. However that does appear to be the case… I bid (small clue as to whereabouts) on a box of rubbish and won it for £1. Within it were these fabulous clocks. The first one i absolutely love – looks to be around 1950s in origin, and ties in nicely with my current birdie phase.
These little retro travel clocks were lurking in the bottom of my box of surprises. Aren’t they funky?!

I got these vintage Salter weighing scales for £1. Bargain!

Also in the box – this silver cake stand, plus a centre-handled one to match. I will add this to my very small and reasonable cake stand collection.

 

Liberty

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Long before the salvage sisters got savvy about good design, our mama was dressing us in Liberty print baby dresses and fitting out our shared bedroom with Liberty wallpaper. Either its in the genes or its classical conditioning, but i am now a huge fan of liberty fabric (who isn’t!?), but rarely indulge in such luxuries. It was a great day last year when i came across 3 meters of retro Liberty fabric in a wee rural charity shop for a few pounds, but such events are of course rare so the occasional splashing out on stunning fabric is ok in my book. Just browsing the London shop itself is an experience, slowly unfurling swathes of soft fabric and dreaming about the most suitable project, or fantasising about a sofa stacked with mounds of Liberty cushions…

This year i was given a sewing book from my secret santa (thanks ryan), a collection of Liberty’s very own in-house sewing projects. Its full of lovely illustrations and uses a variety of prints and textures. It is little bit exacting for my style (i never usually measure anything) but i am hopeful i can learn a trick or two about the avantages of becoming more precise and learning how to use a simple pattern.

So here is completed project number one. Its a quilted wash bag. Whilst i managed to stick to the measurements and the pattern, i did take a liberty (ha ha) with some aspects including the quilting, also the style of fabric is cotton rather than a stiff canvas as was recommended. The fabric is in fact a vintage Laura Ashley print, salvaged from an enormous jumpsuit i found in some charity shop sale rail (you know its bad when you shop from charity shop sale rails).

When your splashing out on fabric, it is a good idea to make a project initially in more basic fabric so that you make the inevitable mistakes on that first, then move on to the real deal. So here is my chosen fabric for the next attempt, bought in january whilst we were in London for the weekend. Fingers crossed!

Vignettes 3

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This week, i am taking pictures of things that i like. So no change there.

Enamel, of course, features highly in my house. This french salt holder came from a wee stall at St. George’s market in Belfast. Its got a big hole in the bottom so needless to say, not much actual use for salt. The enamel candle holder behind is one of many…

I found this amazing old shoe polish box in a skip. Those are the absolute best salvage finds! As i don’t ever polish shoes, this holds other little trinkets, but is really all about display.

I love old tins of any description. This kitsch biscuit tin came from the salvage yard. I was a bit disappointed initially as it didn’t have a lid, but the next time i went back i recognised it instantly and was quite pleased with myself for reuniting the two.

Old quality street or roses tins are a big yes for me.

I have noticed that all vintage fans seem to have some kind of typewriter lurking around in their houses. I spied this one today for £3 in a charity shop on my way to the dentist (the dentist was probably wondering why i brought a typewriter to the appointment). A bit of research tells me the ‘petite’ range were actually made as toys, meaning that i probably won’t be able to get replacement tape. It is plastic but i was sold by the colour and retro look!

Anything involving birds has instant appeal to me at the moment. These china plates came from the salvage yard.

This Tala flour sifter came from a stall at the annual Meadows Festival in edinburgh. As you can see, it makes a great container for egg cups. (my purchases often end up fulfilling some other purpose, simply by being set on the shelf and then finding themselves happily housing some random collection of things.)

Plates racks are great inventions. I bought this one for a few pounds at Shelter charity shop (the really great one in Morningside). it had a lucky escape from being abandoned on the street outside tesco shortly after i bought it, as salvage sis and i were too busy sharing tips and ideas, and walked off without it.

 

Vignettes 2

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Its my day off and i’m fiddling around with the camera again. Today’s set of loved items come once again from around and about my home.

My vintage battered suitcase collection continues to grow. the middle one i picked out of a skip, to my delight i opened it to find a vintage eiderdown. it needed a bit of cleaning obviously but that is up there in my ‘best ever skip finds’ category. i have so many of these suitcases now that i have no idea where the other two came from exactly.

These vintage tiles came from the latest clear out at tullyroan, and i LOVE them! especially this birdie one. i remember mum had a huge collection of these tiles lined up along the conservatory. I am using them at the moment for heat mats, coasters etc, but the possibilites are endless….

This original Brownie camera belonged to my grandfather dalzell. Nanny let me take it away on the proviso that i would find it to be worth loads of money. Every time i go home she asks me how much it is worth, i always tell her not a lot (this is true) but i think she is finding it hard to accept. I was never interested in the funds but the vintage aesthetic, of course.

Whilst planning our wedding on the farm in 2005, i realised that each of the fields are named with beautifully evocative titles. So i used them to name each of the tables, and my auntie gladys painted these stones for us. They now sit one a piece on our stairwell and as i run up and down each day i am reminded of the sense of history behind our family farm. I wonder who thought up such mysterious names? I also have stones for Tam’s garden, Lawson’s meadow, and The tal.

My housemate kathryn made this french memo board for me at christmas. Isn’t it fab?

I am known to have a cushion problem. But i’m ok with that. Here we have another tullyroan salvaged item, i love this cover and have a vast collection of vintage floral cushions. The slip cover was made very amateurishly by me a few years ago. My advice – use a pattern if you ever think to attempt such a complicated task. (i didn’t).

Magpie moments 5: Vintage bread bins

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Things have been a bit barren on the creative front this month, perhaps owing to the december rush for making christmas presents (of which i forgot to take any pictures this year). So my series on collections will continue for now, this time moving gracefully away from tea and its associates, to bread bins. This is a kind of ‘sub-section’ of my wider enamelware collection, more of which to follow. However the bread bin is a good place to start as i think it represents the quintessential enamel piece, the cornerstone item of any self-respecting vintage aficionado. Of course, given their generous size and effortless style, they make great containers for all sorts of things aside from the lowly loaf….

This was my first enamel purchase, back in the early collecting days of 2004. It was from a great vintage shop on Gilmore place which seemed to vanish not long after gemma and i discovered it. Napkins hide in here.

This one is from my old faithful salvage yard near Musselburgh, but came minus the lid. One day i’ll hopefully find a replacement. We store extra cereal in here…..wait a second! is that coco pops i see??! must be from Ivan’s visit last week.

This is a true salvage find – a bread bin belonging to my granny, plucked from the ashes of her abandoned kitchen before my brother could cart it off to the scrap yard. When i first opened it, i found a perfectly formed little mouse skeleton, so i’m guessing she hadn’t been using it for while. What better place to store surplus tea cups?

This one i inadvertently purchased at an auction for £5, i had no idea the auctioneer had tipped me for the bid (i wasn’t bidding) but i ended up with it somehow. Being also of a lid-less affliction, this one comes to life in summer at the front door, housing some lovely calendula to greet our visitors.

This is probably my favourite one, though not strictly speaking of the vintage era. I have a red theme in the kitchen department, hence this is the one we use for actual bread (or, as it seems at present, crisp) storage. But the main reason i love it is because it came straight from a skip, covered with a thick layer of grease and in need of some love. It washed up beautifully! Who on earth would throw such a lovely thing away!?

Magpie Moments 4: teapot friends

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At the risk of this ‘collections’ series being only about tea and related paraphernalia, please bear with me for one more post whilst i pay homage to my dear teapot collection. Begun many years ago, my teapots are all dear to me and have been carefully selected/gifted by various special people and places. Unlike many of my other pointless but endearing collections, this lot actually get an awful lot of use….

A good place to start is the backbone of the series, the staple daily pot that houses a multiplicity of teabags across the daily grind.

This was given to me by my friend Lora, after my original chrome-covered and insulated one belonging to Granny K was sadly smashed to smithereens. These teapots were first produced during the art deco period, and were manufactured under the British makers Everhot and Heatmaster. The ones with Bakelite knobs are very traditional, and worth more.

I have a growing collection of Cornish Blue crockery, and this teapot is the crowning jewel, given to be me by my pal Julie. It was previously my staple daily pot until it sadly got chipped at the spout, hence the rubber appendage as seen in the picture to remedy the resultant wonky pour.

I picked up this Cornish Blue teapot (domino spot range) last weekend in an antique shop in London for £5. Its got a crack at the bottom hence the bargain price, but still holds it’s tea splendidly well!

This little dinky enamel pot was also a gift from Julie, paired with a perfectly fitting vintage tea-cosy all the way from New Zealand. Whilst this little friend gets plenty of use, it has an unfortunate habit of delivering minor burns to the hand of the pourer, enamel being a rapid heat conductor. But a small price to pay for the use of a lovely little traditional pot with a very fine pour…

When it comes to leaf tea, this Avoca pot from sister is just the ticket. Two-tone pink, perfect friends with many of my cosies, and a quality fine filter inside for those sophisticated tea moments.

The most recent addition to the family, this Suki teapot was a gift from my sister-in-law this Christmas. I love the Japanese design, and its stackable! How many teapots can boast such a versatile feature?

Ok, so strictly speaking this is a coffee pot, but i just wanted to highlight the increasing popularity of these Picquotware items, which are going for a pretty penny on ebay at the moment, especially a full set of tea, coffee, cream and sugar pots on an original tray. The line was originally created mainly in the 40s with production continuing to this day, with a full set now retailing at around £500.

Rarely used but important nonetheless, this little one pot Spode ‘flemish green’ series fills a gap in the smaller end of the teapot spectrum. Rarely used because tea for one is an uncommon event around here.

Mentioned in a previous post, this teapot ignited my interest in Catherineholm enamelware. So far my only item, owing to the extreme difficulty of getting ones hands on any of it, this is an ode the charity shop trawl, having picked this up for £1 in a village charity shop in the borders during an idle moment. Too good to use!

More enamelware! This is one of a pair of traditional enamel teapots, the other being bright orange yet still managing to evade me in some unsuspecting corner of the house meaning i haven’t photographed it.

Here endeth the teapot tour!