Category Archives: lucy

Homes and Antiques

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If you happen to be so inclined, this month’s (August) Homes and Antiques magazine is worth a look. Its a vintage special, in celebration of the 50-year anniversary of the Festival of Britain, which is marked at the end of this month by a Vintage festival at the Southbank centre in London. These 50s living rooms are currently on display in the Royal Festival Hall.

This month’s mag is a winner for all things kitsch and retro, including fabulous and 50s-inspired homes, an exhaustive list of the 50 best vintage shops across the UK, an interesting feature on 1950s (surprise surprise!) hand bags, and lots of other tit-bits and knowledge.

I have subscribed to a few ‘interiors/lifestyle’ magazines over the years, and i must say as a recent subscriber to H&A i’m pretty impressed with this one. They seem to achieve a good mix of covetable homes, events, designers and artists, and informative content. Each month features a product traced through the years, charting key design developments, last month featuring a particular salvage-sister favourite – chairs. Not being particularly designer-savvy, i have recently felt marginally more informed on key trendsetters (Ercol, Lucienne Day, Arne Jacobsen….). My only complaint would be its south of the border focus, for example only one Scottish vintage shop is featured in the list of 50, though certainly worthy of merit (Herman Brown, West Port, Edinburgh.)

I leave you with a few classic h&a ‘mid-century’ home pics to whet your appetite.

 

Type drawer update

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I thought i’d update folks on my type drawer efforts, considerable as they were. The main unforeseen challenge was the logistic aspect of putting all the eyelets on the upper part of each square. The angles just weren’t made for such an activity. However having eventually figured out a way, i then realised all my earrings were too long for most of the squares. So now i need to find some other little trinkets to go in those slots. Overall, i was pleased with the outcome: pretty storage/display with a vintage feel. Its all good!

Economy Gastronomy

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Shopping for cookbooks in second hand shops can be quite unsatisfying. Rows of 1980’s m&s freebies, rubbish cupcake booklets and the odd obligatory delia smith classic. Purchasing cookbooks is something i would suggest requires considerable selectivity and deliberation, given the vast array of options on the market. Which means buying second hand becomes even more of a challenge. In general, i tend to only buy books written by specific favoured chefs, ones who have actually written the book and thus tried and tested all the recipes themselves. I can heartily recommend the following 4 books, all lovingly discovered in my local charity shops.

This completes my set of much loved covent garden soup books, the above one containing more pulse and beans recipes in addition to yummy soups and other liquid glory.
Sam and Sam Clark wrote this one some years after the original Moro cookbook, both of which are based on mediterranean/middle eastern cuisine. Before opening their london restaurant, they drove from spain to the sahara in search of recipes and ingredients. This latest one is based on using ingredients grown in their london allotment, together with sumptuous spices and sweet flavours from the med.
I can’t recommend highly enough Allegra McEvedy, she is my favourite food writer having discovered her a few years ago via the guardian food supplement. Her Leon books (1 & 2) include all the recipes from the london-based fast food restaurant, plus a ton of other family heirloom kitchen secrets, plus fabulous styling to boot. This latest book was recently a bbc 1 series of the same clever name. The ‘economy’ is not based on buying cheap food, but buying something exciting (eg a massive leg of lamb) and then using it in various ways over 3 meals.    These books need no introduction! I recently toyed with buying them on amazon at a hefty cost (for, realistically, a set of book that i will never use, but feel the need to own having enjoyed the film a lot). So i was pleased as punch to pick these up last week for £1 each. Who knows – maybe one day i’ll try my hand at Quenelles de poisson, or Rognons de veau en casserole…

Green gardening

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Gardening can be an expensive business. Having grown up on a farm where there were always lots of random containers, bits of wood or off-cast utensils lurking in dark corners, its hard to go to corporate garden-land and pay £15 for a piece of plastic to put your spuds in. I have tried to use some initiative this year when it comes to the practicalities, both from an ethical and a principle standpoint. I haven’t quite made it to the lofty heights of seed-saving, or careful vegetable preservation, or rotation of crops to ensure no loss of produce (just about able to describe my efforts as ‘produce’), but i have enjoyed trying to think creatively whilst also considering the aesthetics. Here are a few ideas….

1. 3-tier shelving for window box salads; old floor-boards from a skip.

2. Apple boxes for more salad!

3. Raised bed; plywood from skip

4. Old basket from lane sale as floral container

5. Coal bag as potato planter

6. Apple box converted into shelving and storage

7. Bread bin for Nasturtiums

8. Pretty bistro chair, Drum Farm Antiques, £5

9. And finally, our completed decking, made by Colin and Malkie from 100% salvaged wood.

A welly cool project

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Footwear storage is a passion of mine. Such is the case that i recently considered purchasing a very overpriced wall mounted welly rack. Until i realised how easy it would be to make, especially with a handy construction pal, a trip to the salvage yard and a sunny saturday afternoon. My sculptor friend Ali T provided me with the base, an old warped, weathered piece of hardwood, and the dowels are a collection of old broom handles.

Mathematics being a low point for both, we spent a while figuring out how to space the 6 pairs of holes across the wood. Luckily we followed my dad’s time-honoured advice – “Measure twice, cut once”.

Once the first pole was tested for strength and length with Malkie’s big boot, we carried on with cutting each end down to size, sanding further and then hammering in.

The finished product houses 6 pairs of happy boots. It was such a successful project (unusual for me when it comes to hammers, drills etc), maybe we’ll start taking commissions…

On a shoe-string

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A few years back, i decided that cheap shoes were a bad idea, and committed myself to buying only good quality, well made footwear. No easy task when it comes to second-hand shops. I have often bought shoes that look good in the shop, and the moment you step out in them you realise why someone put them into their charity bag. So i thought i would share with you my recent successes – two great pairs of shoes during one charity-shop foray.

Gotta love these Converse mid-calf orange laced boots…£9

These sheepskin-lined leather ankle boots in the bag for a pleasing £10.

Retropolis

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I had to get straight onto the blog to share my latest delightful furniture purchase from my latest salvage venue. I occasionally pop in to Drum Farm Antiques near the city bypass, and was pleasantly surprised during yesterday’s visit to find a new business adjoining the warehouse called Retropolis Antique and Vintage Emporium. Only 4 weeks old, they have a great spread of furniture and trinkets, either lovingly restored or in need of an imaginative friend. as it happened, i was late for a meeting so i didn’t get to ponder and pontificate in my usual way over the cabinet, an eclectic paring of glass-topped and shelf-bottomed loveliness, formerly a shop fitting. But it was love at first sight and there was no need for deliberation, especially at the enticing price of £70 including delivery later that evening. Luckily there was a rugby match on so that i could spend the evening staring at my new illuminated friend, dreaming up possibilities whilst Malkie was otherwise occupied.

I have opted for a cutesy china/enamelware combo for the display, but i’m sure this is merely the first incarnation of many. I have tried to keep it simple but also make the most of a great display opportunity. But i’m wondering if i should stick to a few signature wow-factor pieces….what do you think?

Pair o’ chairs 1

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Mostly when i buy an old wreck of a chair, table or otherwise, i drive home thinking of my expansive plans for re-vamping and re-working my fabulous find. However, its amazing how easily you can get used to a furniture’s foibles as time passes. Not so for this chair though, recently purchased at the lane sale as a pair for £1. Whilst its elm and blue velvet components were visually pleasing, the webbing in the seat was completely gone, making it somewhat akin to a parking your bum on an uncomfortable toilet seat. Thus began my first ‘proper’ upholstery job yesterday. Here’s a recap of the events as they unfolded.

1. Chair on arrival

2. Stripping the seat back to the frame

3. New sisal webbing, fixed with staple gun

4. Next 2 layers: horsehair and cotton

(5. A few more undocumented layers, as it started to rain!)

6. Colefax and Fowler fabric remnant to finish

Now to put it to the ultimate test – survival in our busy household…

Re-purposed Storage 2

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I sometimes get mocked (mainly by my salvage sister) for my tendency to put things in jars and label them. Maybe she has a point. But what could be better than having everything so wonderfully visible? Think of those times you reach for a herbacious addition to your cuisine, only to find the little meager plastic tub desolate? No more! Have them all prominently on display and unashamedly labeled….

Not to be limited by the visible shelves, the inside of my cupboards are also sagging under the weight of multiple jars of goodies.

The obsession extends to other functional items requiring storage, but too good to hide away. Pretty Bonne Maman jars house buttons and zips in my sewing department. Colourful thread spools and decorative soaps are kept in these old sweetie jars, once again combining display and function.

Glass jars can be found just about anywhere (your fridge, skips, recycling bins, charity shops) and come in all shapes and sizes. What do you store in yours?

Edinburgh salvage secret

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Last Thursday i discovered one of the best kept salvage secrets in Edinburgh. I had heard about a ‘lane sale’ somewhere in Leith, and after a bit of searching came upon Ramsay Cornish Auctioneers in Jane Street. They host a ‘proper’ auction every Saturday, and then sell off the rest on a Thursday morning in a very informal and slightly haphazard auction. Having orchestrated a Thursday off work, i headed down cash in hand and browsed the goods, laid out in 3 or 4 rows in the back yard of the saleroom. Suddenly the auction started, with a guy holding up some things and a few punters standing around bidding a pound or two on each. Most things were selling for between £1-£5, and that, i must point out, includes the furniture. One guy bought a wardrobe for £1. Unfortunately its a case of survival of the fittest – those that shout the loudest and stand nearest the front win.

One of the great things about this auction is that you can bid for individual items of your choice rather than whole lots in which you inherit one great thing and 5 other large pearlescent ceramic budgies. And because the crowds are relatively small, you are generally successful in bidding. Its clearly a ‘regulars’ thing, as most punters there seemed to be known by name – Mrs. Sprott and Ellen were on fire! (ie they clearly have Diogene’s Syndrome.) If only i were off every Thursday….

So, what treats and trinkets did i procure from this merry event? My first purchase was this pretty oval mirror with distressed white frame, £10.

All the others came in at a mere £1 each. The material remnants are great for little sewing projects. The first chair does actually have a seat! And the second is a beautiful elm and blue velvet combo.

I even came away with a husband-item: a pair of Argyll (Hunter) wellies for £1. Everyone’s a winner!