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Category Archives: practical matters
Omega Workshops – Down on the Farm
Today is the first day of a short holiday I’ve cooked up for myself, in order to sit in front of the fire and do nothing. Surprise, surprise then if I wasn’t at Maidens & Foster at 9.30am this morning … Continue reading
How to wallpaper with old book pages
Some time back we came across an old dictionary in a box lot at the local auction house – its cover was missing and it was in pieces but it had great illustrations and great (no longer used) words. There … Continue reading
Posted in inspiration, original surfaces, practical matters
Tagged dressing room walls, wall linings
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Board and batten ceilings
There are essentially three different ways of ‘restoring’ the appearance of an old board and batten ceiling of the type common in New Zealand houses of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ceilings often survive the redecoration and renovation of … Continue reading
The year [well almost] in review
At long last we managed to get rid of them. Like a divorce or other painful separations, they kept wanting to come back. The painters wanted to wedge themselves in between Christmas and New Year. They did not understand that … Continue reading
Posted in practical matters
2 Comments
How to make one room from two.
In wooden frame houses the blending of two rooms into one should be a very simple process. Why then do so many get it so wrong? Often when visiting a house, a proud owner will explain that ‘these used to … Continue reading
Posted in practical matters
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Building the Titanic [Bathroom].
Without a doubt the most unattractive (aka revolting) room in the those when we acquired it, was the bathroom in what we referred to as the second flat. This was the nicest of the three flats and the bathroom had … Continue reading
Posted in inspiration, practical matters
2 Comments
How to hang a European painting in a post-colonial world.
When designing our library I was looking to create a formal arrangement of Nineteenth century paintings, largely portraits, and this meant that I kept coming back to the idea of a picture rail. Not a piece of wooden beading positioned … Continue reading
Posted in art, practical matters
10 Comments
Orientalising-up
The other day I set my mind to thinking about a new lamp. My old standard lamp – a nanna-style turned wooden number painted green – had been dislodged in the reorganisation of my study, pending the arrival of the … Continue reading
Posted in inspiration, practical matters
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Decor Extremus: 