tough times

Well then ...

After a few years of rampant and undisciplined chair collecting (we classify most of the collection as 'stock' to help us feel better), we have finally picked up our first 'proper' Featherston chairs ...

Sure, we have had plenty of his Aristoc pieces, which we love, and a few of the crazy 'numero' chairs in various forms, but never anything from the early 1950's 'Contour' range for which he is most well-known.

But this week ...

... a couple of super-cute D350 dining chairs have come into our lives.  So sweet and small, and more usable (to us) than the lounge chairs.  They need a lot of love, restoration and refreshing, but that's pretty much our favorite part of the job.

So here's the problem - from a purist's point of view, the chairs should be left in their original state - worn upholstery, scuffed timber, missing buttons - proper evidence of 60 years of life.  It may masquerade as respect, but there's a bit of cynical 'protect the re-sale value' in that attitude.  If they were oil paintings, I'd say leave them exactly as they are ... but we reckon commercially produced consumer goods should be maintained and refreshed to keep them living on.

But we want them to have a future as well as a past ... AND they do have to fit into the family up at the farm too!

 

So, yeah, one grey chair and one red one are going to look a bit out of place.  We want them to settle in and play-nice with everybody .... so the hunt is on for the perfect vinyl to freshen 'em up.  Promise they will be going to the most respectful and professional upholsterer we know.

We'll keep you posted.

solar gets niftier

We're in the process of upgrading our solar setup at the farm - graduating from 12v to 240v, which means bigger panels on the roof, and more of 'em.  That's an exciting prospect, but seeing this incredible development makes us wonder why EVERY roof and wall in the world isn't decked out ...

Marketed as 'solar ivy', it's a pretty beautiful looking setup - loads of small photovoltaic cells all clipped to a mesh that feeds your battery and beautifies at the same time.

Pretty nice, huh?

Or maybe we'll just move to Palm Springs ...

Sure, every decent town has it's enclaves of nice modernist architecture ... driving through parts of Kew, the back-blocks of Toorak, or the side-streets of Beaumaris reassure us that Melbourne was well-blessed during the 60's. 
But Palm Springs!

That combination of Hollywood dollars, mega-star extroverted reclusiveness, and the future-inspired architects working out of California in the mid 20th Century made for a pretty cool little area.
These are pics of William Krisel's work - haven't seen much of it, but it looks kind of nice.

From an interview Krisel gave to Dwell magazine a few years back -
My ideal project is a tough challenge with a minimum budget and lots of conditions to be met. I like doing houses with a minimal square footage that have all the comforts of an expensive place; budgets and costs aren’t criteria for doing good design. Design is design, and it has nothing to do with dollars and cents.

"Here's a story, of a man named Brady ..."

Despite the near-continual re-runs that made the Brady family a part of many of our lives (in the same way generation Y will remember the Simpsons forever), we sometimes forget ...

The perfect family, sure ... but later we realized that it was the perfect house that was the best bit ... the central lounge, Mike's fantastic home-office ...  that great open-plan kitchen and dining area ...

Too cool - I think Mike Brady was the inspiration for a generation of architects ... maybe?

Would love to live there ... maybe we should hang onto the plans in case we somehow end up with a construction budget and a nice spot on a sunny suburban street ...

Thanks Sherwood Schwartz ... RIP.

mo' faux

Is it a mac?  Is it timber?

Nope ... but you knew that already.

 Let's work together to cover everything bland in woodgrain contact.

whew ...

Hey, sorry we've been a bit quiet over the last few weeks.  Been cooking up a shiny new website for KYP!

We kind of knew it would be a bit of an exercise trying to move from an online catalogue to having an online store ... but it has given us plenty of perspective on just how much stuff we collect (and how much we love it all, too). 

There's nothing like taking half a dozen photos of each item, and then measuring and weighing and describing it, to remind you of what you have stashed away.

It's been pretty fun though - and today we 'go live' - hope you like it ... we are pretty happy with things so far.

But we thought she was a good girl ...

Down at the toy shop today we were curious about the new packaging design on the Barbie dolls ...

Not even pink stickers ... we checked with Greenpeace - hmmmmm ...

The video campaign is pretty compelling too.

got 5 minutes?

no special effects, fixed camera, good fun ...

another nice interiors blog ...

KYP friend Catherine sent us a great link a couple of weeks ago - you should check it out ...

 The blog is called The Brick House - it's a sort of 'renovation diary' combined with a generally amazing collection of interior ideas and inspiration by a Californian gal named Morgan Satterfield ... along with some decent DIY tips ...

It's fun checking progress and development on their house - with a nice collection of furniture which evolves as the diary goes on.  She is also working on an ebay store for some her renovated finds ...

We kind of suspect that it was the Brick House entry on woven wall-art that prompted Catherine to send us the link tho ...

You should take a look sometime.  Oh, and thanks for the link, Catherine!

new wall-hanging

Loving the strong Australian dollar - great time to scan US ebay for those bits and pieces that are so tricky to find here ...

Last week Cath scored a new bit of string wall-art on ebay - we think the design is based on a Yeti?  Whatever the case, he's fitting right in with the others.

Actually, it might be a free-form portrait of 'Sam the Sheepdog' from the old Looney Tunes cartoons - the fringe is a bit of a giveaway ...

We'll live with him for a while and see.

Oh, and we finally got around to covering one of our Fler SC55's in green fabric - so there's another exciting addition to the loungeroom.