McIntosh sideboard

Over the past few months we have acquired a few new (actually old) furniture pieces to reside in our mid-century home. You know how it is when you move house...you have to tweak your furniture to suit the space...Ha! That's the excuse I'm running with!

McIntosh sideboard

We added a beautiful teak McIntosh sideboard to our collection of mid-century furniture. It is Scottish-made and clearly well-travelled as it eventually found its way to Australia, firstly via country Pittsworth and finally to Brisbane with us. We're using it to store our photographs, DVDs and CDs and our TV currently resides on top of it. Our poor old telly was previously on a very low coffee table...

McIntosh sideboard in our living room

I've been trying to find out a bit about the manufacturer which was AH McIntosh & Co Ltd. The business began making furniture in Kirkcaldy, Scotland in 1869 and it was renowned for making quality furniture.

It went through a time of change during the post-WW2 period catering to the demand for modern yet stylish utility pieces.  AH McIntosh began reproducing and reinterpreting Scandinavian designs in teak and their furniture was hugely popular with the aspirational middle class in Britain.

McIntosh Furniture label

Today, AH McIntosh is still in operation as ESAMcIntosh, providing furniture and equipment for the education sector. From what I have read, vintage AH McIntosh furniture is becoming increasingly collectible because it is extremely well made and has the mid-century look that is so hot right now.

McIntosh sideboard

Repairing the plywood ceiling

The joys of aged maple plywood ceilings end when the reality of repairing them slaps you in the face!

The hole left behind when we removed the wood heater

As many of you would know, we recently removed a wood heater from the main living area. You can read about it here if you are new to the blog.

The hole after the roof was repaired

A lot of creative thought went into repairing the hole left in the ceiling after removing the heater flue. The ceilings are made from rotary cut Queensland maple plywood panels. They are the most sumptuous ceilings to behold and was part of the reason we fell in love with this home when we first saw it.

a distance shot of the hole left after we removed the wood heater

We tossed around various ideas with the help of Danny, a builder who has great experience working on mid-century homes. Initially we thought we could replace the whole ceiling panel; it had sustained water damage from where rainwater must have seeped through over the years.

Sadly, finding rotary cut maple plywood is next to impossible. We tried to source it second-hand and we also looked at the newer plywood products with a view of colour-matching it to 50 year old maple.

Another idea was to steal a panel from one of the bedrooms, and substitute it. You know, do the old 'switcheroonie' trick with a less attractive repair being relegated behind bedroom doors.

In the end our final solution would be the least intrusive and most efficient. We recycled the doors of an old maple plywood cabinet (the original kitchen overhead cupboards to be precise) that had been left behind in the garage by the previous owners (bless them!). Re-purposing the doors and converting them to a ceiling panel seemed the most viable option.

It was a slightly unorthodox solution but it meant we could colour match the ceiling without it being horribly obvious. It also had the added benefit of being free material!

Danny came over and did the job for us...with surgical-like precision...

Cutting out the damage with the help of a template and small cutting tool.
Yep, Danny is a surfing hippy who like all our recent builders is extremely well-read! Tick!

Danny made a simple template, based on the plywood doors which he had jointed together, as guide. With that template he was able to cut out the damaged ply and make a new space in which to fit the re-purposed plywood doors.

A neat ceiling gap in which to place the re-purposed plywood doors

Making the plywood piece fit proved slightly tricky. There was a lot of hand sanding the edges and corners to get a precise fit. Poor old Danny spent a lot of time getting it perfect which is just a beautiful thing to see in action - he took so much care.

A good fit. The plywood piece is in.

Danny planned to nail the piece in place but was afraid the nail heads would detract from the final finish. He changed his mind and decided a quick drying super-grip adhesive would be the best option. He used the Sika SuperGrip 30 minutes and held it in place with a telescopic prop. We left the prop up overnight just to make sure the plywood was not going anywhere!

The final product.

Et voila! You don't instantly notice the repair, particularly if you weren't aware a wood heater occupied this space. Nonetheless you can still make out there was a repair which I guess forms part of the new history of the home.

We couldn't be happier with the final result...and now we have more flexibility with this space and the ceilings still look great despite the repair.

Removing the unwanted wood heater

Vale wood heater. It was nice knowing you, even though we never used you during winter. You were like the elephant in the room...taking up too much valuable space. We never took any photographs of you when you became ours because we never thought you worthy...sadly, unloved

For the few cold nights we have in sub-tropical Brisbane we were prepared to sacrifice cosy warmth for more useable room. 

A shot of the wood heater when the house was with the previous owners

A couple of weeks ago we hired a plumber to remove the heater and repair the inevitable hole in the roof. It only took about an hour or so for it to be done. Afterwards, a few days of rain assured us the plumber did a good job because we were leak-free!

Wood heater-free living space. You can see the maple board on the right.

Our next dilemma is to repair the hole in the Queensland maple ceiling. Finding aged maple rotary cut plywood to match the rest of the ceiling is a problem.

The solution we came up with, with our builder, was to re-purpose some old maple wood doors from the old kitchen cupboards which had been stored under the house. Fortunately the previous owners had kept the old overhead cupboards in the garage and they are a close enough match to work

Our builder has fabricated two old doors into one board which he will use to repair the ceiling. You will still be able to tell there was a repair to the ceiling, but that's fine. It all forms part of the history of the house as it evolves.

Removing the wood heater will provide us with more flexibility in our living and dining areas. That is always a good thing.

The paint brushes are out...

We've picked up the paint brushes again...I am using the royal 'we', of course, as it is Jason who is the Master Painter around here.

Taping around the doors and ceiling, ready for some paint.

It is a gentle start to restore and freshen up this modernist home. When the vertical blinds in the lounge room  were removed a few weeks ago, it revealed a raw pine mullion between the two glass sliding doors... which Jason was compelled to paint.

Some shirtless painting...purely to indulge his dwindling fan base...

You see, the glass sliding doors are not original to the house. This mid-century beauty would have had slightly larger aluminium sliding doors. In the original plans of the house, Lidco glass sliding doors were specified. For one reason or another, the doors were changed...most probably because the original Lidco sliders would not have locked effectively or became hard to slide over the years.

They would have been similar to the sliding doors found in a Robin Spencer designed house I visited earlier this year. You can read about it here. In a perfect world we would like to restore the sliding doors back to what it would have been...all in good time though.

1960s glass sliding doors 

Regarding the painting, at least it is a start, albeit a very small start...We will progressively paint all the other walls in this room in vivid white acrylic which seems to give the dark plywood ceilings an instant lift.

Small start to repainting the modernist house

Our new Featherston chair

Well, the vintage Featherston chair has finally made it home to the Sow's Ear. Cue the cheers and hoorays!

The amount of faffing about that one chair creates is huge. I've had to do a lot of reorganising to accommodate the new resident...perhaps more so than when our children were born...ha!
 (I kid, I kid...!)

This is the first set up we had planned until we changed our mind and rearranged some more!

It is an absolutely lovely addition to our home. Although the chair has been with the slowest upholsterer known to man, it's come up beautifully with the new wool fabric. I like that it has not been over-stuffed - it's just the right padding. Not too thin, not too fat. It was definitely worth the wait.

We used Bute tweed fabric in green and I have to say it's a winner. Bute is a fabric manufacturer based on the Isle of Bute, off the west coast of  Scotland. The fabric very much suits the 1953 Featherston Space chair and I'm pleased with the overall result.

We moved the tulip lamp and placed an Art Deco side table next to the Featherston 

A view of the new set-up in the lounge room

And that's not the only new addition to the Sow's Ear. I'll write a blog post about another new addition soon- it's another Australian design piece that I was keen to possess after editing an article about it...

Rearranging the op-shop art

We like a good faff on the weekend at the Sow's Ear, where we just potter about without too many pressures. We spent some of our time rearranging the art work.

Earlier in the week I made the annual pilgrimage to Ipswich to visit Jo from Desire to Inspire with my mates Katherine and Carmel. It's our chance to catch up with the guru of online interiors, to check out Jo's spectacular home and to assist in emptying some of her full cupboards.

Jo's been my number one supplier (enabler) of vintage goods for the past three years - God bless her generous hoarding soul! I was the lucky recipient of a few art glass pieces and other goodies which I will show you another time. Thanks a million Jo!

Here's a shot of Jo's amazing home office

This is Jo's master bedroom which is simply, darkly exquisite.
Sorry for the poor iphone quality

This year, Jo passed on a couple of thrifted art pieces which she bought mostly for the frames (she's also an artist and uses reclaimed frames for her art works). I thought they were great as is and have hung them in the dining room. (And Susan do not roll your eyes at my 'art'! Ha!)

The new piece is on the right- a landscape in some psychedelic colours. I like an eclectic mix on the wall - vintage 1970s art print, last supper carving and an acrylic landscape...

The still life below is the other new acquisition. We can't figure out what the green thing is...the kids reckon it's a lettuce...I think it might be a cabbage. What do you reckon?

We also hung the op-shop Sibley lithograph in the lounge room (read about it here). This room is looking so much nicer with the restored Wegner daybed and the DQF viking chairs. There are a few things which need tweaking ...like new lamp shade, coffee table etc...but there's no rush for now...

the Sibley is the framed piece on the right

 p.s Thanks so much for all your lovely comments about our 4th blogging anniversary. xx 

Easter Decorating

With all the electioneering that had been going on around here, I completely forgot to attend to our Easter decorating.

It is too late to make decoupage eggs or crochet little woollen egg garlands; our local florist has closed up shop too.

And suddenly I remembered what we have hanging in our lounge room all year round - two art deco Stations of the Cross, salvaged from an old church. We have Numbers 10 and 14.

Vintage Stations of the Cross #10

Vintage Stations of the Cross #14

They are very tall and heavy; the intricately carved timber frames are just beautiful. I originally wanted the pieces to hang in our bedroom, but Jason hastily vetoed that suggestion. The lounge room was our default position.

Interestingly, they are a great conversation piece and I personally like how they instantly aggravate a guilty conscience in every lapsed Catholic who enters our home...

So, I guess you could say our Easter decorating is sorted.

Happy Easter!

Just hanging around

I finally had a few art prints framed. I don't know why it takes me so long to get around to doing it...because they look great on the wall!

Since I started blogging I discovered that IKEA is a great place for buying frames with ready-cut mats. The RIBBA frames are my favourite. They come in white, black, walnut and birch.

I bought two small white deep-set frames and an A4 sized birch-coloured frame - absolutely perfect for my latest prints.

Departure Lounge 1971 Giclee Print A4 by Inaluxe

I love all the prints at Inaluxe. They are fun and have a mid-century vibe that I really like.

It makes this corner look groovy!

I was also very happy to finally hang the lovely photographic prints by Tasmanian artist, Sarah Bishop from the blog Molly's Maison. Now this chick is extremely talented. If you love botanical art, she is definitely one to keep your eye on. You can find her HERE.

I had actually planned to hang these in my bedroom, but they were too good to hide away. They are on display outside our bedroom wall.

Fine art photographic prints by Sarah Bishop

The top photograph is Blue Anemone, the bottom photograph is Hellebore.

Aren't they just lovely?

Art print by Inaluxe

My birthday is looming. And I'm taking the liberty to treat myself more lately.

Look at what I am giving myself for my birthday. I ordered it yesterday.

Departure Lounge 1971
Image courtesy of Inaluxe

It is a gallery quality giclee print called Departure Lounge 1971 which is an interpretation of mid-century modern graphics by Inaluxe artists Kristina Sostarko and Jason Odd. I love bold, colourful graphics.

I've been looking for a fun smallish print to go in this corner:

A corner of our lounge room

Inaluxe is also having a 25 % off sale on all their prints. The only trouble is being able to decide which one to choose. There are some very groovy prints if you love that mid-century modern vibe. Check it all out here.

I can't wait for it to arrive.

Gratuitous cushion photo

Living room with Florence Broadhurst's circles and squares cushions

The new Florence Broadhurst cushions in the lounge room are winners. It makes our living area so much cosier, but with a punch of elegance.

We are enjoying plumping and adjusting these beauties.

Thanks again to Jo from Desire to Inspire for her generosity, which you can read about here.

My style in one picture

I'm joining the action which is on the blog From the Right Bank. Ally's challenged her readers to define their style in one picture. And this is it.

image from here

There are no surprises here for those who have been reading my blog for a while.

I have modernist leanings which is reflected in my choice of decor for my home. (Unfortunately limited by money and restricted by the older timber and tin style home we own. But I'm trying hard despite all this!)

So why this room? Elegant slim line furniture, a sprinkling of art glass, wall mounted sideboard, clean uncluttered lines and natural light. It has many elements I love.

I would perhaps try to inject my own personality into this room with quirkier lamps and carefully selected objects d'art and a sublime Ray Crooke painting (in my dreams). But definitely with a focus that less is more.

Ray Crooke

Islanders c.1975

oil on canvas

image from here

Thanks Ally for hosting this challenge!

TV Commercial at the Sow's Ear!?

Last week I got the most curious email from a lady called Nat Duncan who works at Queensland Film Locations.

Nat had stumbled on my blog via the lovely Katherine at theoldboathouse and was interested in seeing our home for an upcoming TV commercial being filmed in Brisbane.

Holy Mother of Incessant Ad Breaks, I thought! Surely, she was kidding?

A follow up email advised me that she was very serious. Nat is scouting for a location for clients who are shooting an insurance TV ad. They are searching for a Queenslander home with VJ (vertical join) walls in a lounge room. Just like ours. And it has to feel homey and can't look too polished. Just like ours!

Anyway, I read the information about how the whole process works and what was involved. And we're still keen.

How fun! This is probably the most fun with VJs we will ever have, so we may as well live up to the blog's namesake.

Nat Duncan taking photographs in the lounge room

I really liked her red skirt

Today, Nat visited our home to take some photographs which she will send to the production company. She said there is a three pronged approval process with the production company, ad agency and insurance company approving and agreeing on the final location.

Anyway, Nat was super-lovely and took heaps of fab photos of the interior and exterior of the house. Here are some of the various shots she took.

It is not a definite that this poor old Sow's Ear will be a star. It may all turn into nothing, especially now that I've told Blogtopia and jinxed it.

But that's ok. It's still very flattering that someone thought our house was worthy of a TV appearance.

I'll keep you posted.

A Very Fine House feature

How exciting to be featured in the new blog A Very Fine House!

It is all about homes which are original, quirky, fun and/or on a budget.

I think budget applies in our case!!

Today our lounge room is being critiqued as part of Wednesday's Walk-through. Am I up for the honest feedback? So far, there is no feedback...ah, to be the cause of  indifference...

Head over there now for a sticky beak. Click here.

Lounge room - before and after

It is incredible what a difference a fresh coat of paint makes to a room.

This is the lounge room "before and after" set of photographs which I have been taking to chronicle our renovations.

The before photograph on the top is from our second visit to the house.

The lounge room was tired with the condition of the paint work average. The colour was ok too but because the lounge room forms the core of the house (with no windows, only doors leading to other parts of the house); it tended to be on the dark and gloomy side. The previous owners also had a very traditional period/country style decor which is popular in Queenslander style homes.

The changes shown in these photographs although fairly small were highly effective from our perspective. It illustrates how colour can transform a room.

We painted the walls with a Dulux white acrylic 101 wash and wear, low sheen. All the doors and trim are painted with a Dulux white acrylic gloss. It is a bright, crisp white which works well with our 60s style furniture, art and other decor pieces. Our stuff looked extra drab in the old colour scheme.

We removed the picture rail in this room too. Unfortunately, there was no way of retaining the rail without it being visibly crooked. Removing it has given us more flexibility with hanging art, but most importantly it provides a seamless uniformity which makes the room appear larger.

Jason replaced some skirting and damaged door hardware. The light fitting was also changed. We are very happy with the Coral pendant light. It looks equally amazing in the daytime as it does illuminated at night. I think "wow" every time I see it.

On another matter, I do intend to recover the lounge suite to something less mustardy and less vinyl or we may replace it entirely if something fabulous comes our way. For now, it is just immensely practical with little ones.

So, there you have it - our new improved lounge room.

Coral pendant light installed

I guess the old adage 'pictures speak a thousand words' applies to this post.

Carlo the electrician installed our David Trubridge Coral Pendant in the lounge room yesterday. Yay!

It looks great and today we are sore from craning our necks to admire the new light.

Unfortunately the Star Wars buffs in the family have dubbed our funky light the Death Star.  I tell you, I'm surrounded by philistines!

image courtesy of wikipedia