EMPTY CUPBOARDS = FULL HEARTS

Over time we have accumulated a lot of stuff because living in a large house means we physically have the room for it - work stuff and personal stuff. We love our home but these things are now making us feel overwhelmed, weighed down and unhappy. Our cupboards contain things we don't actually need or use anymore. We spend a lot of time moving stuff around just to do simple house cleaning! We constantly loose things amongst the chaos, and more recently we admitted to each other we are embarrassed to have people over.

It's time to get our home and life back before the stuff completely owns us!

THE SOLUTION

We have created a dedicated instagram account to act as a platform to sell and also gift our random belongings. I've been a collector of vintage and retro for many years, so I decided to find an easy way to sell a few things (at a good price) rather than just give it all away. We do have some valuable bits and bobs, and any money collected will help us with our current house renovation projects.

So I stay focused and on track, I wanted to keep this process as streamlined as possible - we will post items up for grabs on Instagram as we sort through each room. A few simple photos, description and the price. Simple!

The Aspiring Minimalist instagram feed will also become a record of our journey and a photographic keepsake of the sentimental items that will be a little harder for us to let go.

Thank you for helping us to reach our goal to banish overwhelm and to transform our large home into a minimalistic haven - kind of like 'tiny house' living but in a big space!

Click here for more information about how it works >

Then at the same time I decided I would see if there were any cool retro furniture handles up for sale on e-bay. And look at what I found...This collection of 30 retro furniture handles for only $10!!! Yes $10 (not a typo!) The collection includes 5 different sets and they are all in awesome condition. What a score!!

My thought process was, "ok buy them, they are only $10, and if not right for the wardrobe it doesn't matter", but to my delight they are really cool and it now solves my question about what doors to put on our new wardrobe. Any of these handles will look great with a plain white door so that is the plan.

Toodle-pip!

The original "Pool Room"

When we purchased our home at Auction in April 2011, after the fall of the hammer we discovered that we also suddenly owned a pool table. I initially had mixed feelings about this because where the pool table sat, I actually had other plans for that space. But I also love playing pool!

Being the vintage lover that I am, I decided to hold onto the pool table for a while, play a few games of snooker, and use it as a work bench. I wanted to see if I could make this work after all.

Challenger Deluxe

But unfortunately for the "Challenger Deluxe", there came the time where it was just not that practical to have in my design studio. It was taking up so much room and I was restricted with how I could arrange in the space.

So after much thought and about 1.5 years of leaving it sit there, we decided it was time it had to go. However this posed to be a big problem because it would not fit down the stairs - plus we couldn't lift it! The only solution was to dismantle it, but after checking this out we realised this would be a difficult thing to do without damaging it.

The only option really was to pull it apart with the risk of damaging it, but to try and salvage the slate top and use that in the garden somewhere.

The sad job of breaking the Challenger Deluxe down

So we hired a skip bin, and Denis started to carefully dismantle the table. Then to our surprise we discovered the slate top was not actually one piece of slate, rather a concrete compound of some sort which was not really worth saving for the garden after all. It crumbled and broke up into small pieces.


So in  the end we sadly had to go against our beliefs of trying to SAVE EVERYTHING and the poor Challenger Deluxe ended up in the skip.

The End. :-(

PS this 'pool room' is currently being transformed into a lounge and Pilates/meditation space. Will share renovation update once it's complete!

Yes another room of wallpaper that was tired and had to go. I took heaps of photos of the wall paper being removed, then I accidentally deleted the photos. This room was relatively simple to tackle, nothing to tricky, just remove the wall paper and paint, so not a lot of exciting "work in progress" photos to share with you. See the set of images here >

The cool thing is we manged to finish and style the room in time and a photo of the bedroom did end up in the magazine after all that! YAY!

Photo by Elle DS Photography

A few details:
+ Paint colour - Dulux Pale Tendril Half 
+ Floor Rug - IKEA
+ Teak side table / trolley - eBay
+ Pillow Cases - Orla Kiely
+ Print on Wall - Jen Ski 
+ Retro Blue Wool Fabric on Bed - Salvos
+ Polyhedra Garland - Messagemark

Toodle-pip!

After spending the last five years working from home, I decided it was time to mix things up and look for a new environment to work from. Ok that is not totally true... if I am to be 100% honest here, my main motivations to work away from home were:

+ I was starting to feel a bit trapped within the walls of my house
+ I was needing a clearly defined separation between my work, study and home life
+ The days would roll by, weekends would come and go, and I started to feel like I was stuck in one long continuous day
+ Conversations with my cats were becoming more and more interesting - was this a sign of madness or was I simply craving more human interaction?

For those of you who have done the whole work from home thing, you will totally understand it has many benefits, but at the same time can become both challenging and stifling.

I was starting to feel like I was lacking structure and also discipline in my life. There were too many blurred edges - for example, weekends were not weekends anymore, and work was way too accessible and I would catch myself after dinner checking on something or answering an email. I was also beginning to allow clients to contact me after hours as if that was ok too. Over time this kind of balance, or should I say imbalance between work and relaxation time started to take it's toll. Throw full time study into the mix and you have the potential recipe for a complete break down.

So when the opportunity to work in the most awesome creative space with Bek and Tim from  One Small Room was presented to me, I pounced on it! They recently set up business in a character church hall for their overflowing creative endeavors (interior design / architecture, styling, vintage furniture restoration etc) and were kind enough to offer me a corner to work from all styled up and ready to go!

And the best part, when I leave I can totally leave work there and I now have a more balanced home life. It is incredible what this simple change has done for me. I am even enjoying jumping in the car or jumping on the train with work as the destination. The time and space between home and the hall gives me a moment to clear my head and prepare for the day. So different to walking from the kitchen straight to the desk! I have also discovered that I have so much more free time for study and the things I enjoy the most - like chatting to my furry friends.

It is amazing, and quite possibly the coolest creative space west of the city! More central for client meetings too! So it now seems timely to point out when you will find me in my new work digs ...

Business Hours: Tuesday to Thursday 9 – 5pm
4A William Street, Croydon (by appointment)

Here are a few happy snaps of the amazing collection of vintage goodness also sharing the hall space with us...and yes sometimes I find a little distracting!