A Shiplap Home

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Marvellous Marble

Ok. So this might be getting ahead of myself here, but I went to have a look at some marble today. I was surfing the web about 2 months ago wondering what benchtop to specify in the kitchen. I have designed a big island bench, with a lovely enormous & fat butcher block at one end for all the hard work and school lunch making etc. No point dragging out a chopping board every time I say. Let's just have a permanent one with, and this is the 'pièce de résistance', a hole down to the compost bin to just wipe it all away!

a rough plan of the kitchen by the Amazing Alex Vega

The rest of the island, and also another wall where the main sink will be, will be a stone of some description. I had been looking around and love all the carrara marble around but I think it's too grey and cold for my home. I'm usually drawn to oranges, greens and reds.

Back to the web surfing, as I was...I came across an arabescato pano marble at Baltic Stone, in Dandenong. I was immediately frozen. It had the most beautiful mix of the grey veining similar to a light carrara, a very white base colour and lots of gold threads through it. It was exactly what I thought I would never find. A warmer version of carrara. I contacted them to see if a) it was still available b) if they usually have that colour in stock and c) if I could hold it there for a year until I need it! Turns out they won't get it in again, so if I wanted it I needed to move fast. Discussions with my husband proved futile. I was NOT to be depositing on a kitchen benchtop when we hadn't even signed the building contract, or got a quote... words like sensible or logical come to mind. So I've been putting off going to see it for a while now. But I keep thinking about it, I just know it's the one. So I dragged my poor 5 year old there today for some moral support. Surely if SHE liked it I had reason enough to reserve it?

at Baltic Stone

You want to see it close up don't you?

And in detail

Ooh isn't it heartwarming? Lo and behold Miss 5 liked it. Whether she was just trying to please Mummy I do not care. Now 3 lovely slabs have my name stickered on them til the end of next week. Hopefully by then we will have a quote at least and I will have enough ammo to convince that far too sensible husband of mine to deposit on them. Exciting!

Saturday, 16 February 2013

Bringing Back the Budget

The past couple of days I've been surfing the net for our interior door furniture. I want to really get this right and find a good solid, and attractive ~~knob,~~ ~~set~~ let's go with set. There's not really a polite way of saying that! I have already specified our hardware, but after discovering the cost of $275 a set I'm looking for something at least half price! I have quickly found Australia doesn't do the finish I want. Surprise, surprise Laura wants something more. When we moved in all the doors had builders' standard plated shiny brass levers. But I found this picture...and I'm sold.

McRoberts-associates.com

It's a satin brass, and it's unlacquered - which is still stupidly uncommon here. Leaving it unlacquered will allow it to patina. Beautiful. I also really like the soft shape of the knob and the sharp lines of backplate. It looks like it would sit nicely in your hand. (get that mind out of the gutter) That's because it's custom isn't it, which means it would cost a bomb. So to find a satin brass finish here? Well, I might be in luck because a UK company called Frank Allart & Co do this finish and they have suppliers in Melbourne! I'll just have to settle for one of their standard shapes to keep the costs down.

The other thing I've been deliberating about is our open plan space at the back and the doors that open out onto our outdoor BBQ area. We have a 6m space for this span of doors. For some reason I have a thing against bifold doors. I don't know why, maybe because there's so many cheap & nasty ones out there. I've seen a few 5cm gaps in my time. So I was planning on doing BIG modern sliding doors, 2 maybe 3 panels. They seem more secure to me.

Courtesy of Centor

But I just keep thinking all our other windows are lovely long elegant shapes with transom fanlights above, would a wall of giant doors look out of place? In 10 years would it look like a dated renovation? I'm slowly eating my words about those bifold doors now. I think the proportions of them would suit the house better. They're absolutely not as trendy. But it's not about that. This house has to last the test of time. At least there are some super systems out now that are fantastic. Ideally a few sets of french doors would look best, but to get the flow outside I want the whole wall opened up.

Bifolds Courtesy of Pinterest

Hmmm. The sliding doors might be given the boot me thinks.

Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Finally Getting Somewhere...

Sunday was a fab day! I had spent most of the weekend hand detailing joinery for the entire house and I was quite pleased with myself. I finished it all and posted it off to our lovely CAD guy. I stress lovely as he puts up with my constant changes.

The kids' bathroom. Do you like the armoire style cupboard? 2 girls need lots of storage!

But then this morning I received an email that some walls hadn't been measured correctly in the original drawings (which were done 3 years ago by someone else) and the engineer needed to rejig the plans so walls were sitting on supporting walls etc. Which prompted me to get out my measuring tape. "I wonder if this is going to make much difference?" I was wondering. Well yes, turns out 1 wall in the kitchen is 850mm out!! How I have not noticed this before is beyond me. I must have been away with the fairies. So all that lovely kitchen joinery with the proportions just so....well it has to be done again doesn't it!

I stopped measuring after that. I don't want to find any more problems :-(

On a brighter note, a lovely friend of mine visits Paris yearly and recently sent me some photos of a new concept store there called Merci thinking I might like it. Thanks T!