Upcycling the kitchen

RECYCLE, reuse, regenerate – these are the bywords for my home as well as my garden.

After several weeks of painting the bright blue, orange, lime and grey feature walls a more sedate cream, I’m feeling more at home.

At the moment the floor man is finishing off sanding and sealing all the living and bedrooms but the kitchen and laundry have a nice wood-floor look vinyl. 

 

As I have downsized into a cosy old 1950s renovated clinker-brick former housing commission house, it’s been a fun challenge to work out where to place everything.

In the last couple of years, I decluttered my life which involved several massive clean-outs with around 66 per cent of my stuff going to various op-shops, friends and the tip.

This was a good move as my new home has about half the floor space and a quarter of the kitchen storage space I was used to.

 

So rather than renovate the perfectly good kitchen, I have given some bookcases another coat of paint and put them to good use to hold jars of dry goods, cookbooks and the mix-masters.

(No doubt I'll eventually put in wider bench-tops and a dishwasher, but so far the rubber gloves and sink are doing the job!)

The chairs came from an op shop at a ridiculous cheap $68 for the six (and I’ve seen similar versions in online retro catalogues for $140 each) and the table I bought seven years ago from an op-shop in Sydney for a song.

 

Hanging above is an art deco brass lamp from my first apartment in Hawthorn - I love it but as the ceilings here are lower than its previous homes, I placed it over the dining table so none of my guests will get concussion.

 

Scouring opshops and garage sales and spending less is so much fun and it allows you to create a home which reflects your real life - not something dreamed up by some marketing person for a faceless furniture store.

Cosy up to spring

Spring may have sprung but it's still been chilly enough for a fire some evenings.

Nothing like a cuppa by the wood-heater as you catch up with back issues of the New Yorker while toasting your toes.

While I occasionally purchase split logs from the local supplier, I'm fortunate to have some friends with wood piles which could block out the sun, so in return for homemade biscuits or chocolate cakes, they will often pop buy with a few bits of wood.

I'm also an inveterate frugal scrounger, so will stop by the side of the road to collect windfalls of pine cones, branches and twigs to use as kindling. Also any bits of timber on the street or in a skip bin - be careful you are not burning scraps with harmful chemicals which could be released as toxins as they burn - is fair game. It's amazing how much wood which could be used to keep you warm is tossed out as rubbish. And those reliable old pinecones look great piled in a basket by the fireplace.

A good teapot is also essential. The aqua teapot in the photo was purchased locally after a fruitless search through various op-shops. The old bunnykins mug I've had since I was a kid. It has seen my through my various phases of tea - from those heady Earl Grey 80s through Russian Caravan, green, lemon and ginger, Oolong and Gunpowder Green.

Tea by the fire warms the heart as well as the toes.