Thrifty interior design

I looked around my room the other day and thought “I really like my room”. Now this is a big deal because for most of my life I have been a really messy creature,  and my room has been filled with the paraphernalia of childhood,  and scattered bits of whatever craft I was into at the time. But I looked round the other day and it looked cohesive. And while full of stuff, not cluttered but busy. Yet calm.

And I have managed this grown-up, well designed calm bedroom on the dregs of my student loan. How? Let me give you my top tips for thrifty interior design:

1. Chuck out old stuff you don’t want.  This is a given so I won’t elaborate.  If you hate getting rid of stuff (like I do, I’m sentimental,  chucking stuff takes me years), then there are plenty of tips out there on the Internet to make it easier.

2. Give yourself a theme. You can start from scratch or work with what you’ve got, obviously that first option will be the more expensive one when you come to replace the essentials you chucked. My theme ended up being wood, white, green. Simples.
     I redid my room from a very mid 2000s bright peach to a calm sage on a budget of £50. That included paint, curtains,  curtain rails, and bedlinen. The rest was upcycled to fit the theme, found, or bought from charity shops afterwards.  Which brings me to:

4. Skipping. Not with ropes. This is pinching stuff from skips. I think you Americans call it dumpster diving. But correct me if I’m wrong, dumpsters could also be bins. Pinch stuff from bins at your own risk, germs will obviously be involved.  Please ask the owner of the skip first,  but usually it’s in the skip for a reason so the owner is more than happy to part with it. It gives them more room in their skip for the other stuff they don’t want. Look for good quality lumber and furniture,  sometimes you can get working electronics or kitchen fittings if the owner of the skip is having a remodel. Take it all home, give it a clean and upcyle to your heart’s content. The only limit is your imagination. I found these nice granite slabs which were counter top samples behind a local shop, along with these bits of wood. I will be turning them into a hanging planter. Watch this space.

5. Find things. A beautiful branch from a walk in the woods can be a jewellery display, the crates I use as stacking shelves were found round the back of my local international food market (I asked them first), and if you’ve spent any time in the craft portion of the internet you will know the creative possibilities offered by pallets.  Go hunting. Unleash your inner caveperson.

6. Charity shops are your friend (that’s thrift stores for you lovely people over the Pond). You can get quality well made vintage items for a fraction of the cost of a modern mass produced product. Add to the fact mid-century furniture is currently in fashion,  and also the trend for vintage and retro, and these shops are a gold mine. Plus you get the warm fuzzy feeling of knowing your money is going to a good cause.

7. Upcyle. The chest of drawers I’ve had all my life and they’d gone the nasty orange colour that old pine goes. So I painted it white for the cost of a small tub of paint. The chair was left behind when we moved into this house, and I reupholstered the cushions with fabric from a skirt I bought in a charity shop.
The baskets which make up a major part of my theme come from charity shops or found in roadside recycling.  I gave them a hoover to remove the dust from the wicker, a wipe with a damp cloth and detergent, and finally a coat of clear varnish. You can get it in spray cans, which is a dream for wicker. Painting it on would be messy and take forever,  but spray varnish can be done in 5 minutes on your kitchen floor (put newspaper down first).

8. Why pay for plants? You can rescue them from skips and nurse them back to health, or propagate them through cuttings and sprouts.  Some species like cacti and spider plants put out little baby plants that you can separate from the parent plant and they will root. I will make a proper post on this at a later date. Put your plants in old cans for the industrial look, charity shop pots that go with your theme, old crockery, whatever you find and like. It needn’t be expensive.

The idea or using found or second hand things may be distasteful to some, but if you concentrate on quality and clean it to a standard you are happy with,  then you are only helping your pocket and the planet, and creating a personal beautiful space with your individuality stamped all over it. Your house will never look like an ikea catalogue again!

Statement of Intent

Part of the reason I was putting off blogging, and sewing, and photographing was because I was frustrated, and a little bit disillusioned. I half expected the things I listed to metaphorically fly off the shelves, and I’d use my profit to reinvest in my business and it would be a beautiful spiral of success.

But I haven’t sold anything yet. 

And instead of a spiral of success I’ve been stuck in a spiral of frustration.

But something occurred to me today. Rome wasn’t built in a day. It’s a trite saying you hear when you’re at first too young to understand it, so it never has real meaning. But it does. Rome, the capital of the Roman empire wasn’t built in a day. Well duh. My reaction as a kid was precisely this. Well duh… But as an adult it helps to remember what was so obvious as a child. Nothing of substance happens overnight.

Change takes time, and the life-changing events that happen all in an instant are rarely the happy ones. Things like learning, building relationships, planting a garden, these things all take time, progress, evolution, growth, are all defined by it being a process stretched out over time. A human being, with all their hopes, dreams, life experiences, loves, losses and ideas, all started out as a single cell. And we never stop growing. The mighty oak tree started out as an acorn.

Right now my business may be an acorn. It may be sitting around on the ground not growing right now, but I’m going to water it, and it damn well sure will be a mighty oak tree.

And that sounded so sentimental that I want to punch something. But I’m not going to rewrite it, because I mean it.

Sleep…sleeeeep

Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while. I went on holiday. Which was lovely. And then I came back and my sewing machine decided that it hated chirimen, threw a wobbly and gave up on life. 

Chirimen is a thick silk crepe that my kimono fabric is made out of. It’s beautiful, but my sewing machine doesn’t think so. So in the meantime I’ve been sewing quilted coasters and sleep masks. Some are in coordinating fabrics to the travel laundry bags (bit of a holiday theme going on here), and some are channeling boudoir chic.

The benefits of sleep are obvious enough to anyone who hasn’t had enough of it. Not only does lack of sleep make us feel bad, but recent medical research indicates lack of sleep can cause insulin resistance (hello diabetes), harm your heart and make you fat. Sleep helps the brain store memories, regulate mood, remove build up of chemicals from a hard day’s thinking. It makes you function at your best and makes you happier. Oh and you need 6-9 hours of it a night. 

Also modern bedrooms are too light. Light from gadgets emit high frequency blue light which affects the body’s production of melatonin, the sleep hormone, which is why many of us do not get the golden 9 hours sleep a night. Airline companies have caught onto this and provide sleep masks because travelling across time zones means your body clock and the daylight are out of sync. The masks cut out the light and help you drift off.

Now I’m not saying my sleep masks will cure all your problems with sleep. Better respect for the body’s need to sleep, saying no to that last espresso at 1am, and planning your time will all help. But for those of us who wake with the early sunrise in summer, parents who just need to conk out on demand, and shift workers who don’t get a choice when to sleep might benefit.

But do all those other things too. And be kind to yourself. Rewiring your body clock takes time.

I’m aware the tone of this post is quite grumpy. I apologise – its hot and I’m wilting, but a blog post needed to be done, and the thermometer won’t beat me!

In honour of the sunshine…

As the weather right now is so blissfully baking hot, I am channeling some of the summer vibes into cushion making.

Wait for the logic…

Yukata are Japanese summer-wear kimonos, typically made of cotton and unlined. Traditionally they were indigo dyed (some have an ikat pattern called Kasuri but that’s a whole other post), but can also be bright colours, and these days made of silk or synthetic fibres. The hot summer weather has reminded me of hot Japanese summers. These yukata have inspired me with their gorgeous colours to make some cushion covers.

Red kimono with paper cranes

Kimono come in bolts of fabric 14 inches wide (36cm) which is a great size to make some small cushions. These bolts are then cut into panels which make up the kimono: 2 for the back, 1 for each sleeve, and additional strips forming the tapered front panels of the kimono. Each kimono was hand stitched together, and was unpicked for washing before being folded for storage in rice paper.

When the kimono was to be worn again, it was hand stitched back together. Because they are washed and stored in this way, they are easily tailored to whoever might be wearing them next. Expensive kimono made of silk were lovingly cared for and handed down through the family: a woman’s kimono made with hand-dyed silk using traditional processes can cost upwards of $10,000, although everyday kimono obviously don’t cost this much.

Kimono panels drying after washing

The pieces of fabric that I have are from furisode, which are the most formal kimono worn by unmarried women. These elaborate kimono are often worn by a girl at her coming of age ceremony when she reaches 20, or by unmarried women at weddings and other formal occasions.
My kimono pieces are a beautiful mid-pink with taupe fans, pale pink cherry blossoms and pink magnolia and peonies. I have the two sleeve-pieces from this furisode. The other smaller piece is a bright chinese red and black with paper cranes soaring up a big swooshy patterned rainbow in muted pastel tones. They really are lovely and will make gorgeous pillows.

All I’ve got to do is do a burn-test to work out the fibre content so you lovely people will know how to care for your pillows.

If you would like to know more about Japanese textiles, particularly kimono fabrics, go to kimonomomo’s blog at http://theardentthread.com/

She also has an etsy shop if you would like to get your hands on some of these beautiful fabrics. https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/kimonomomo

Welcome

Welcome to The Cola Pearl.

Why The Cola Pearl?

All the other good names on Etsy were taken. I kid you not. Also, because it sounds cool, and quirky which sums me up. Cola stands for fun, quirky deliciousness, and Pearl stands for treasure and quality. I hope you find some delightful quirky treasures in my shop. I’m a seamstress and self confessed fabric addict, making everything from quilts to cushions to bed linen to bags, using everything from recycled clothing, brand new cottons, African wax prints to Japanese kimonos.

My first offerings on Etsy are travel sized laundry bags in fun African wax prints. I first fell in love with these fabrics on a trip to Uganda to help out in a school. At the airport i just went gaga over all the multitude of colours and vibrant patterns and the endless potential in them. They are so versatile:

Some skirts I made with this fabric

http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheColaPearl

Upcycled 70s nesting tables with blue African Wax on the tabletops

These bags came about from my current nomadic student lifestyle, staying at friend’s houses for weekends and moving house every 3 months when terms end. I needed a laundry bag that would fit in my weekend bag, would hold a week’s worth of underwear, and could be drafted in to carry a pair of shoes if necessary. What could be more fitting for my travels than these bags in African Wax prints which so sum up travel and exotic destinations?

African wax prints are used as clothing and home decor fabrics in Africa, particularly West Africa. They are sold in 12 yard or 6 yard pieces (thats 10.97 metres, or 5.48 metres) and they usually come in bright vibrant colours, although every colour imaginable is possible. They are made with batik wax resist dyeing and so the design equally vibrant on both sides. This enables all sorts of design possibilities, as the cloth can be cut “mirror image” and incorporated into the design.

The fabrics range in quality from mass produced Chinese imitations, to the original Vlisco dutch wax produced in the Netherlands, which is the world’s oldest producer of African Wax print. The fabrics originated centuries ago as the West expanded and sought to trade with Africa. One of the things they traded were cottons made with Indian cotton produced using the Javanese batik dyeing process, in vibrant native African designs. Sadly they also traded slaves which has caused so much human misery, but one of the more positive legacies of this trade network were these fabrics. When you own an item made with African Wax print, you own a little piece of cultural history.

Travel sized laundry bag made with African Wax print:  www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TheColaPearl

I source them from the market in Brixton in London which has an amazing afro-carribean community and you can find many global goods there. For how long remains to be seen, because if you’ve been following the news in the UK, you’ll know house prices are all kinds of crazy and these areas are quickly being gentrified. I hope Brixton will retain enough of its character to withstand this social pressure.

If you ever get the chance to go to an African country, then take it. It’s a vibrant continent with so many diverse and interesting cultures. Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya are up-and-coming economically and there is so much more to do than the traditional charity-and-safari combination.Did you know some of these countries are the birthplace of some of the newest most innovative technologies? Mobile banking has been around in Kenya for over a decade, where it is only just being considered here in Europe. It enables small businesses and people to access banking and transfer money with their phones where the traditional facilities like bricks-and-mortar banks and even roads do not exist. Solar-powered laptops and other technology are also in development.

So help yourself to these useful and multi-purpose bags, which bring with them the colours and history of this vibrant and innovative continent.

Bags ready to ship!