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The Living Room Part I

Saturday, 23 May 2009

Like most people (I think!), I have rich fantasies about how the house should function and how it should look. The fantasies regarding the smart house that uses no energy, is completely wired up to the server, orders and cooks healthy organic local produce every night, keeps tabs on my health and won't let me go to bed until I've gone for a jog may still be a few years off yet... but I do have some control over the decor - keeping in mind the extremely limited budget!

I've wanted to use some of the sari fabric I bought in India for a while now, but every time I find a seamstress the prices seem excessive. I finally decided that despite my torturous experiences with sewing machines in my youth involving spending the entire textiles semester with a screwdriver in my hand fixing machines, and a tie dye skirt that I was immensely proud of until it fell apart while I was wearing it, I would get one... It took a while to find a bargain on ebay, but eventually I found a little $10 unit that I could pick up from one suburb over. I think the owner had been similarly frustrated with sewing machines because when I unpacked it the entire machine was covered in an enormous tangle of knots. Eventually with a bit of brute force and some help from Ganesh the machine was in working order!

I started on the simplest thing I could image - a table runner! (I think the knitting equivalent would be a scarf!).... then ventured into pillows. The pillows could use a bit more stuffing and I'm really not sure how long the zips will last but as you can see the end result wasn't nearly as bad as my tie dye skirt! I thought I'd make a start on my living room theme (white/wood/sari) while I was at it and so Ganesh and I cut and sanded some wood that we'd found in the backyard to make some candle holders... Against one of the white couches we got for an absolute steal on ebay (though picking them up in the trailer was an adventure in itself) I think it has improved the situation (though sanding and repolishing the very old table will be one of the next jobs on the list!)... of course your imagination is always leaps and bounds beyond skill, but it's a small step in the right direction.

Of course I'm pretty biased because I was involved in the work and was expecting a textiles catastrophe... in any case, good or bad, it was fun!

Okay, enough procrastinating - time to get some work done!

Labels: decorating, home improvements

posted by genloz at 4:09 PM 0 Comments