abeachcottage

A DIY Vintage Bus Destination Sign - Beach Cottage Exclusive!

 

So this is gonna be one of those long posts, ones where I ramble...you get bored and roll that mouse down through the pictures...while I waffle on... 

It all started a long long time ago.  In fact when I was still in the Old Country.  I came across some old bus blinds in a junk shop.  Hmm, I'm likin those.  But I walked away not really sure what I would do with them. 

Now, sugarbums, I would clutch them to my breast, do the treasure hunting dance and run, run, run as fast as I could back to this old cottage.  Put them on the wall, open a beer and stare at them, with my feet up, in gleeful thrifting ecstasy for a whole evening. 

 

However, I have not come across real ones here in Australia, though I sure have not stopped looking for them, for four years.  Certainly I've come across imitations of them, I've seen them on Ebay & stalked auctions wondering whether to bid or not, viewed them on blogs and I've even seen them made into cushions.  Ahem. 

I've come across them in shops in Sydney too, but since the real budget kicked in and is still very much in force right down under here in Beach Cottage Land, I haven't even tempted myself by looking at the price tag. As with most things in my life, if I like it, it probably won't be cheap. ( Edited to add:  since writing this post I found myself in a shop up the beaches, and spied the price tag of $1000.  Yes that said one thousand.)

What I didn't expect, on my way to pick up the kids from school just before Christmas, was to see one quietly sitting in the corner of the most lovely florists that I pass regularly as part of my day to day life.  It sniggered beautifully at me from beside the stairs...

I stopped dead in my tracks, staring through the Christmas decorations and flowers.  Sigh.  Sigh.  Sigh.

  

 

I've been thinking about that unreal bus blind since then.  

And then the other day, driving home from a sporting event, musing, I thought surely I must, somehow be able to make one myself.  Think out of the box.  

So I thought I'd try black paint on an old frame and print off my own bus destinations.  Beaches ones.

 

  

And I did just that.  Printed off a fictitious bus route around Sydney's beaches....

And stuck them to an old thrifted frame 
 

 

And placed it on the wall in the kicthen...

I love the almost retro feel to it, hinting of days gone by when one might run for the bus in T-Bar shoes and utility skirts, the hand-typed feel of the font, when people sat at a chair with a clunky old typewriter with a wheel and a ribbon not pulled a Blueberry ;-) out of their pocket...

And the days when people got on buses and trams...I remember as a young girl commuting up to the big smoke, transfixed by those iconic London buses...I lusted after their red forms queued up at the bus depot at Victoria, I loved their curved bottoms, with the platform for anyone to hop on as it lurched along...and the ticket inspectors, more often grumpy than chirpy and nearly always Cockney, but mostly offering the term of endearment (or not) 'love' to most everything they said....where you going love?...that'll be 1 pound fifty pence love...you wanna get the Number Fifty Eight bus to there love...

There's certainly none of that here, and perhaps I am some kinda nostalgic fool...alright I definitely am...I can't deny this to me has some kinda vintage-life-gone-by appeal...somehow conveying a slower world of timetables, and shopping baskets, where one's main concern was to set out for a ride on a bus. 

 

I wonder what you think?  Don't forget the new Entry Conditions of this tatty old beach cottage...no lurkers, hahaha!!  

I have to say, it turned out a whole lot better than I thought it would.   I wondered how the black would go, but in fact I think it anchors things quite nicely...I love the way it's nautical and a little bit whimsical...it kinda speaks to me old beach vintage days....coastal towns...salty breezes...sand sandwiches...

It was easy peasy, even for those with the patience and craft skills of a knat and best of all it cost me under $10, so I was, oh, approximately $990 in pocket.

You can find more pictures, and a step-by-step tutorial of how I did it here.

 

Hit that comment button people and lemme know





 
remember, ya saw it here first lol!

you can find other Do It Yourself Beach Cottage Tutorials, including an old vintage table in our bathroom here, some shutters I made myself out of fence posts here and an old wooden ladder I madeover here.
  







{ and if you want some more vintage bus blind inspiration, go and see Michelle, at Retrophenia tell her I sent you and she'll give you a nice little discount }

and thanks to Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for her Met Monday event

The Beach Cottage Bead Board Project WIP

  
 G'day lovelies.  

Guess what I've got on one small wall of the cottage? 

Hip hip hooray, a line of panelling.

And please don't be put off by the word project (I so hate the way that conjures up horrid school tasks and mammoth undertakings), this is a project for the DIY challenged...a fairly easy job, even for us!  

I know it's not for everyone, and yep I would prefer the real McCoy tongue and groove panelling that's oh about 100 yrs old, but for now, in this cottage, it is fandabbydozy. 

We have been out most of the day, catching up with some friends from the Old Country at the beach (sneaked in a treasure hunting trip on the way home and found a treasure to makeover, hope to get that done soon), so when we came back and I walked in I was firstly pleased to see that it was still up and secondly very happy with how it is turning out...

As you know, the Dining Room (more on that here) is in the back of the house, the lovely 80's extension that has little character (and you must know by now those lovely patio doors) so it has been severely lacking any detail. 

This magical beading gives it a kind of depth and a tad more character I suppose, and now, even though only two panels of it are up, the feel I was hoping for...a little bit Scandinavian is there already.  

Of course it conceals the plain 80's feel to the wall and whispers nautical, hinting at the inside of a beach hut...or ship decking and exactly what I've felt has been missing and have been waiting for ages to change (I don't suppose I need to mention here how much I whined about that *wink).

 
  

I'm unsure as to what colour I will paint it, as I said, I fancy a new look and have thoughts of something other than white.  Don't laugh.  It certainly won't be very far from white, just a hint...wondering what your thoughts on that might be?  Please feel free to leave them ;-) 

I was thinking along the lines of a very frenchy pale blue and I mean very pale, or perhaps a putty, and then I thought about a touch of stone...but I bet in the end I'll end up with Dulux Whisper White, just like about everything else in this old place..

Anyhoo, tonight is round two and the other wall. 

There is only one problem with this here Project.   

I want it everywhere and you know what that means!

Cheers

 

if you would like to see more pictures and Step by Step Instructions go here

 

A Beach Cottage Year in Review II - White Vintage Suitcases

 

Early in the days of decorating the Beach Cottage I made a 'side table' out of a couple of old vintage suitcases, it proved to be a very popular topic on this blog and those old white enveloped beauties found themselves featured at many a blog, received a Flickr Explore award, are featured at Houzz and made it to Press (you can see a nice big professional photo of the whole room, here)

They stacked up beautifyully beside the bed and are a fabulous oh-so-budget side-table solution, with an old vintage door tucked behind them and a rickety beachy directors chair, covered in putty linen sitting alongside... (the bedroom post, which I hesitate to inform you is about to get a new look tho' I haven't told Mr BC that yet lol! is here)

 

 

I have lots of enquiries about the suitcases, funny really, because these few photos are the only times I've blogged about them, so I thought I'd finally run through how I did it

 clean (rag, soap & water) 

disinfect (I always use Dettol) 

prime first (I like Zinsser) 

cover all hinges, fittings, hardware with primer and paint

paint with either emulsion if you like a very matt look (but this will mark)

or oil based enamel 

I like Dulux White on White (or if you like more creamy Whisper White)

or if you can't get that Benjamin Moore Decorator's White

it really is as simple and cheap as that! 

If you want more information there is a (step-by-step video on how I paint and makeover old stuff here, oh and there'll be a lot more painted things on this blog in the next few months, I have my white paint smothering urge building up and coming on baby!

 

 

here's to re-cycling lovely old vintage things in 2010!

 

Beach Cottage TV & the Sea Trunk Comes Home

G'day chickadees

unusually for me

I won't be saying much tonight

I very rarely get emotional...not sure if that is a good thing or not 

but 

WWII history, vintage furniture, immigration stories, sea trunks and settling Down Under 

& it all became too much 

as I cut this video

so I leave you with this latest (much longer than anticipated) episode of

{  B e a c h  C o t t a g e   TV  }

'The Old Vintage Sea Trunk Comes Home to the Beach Cottage'

beach cottage vintage trunk from abeachcottage on Vimeo.

edited to add:  this is stop & starting all over the place for me ...sorry...and I don't know how to fix it and after too much time on this, and me nearly smashing the computer with a hammer, I'm going with it as it is...

see you next week,  I've got a lot to show you hopefully (if those kiddos allow me, it is, after all, school hols) - including a thrifted curtain put up with an ingenious pole (cost=zero) the towel holder (from the same place as the trunk) is now white & ready to go and I'd like to get around to show you the vintage airer

...oh and no I have not forgotten the WC makeover (sneak peek here and the awful reveal including another Beach Cottage TV episode ;-) here), can I tell you the skirt kept falling down and so I threw it in the corner in disgust?  But I did get the huge old mirror decorated with shells...and put on the wall...yeah, that's nice...

 I'm going on a serious thrift binge tomorrow morning, yeehaww, it won't be for the faint-of-thrifting-hearted -  I need to get outta this cottage for a few hours and yep if you wanna come with me lg, you know where I am...

~~~

I've blogged this to participate in Cindy's event at MyRomantic Home - go over and join in, lots of heirlooms and pretty things!

oh and before I forget go check out Gina's blog, she's starting to offer vintage finds for sale on her site...um yeah, lovely vintage finds you might just want to snap up for your cottage ;-) 

~~~

{ Beach Cottage } DIY Feet, Scrubs, Sugar & Oil

So I know you come here for home decorating and crazy English women making videos of junk but today I thought we'd talk about my feet. 

I don't suppose this is going to win me any home-decorating awards but I love a little play with potions.  Always have done.  

I can remember mixing up things in the bath as a little girl, for some reason we had this opaque blue Tupperware jug in our bathtub, in fact I know the reason it was there, for hair rinsing...back then in England not too many people had showers (don't cringe those of you Stateside).  Really I'm being serious.  So I used to mix up things sitting in that tiny bathroom...and now I find myself strangely drawn again to that mixing up and stirring.  

But I'm no handmade cosmetic person, more a dabbler with a few essential oils. 

Moons ago before I had a house on either side of the world, three children ++++ all that goes with that (you know, don't you?) I was a bit of a cosmetic junkie.  I liked nothing better than to treat myself to a nice little item from Chanel. 

And I used to buy a sugar scrub from Origins.  Well those days are, while not long gone I hope, at the moment, are off the radar, and so I've tried just about every other version of scrub on the market that doesn't break the bank. 

Nothing cut it.  Not one even came close to that Origins magic, so for the sake of my feet, which are ahem, not my best feature I decided to have a go at making my own. 

And now, what do you think, of course I feel ridiculously stupid for all those jars of sugar scrub I bought from Origins.  All those pennies sitting in their bank for jars filled with, yep that would be...oil and sugar.

 

The first time I made this, typical of me, I suddenly decided to do it when I shoulda been making dinner, well my kids like Patchouli in their rice ;-).  Then, I used what I had which was extra virgin olive oil, regular white sugar and lavender.  Since then I have turned this into a sugar scrub marathon trying all sorts of brews...I've tried sunflower oil, regular olive oil, sweet almond oil, groundnut oil.  And here's the verdict, any of them work, sweet almond is great but the most expensive.  I've settled on extra virgin olive oil (nice and thick and oily), dried lavender buds (got mine in herby shop), Patchouli & Lavender essential oils and raw sugar (more grainy for exfoliation).  

Pour some sugar in a jar, lug on some oil, throw in the fragrance and the dried flowers..stir...done.  Boo to Origins.

If you have only ever thought of those fancy jars of scrub as some irrelevant luxury for those people who have time to care about stuff like that, think again.  Make up one of these little concoctions and turn 2 minutes or less in the shower or the bath into a beauty regime and your skin, like mine has, will thank you...

 

 

Don't tell me you don't get your money's worth here at the Beach Cottage *wink, I don't just paint things white you know...

have a good weekend folks, I'm feelin' better, yeehaw (tho I said that on Thursday) watch out beaches treasure hunting- haunts and anything not painted white I'm-a-coming...