Creative Customizing Your Home
Like many industries, Interior décor & furnishings are now flooded with mainstream, mass produced, ‘on trend’ products. Which can be great for a quick fix in your home when you don’t have time, patience or money on your side. However, we are all unique humans in this world, so why should our dwellings not also represent us as individuals?
Customizing your home is the best way to represent your personality within a space. Whether it be a bespoke table with a dual purpose, lighting that becomes art or breathing new life into a vintage or heritage piece of furniture. I know for many of my clients they feel like they just don’t have the right budget to even consider customization, but here I’ll share with you a couple of recent creative custom pieces that were well worth the investment.
This particular client had an eclectic ensemble of light shades that they collected over the past decade. We were a couple of lights short from completing the living areas, but nothing mainstream was remotely an option when up against vintage shades from a barn in France. Instead we purchased a shade locally that at least had the bones we were after and with artistic license given to us by the client we dramatically aged the finish using a combination of grinding, painting and at one point leaving it outside to rust. The finished aesthetic fits so well with the existing barn lights and feels authentic with a subtle Industrial edge. Costing much less than a trip to Europe (although that would be nice), it is forever one of a kind.
The final light for the collection also needed a touch of creativity, but with this one it started with a ‘rust’ effect paint, so essentially made us reverse the process of paint and sand. We even through in a touch of stenciling to really personalize the piece.
A personal favorite of mine is custom upholstery. A vintage piece of furniture that seems absolutely spent, can be transformed and set up for another decade of cherishing. Just because furniture is old or not ‘on trend’ doesn’t necessarily mean its ready for landfill. If it was originally well crafted you have the bones to re create and customize.
This vintage table and chairs had a touch of sentimental value, but the timber having a few stains, gouges and marks especially on the legs meant it felt tired and no longer complimented the newly installed kitchen. The vinyl bases of the chairs were barely holding together and the foam had perished. After a light sand & prime it was painted in VooDoo Molly, colour Old Linen to compliment the kitchen cabinetry. Then our upholsterer recovered/re built the bases. Which are so comfortable now it is absolutely ridiculous! We decided to keep with the black vinyl to play homage to the original as painting out the timber had already been such a grand gesture. Also, being that the chairs are used every lunch as the workers come in from the farm, they needed to be super friendly to care for. In retrospect you probably could have purchased a new mass-produced dining suit of acceptable quality for the cost of our revamp here, however that would have meant there was no longer any sense of nostalgia or individuality. As the table has been now been through at least 2-3 generations in the same family, I can only imagine the countless stories told, the moments shared and the memories made. Some things definitely are worth salvaging in my books.
Next up I’ll be sharing with you some of my beautiful S&L custom pieces of Deco furniture, designed and manufactured by Loz Interiors.
Xxx Loz
