bits from our house

I'm gearing up for The Dove's visit.

She will be the first of my friends from home to visit.
Besides a few things, it's pretty much 'finished' for now.

Until next month anyway.

We have to get double-glazed windows fitted before it becomes so stonking cold we walk around in slankets all day and potentially sabotage our own sex lives by doing so. Next year we will get a new bathroom.

(Our current bathroom is workable, we bathe. We wash. We floss. Sometimes. But it's small and old. It's time for a fuck off bath and cool things like shelves.)

Anyway, I wanted to showcase a few areas of our flat. The bits and pieces I've collected over the years from travels, from South Africa and now here, that define our space. It's small, but it's ours.

The boudoir. A wall.
This chair has been with me forever, from South Africa. I spray painted it purple. The pictures are prints from the States. The light is from @Home, at home.

A lamp from Dwell. It sits on the dressing table, inherited from the Brit's granny.

Our dining room table. Book case is filled with both our books, which for when we start having winter dinner parties, is a good conversation starter - hence its proximity. Transparent vase thingie is from Denmark.

Sideboard in the lounge. From India. A wire protea from the side of Jan Smuts Avenue at home, the Brit's "ice light", containers made from bamboo, a glass flamingo from Dwell, and a gold leaf goddess from my mother from Burma.
You'll notice there's a Louis Vth chair in the reflection. From Holland. (eBay. Never again.)
A wankworthy Andy Warhol print of Marilyn Monroe [read: pride and joy] in the background, I've also had for ages and has by pure godly miracle not broken in the move from South Africa or even between same-city moves.

Couch pillows. Our couch is the Brit's pride and joy. It's this huge thing that a grown man could happily sleep on and wake up thinking he was on a bed. It's so comfortable, you needn't leave it for any other purpose except to go to the toilet and feed yourself. And go to work. The cow hide cushions and bar code cushions don't really do anything.

More sideboard stuff. Vases, the ball from Habitat and the cool 'Sides' perspex one from Illums Bollighus in Denmark. Cactus from the Brit. Because I kill plants and cactuses rarely die.

Box I got from Chappies back in the days when I was a journalist. They sent me this box, filled with a lot of gum. The box is wrapped in one large Chappies cover which I have amazingly not lost or fucked up.

One side of the mantlepiece. Mirror from a vintage store in Battersea. Record bowl from a random little shop in Berlin, rubber money box owl from a design store in Copenhagen. The owl rocks, because not only can you lop its head off, and it's a red - my favourite colour - there's a coin slot for random change. The Brit leaves a lot of change lying around. I find it fucking everywhere. What's with dudes doing that anyway? Makes me beserk. The owl helps me cope.

Side table in the lounge. Frames have since been filled with pictures of our families. The gnomes are actually salt and pepper cellars from Oliver Bonas. I bought the lamp on eBay. The table is from an antiques store in Albertsville, Johannesburg.

The front door. With purple hat that barely survived Bestival. The Fleur-de-Lys mirror hook is from a charity store in Clapham Junction, the bag is from Top Shop and the fancy brollies (which, sadly, will get left somewhere, someday), are from Peter Jones in Sloane Square (white one for the Royal Wedding celebrations!) and the purple dotty one from Jani Murkel.

Our balcony. Plants indicative of Brit who has green fingers. We use the basil and peppermint quite a bit.
Table from Debenhams. Eat breakfast in our dressing gowns and flash the traffic below.

Other side of mantlepiece. Clock from Oliver Bonas, candlestick from Debenhams. When Colonel Mustard visits, I will be keeping a beady eye on him.

The Esc key stool. My Brit is a techie. He's got one of those amazingly geeky minds, and yet, it's not to the detriment of his personality. He can do science AND banter. A rare breed indeed. This is his stool. seat.

That's our old school landline. Which we never use. Candlestick from Copenhagen (I bought a lot of shit in Denmark), lamp from Dwell.

That's all folks. You've now seen my bedroom wall and a lot of my lounge.
Next time, I'll show you our toilet room. It's like the pool room from The Castle.