Monday, August 22, 2011

Romance has no part in it

The house hunt continues. I'm starting to think I just like looking in all the different houses rather than actually choosing one. My least favourite are the styled places, all coiffed and cleaned to the realtor's instructions. They are predictable and false. The details set my skin crawling - salad forks in preposterous over-sized bowls empty on a sparkling clean counter, guest towels folded in little fan shapes on the chrome-like finish of the bathroom sink. 


I like the houses where the residents are obviously still living. They may have smoothed the sheets but their shoes are visible in the wardrobe. There's a smooth lozenge of used soap in the shower recess. There's a couple of well cuddled coloured teddies in the smaller bedroom.


I have no idea where we'll end up but I can tell you this is one of the things you will see in my  new home: 


Isn't it's beautiful? It's fabric! 




These are from a store called Edit in Sydney's Darlinghurst, a former working class, now wholly gentrified suburb on the city rim. I'm not usually one for posting websites but will make an exception for any place that treats fabrics with the reverence I saw here.  If you choose to be further delighted, click here:  www.edit-group.com.au


I've not yet found a house for my leaf curtains. This crumbling corner is my current favourite. It is too small, too cramped and possibly haunted, but jasmine is running riot on the rotting wooden fence outside and there's a wood cooker in the kitchen. 




Also, it matches a lot of my clothes. May I just offer a slightly better indication of my seemingly bottomless bag: 




And here's the jasmine, which has just started scenting Sydney this last week or so. 




If this dank little house were mine, I'd plant hydrangeas in the front and install the matching Edit chair in the stunted triangular little sitting room. 





6 comments:

  1. What a shame that house it too small, it's beautiful and I can just imagine how it would come to life if you got a hold of it. I love that sumptuous chair - a clever marriage of vintage form and old world horticulture. And in my favourite colours!

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  2. Thanks for the link to the delicious Edit - I now know how I want to re-cover my parent's old Parker dining room chairs.

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  3. Sometimes a house just gets a grip on you and MUST become yours, even if it's not what you thought you wanted. It's like the homely adult cat at the shelter, when you came to adopt a kitten.

    If you're already plotting out the garden, I think this house may have gotten a hook in!

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  4. OMG! I thought that fabric was the real thing.

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  5. Parker dining room chairs would look great in that hibiscus fabric, Jenny. I'm glad you liked the site - they do have some beautiful items and wonderful fabrics.

    It's true, Charlotte. the house is really talking to me. It's so cramped and so ...well, so unlike what I thought I wanted. Trouble is, a lot of other people are just as enchanted. I'm not hopeful!

    Shy, it looks like the real thing. The framed pieces would make perfect substitutes for windows.

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  6. I'm loving the fabric and that chair! Amazingly lifelike. And I think that house is what you never knew you wanted. I would jump on it if it were here!

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