coffee sack chair

I love it when traditional furnishings combine with industrial styling - like this Simon chair from John Lewis which is upholsered in a coffee sack material. I like the ruggedness of the material plus it plays to my love of coffee.

lighting

I haven't blogged for a while mainly because we have been caught up in sorting out the old place and also I have been away with work a fair bit. But now we have the floor plans away and the paperwork sorted I am starting to think more about the interior. One issue I am keen to get right is the lighting. We prefer minimalist wall coverings - paint not wallpaper and pattern isn't something we go in for - so the lighting is a way to express more of a design element.

With a double height space in the kitchen/dining/lounge area I have been looking for some statement pendants that will really set off the kitchen and the airiness (is that even a word?) of the open plan 1st floor. I also want something that is modern in its aesthetic but fits in with the history of the building as a working public space.

I have discovered a company based in London called Skinflint Design who do reclaimed lights mainly from industry. They have revamped M.O.D. lights tank signal lights which I think look great - chunky and sturdy - and although they come from tanks they remind me of marine-esque fittings on submarines and working ships.


I love this unique wee lamp too - it is a 1930s GEC lamp and I think would be cool in the mezzanine. I like the large face of the lamp.


I have also been browsing the Glasgow Architectural Salvage website - they have some amazing lights salvaged from the Glasgow synagogue - which would make an interesting choice for what was once a Free Church. But they are huge and not really the right style for our place.


Half the fun though is in the search - and finding out what you like and dislike - and even if you like it whether or not it is right for the style of place you have.

thomas chalmers

In a previous post I mentioned I had been doing a wee bit of research on the church but hadn't managed to find out who Thomas Chalmers was. Well, I kindly received a comment from Simon Wells who posted this link which provides a background to Thomas Chalmers.

He certainly seems to have been a focused and driven individual - and took his religious belief and applied it in very practical ways. I am not particularly in favour of organised religion and struggle often with the zeal in which it is pursued - and my own reading is that Thomas may have had some of this as a characteristic - but I do admire the way on which he saw his faith as an active one, and where those with support those without through schooling, public buildings and activities and adding concrete action alongside preaching.

I don't know enough theology etc to really grasp all that the article discusses - although I see that a territorial approach does ensure that the Free Church maintained a close grassroots link with the people a particular parish covered, and this to my mind is better than an approach that is about holding the church apart and somehow aloof from the people it is meant to house.

It has made me want to do a bit more research around the Free Church and Thomas Chalmers so thanks to Simon Wells for sending on the link.

garden

We won't have a huge garden in the new place, but it will be big enough for what we need - namely a place to sit and savour a gin and tonic after work! It does mean that for the first time we will need to consider garden furniture. I have no idea what we should go for - traditional because it is a church? Ultra modern to juxtapose with the history of the building?

As I haven't a clue yet, I think I will just collect up stuff I see that I like then figure the details out later.

I do like furniture that has a bit of humour to it so I appreciated the Big Scrubber garden stool that Ben Baker designed - and you can get it from Hen and Hammock


I also like a rocking chair - lovely for whiling away the time reading a book and chilling out. The Rhode Island rocker from The Contemporary Home takes the rocking chair and makes it a bit more modern.


Of course, a hammock would be excellent - snoozing on a Sunday afternoon in the garden is a favourite pastime in between reading the Sunday papers and snacking on bacon sandwiches. There is a lovely one from Living it Up but I can't get the pic to show up here so you will need to click through instead.

not one for colour blind folk

I saw this clock from the white lounge that is made up of multi coloured spots. The description says you can see the numbers in the spots.


But if, like me, you are colourblind you won't see nawt. Andy thought this was very funny and is threatening to get one. I pointed out that I may not be able to see the numbers - but I can see the hands of the clock so can tell the time fine. Not that it will help me be ready on time in the morning anyway...

site visit - hard hats and bright yellow jackets!

Yes, the jackets are so bright the flash goes a bit crazy...

We had a good meeting with the architects (Bobby and Ally) doing the conversion to finalise our floor plans this weekend and we got to have a site visit.

We haven't made major changes to the plans but we have changed where a bedroom door is, decided where to place the utility and WC on the 1st floor and agreed how we want the stairs to be. Although we weren't moving entire walls we have come to realise how important even small changes can be. The plans there are now for the stairs have solved a couple of concerns we had on the 1st floor around layout and we can imagine a much more flexible space.


The front door...

But - the site visit! This in many ways is the most exciting bit - getting to see your house progress. The last time we saw the site the church was really in darkness as all the windows were boarded up and the church was just a stone shell. The drains and concrete floor are now in and the timber framing is going up - in the back house first so ours hasn't started yet but it gave us an idea of how it will look. We could also see where the party wall will be which gave us a much better sense of the space.


This pic shows the front door and the Bed 1 and Bed 2 windows.

On Saturday Bobby took us round and explained the insultation he is using, how the timber frame is constructed and the plans for ensuring the beautiful church windows are fully incorporated into our house.

It was much lighter inside this time and so we could really get a better look at our space. On the plans you begin to think the space is small - but putting people inside up against the trusses and arches and you get a real sense of the house. And the double height space is going to be amazing.


Bobby also showed us one of the church hall houses which is about a month ahead - they have their plasterboard going up. This also meant we could see how the walls can house built in cisterns and the wee inset shelves I would like to have in the bathroom.

We also took a look at the garden space. Last time we thought it was pretty tiny and woudl probably only take a wee set of 2 seats and a small table - but seeing it now it looks much bigger - definitely room for some large troughs of herbs and flowers and some decent garden furniture. We will be going for slabs though - we are learning in our current place that we like sitting in the garden but not so much the gardening itself - time poor and not especially green fingered - so a patio style garden is probably best for us.

We came away with a much better visual for how the house will develop and the spaces we have for the rooms. In about 3 weeks time our partitions go up - so we will be back to see the plans become actual walls and rooms.

my dream kitchen

So despite the lack of posting lots has been going on with the project and with selling our own house. The past month I have been having meetings with our kitchen designer, Mark, at Selan Design in Broughty Ferry. We went round three companies but Selan really stood out for us. The customer service so far has been excellent and Mark has been great at talking us through all of the options, finding out how and how much we use our kitchen and generally being the kind of designer we were hoping for.

I started off with the idea of having a 6 burner range and stand alone kitchen furniture. I had quite a fixed idea of what I wanted. However, having gone round several show rooms, and spending time thinking through how we wanted our open plan living space to be, we both realised we wanted something quite different.

We have busy lives and so need a kitchen that is hard working but very easy to keep clean and tidy. We also thought that as the 1st floor is entirely open, and we won't have a fire, the kitchen could and for us should be the main focal point. This led us to look more at a statement design for our kitchen and to go for something very sleek, modern and simple. The simplicity is important, because we also want, in other parts of the house, to reflect the history of the building. This means the kitchen needs to marry modern and sleek with the ability to blend in with historical features.


The design isn't quite finished yet but the pics show roughly what we are thinking of. What is definite is that we will have an island, a breakfast bar, and a full wall of cabinetry with fitted ovens. We think we will go for Miele for the hob/oven and Siemens for the white goods.

This pic is one of their show kitchens and not exactly like ours - but gives an idea of the back wall.


We have also changed our floor plan - the stairs are now more of a spiral - to extend the living space right to the back wall on one side. We haven't quite decided which bit to be sofa/chill out area and which bit to be the dining table. There will be lots of discussions no doubt to be had on that.


I will post more about the individual details of the kitchen - I am very pleased with the route we have gone down re appliances and have even given up my range idea in favour of an induction hob with funky down draft extractor. Believe me, I can bore for Britain now on induction hobs!

The main thing though that tells me we are developing the right design is how excited we are both getting about our kitchen. In my current kitchen now I can't help but think how it will be in the new house compared to how we are now. Being able to imagine how our kitchen tells me I am on the right track.