Oops, we’re a bit late this week with our update on Kirstie’s latest installment of Homemade Home ! Anyway, this week she turned her focus to the downstairs sitting rooms – an adult sitting room and a kids’ room.
To get some inspiration she paid a visit to Port Eliot, an estate in Cornwall with an eclectic mix of art, antiques and curios acquired through generations of the family who live there. Their main living room had a massive open fireplace and Kirstie was on the hunt to replace the one in her sitting room – from what I saw of it, it looked fine to me but it was ripped out and replaced with a reclaimed stone one by the end of the show. Next it was on to the local blacksmith’s to have a go at making a poker ( I thought she did a pretty good job) and then the local salvage yard where she came away with a firebasket, 2 pairs of curtains, a lamp and a sink for a sum, I think, of £100.
Needing some advice on colour for the rooms, she visited the home of Kaffe Fassett ( a designer of patchwork, knitwear etc) .. a home of full on colour I might add..not quite to my taste but I thought his message ‘find your voice in colour’ and ‘be a slob with colour’ was good – a call to all of us to experiment and be a bit more adventurous with colour. Finally, in search of some fun items for the kids’ playroom, Kirstie had a go at knitting ably assisted by Suzie Johnson and succeeded in knitting several rows under the mantra ‘ Poke it, strangle it, poke it again, rip its head off’ ! I was amazed by the speed of Suzie’s knitting and I thought the beach themed draught excluder she had completed by the end of the show was fabulous. Suzie actually has a website (see links below) where you can buy knitting kits so I’m off to buy one for mum in law who is a fabulous knitter and supplies all the hats, scarves, hot water bottle covers we sell at local craft fairs. I think I’ll go for the kit for a knitted house – it just looks so cute !
Meantime, my own efforts on the homemade home front continue. I now have my sewing machine (albeit one that is 25 years old), old fabric, sewing box, accessories etc – all I need is a user manual for a Jones 702 sewing machine so it’s off to Ebay to find one !

Our old sewing machine

Old curtain fabric from Oxfam

Vintage sewing box

Other useful links
www.porteliot.co.uk
www.parkroyalsalvage.co.uk
www.kaffefassett.com
Suzie Johnson’s website thewoolsanctuary.com