Roadside Retro Revamp

The first piece of mid century furniture that I collected was a hall table spotted on the roadside. It had been thrown out by a neighbour and was headed to landfill.  

Mid century furniture can fetch a fair price on eBay and in vintage stores, but many people see it as junk (in particular my mum). Not me though!

The table had good bones masked with 70's style. A black glass top, teak veneer shelves and drawer and atomic wooden legs. The most dated feature would have to be the faux gold handle and feet.  

I have held onto the table for two years waiting for the right time to resurrect it, now the time has finally come!

A good sand back and re-varnishing brought the timber back to life and removed the 70's orange. Strangely the timber smelt musty as I sanded it back. Four decades of dust perhaps?

Three coats of stain and varnish modernised the colour and added a glossy sheen to timber surfaces. The drawer front was a little too damaged so I covered it up with some white aquanamel paint left over from my last project.  The gold feet and drawer handle were updated with some black enamel paint. 

The outcome - the little table headed for landfill is now a funky piece of furniture in our hallway.

What are we building?

Since the last post about the house design, the final design for the house has changed quite a lot.  In comparison to the first draft design, the house is a little less contemporary, simplified and cheaper to build.  The design includes lots of windows so to minimise the heat loss, we've opted for low E glass.  Our exposed location also means that there is lots of weather to contend with, so on the south side of the house, the windows are either fixed or louvre windows which can be left open more often.

The cladding will be weatherboard, focusing on lightweight construction due to the slope of the site (although this hasn't meant smaller piers!).  Originally we decided on vertical weathertex panelling, but of course, I have since changed my mind and we're going to use horizontal boards, with maybe a modern take on fibro on the lower storey and bay windows sections.  The posts shown across the front of the house will now be partially retaining wall. 

Ignore the colour and cladding on the picture, they are just the basic program choice.  My thoughts on colour schemes to come in another post!