Author Archives: Ben Joseph

Alright,  we need to say right from the start that we LOVE Mexico !!!

One of the fun things about having a business is sourcing product. And we just spent 3 wonderful weeks where we overwhelmed with the colour,  workmanship,  textiles and architecture of this extraordinary country.

Mexico has a rich cultural heritage,  drawing from a number of Pre-Columbian (think Incan,  Mayan and Olmec just to name a few) civilisations as well as the artistry and crafts that the Spanish brought with them.  This mix of old and new world skills have been the influence for artists such as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera as well as numerous Architects,  Writers and artisans,  many of whom still use traditional techniques to produce their wares.

Whilst we can’t bring back everything we saw, we do want to share some of the more interesting or fun items we came across (like this photo we took to remind us how happy the Mayans were 🙂

Who doesn’t love IKEA ?

We are proud owners of several bookcases and always found them to be both practical and functional. We do think they can be a little bland though and that’s why this simple idea makes it on to our top 10.

There’s nothing hard about this one. We are using this in our office as a room divider and have access to half of the shelves in the front and half from behind

One of the first things we ever did with an off-cut of oilcloth fabric was to cover a notebook, which looked so good, that we have made a habit out of it. We love it and think it makes a nice change from “Contact”.

It’s also a handy way to decorate the kids school books

Instructions:

First identify what book you want to cover and make sure your off-cut is large enough to cover the outside.

One easy way to make a quick and colourful impact is to re-upholster chairs or stools in Oilcloth. We have done this many times to great effect and it never fails to impress (hopefully you will think so too).

Often we end up with offcuts and ends of rolls and little bits of fabric laying around. When this happens, our favourite use is to cover old Milo Tins. Its so easy and looks so good that we have actually had people coming into the shop asking if they could buy the tins