Marché aux fleurs

Sometimes flowers just make you feel better. Not that I was feeling particularly bad this morning, but I felt myself smiling as I wandered through a large outdoor marché aux fleurs (flower market) in the 7th arrondissement. The flowers smelt amazing and the colours looked incredible against the neutral Parisian buildings. With the sun pouring through the wee awnings and the bees buzzing around, I couldn’t help but buy a few bunches for the kitchen table – It’s such a simple way to make your home look and smell so much better! Here are a few pictures of the beautiful flowers in the house. Bisous x 

New cuisine = happy campers!

Well it's been weeks, if not months without a home cooked meal, but we finally have a brand new kitchen in our apartment and I have to say that I have enjoyed the whole renovation process (minus cracker dinners and microwaved rice!). We were lucky enough to be put in touch with a South African building manager who helped us finalise our design, oversaw the building works and organised our builders, electricians, plumbers and so on. It was difficult at times, especially when forced to communicate with local tradesmen after being in the country only a week or so, but this meant I had to learn the French basics très quickly and I now have all of the household lingo down pat. Trips out to Ikea and other home renovation stores were interesting to say the least... I never knew Ikea could possibly take 3 months to deliver! Or that your plumber might decide to go on holiday half way through completing your job... oui, Paris certainly can make kitchen renovations challenging, but all the more rewarding in the end. We are thrilled with the final result and despite the pokey size and bizzare shape of the kitchen, we made good use of space and it actually feels significantly larger than the original design. We look forward to inviting you to dinner! Enjoy the photos. Bisous x

the original bare boned kitchen, pre-renovation ... and new floorboards, the transformation begins

the new kitchen, ready to cook! taken from the same angle as above

the handy mitten 

le parfait jars, full of cutlery & other bobs

bench & storage space

new plates, safely stored

the smeg & the pantry

recycling a wedding sign

straws for scott's daily fruit juice

the butler's sink & oven

breakfast

somewhere to store all those plastic bags

Wall storage & room to move!

With the kitchen complete and the boxes cleared out, we finally have some breathing room and some home cooked meals... so what better way to celebrate than to start sorting and storing... and a glass of champagne, of course. After cooking up a satisfying vegetable curry, we set to work again on the weekend and put up the shelving in my study and our timber coat rack in the entrance hall. Over the past couple of days I have enjoyed pulling the last few bits and pieces out of their boxes and finding them a new home. For now, just a few pictures of our weekend work, with photos of our new kitchen to follow shortly. Lots of love and bisous x

new shelving in the study nook

a place for polaroid memorabilia 

my beautiful family

favourite books

timber coat rack & doily lightshade in action

thanks Jen & Pat - she's a beauty!

a little wedding memo in my study 

New kitchen, new boxes

We seem to be gathering more boxes faster than we can fold at the moment. I have spent all day cutting and stacking them into neat little piles for recycling, but for every box I cut, we acquire another two. It's an endless pit of cardboard in our house and so we are spending our time sifting and weaving through the mess, in order to get from one room to another. The good news is, our kitchen renovations finally started this week! Our Kiwi builder Josh, has been busily laying the new parquet floorboards and knocking all sorts of things together in our pokey little cuisine. It's only been a couple of days, but he has made good progress and it's already looking brighter and more enticing. Currently the walls of the kitchen are an awful navy blue, so tomorrow morning we will paint them white and then start assembling the pantry and cupboards. For now, just a few pictures of our hoarded boxes and the start of the kitchen facelift. Bisous x

the mess we call home

ay ay ay ... 

my attempt at culling the boxes

Josh starting work in the kitchen

parquet & old parisian pipes

new parquet floorboards complete

Superbe vintage couch

We finally decided on a couch for our main room and whoopee! it arrived last night. After trawling the streets of Paris and being repeatedly deflated by the inflated price tags of vintage sofas, I found a German website selling wonderful retro furniture and household bits. I fell in love with this old beauty and luckily enough the owner, a kind German man named Horst, was happy to drive halfway across Europe to deliver it last night (which of course, sounds much further than it really is). The sofa was designed in the 50s by Knoll Antimott and has been lovingly restored by Horst to almost new condition, retaining its original upholstery and beautiful frame. I plan to spend the next few days making some cushions for the arms, but here are some initial pictures from last night and I will update with more shortly. Bisous x

Restoring our chandelier ancien

We've been thinking of replacing our trés ancien chandelier that hangs so low in the middle of our lounge room (and occasionally whacks us over the head). But today I thought that rather than replacing the old beauty, perhaps it could just do with a small revamp. After all, it would be a shame to discard something which seems to be as old as the building itself. The brass and crystal needed some heavy duty polishing, the light sticks needed straightening and fixing and I couldn't stand the yellowing colour of the sticks. So out came the gloves, the spray and the paintbrush and I set to work. I polished each and every jewel and painted the sticks white, so that they blend more smoothly with the walls. I'm sure it's some sort of faux pas to paint an antique chandelier ... Nevertheless, I think it was necessary. Here are some photos of the improvement, however small. Bisous x

the old duck in need of repairs

tools for the project

half way through painting the sticks

sparkling crystals and white candlesticks

left over and broken crystals

the finished product

Market haul

I did a little bit of market trawling yesterday and found some fantastic textile / flea markets in the 18th arrondissement, called Marché Saint Pierre (and the surrounding streets). I spent a good couple of hours wandering the stalls, finding it trés difficult to narrow my choices to just 2 or 3 pieces. In the end I came away with a pretty good haul, at bargain prices! and am already looking forward to my next market discovery in this incredible city. I thought I'd do a little update on the house preparations, including some of my market buys and other bits and pieces, which are starting to find their way out of all the boxes! Lots of love, from the city of love. Bisous x

textile & rug haul. loveeee

new day bed - not quite complete, but getting there. home made cushions required

mirror image of the day bed and new rug

texture. texture. texture

beautiful wedding gifts finding their way out of the boxes

flea market finds

sneak peak at the reclaimed timber coat rack. more pics when it's good and ready