Up-cycled Fridge

A friend of mine, Prue (The Grass Tree Kitchen cooking school) found this old chiller fridge in a nursery. It wasn’t for sale but was just sitting outside in the yard, with ferns growing out of it, and she just approached the nursery owner and made an offer. It needed a thorough clean, and then it was sanded back and re-lacquered (the dark stain is the original stain, the lacquer is clear). It looks fabulous – and because it’s so well insulated, it’s perfect for storing wine.

Photography by John Downs

White on White

This is a home I styled recently for Country Collections magazine – and it shows how much a couple of cans of white paint can change a room. The room originally had chocolate-coloured walls and blue carpet. The owner, Sandy Palmer (who fittingly enough runs a business called Paint Me White, www.paintmewhite.com) ripped up the carpet herself and painted the concrete slab underneath white (luckily, it was in pretty good order and only needed to be filled slightly around the edges where the carpet had been attached). She used a specialist paving paint called Berger Jet Dry and choose a satin finish, which she says feels beautiful to walk on. The walls were painted in Dulux ‘Antique White USA’ – a soft, slightly warm white, which works well with Sandy’s vintage furniture. As she did everything herself, it cost next to nothing – and it looks fabulous.