Painted Red

one of the great benefits of wood, is that you can paint it, strip it, repaint, sand it down, varnish it, stain it ... you get it, don't you?

here are three great examples of how a coat of red, in this instance has totally livened up

the individual spaces....

how awesome is this staircase - so much more interesting in a vibrant red!!!

and a gorgeous old wooden seat for the patio .....

tea anyone???

Images: Country Living

View more Ruby posts here

Gena

Vintage Blues (1)

Vintage Blues - pictures taken out of old editions of Vogue Living magazine. Just small examples of how easy it is to make something (attractive) out of very little, in this case by grouping items with shades or patterns of blue in them ......

Picture Credits : Vogue Living Australia

A Vintage Revamp

These pics were scanned in from Vogue Living (Australia) magazine, dated Oct- Nov 2002. It represents an old home which has been lovingly revamped and restyled into a modern vintage look with clean simple lines and a calm "neutral scheme".

Picture Credits: Vogue Living (Australia) Oct-Nov 2002

A novel use for Seshweshwe?

Shwe what? you ask! Seshweshwe (se-shwe-shwe) of just shweshwe (shwe-shwe), a "traditional" South African geometrically printed cloth/ fabric, which has an extremely rich history and background. In her article, Cottoning onto Shweshwe chic written for the website South Africa Info, Claire Fulton describes shweshwe as: "the ethnic print 'indigo cloth' synonymous with traditional black South African dress - (and) has slaves, German settlers, Basutho King Moshoeshoe and the catwalks of New York, woven into it's story."

Shweshwe has been extensively used over many, many years for making traditional African clothing, but has also recently taken on a trendy edge, possibly because of the amazingly intricate patterns, hard wearing cotton fabric and bright colour - most often in red, blue and brown, so it's now also used in shoes, and in a vast number of interior decor or home items.

I came across these vintage chairs recently, whose chair pads have been upholstered in the blue/indigo form of shweshwe fabric - suddenly, what would be considered a normal, simple vintage chair has taken on the air of a chic, African item and yet still has an edge of vintage quirkiness. Of course the room was put together very well, which truly does justice to the shweshwe fabric chair pads. Note the overall blue and white scheme, but in particular the "weathered" blue stained floorboards and the blue items on the table - all in all a fun dining area. Anyone for lunch?

G

For more info on shweshwe at South Africa Info, click here or at SA Fabrics Info, click here .

Photography taken by Gena at Rust in White, Cullinan, South Africa.