ORIGINALHOME • MAGAZINE

Discover Your Personal Style on Any Budget

OHJANUARY

•2014•Issue 4

Create a Clutter-Free Entry Space

Safer Home ResolutionsYou Can Keep

in 2014

Mastering Beautiful Bohemian Style!Resources • Decor • Thrift Shop Saavy

RevolutionaryCollectibles

Welcome TO

ORIGINAL HOMEMagazineJanuary is named for the ancient Roman god Janus,

who is usually depicted with two faces, one looking forward, one looking back. His particular sphere of

influence was beginnings and endings, and transitions. All rather appropriate for the beginning of a new year. With that in mind, this edition of OH! hopes to kick off your new year with some articles dedicated to making your transition to this year smoother and more enjoyable. We start with some absolutely-keepable resolutions to make your home safer this year. It seems every holiday season - regardless of where you live - brings with it at least one tragic home fire in the local news. Tackle our home resolutions to keep your family safer from fire and other disasters throughout the year. With another nod to Janus, we tackle that most awkward spot, the winter entry way. If ever there was a transition space in your home, that spot just inside the door would be it. Whether your foyer is spacious or just a corner of your living room, our guest designer has ways to make it work harder for you. We’ll look back to the beginnings of boho style, trace its romantic history, and present some bohemian solutions for those who actually enjoy a little clutter in their lives - but also need to move with modern times. You’ll find some authentic Revolutionary Era collectibles for your bohemian space that are well within your budget! Add a little romance to any space with

vintage writing tools. OH!’s goal is a simple one, to help you find your personal style on any budget, and to live better at home. Bohemian style is based on recycling, upcycling, and repurposing - ideas that are completely at home in our modern world. The Dime Divas tell you exactly what you can expect to find on a budget at local thrift and secondhand shops - their guide will get you well-

started on new projects for just pennies. Most of the old Roman gods had

equivalents in other theologies, especially the Greek, but, Janus is uniquely Roman. We

take a dip into Roman cuisine this month, presenting food and drink to add a little Mediterranean flavour to your table this

January. And, while January may not

seem to be the time to delve into your garden - at least not in the

northern hemisphere! - it is the perfect time to plan ahead. Every good gardener looks

forward to one January tradition, the arrival of seed and plant catalogues filled with bushels of produce and buckets of blooms. Get “dug in” with tips for getting an early start on your garden, be it a window box or the back forty! Here’s to making this year the one when your home becomes the gathering spot for all your friends and family!

OH!

Ngaire GengeWe welcome your suggestions - drop us a line at OriginalHomeMagazine@gmail.com

Thrift Store TreasuresFind Boho Bones - for Cheap!

The bohemian lifestyle may be rich in creative freedom, but, it tends to be

a little short on regular income. Small surprise then that even modern boho style leans heavily on its tinker roots. Upcycling, recycling, and repurposing was daily business for the travelling folk who would be identified as gyspies and bohemians. In the absence of tinkers, today’s creative types turn to their spiritual descendents, thrift stores, flea markets, car boot sales, and secondhand shops to find their reclaimed treasures. Gellie MacKay and Carrie Underhill are “The Dime Divas.” Their specialty decor niche is simple, “redoing your

space for less than a $100.” They’ve outfitted hundreds of student digs, first apartments, and studios by “reusing what you have and daytripping to all the second-hand places we can find.” They’ve become experts in “finding neat stuff for next to nothing” and have some advice on how to get a jump start on that comfy, casual chaos that is boho. “If you want tires, you don’t go to the florist, yeah?” asks Gellie. “So, don’t approach second-hand shops as an episode of some reality TV show where you’re going to suddenly stumble over a

diamond-studded Art Deco necklace for $10, okay? What you will find though, are great bargains on specific things that you can turn into beautiful, useful things!” Carrie’s spare rooms hold bins of stuff that will become someone else’s new decor. Her favourite finds are vintage fabrics and notions. “What you’re looking for at thrift shops is the best bones you can find,” says Carrie. “You might buy an old metal tin of vintage buttons - everyone’s grandma had one - for $5. Take the nifty ones and adorn a denim pillow and - voila! - that’s exactly the same swank

“Fashion isn’t difficult. If you love two things separately, and you put them where you can see them both at the

same time, and you are happy, then, you have found your style. The trick is simply to know what you like!” -

Coco Chanel

Image: Vintage FairyTale - Flickr CC

they’re selling in the costly shops for $70 - and more!” Ticking her list off on her fingers, Gellie says, “Vintage fabric - or stuff covered in great fabric that you can get cheap and then dismantle. Vintage pillows, even if they aren’t pretty now-” “Modern pillows go poof the first time you lean on them, “ Carrie interrupts to explain. “Vintage pillows are often real feather or down-filled! They’ll never go flat and you can recover them with whatever you want! To buy a decent pillow form today costs at minimum $50. The vintage ones? I’ve gotten four of them for $20.” “Fabric notions, like fringe, bead, and ribbons,” continues Gellie. “Lace

is another thing to watch for. Some second-hand and thrift shops will charge you by the bag - however much of whatever fits in the bag for, say, $5 - and you can get a lot of that small stuff in a bag. “ Carrie keeps her eye out for “any fabrics with glitter or texture” adding, “You’ll sometimes find metallic thread in a jacquard weave, for example. Plain canvas is great for pillow backs and simple window blinds, especially roman shades. For a boho look, nab velvets, satins, silky stuff, corduroy, even suede - and if they’re a little threadbare, that’s okay. As long as the fabric is still sound, a bit of wear will just give you a bit of that down-on-her-luck-Romanian-countess

sort of look! A little faded elegance.” Also important - and frequently available, depending on how cosmopolitan your area may be, are ethnic textile finds. “Europe was bringing back fabrics from all over the world, and bohemian style almost always has a hint of north Africa, the middle east, even India and China about it,” says Gellie. “An Indian sari or two makes a romantic canopy over a bed. Fabrics from the Muslim world are, of course, very graphic and geometric - no cabbage roses there! - so they’re wonderful additions to that eclectic mix of textiles.” Carrie also has a bin of ornate picture frames, some original, some

Collections: Thrift Store Treasures

Gellie has changed many, many boring client lamps and ceiling fixtures into

boho delights with her $5 bag of fringe and ribbons. “Modern people like modern perks, like electricity,” she says. “Beads, crystals, and fringes give electric fixtures a vintage look, more like you’d find in shades for gas or oil or candle-powered fixture. Old lamps and lampshades are readily available in thrift stores and second-hand shops.” She does recommend plugging in any electrical appliance before buying it. “While lamps are simple things to rewire, the ones in thrift shops are generally already cheaper than it would cost to rewire,” says Gellie. “Unless it is a really unique lamp, don’t bother with anything that doesn’t work.” If you do find something really exceptional, though, she urges you not to be scared off by a cloth-covered

power cord - or even a complete lack of electricity! “You’ll find plenty of old electrical fixtures in thrift and second-hard shops,” she says. “All of them can be rewired if necessary. It’s not hard, a skill you can use over and over. “ More rare are old gas lighting fixtures. “But they can be so gorgeaous!” Well worth the extra effort to detour to the slightly more upscale reclaimation stores - if you want that one luxurious thing. “Gas lamps are a conundrum, either really cheap - because they’re useless in most homes - or - because some people recognize the potential to rewire those old beauties - really expensive. You could get lucky,!” As an up-selling project, this is one Gellie recommends, “Easy to make extra money to decorate your own place!!”

Retro Lighting on a Boho Budget

Image: Andrew Besston - Flickr CC

refinished, some with pictures, some not. “If it’s a great old portrait or something very French Revolution period, then you can just hang them on the wall as is,” she says. “If not, ditch the picture and reuse it.” Gellie likes layers of intricate frames on the wall all by themselves, but, if that’s not your gig, she has other uses. “There are lots of things to frame. Pretty bits of vintage wallpaper, mirrors - obviously, samplers and other textile art - an embroidered handkerchief might have thousands of hand stitches, and it sits on a thrift shop shelf for fifty cents! If you want a practical use for a gorgeous old frame, you can take out whatever used to be in it, spray the frame with something funky or metaliic, then paint the old picture over with chalkboard paint, put it back together and hang it near the stove for grocery notes.” Carrie once took a big old frame apart, recut the ends, then used it as unique moulding around the edge of a “pretty boring table that was, while really plain, also really solid wood, and useful!” Thrift shops are favourite spots to pick up vintage paper ephemera too. “Vintage books are ridiculously cheap in thrift and second-hand stores,” says Carrie. “If you were looking for something that might actually be a

Collections: Thrift Store Treasures

profit-making simple re-sale, you should browse the book boxes. Thrift shops often let you stick whatever you want in a book box, and, if you’re knowledgeable-” “Or have the right app on your phone,” contributes Gellie. “- you can find some books worthy of resale. Most thrift store and second-hand owners just don’t want the hassle of going through a box of books.” “From a decor viewpoint, though, books, especially vintage books, are

bang-on for that artsy element of boho,” says Gellie. “Books, well vintage books anyway, are beautiful things in their own right, even if you never read them. Old paper, leather, gilding.... very pretty.” Other paper things that fit the boho vibe or that can be used as material for new projects include “postcards, old photo albums, old Victorian scrapping papers and decorations, sheet music, newspapers and magazines,” says Gellie. “And,” adds Carrie. “Incidentally,

Collections: Thrift Store Treasures

all of that stuff looks great displayed in those recycled picture frames.” Carrie’s personal boho favourites are posters and playbills for plays and operas. “You know it’s an early poster when there’s no billing for the actors - but the name of the horse in the play is almost as tall as the title!” You probably won’t find any that old - which would be out of the price range anyway, but, the girls say you can find lots of playbills and programs in old scrap books, “and Victorian-era things are not nearly as rare or valuable as people think.” “The Bohemian period is sort of hard to nail down time wise,” says Carrie. “There’s a good argument that every era had its counter-culture, certainly the Victorians did, so, from a decorating perspective, you’re spoiled for choice on era!” That allows her to happily add - “and wear, and use!” - other operatic things like mismatched opera gloves and opera glasses. The mix-and-match nature of bohemian style is a real strength for decorators. “Sets are always more expensive than one-offs,” says Carrie. “If you have a 8-place setting of china or silverware, that’s a high-dollar purchase. If you have odd cups and saucers, a fork from one set and a knife from another - well, individually, they’re cheap.” Mismatched china, crystal, depression glass, and silverware are “always available” says Gellie. Carrie suggests you look for “out-moded items” too. “Things like a celery dish or fish knives aren’’t exactly in vogue these days,” says Gellie. “But, like the opera glasses that Carrie uses to spy on her neighbours instead of watching the ballet, there is absolutely no reason why you can’t make good use of things that other people wouldn’t be bothered with - and, really, you can serve olives in a celery dish, can’t you? And, being able to elegantly take a fish to the bone in twenty seconds is a kinda cool thing, don’t you think? It’d impress the heck out of me!”

Carrie notes that “vintage things are often better quality than contemporary things - and that is especially true of oddball things.” Gellie agrees. “Even back in the day, you had to be a bit of a toff to have a fish knife set. First of all, they were always silver - not sure why, but they are. “ Because there’s no big demand for fish knives - “most people just think it’s a dull knife!” - the prices are low. “Who wouldn’t want to eat their fish and chips with real silverwear? It’s one of the few junkstore buys that gets close to that reality TV show, ” says Gellie. Brass is another dime store staple that fits solidly in the boho aesthetic. “You can buy up brass by the boxload too,” confirms Carrie. “In fact, ask if you can buy five and get the sixth for free or something - it’s that common.” “Perfect north African vibe in the boho space though, “ says Gellie. “Incense burners, braziers, and pots obviously, but lots of decorative bits, anything pierced.” “Brass is a better fit for period bohemian than silver,” adds Carrie. “If you lean towards the silvery sort of dresser sets and whatnot, you’ll soon be in the French flea market - which is a different sort of boho - but definitely not that hint of Morocco that seems is old bohemian.” Musical instruments are frequently found in thrift stores, second hands, and pawnshops. Carrie is the music buff in this duo and admits to having taken a lot of their musical finds for her own place. “It amazes me that you can get a clarinet, or sax, or violin for next to nothing,” she says. “People sometimes think boho is too feminine for a guy or a couple, but, I just tell them to think Sherlock Holmes with his Turkey carpet, violin, books, newspapers, and oddments about, and, music, in particular, is genderless.” Gellie plays nothing, but likes instruments around her. “There is nothing more boho than the instruments of musicians who would pawn them to pay the rent and then ask for an advance when they did get a booking, so they could pawn it out to play the gig! The other advantage to having instruments around is simply to make it

possible for any visitors to entertain! Of course, you need more than picture frames and moroccan braziers to outfit a room. You need actual furniture. Carrie says it’s easy to find a recliner at your local thrift or second-hand store, but, that’s not what the boho style is really about. “Cheap, yes, but, not common, that’s the key,” says Gellie. “You do have to have a certain amount of patience and persistence if you want to find that perfect piece of furniture.” While the girls try not to be caught feet up in every dumpster in town, they say unique furniture is more difficult to obtain than, for example, a thread-bare but pretty vintage rug. For those pieces, they have a truly bohemian attitude to their “shopping.” “We steal from rich peoples’ garbage,” says Gellie. “Almost every community has a couple days each year of garbage collection designated for big awkward stuff,” says Carrie. “If you call the town office for the communities in reasonable distance from you, they’ll usually be able to give you dates for various locations.” In general, there is usually a spring clean-up week and another one sometime in the fall. “We go cruising then in areas where we’re likely to spot vintage stuff,” says Gellie. “We’ve found wonderful pieces that way. Things are often tossed simply because someone is tired of them. Some people will bring it to a thrift shop, or upscale stuff to an antique dealer, but, an amazing amount of perfectly good things are just kicked to the curb.” That rubs the girls’ green ethic the wrong way, but does provide them a chance to “hit all the well-to-do and older areas” and “bag some bargains.” It doesn’t get cheaper than free! Otherwise, just talk to your thrift and second-hand store owners. “A lot of stores have designated drop off days, a specific day for cleaning and pricing, and a regular day to put out their things,” says Carrie. “If you know those days, you get first dibs.” Gellie loves online services like Craig’s List, Kijiji, and eBay but, says it works better for individuals than for their

small business. “If you’re just sort of scrolling for one great item, it’s kind of fun,” she says. “But, if you need lots of things, it can be a real pain to spend a lot of time driving to see things only to arrive five minutes after it went out the door.” While she might do that for some really specific thing, it’s usually easier to let the thrift stores do the collecting and then they can quickly scan the shelves. “We generally do find enough oddball items that way, and, if you’re on good terms with store owners, they will often give you a call.” The additional costs involved in travelling to get one item, or have it shipped, isn’t usually justified for them. They do like live auctions where they can preview several hundred lots, especially if “they have an online catalogue available prior to the event.” Live auctions in rural areas are especially fruitful. “Watch the classifieds and you’ll often find estate auctions, which typically feature more vintage items,” says Carrie. “Shape is everything in furniture,” says Gellie. “You can strip wood, paint it, distress it, stain it, you name it. You can take an old piece and re-upholster it in a funky fabric, or, keep your boho more 18th century and pull out that bin of vintage fabric. You can fix the underpinings, make new cushions, and fix most broken bits. What you can’t do is turn a 1980s recliner into a 1800s settee.” While nothing boho is set in stone, there are a few things that do go well in a bohemian space. “A daybed is wonderful,” says Gellie. “Whether it’s a french chaise or a Colonial box sofa with a trundle underneath, it’s a double duty bed and sofa.” “Seating is important, but needs to be flexible in small spaces,” adds Carrie. “Stacking things and poofs are great.” Both girls have found rarer items in local thrift stores from time to time, but, they say, “If you know the strengths of thrift stores - the dishes, fabrics, and furniture - that’s when you have the most fun and get the best values. Enjoy the cozy chaos!”

• Ngaire Genge

Collections: Thrift Store Treasures