Category: Country Living

Sterio Typing Furniture Ideas For Country Cottage

Sterio Typing Furniture Ideas For Country Cottage

There does seem to be a natural corrolation with the sound of Country Living and rich antique looking furniture.  for some reason my brain fails to make an instant connection between a pretty country cottage and scandinavian minimalism and modern no frills furniture.  There’s absolutely no reason why someone wouldn’t want the clean lines and unfussy nature of their rubberwood and new manufactured designs.   There is just something that doesn’t sit so comfortably – quite literally.  I own several pieces of start modern no frill furniture which we bought as we moved into our very unromantic detached family house.  I also own some attractive oak furniture – which does not look even slightly antique.  It is a funn o9ld thing how my brain has a definite thought process, dictated entirely upon sterio type thinking and not actually being exposed to the joys of actually enjoying country living.  Though it must be said that I do live on the edge of a village – no chocolate box cottages here sadly.

Country Living Is A Priviledge To Be Cherished

Country Living Is A Priviledge To Be Cherished

When we leaf through favourite magazines, it can be some years before we realise that actually, we’ve outgrown this one, or that.  I found this with one magazine aimed at the established family aged female going up to later years.  This is what their marketing blurb suggests but as the years went on, I found the fashion and beauty pages were definitely aimed at the younger crowd – hardly ever was there a wardrobe update for anyone in their later years.  Or they may introduce a mature reader, but the clothes chosen always seemed to be inappropriately youthful.  The same does not go for country living magazines.  They have the eternal beauty and show an optimism that life out in the sticks is going tio remain absolutely right for everyone.  I like looking back over the years at how the colour schemes have changed for kitchens and bedrooms.  The updated adverts feature similar products – I mean how many kitchens can anyone feature?  Just the colours of the cabinets and style of the white goods change.   But the essence remains, living in a lovely village or country area is a bit of a priviledge,  especially today.

Middle Of County Perfect For Farm Shop

One of the many delights of having relatives who live out in the deepest countryside is having a constant array of different walks literally on the door step.   There is an inbuilt ability to enjoy the countryside and everything it has to show us – an inexhaustable supply of enthusiastic walkers to fulfill the dream too.  One little village I am closely connected with has a self promoting country farm shop and it does absolutely everything you can imagine.  Firstly of course it has a good range of vegetables and fruit for sale.  There’s been a farm shop on site decades and over the years it’s expanded to now include cuntry living stylised crockery and kitchenalia as well as furniure, especially oak.  here’s also a shabby chic and faux antique furniture outlet.  The most recent addition to the group activities has been a fantastic food hall that was attached to the existing veg shop.   This emporium is so popular with its own bread ovens, charcutier and an epicure that attracts folk from many miles circumfrence and the atmosphere on a hectic Sunday is wonderful!

Smart Garden & Country Set In Unison

Smart Garden & Country Set In Unison

It’s a wonderful thing to be able to visit someone who lives in deep countryside.   Views of rolling hills from every window, a few groups of trees over the  horizon and maybe a lake or two in the immediate garden periphary.   There’s one particular house that I have dealings with on a regular basis.  It’s atually a Hall, so bigger than a mansion house but not a palace.  Each window at the back overlooks the very fine landscaped grounds which are as wide and expansive.  Through the coppice of trees to the right there are the tops of pavillions left from the days of tennis and croquet parties in the 1920s.  In the actual garden itself, there are now tables and chairs for the tea room customers and aside these is the ‘bullring’.  Not what it sounds.  It’s in fact a very large circular lawn surrounded by an attractive pebble and gravel drive.  Very impressive on Open Days when guests of note are allowed to park around the edge of the lawn – so long as everyone parks in the same direction and doesn’t have an old banger!

County New Builds Promise Stylish Peace & Tranquility

County New Builds Promise Stylish Peace & Tranquility

When you hear the phrase country living, at first it doesn’t mean very much more than the thought of a nice farm house of some age.  Small village surrounding it and some idyllic vision of children being able to run about free as air with the chickens and lambs.  These days though the phrase means a great deal more than that.    here are whole developments springing up where once green belt land has been released for housing.  There are generally strict rules governing any planning applications being granted.  New builds have to conform to a particular structure and look as similar in nature to any local village houses so as not to jar on the eye of anyone passing by.  The need to maintain suitable properties for village families to buy up and live in though has rather a way to go.  The newer development are beautiful but generally out of the reach of he first time buyer but they can dream.  In the meantime the country dweller can emerse themselves in the peace and beauty of living amongst farms can bring.

Car Booting Is Not How To Acquire Decent Antiques

Car Booting Is Not How To Acquire Decent Antiques

I do have a joy these days of watching the tv programmes that feature auctions or at least valuations of furniture and effects that could be offered for sale at them.  There’s something rather sad seeing a family taking their heirlooms to the expert – either we already like the party and have some empathy for them. .  Or we’ve found them truly annoying and are quite pleased when the expert questions the provenance of the article, not rediculing it, but gently letting them down with a more likely scenario, whilst hacking several hundred off the anticipated value.   If we want to buy antique furniture for ourselves, it is always advisable to do a great eal of research and to buy from reputable dealers and auction houses.  The car boot sale and pop up ‘one day only’ sales are always going to be suspect.  Stolen items can be disposed of this way – although many of the purloined beauties are stolen to order and shipped abroad immediately, there are outlets for other lucky acquisitions.

Mellow Months Ideal For Antique Shop Sortis

Mellow Months Ideal For Antique Shop Sortis

Ah the sheer joy of September, after the first full week, that is.  The youngster have all started, or gone back to school an the university students are making their final preparations for the ‘off’.  There is much more time and space everywhere.  The old towns, particularly in the tourist spots, have seen their influx of visitors go back to whence they came;  the chip papers and rubbish has been collected and dispersed to the dump.  Now these little towns can sit back with a sigh and get on with every day living!  I love the mellowness, when I can visit my favourite places – auction houses and genuine antique emporiums.  always on the lookout for beautiful quality furniture, wooden accessories and anything with a bit of history to it.  I love the smell, the feeling of old age in the second hand and antique shops.  Nothing beats that old beeswax smell!

Summer Holidays Incorporate Historic House Rambles

Summer Holidays Incorporate Historic House Rambles

At least in the summer months, July and August for example, the weather can usually be relied upon to keep us calm, keep us warm, and most of all, keep us from going batty with mud an wet weather gear keeping everything nicely damp!  I love going off for a good poke around a country house – now that I have a little more time to myself, I have taken out membership of three of the major heritage charities and enjoy nothing better than planning a sorti to one or two properties wherever I happen to be in the country.  The membership is useful also when I’m travelling around and want to stop off for a nice, relaxed, quality cuppa – the car parks are always free to members and the tea shops are absolutely top notch!  This reflects the quality of the furniture inside most of them too – such history and feeling of belonging!

 

Oak Furniture  – It’s Been There Forever

Oak Furniture – It’s Been There Forever

Oak furniture is one of those phrases that for some, will conjur up visions of grandmothers and their pristine ‘front parlour’, smelling of beeswax & lavender.   For others it will mean wandering around tagging on to mum or dad’s hand whilst they go round stuffy  historic houses.  However for a very pleasing number of younger families, the phrase is again the by-word for excellent quality, beautiful finish, versatile uses and something worth paying for and cherishing for ever!  As borne out by the previous examples, although we don’t recognise or appreciate the reasons why oak is revered amongst woods, when we look back to childhood and late teens, we do have many examples of how it has been the mainstay of country furniture over centuries.   Trestle tables, high backed testers, church furnishings, baronial castles, modern town house dining suites, and everything else between.  We will have used this amazing commodity in every stage of our lives and will always do so.

Appreciating The Craftsmanship Available Today

Appreciating The Craftsmanship Available Today

There’s a programme on tv that everybody seems to like – one where we see experts repairing much loved heirlooms and that aged relatives have been hanging on to for years.  I particularly like the clock repairs – the chap is a real expert and expalins very clearly what he thinks is wrong with the thing at the start of the show.  Obviously the researchers have gone through everything first with a fine tooth comb to ensure that each piece offers enough work to keep it viable for a third of a programme – the amount of film ending up on the cutting room floor must be heartbreaking!  There’s also a really fantastic ceramics expert who seems able to put back together the most incredible mish mash of chipped and broken collectables.  I remmeber also a fantastic job was carried out on a very old rocking horse – the leather expert really made an outstanding job of a seriously battered saddle – other colleagues were brought in to deal with the mane and tail.  It’s heartening to know we have real expertise in this country – a real morale booster in these very challenging times.