Light with vintage accents
My favourite space
Discarded pieces have found a new home in this interior designer’s living room.
Anna Begg has loved filling her Wanaka living room with finds from the local recycling centre, the family farm and her world travels. Many of these previously unloved and discarded pieces give Anna’s living room ‘‘a touch of nostalgia’’, she says.
Anna had been living overseas for several years when love lured her back to New Zealand, but she’d long yearned for a home of her home. She found a place online quickly, and sent now-husband Adam and assorted family members to view the would-be purchase.
It’s very brown inside, they warned, after visiting the Tudorstyle house she had spotted on Trade Me. It’s dark and dingy, they told her. Undeterred, Anna bought the three-bedroom two-storey house anyway. ’’It was pretty bad but I loved it. It’s like a hidden wee gem, so private that people don’t know it’s here. The windows had character, there was a beautiful garden with rock walls and a pagoda-type patio that reminded me of Italy.’’
She couldn’t wait to move in and implement a whiter, lighter plan. The young interior designer (see more of her work at her website theworkroom.boutique) and Adam used lashings of white paint (Dulux ‘Half St Clair’) to rejuvenate the previously dark living area.
They ripped out the carpets and splashed out on Cavalier Bremworth’s Lattice carpet in Amber Glow to create the ‘‘clean Scandi aesthetic’’ Anna wanted.
She then got stuck into filling it with her clever finds. ‘‘I love antiquey things,’’ she says.
A scavenging trip to the sheds on her parents’ rural property unearthed cane armchairs and a child’s writing desk from her grandfather’s primary school. The Wanaka Wastebusters recycling centre netted more fantastic furniture finds, including the brass Indian coffee table, which she got for $25, and Adam’s mother Jo Baxter has contributed numerous pieces from secondhand stores in Dunedin. Anna bought the comfy corduroy couch off a friend. ‘‘A $100 bargain!’’
What are the key features of this space?
That would be the painted wood panelling and the square wooden windows, also I like the wall lighting as it creates a nice atmosphere at night the window seat is also quite a cute feature.
How long did it take to transform this space?
Once we’d painted, it took around a week to put everything in the right place, but it’s still a work in progress, as I’m always waiting until I find the right piece for the space.
Were there any challenges during the process?
The huge beams means it’s challenging to do anything structural to the house. We have to work with the space.
How would you describe your decorating style?
An eclectic fusion of war, organic and vintage.
What’s your best decorating tip for others?
Paint everything white!
What do you like best about this space?
The room gets all-day sun, yet it’s very private, and the windows are just the right height to look into the garden. And the character of the wood paneling – like a wee gingerbread house.
Rat-proof your garden
I’ve been blaming the blackbirds and thrushes for decimating my tomatoes but it seems that rats are in residence too. My son’s girlfriend spotted a brazen rat making off with a whole tomato. There’s been some tunnelling activity in the compost bin as well. I prefer to set traps as they kill instantly rather than use baits, which cause a slow death by dehydration.
Peanut butter, bits of fat or cooked meat are recommended baits. Place traps under cover out of reach of children and pets. If you use poison, a refillable bait station will keep the bait secure and free of moisture. Keep replacing bait until there’s no more activity. The compost bin is the plastic, Dalekshaped type and it’s time the contents were turned. I’ll rat-proof it by moving it to a new location with a layer of chicken wire under the base and across the ventilation holes.
Make your own plant labels
In the February issue of NZ Gardener magazine, Pat Beerpoot of Red Beach described her ingenious permanent plant name tags and I just had to make my own. Cut off the top and bottom of an aluminium drink can with scissors, flatten it out and then cut tags to any size you like. Watch out as the metal edges can be sharp. Trim off the sharp corners for safety. I blunted and smoothed the edges with a diamond tool sharpener. Punch a hole with a nail, skewer or hole punch.
Press firmly with a blunt pencil, ballpoint or old knitting needle to indent the plant names. (I used a black felt tip as well so the names showed in the picture.) Loop a wire through the hole and attach loosely to the plant. Remember to check the wires a couple of times a year so they don’t become too tight and dig into the branches or trunks. Use longer pieces of wire or weed mat staples to support labels in the ground.
Keep control of earwigs
The thick layers of mulch in my garden are an earwig paradise. I try to live with them as they do predate aphids, mealy bugs and small caterpillars. Diatomaceous earth is effective for keeping earwigs away from strawberries and young seedlings. But when there’s a population explosion I take action by making my own trap with crumpled newspaper inside an upturned flower pot. Earwigs cluster in the newspaper, which can be stamped on, burnt earwigs and all, or shaken into a bucket of soapy water.
In Shawna Coronado’s new book, 101 Organic Gardening Hacks I found a method I hadn’t seen before:
Mix together cup water, 3 tablespoons soy sauce and 1 teaspoon molasses. In the evening, dig a hole in the area where the earwigs are attacking your plants and sink a small, shallow container in the soil so the top is level with the ground. Pour in the mixture and gently add vegetable oil over the top of the liquid so it forms a very thin layer. Bear in mind that earwigs are attracted to moist areas so dampen the mulch before setting the trap. Count the corpses next morning!
Keep a tight rein on your agapanthus
Labelled a weed in the Auckland region, the cheerful blue flowers of agapanthus are still a visible part of the landscape. Opinions are divided. Gardeners who are proagapanthus point out that it’s extremely hardy, grows on inhospitable clay, is salt-tolerant, very low maintenance and its fleshy roots stabilise steep banks.
The anti camp say these attributes are what make it weedy. One can look at agapanthus as being very good at suppressing weeds but pure stands of agapanthus reduce biodiversity by excluding all other species. It is a prolific seeder.
Seeds are blown short distances, drop down banks or get transported by water. Rhizomes spread when soil is moved or plants are dumped. Ideally you should try to grow low-fertility or sterile varieties and at the very least dead-head spent flowers of fertile plants near at-risk areas before the seeds have ripened.
Dead-head perennial flowers
Trimming off spent flowers neatens up daisies, dahlias, osteospermums, wallflowers, penstemons and other perennials that are looking tired. You will often get another flush of flowers.
Leave alone those you want to save for seed or those seedheads that look attractive in their old age such as poppies, nigella, sedums, honesty, teasels and grasses. – Barbara Smith