UPDATE: This stunning digital printed upholstery weight velvet is one of the technology advances in home decor. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
It always amazes me how little we change over the years.
When we look back at photos of when we were younger and sometimes when we were small children we can still see "us" in those photos.
Our skin might change creating laughter and perhaps stress lines and change a little in tone and hair definitely changes in colour, some of us fading to softer tones and some definite white or grey. But we still see us, our eyes, a cheeky grin that we have never lost or a look that stays with us forever.
I met and spoke to a group of women on Wednesday from Trinity Church Outreach group. This group of women started meeting 50 years ago, not long after the church was built in 1963. To celebrate their being together they have put together a booklet of their group, each contributing two photos - one of them 50 years ago and one of the present day. They celebrated in their church gathering by wearing hats and gloves just for fun and looking at the photos there were splashes of bright colours dotted here and there. So lovely to see and being a hat person myself they looked fabulous.
After 14 years in business and the hundreds of clients and projects I have worked on, I am often amazed at how many stories I have collected over that time. Sometimes funny situations, others very emotional, some constantly wrought with challenges which are often projects that I have come in on part way through that haven't been working and others just come together. Most are the latter.
With this particular group of women one had visited our home in Boydfield St when I was fairly newly widowed. She had known several people in the street at the time we have lived there. One woman in particular the kids and I used to pop down the road and have afternoon tea with her. She had moved into the street as a young bride and could tell all sorts of stories about previous people who had lived in my house and in the street. She turned 100 this year!
We see so many changes in house styles and trends over our lifetime.
Trends coming and going, some revamp from previous eras with a little bit of this and that taken to recreate something new. Some of us will perhaps have a hankering towards certain trends or styles that have a link to memories of our childhood. Colours that we loved that we carry through to our adult lives.
I presently live in a '70s architecturally designed home which I love and the mid to late '70s was my teenage years.
When we first shifted here many of the walls were painted half Spanish White with other rooms wallpapered in a nondescript paper (often a paper I used to sell if we had a contractor that was doing up rentals). The lounge had a couple of feature walls but the rest of the house was in its original condition.
The kitchen was such a joy to work in (after having designed my previous kitchen with three very different work zones and benches for cake decorating) as the benches were '70s ceramic green tiles where the grout had given up, the drawers didn't open properly and often stuck as the runners were well worn.
The kitchen was a rimu veneer on chipboard and the vinyl throughout the space was a pinky tone in small nondescript squares, very hardwearing, but had faded over time and didn't really work with anything. What I loved about the house was the matai walls and ceiling, the different levels you stepped down into and the layout with a north facing aspect.
The bedrooms are separate from the living areas, which I also liked. I have decorated this home in bold colours but also leaving some rooms white with feature walls in others. I have used wallpaper in some areas and the paper is traditional in that you paste the paper. Technology now has introduced paste-the-wall wall coverings which are not actually paper but a cellulose product.
The wall is pasted and the covering adhered to the paste, there is no shrinkage or expansion so where you place it is where it will stay. The beauty of the covering is that it is also tougher than paper and doesn't tear. I have yet to try and hang it as I'm running out of rooms to decorate.
Originally oil-based paints would have been used throughout this home, but I opted for water-based enamels because they are more user friendly and the VOCs (volatile organic compounds) are less than oil-based paints. That has to be better for the environment. But also I have developed a reaction to oil-based paints and they make me very sick for about four days. There is a slight odour omitted from the water-based paints and I do have to wear a mask sometimes when I'm painting, it just depends on conditions.
The house was mainly decorated in floral curtains in the bedrooms in soft pinks and greys and thermal backed, with the living area having a blue grey abstract design again thermal backed. The curtains had to wait many years before they were done and I have since put in a combination of duet blinds and sheers which I love, timber blinds in the dining room and the front facing windows and curtains and roman blinds in the rest of the house depending on the rooms.
I'm not a fan of thermal-backed curtains or linings but in some cases these are the only option. Fortunately now we are seeing curtain linings that do not have to go through the coating process and are just as efficient if not more as the thermal-backed linings. The weave is different, drapes more freely, comes in blockout with a variety of colours. This lining is much safer in our homes and in the workrooms where they are made up.
We are also seeing a change in technology in the printing and dying process of the fabric. Digital printing is being seen more often, giving the print a crisp, clear definition. Traditional patterns and motifs are being transformed into today's technology giving them a new lease of life.
I wonder what the next 50 years will bring in technology in interior design.
Thank you to the women from Trinity Church, it was a pleasure meeting you all and thanks for inviting me to speak.
I am available for speaking engagements for small groups or larger organisations and can be contacted below.
Terry Lobb is an interior/kitchen designer and personal colour and style consultant who takes a holistic approach to living with colour, texture and style - email: terry@terrylobb.com; website: http:// terrylobb.com