A picture paints a thousand words...

If a picture tells a story, then this one has a few to share. This is our kitchen table. It gets plenty of use! Long lunches & dinners, laughter and plenty of talking happens around this table. It is also the place where I spend many hours chopping fruit and vegetables and labelling jars! Frans built it from old bargeboards from a home we renovated in Melbourne a few years ago. He loathes waste, especially good wood. As usual, when he makes something he goes all out, and this piece of furniture seats 12 easily, and up to 16 with leaf extensions. He’s a clever man!

I’d love to share two of my favourite decorating ideas for a farm style kitchen. As you can see from this photograph, I’m definitely not a ‘matchy matchy’ kind of gal. I love being surrounded by interesting, functional and eclectic pieces, and they don’t have to belong together! A kava bowl we brought home from a holiday in Fiji serves as a fruit bowl. A little red bag made from a tea towel (there’s a theme here I think!) holds Frans’ little supply of biltong. (a South African variation of beef jerky) Moroccan jars on top of the dresser co-habit with a wire chook.

No flowers in the garden? Why not use a vegetable centerpiece instead. Here I raided the kitchen garden and picked an armful of chard, silverbeet, mizuna lettuce and fennel flowers.They make a handsome table display.
Old tea towels. Don’t throw them out! They bear the marks of many days in a kitchen. This has to be my favourite table cloths in my very full linen cupboard! I love old table linen and use it often. Why keep it locked away I say. This particular cloth has a fabulous history. I purchased a box of tea towels at the auction held at the old Sunnybrae Restaurant, previous owned by Chef George Biron, just outside Birregurra around 2014. Now it is Brae Restaurant, one of the top 100 restaurants in the world! I cut the tea towels all to the same size and stitched them together. Some had holes in them, so I patched them with the off cuts. Nothing went to waste. I love knowing the provenance of this piece of linen.