Artisan At Home

If you caught the waxing video of this piece here it is all finished. We sat here for a few weeks mulling over whether the sideboard should be soft and neutral  or a rich blue or maybe green... from the first week we moved in I had painted the sideboard and detailed it over and over in my mind before settling on a concept. In the end I decided to take the advice we have given out to many clients over the last decade (more on this further below)...and I'm so pleased I did :-)  This sideboard was never going to be neutral in this home really, sitting in our upstairs "dining/ informal living area" it's more of an intimate conversation space where we wanted to use colour, our personality, different textures, to create a rich warm, inviting and bespoke space. Upstairs view looking out large windows This space was not about the norm or being "light and bright" it's really a space where we  as a family use a lot and with the main lounge downstairs,  "guests" would only come up here if they were staying for dinner or maybe a few drinks in the evenings... so it needed to be us,  a merge of eclectic, rustic, vintage, contemporary with that fine line of balance. evening outlook from upstairs, this is what you see through the windows near the sideboard... staring at those colours since being here has inspired me...I love ALL styles, mid century, vintage, french, industrial and I'm a firm believer that all of these can be incorporated together in a space to create great depth, visual interest  and is a key ingredient in creating bespoke interior space, the merge and balance of different styles put together ... with my clients in the past I would often and easily tie industrial in with french, Mid century with boho, contemporary with  vintage using decor, colours and paint finishes to create a cohesive balance,  but to be honest with my own home it's been really really hard because I love them all and with all the colours and decor at my disposal it's been hard to narrow it down. If you asked me 2 weeks ago what colour I wanted my sideboard to be in, I would have said, blue, green, maybe turquoise, white,  grey... all of the above. Ive been battling with wanting to get everything done yesterday; that's my personality and I have  had to learn to be patient and pace myself in this new lifestyle of ours. Back in Auckland on any given day or week there would be 5 commissions that all needed to be completed by that Friday, along with 3 new concepts that needed to be finalised, emailed and discussed with clients for upcoming commissions, plus a workshop on the Saturday, as well as talking to customers in the gallery throughout the week on how they should paint their pieces,  I loved every minute of it. The pressure became the challenge, and with challenge came reward and relationships.  I was on auto pilot most of the time,  and things needed to tick precisely like clock work or it would be havoc,  I had a wonderful team that supported and allowed me that efficiency....that was the norm for me... so fast forward to this Life style change in the Bay of Islands without the daily / hourly pressure or challenge, the decisions that need to made in my own home is taking a frustratingly long time to come up with! I'm sure I'm not alone in this... They say you shouldn't  make big changes in your landscape or garden until you've lived in your home for at least a year to stake out the prevailing wind, the flood areas, the changes of seasons and how it affects the land. This is not too dissimilar with your home and interiors, I think you really need to live in your home through all the seasons to get a good grasp of the lighting, the changing views through the seasons and how you as a family will use  the different spaces. Small changes can be made but I think any large structural changes need to wait, so that's what we're doing, hanging tight until we've had a chance to go through all the season's in this new/ old house before any walls get removed, taken down, new windows and openings put in. But furniture, that can be done and some need to be done straight away :-)  with our personal rule of trying to not buying anything new, therefore utilising everything we've owned over the years, straight away it makes for for an eclectic start to our home.  We have always told our clients in the past that a sideboard is a great piece to undertake a bespoke creative finish. It often stands alone on it's own wall, and you can create a finish to make it the statement or feature in the room pulling in colours from the surrounding furnishings or the outlook that you have. So this is the advice we have taken ourselves and reached out for the Bold Artisan Country Mustard for this piece. Country Mustard at night, takes on a more subdued look   With green, blue and grey velvets in the lounge/ seating area not far from this sideboard, personal artwork and photos with subtle hints of yellow and mustard. Artisan Country Mustard is a bold and eclectic choice but also one that has made a statement and presence in this space. Rich Green Velvet couch facing the view and two blue french style chairs  in the same line of sight as the sideboard That silk cushion below with multi-coloured greens has been Ice dyed in Chalk Paint also... Way over on the opposite side of the room sits grey velvet in a nook and water colour artwork also done in Chalk Paint  and just to add to this eclectic setting also some large blue velvet french style chairs which I had big plans  to reupholster; however since painting the sideboard I actually love that it's blue so have decided to leave it as it is... the curtains however are another story... It's funny how changing one piece in a room, can knit and tie everything in if done with thought.  I never get tired of witnessing this even though I have seen it happen time and time again. That piece that makes the couch or cushion now work when it didn't before, or that piece that now makes the carpet and floors look better now... or that piece that actually now works with the dining table, that one change can be all that you need to pull it together...everyone has that one odd piece in their home somewhere.When you walk up the stairs, your eye is drawn straight to the side board, our neighbours came over  the other day and they walked straight to it, ran their hands across it expecting it to feel rough and not silky smooth the way it does from the wax. Then your eye travels  around,  with the different colours and rich textures  we find our visitors do walk around more in this room,  ok so it is not the light and bright neutral space, its not minimalist, it does have a mixture of contemporary, classic, tropical boho maybe...? it's hard to pin point because like many of my works I don't like to pinpoint it to one particular style but rather a merge and mix of different styles... but most importantly this space feels like us. We are all different and so should our homes and this is what we have been encouraging with Artisan paints and products; the possibilities.   For now we love the feelings it evokes as we walk up the stairs... a bit of a contrast to the plans we have for the main lounge downstairs where we will be working with more of a neutral colour palette...but you know us, there will be a twist (stay tuned for that)  The colour has been toned down through texture and age, and with a touch of metallics it has added a classic and elegant look to it. There is a beautiful outlook of greenery from this room which contrasts beautifully with this piece for a tropical style feel, it also pulls the view of evening sunsets in.  Painting furniture is not just about changing the colour but the opportunity to create something completely different and bespoke for your home that you can't get anywhere else.... A finish like this is not just for the classic styled home but can be the soulful piece in a contemporary space add one large  black and white print above it to balance it off and create a contemporary edge,   Whether it's Country Mustard or a bold blue like Azure Kingfisher, or a green like Greenhouse, dare to go bold with your stand alone piece .. given that this one has been painted many times over now in her life time, we think we will leave her alone  to sit in Country Mustard for a while :-) - Dorophya x   Work In Progress Video :   

A quick little video of using Artisan Dark and coloured waxes together to give our sideboard a new look. This poor sideboard has been painted so many times over, but this will be her last look for a while, the perfect sized piece to fit into a space upstairs just the wrong colour and finish, so we've gone bold with Country Mustard and a character-full look for her new look, a little behind the scenes of how we achieved it and we will do the full reveal of the piece soon!   

Photo Caption: Crockery all unpacked and stacked  I liken the Kitchen to decorative painting a lot because in many ways there's a lot of similarities... it's the heart of the home, where you come up with meals to nourish your family, an end result based on a combination of recipes and ingredients, some go by the book when it comes to cooking with exact measures and others like myself prefer to free-style it. Going by a recipe means there's less mistakes and you will by the end of it reach somewhere close to what it's mean to be. "Free-styling" allows for innovation, it means there's a lot trial and errors but if you do it enough, you get to master it. Going off the smell, consistency, look and feel, you learn more how to adjust and tweak until it's perfect. It's very similar to decorative painting which is why we decided to start "Paint Recipes" based off our years of trial and error in decorative painting, a paint recipe is a sure thing and if you follow it, you will get to your own version of it without having to go through the pain of making mistakes and starting again.  Photo caption: Lunch plates from CC Interiors  The kitchen can be one of the most creative spaces, I use to love cooking, and before going into business and becoming a Mum, somewhere in my early to mid twenties, I loved watching and obsessed over cooking shows,  spent my pay packet on purchasing pretty crockery and utensils, exploring and discovering new ingredients,  there was  something satisfying about starting off with some key ingredients and putting it together as one meal, its creativity that applies to all the senses, visual, taste, texture, smell,  but the part I enjoyed the most was the creative plating...that "cooking creativity" over the years was diminished and replaced by decorative painting which has some very similar elements to it, and fulfilled that feel good factor I would get at the end of turning nothing into something.. but with this lifestyle change I'm looking forward to re-visiting my love for cooking. "Cooking" these days to me is a luxury...you know, the type of cooking when you have the time to pour yourself a glass of wine, put the music on and just meander in your kitchen creating something with no time pressure, it becomes creative. Photo Caption: All the senses, fresh basil from the local markets $6 for a healthy bunch creating a strong basil fragrance through the kitchen, use fresh herbs to awaken all the senses.For the most part and for many of us cooking is more about function, it's dinner time, you're hungry, you need to feed the kids in 20 minutes before they have a major meltdown and just need to throw something together super quick and get it done.  Trust me, I have had my fair share of  being home late from work, boiling some pasta and dumping a warmed up can of tomatoes mixed in with some herbs and calling it spaghetti. When you're busy anything goes, and that's just life, there's nothing to be ashamed of, I call it being efficient and many of us are super efficient in the kitchen so "cooking" in my books is definitely a rare luxury that I plan to revisit more frequently in this next chapter of our lives. Photo Caption: Micro greens and fresh herbs on the stainless, for a creative pick and cook method, no more forgetting about the herbs and garnishes. Mico-green's are super quick to grow & adds beautiful colour to the kitchen Photo Caption: Darrells breads, nothing better than the smell of fresh bread on a weekend... looking forward to getting back to this!  Darrell is an amazing baker, he use to love making bread for us once upon a time when we had time, he's a lot more structured and loves precision, measurements, and the technical aspect of baking, yeast, rising, binding all  that sort of stuff I'm not, but I admire it. I'm more of a pinch of this and that,  I will read a recipe to understand the structure of how to make it and how it works but 9 times out of 10 will free style it, so together we do okay in the kitchen and as corny as it sounds it's where we have a lot of creative fun outside of decorative painting as a couple.  Photo Caption: S Hooks the most versatile little things from hanging macrame's, lighting, hung off a rail or used in the kitchen like this. The hook onto pretty much anything and we always have a good stash of these around in the house all the time.One of things I really liked about this place when we were viewing it was that the main Kitchen is almost in a room of it's own,  we're so use to open plan everything in NZ... and I always said to Darrell that my dream kitchen would be in a seperate room away from everything else, ideally I don't want to have to sit in the lounge or dining and look at the mess I made, plates and cups waiting to be done throughout the day and that pressure of keeping things clean and sterile with it being connected to the rest of the home. I can be slightly OCD with some things, so sitting in the lounge watching a show whilst seeing a stack of dishes through the corner of my eye can give me a slight eye tick.  Now we didn't build this house, so it's not my dream Kitchen but it's almost there with it being an "almost" seperate room, 3 and a half (almost 4 walls, bar an open doorway) surrounding it.  With all this in mind we've decided to "set the kitchen up" differently this time based on the space we have, and the thoughts I listed above, a balance of form and function with it weighing more on function. Photo caption: Use contrasting textures and materials on bench tops  to define spaces/areas and keep it organised. This benchtop will be painted but for now our marble tray from Maytime Living is used to hold these little goodies by the cook top.  We're so use to looking through glossy magazines where the Kitchen is minimal, pristine, sterile, everything behind glossy closed doors, packed and hidden away, often the less you can show the better and including myself (until now) many of us aspire to have our Kitchens look like this.  I don't know about you, but to me and our lifestyle it's always been an unreachable goal "A beautiful magazine worthy kitchen" feels like when you've had a massive spring clean, a huge wipe down in your kitchen, went away on holiday with no one in it, arrived back weeks later to that pristine look with no sign of frying, boiling, steaming evident, no sign of any cooking utensils or  kids. Maybe when it's just Darrell and I and we're retired we may go back to aspiring to this. If you have a huge butlers kitchen to keep your mess in, you're lucky and we explored this idea ourselves for this new place but it didn't make sense to me to  hide away in what often is set up like a walk in wardrobe to do your creative cooking and not use the large "kitchen that would merely be a display"  The kitchen for us at this place anyhow is  a gentle balance of form versus function, and we've always been big with our clients on making your home beautiful but functional in a way that it suits your family and the lifestyle you live or want to live.  This time around I want to walk in and feel inspired by it all, much like a chefs kitchen in a restaurant or like my paint studio,  I want to walk in and feel a little excited, reboot my love for cooking and feel like I can make a mess, explore and create, I want to see all my tools and  I want to see all of my ingredients, seeds, herbs, carbs and protein. I want visual inspiration in the kitchen, a place where I can hideaway and create.  So we've gone against the grain with this one and everything is out on display, the appliances, the jars of seeds, herbs and spices, the potatoes, onions, the micro-greens we're growing,  fresh and dried herbs, the whisk the spatula, the juicer, coffee machine, chopping boards and knives... but with form...organised. Using a series of different and odd  style jars for storage, adding a bit of informality, creating visual depth. I felt if I used all the same jars it made it too uniform and "stiff", and I also love the idea of not having to rummage through the corner of pantry to find a box of paprika, its all colourful ready and waiting patiently to be chosen...A stainless steel bench to frame off all the appliances, spatulas and tools (there are some great stainless benches available over at trademe by the way, just search it)  when it comes to wear and tear they're awesome, you can be as hard as you like on it's surface, roll your dough straight over, hot pots, plates and at the end a good creative session just scrub down and you're good. It's no surprise why these are in commercial kitchens... and also always used in our paint studios and even in our paint manufacturing. It's a concept that works for this space and us, it feels creative and real,  it's organised and disorganised, and when you walk in, you know it's all about making food and I hope that when we have our nieces and nephews come over they will all be inspired to spend time in this space making cookies and muffins and feel like they can. We've certainly noticed our daughter being more comfortable in this kind of layout and as a result more involved with helping out in the kitchen and making dinner.  I would not be me though if I did not plan to paint it. I do plan to paint the legs of the stainless steel bench and the poles around the shelving in Velvet Luxe to match the Kitchen cupboards (also going to be painted),  mainly because I want to make it ours, and it will help to create continuation around the room even though the stainless steel bench was added into the room and was not part of it, but by painting it to match the kitchen it will flow and  seem as if was  part of the original plan rather than added in as an after thought and this is the power of colour and paint finishes, being able to combine various odds and make them cohesive as one. Photo caption: Everything is out plugged in ready to go, from the food processor, juicer to air fryer, a lot of this has been gifted to us over the years,  and we've always had them behind cupboard doors collecting dust (not the coffee machine that's always been out and a must) the more that's out and visible, the more you you'll utilise it, the more creative you get... Photo caption: Imperfectly, perfect organic fruit from the markets, trying to change and explain to our daughter that bad looking fruit is actually better for you, which really makes you think, those tomatoes you get in the supermarket stay perfect for a really really long time... Our Kitchen theory is much like this fruit bowl, if it's full visible, it gets eaten/ used, and so far it rings true So one side of the main Kitchen is all unpacked, the crockery is organised and the other side of the Kitchen is just about to be unpacked, and then theres two more to do.. it's far from being completely done. At the moment we're all about getting a rough lay out down and things to a functional point with this whole moving thing. We'll show you more when we're getting ready to paint this room so you get a better idea of the space, but for now sharing our thoughts over this unconventional layout of "everything out"  the balance of form &  function to induce creativity in the Kitchen. Having a semi separate room for the Kitchen is nothing new and is often done and found through Europe and many places overseas. Open plan kitchens are huge here in NZ and in particular, in new builds, you do find Kitchens in older bungalows and Villas disconnected from the other areas. To be fair we're not sure if we would lay things out like this in an open plan, having just gone through this exercise, I think we would certainly add aspects of this in as there are so many things functionally and visually that we love about it, but it does raise the question of whether our modern designs of pristine open plan kitchens is designed for use and the creativity of cooking  or whether cooking is a dying thing taken over by all the convenience of takeaways, fast foods and that in this modern age it's a space that is less used therefore is more about design aesthetics, but I suppose that is all reliant on the family living there, their lifestyle and everyone of us is different....        

Here's our first project, painting light/lampshades! My studio is yet to be unpacked, boxes all still around but taking a little break from it all to do these up which have been giving me a little eye tick the last few days, they're from our bedroom so I've had to stare at them for a couple of weeks now, and with a spare hour, I've grabbed the phone put it on a makeshift stand painted them and now sharing. It's a small thing, but it's part of the "detail" and has made a huge difference in the room already. Now metallic shades, I haven't seen any around in the stores or through our design suppliers yet so using the right tools and artisan paints it's a great way to create something completely bespoke. It's been a while since I've run a workshop or done a tutorial video so a bit rusty on that front but if there's one message I want to put out there from this is that even the most unlikely object, decor piece or furniture that you think can't possibly fit into you home, probably can be, a little imagination can go along way and with Artisan Chalk Paint, being able to adhere to pretty much any surface, there's not a lot it can't change and the beauty is you get to re-design it to suit what you're looking to create in terms of look, feel and style of your home, and secondly it doesn't take long to do! Take a look at the Video which is kind of like a full tutorial, remember load and spread thinly with your Staalmeester brush when painting with Chalk Paint, and the spalter brush is the hero here with the Metallic Creme... enjoy! 

One big passionate adventure, is the best way to describe our journey in the arts and now science of decorative painting...We've never been afraid of change, and it's really what's taken us to where we are today, always searching for new ideas, better ways to do things, always open for learning and evolving.  It's taken us on this mad fun unpredictable exciting ride, that started in the garage of our home and when you're married to your business partner and are both madly into the same thing, everything runs just a wee bit faster, what feels like a million miles an hour and has taken our lives  into one big artistic overdrive. Our friends call us mad but we wouldn't change one bit of it.  Photo caption: packing and clearing out, you may have spotted one of these images on our social media pages recently....those boxes you see were just the homewares we've collected over the years! p.s Rubbish bags are great for packing towels and linens when you're on the move... We have (apart from a bit of travel) lived pretty much in Auckland all our lives. It's been our place, our home... our start, middle and present. It's where we have built friendships, relationships, clients and customers...But just now, that has all changed...Like many, over the "Covid Period" we began to re evaluate "life" both personally and professionally. Our journey has not come without sacrifice and family time has been one of the biggest things that we have had to sacrifice in the last 10 years, that's  us working most weekends, weeknights and travelling back and forth all hours of the day and sometimes nights as well doing all sorts of crazy hours. It takes an enormous amount of strength and resilience to start a new concept, grow a business, from nothing whilst having a marriage and raising a family. We are  "always on the go" and to be honest that's how we like to live it,  it's all our daughter has ever known, Mum and Dad have always got a project going on but we have always worked towards the day where we can still be "on the go" but have more time to be with and around her and there is no better year to jump at this for us than 2021.  Photo caption: We've enjoyed some amazing years living on the coast in Auckland and our local beach a minutes walk from our house will be missed. Our daughter has literally grown up on this beach.... With a growing network of Artisan retailers and the need for a larger warehouse space for paint manufacturing, we recently made the big decision to move both our home and warehouse out of Auckland, the big smoke, the only home our daughter has known and the place we have called home all our lives. Photo Caption : An amazing place we've called home... Goodbye Auckland. The Artisans have moved and we are now in the stunning Bay of Islands, the winterless north, subtropical climate, stunning beaches  with plenty of fresh organic produce, it's an "artsy" area with plenty of creativity and its a place we visited just briefly over the Xmas holidays and immediately fell in love with.  Our first day arriving on the property, and that brilliant sunset across the skies was a great ending to a massive day of unloading the trucks    It wasn't a hard decision as we knew in our hearts immediately this was the place for us, it just felt right,  we viewed the property for about an hour and a half, made an offer, sold our home in Auckland in 4 days, packed home and the warehouse and all the machinery, made the move up in 5 truck loads, all done and dusted within a month, so if any of you have noticed that we've been slightly MIA on social media lately, now you know why. If you haven't noticed then we've done a good job of keeping things active during this massive relocation:-)   Photo caption: a much needed early morning coffee whilst recovering from the previous day of moving... Adrianna, learning how to reach up, open and swing the gate into the paddock...a novel idea for her. A big exciting adventure is how we're viewing this, with a custom built warehouse on a lifestyle block built to suit everything we do and want to do in the future, a large homestead to paint and transform the hell out of, and loads of land to try our hand at landscaping and gardening, it's a new adventure that we've decided to open up and share. When we were in retail we shared everything we knew, what we were doing daily, weekly, monthly on social media.... however opening up your home and your new lifestyle  that you know nothing about certainly comes with a bit of hesitation and reservation but as the title of this blog says "life starts at the end of your comfort zone"    We don't have a clue what we're going to do with all this land, neither of us having any farming or gardening background, and having switched to a plant based diet recently  for health reasons, neither of us have any interest in farming animals other than maybe a couple of lambs that we promised our daughter she could have as pets  if we moved to a rural site. So the outdoors is yet to be decided but what we do know is we want to turn this large homestead into "home", in Artisan Paints and Products of course and we we've decided to document and share it along the way.... not just painting side of things but the whole lifestyle change and journey. Photo caption: Taking a break from all the unpacking to enjoy our new local spot for inspiration... nature is so good for the soul and creativity   As I write this I am currently surrounded in boxes and boxes of stuff that are constantly staring at me waiting to be opened. They say moving houses is one of the most stressful things you can do in life, and they're not wrong there, packing a decade of your life into boxes as well as your business was no easy feat, that in itself was a pretty emotional journey filled with memories that you are kind of saying goodbye to when you not only leave your home but also the city you've grown up in. But it's done  and here we are in the sunny Bay of Islands and as I sit on our deck with a glass of wine writing this first entry, staring out to the palm tree lined landscape that surrounds us,  l'm excited to start this adventure....so we invite you follow this lifestyle blog through our facebook page "Artisan AT Home NZ" click here to like and follow the page and also click here to follow us on instagram under Artisan.At.Home by clicking here, we'll share our findings of adjusting to  the "country life" a bit of gardening, food, a whole lot of learning and whatever else this adventure takes us to, with a whole lot of painting thrown in! We look forward to seeing you pop up on the pages .... stay tuned xx - Dorophya Photo caption: Quick shot from where I am as I finish this first entry