Indoor Outdoors - 02. Furniture Hunting
Sunday 3rd October 2010
Leaving work on Saturday, I received a picture message on my mobile phone from Dave. It read, “After some initial apprehension, Marvin very quickly learnt to love the new Astroturf.” And sure enough, the picture was Marvin in the dining room on a bright green floor!! Throwing on my hands-free kit, I called Dave as I pulled out of the carpark at Garden City.
“You got it already?!”
“Yes! It’s great! And Marvin loves having grip!”
Minus the blow-by-blow, we organised that I would drive up to his place for midday Sunday.
When I arrived, Dave suggested we get a pub lunch at the Morley Ale House. Fish & Chips & a pint of midstrength for him, chicken avocado & a midi of draught for me. Even when I’m driving, I’ll not drink midstrength. I just drink less. It was a good lunch… so long as we ignored the loud & colourful complaints of the man who wasn’t allowed in due to being banned from the venue. They served him a pint & let him drink in the courtyard but he couldn’t stay inside the building, which I thought was insane. Not sure how they think that works with responsible service - it certainly knocked the pub down a couple of notches on my rating scale.
Bunnings was on the next block from the pub… & not only do they sell outdoor furniture, but they’re open on Sundays. After finishing lunch we headed over to Bunnings, only to find out they had only one wrought iron setting. Dave didn’t like the fold-up style, but they let me take a couple of photos so that we could keep it in mind. We moved on… but not before Dave took a moment to drool over their collection of table saws. It was like Wayne’s World, “She will be mine, oh yes, she will be mine.” But we all know that you can’t go to Bunnings & not purchase something… It just wouldn’t be manly. And so it was that Dave left with a friendly new yellow & black Stanley knife for trimming the underlay & the turf.
Completely strange for a Sunday in Perth, shopping centres outside the CBD were open. I’d known Garden City was open, as I’d managed to not be rostered on at my counter (which made my poor back very thankful), but apparently the Galleria was too. K-Mart, Red Dot, Target & HomeArt all stock outdoor furniture & décor, so we figured why not? We were there, it could work.
K-Mart had some nice cushions, a very bright umbrella & a black reclining deck chair which we both adored. They also had a patio heater that I have filed away for showing Pete later for our place, & a retro slushie maker that would be awesome for cocktails. HomeArt had nothing of interest & Target had nothing at all. Red Dot, however, was fantastic.
They had these gorgeous little statues of cherubs holding instruments. One was a harp, another was a viola, & they’d look fantastic in the room. I’m not sure how convinced Dave was though. I’ve filed them away to buy later for our prop collection at the Fotoboy studio. Adorable!!
They had two different bird baths - one with a built in light - cheap plastic potted plants & loose branches/twigs/sticks, planter boxes in the shape of wooden/wrought iron benches, plus chair cushions in friendly colours. They also had an awesome wrought iron arch with gates & a wrought iron bench with an arch, which they were using to hang all their Halloween décor from. The manager happily gave me permission to take photos & we left with broad grins on our faces from so many new ideas to work with!
Dave said he knew of a store in Malaga that specialised in the type of furniture he wanted, so we’d go looking there the following weekend before he made up his mind on anything. Once we had the furniture sorted, we would then look at décor again.
We then headed back to Dave’s to attack the Dining room floor.
Mirrored from Gillian B Photography.