Purple Oak Tree Properties, Interior Design & Oak Furniture

Years ago my family went on mass to the Isle of Wight for long carefree camping holidays.  The weather forecast were fantastic, hot and dry all the way.  We had a caravan and a motley collection of tents, no electric hook ups, no tv, no washing machines . . . . .  We always had a great time on these simple sites.  One of our favourite pilgrimages was to a seriously old manor house in the middle of the island – nowhere near anything else.  It advertised itself as the oldest inhabited property and it certainly felt it.  The decor and furnishings were wonderfully authentic and it made us all want to have old cottages from the same age!

Although none of us have achieved that since, in fact we’re all ultra modern, but it has made us all appreciate the homes we do have.  Giving more attention to the upkeep for example.  They won’t last anywhere near as long, but they’ll see us out!

If you buy a very modern home, it is almost obligatory to fill it with scandinavian rubber wood, cheap and wonderfully long lasting furniture.  The 1970s brought us Habitat, the store that had the most up to date, uber trendy furniture.  Everything was very streamlined and expensive, compared to the swedish mega outlets that furnish our starter homes for a fraction today.

This made my mind wander back to when my husband and I first set up a home together after years of sharing furnished flats.  That was an experience – one I would not wish to repeat, but also, not to ever overlook.  The mix of ghasly stained, lumpy, ugly furniture we put up with!  Battered looking chairs, tables with mended legs, wardrobe doors with missing handles and a collection of tiny little holes all over the back panels.  It made me appreciate fully how lucky I am to have nice looking, good quality furniture today.  Ive earned it!

We all need to look at our houses and homes at some time in our busy lives.  Once upon a time, say just after the early 1920s,  we would have been happy with the small scullery kitchen, the tiny draining board that also had to act as a worktop.  Then there was the lack of kitchen cabinets – no wall mounted cupboards for the china and other crockery.  Usually there was one large walk-in cupboard that acted as a larder and pan store.  There was no room for a washing machine, tumble drier or dishwasher of course – they hadn’t been invented then!

It seems unbelievable to us today that families got by like that.  We demand so much more of houses now and our interior designers have a lot to answer to when a reworking or remodelling is needed to give more working space, or that larger lounge and dining area.

The wonderful smell of oak cabinets and oak furniture.    It’s funny isn’t it, of all the materials in the world that can be used for anything in the home, be it floors, tables, doors, window frames – once you add the oak feature, it becomes something much more special.

This was borne out when I visited a super art deco place in a nearby town.  It is stunning throughout, although a little dark for my taste is many of the somewhat bijoux rooms.  The ideas were so ahead of their time in the late 1920s.  There are fabulous panels in the flooring, tables with beautiful finishes.  China cabinets reflecting the movers and shakers of their day.  When we want something to reflect how well we are getting on in life, the only way to make that mark is to use a quality product.  You cannot get any more quality thatn a good old fashioned peice of oak, whatever it be used for.

Now that spring has truly sprung into life, and the cold dankish winter weather  has departed for a few weeks, it is just about the right time to be thinking up upgrading the decor or design in our properties.  Maybe that old lounge set up can be brought up to date, or the bedrooms could have new wardrobe and storage units to make them more adaptable to every day living.

Thre are some wonderful ideas out there and the glossy magazines that line the supermarket shelves are full of this scheme or that.  As it is around Easter time that families go into overdrive to start thehome improvements, this is a very good time to actually sit and take stock of what we already have and how perhaps a professional company could be brought in to update the home with their expertise and interior design knowledge.

On a recent holiday up to the Peak District, my companion was eagerly describing a programme she had been avidly glued to for 2 hours in the previous week – the final instalment was due to air whilst we were away.  I was wondering if the cottage we were heading to actually had tv, neither of us had bothered to check this point as we usually didn’t bother as a rule.  The matter of  whether there was or was not a tv began to make inroads into the journey.

I am pleased to report that although the tv reception was pretty abysmal, the cottage did have enough broadband internet strength for us to watch bits on tv and the rest on computer.  The subject was interior design – making a feature in every room from free existing products and without spending anything.  There were great ideas from a professional interior designer and we were enthralled.  A good time had by all!

Keeping up with interior decorating trends is a much easier thing to achieve these days.  There is a miriad of glossy magazines that line the shelves of the local supermarkets, posh and standard alike.  There are more people buying the house improvemet books than ever before.  Also, day time tv now has many home improvement programmes throughout the schedules and it is possible to get the most amazing ideas on there and also online.

If interior design changes are due for your house, it can really pay to talk to your local interior design studio.  Call them in for an informal chat and they can indeed show how best to use this space or that.  The choice of materials will also be a feature they will offer advice on.  They know the markets well and will be able to say what is currently a good buy and what will outlast just a trend.

One of the oustanding features of a holiday, be it homebound or any kind of trip abroad, is the ability to see all kinds of buildings everywhere around us.   There are so many influences out there that can inform and enlighten our way of thinking when we get back home.  When we do return, particularly after a very memorable and immensley happy trip,  it’s incredible how soon we start eperiencing a feeling of dissatisfaction with our immediate surroundings.  This is often the case when we have been able to visit somewhere really beautiful with stunning interior decor and different furniture displays.  Of course, they look absolutely amazing in those situations – they’re right for the position.

We can bring a modern transformation to our own humble homestead by engaging an interior design team to bring fresh ideas and encapsulate what you liked in your holiday location, perhaps downsizing if a little ambitious!

In the early part of the 20th Century, after and as a result of the first world war, there was a change in the demographic of this country caused by the tragic loss of so many young men.  Families and whole villages were torn assunder and the traditional roles within household staffing and industrial affairs changed for ever.  Since the 1950s once the building works had been put in place to rehouse so many bomb affected families, there has been peaks and troughs in the house building industry.  The late 1960s saw a boom in the private estate building and in the late 1990s, larger very comfortable houses were being built for the more prosperous working and middle class family.

These are the houses today that are being refurbished, or in some cases, completely redesigned and rebuilt.  Oak is a very popular coice for refitting and refurnishing properties.  So reliable a material is ideal for all projects.

Over the years we have bought one house after another, in the old fashioned way of starting with the cheap Victorian terrace, no central heating but with a large upstair bathroom and three bedrooms.  The kitchen had already been made very long and narrow by the knocking through of 2 small parlours and the squalid little outside sink area.  We never had the money to do anything other than just decorate and stop the place looking too old.

Our idea was to redesign the insides, knock through to add an ensuite on the master bedroom by taking a lump from the second bedroom next door.  These pipe dreams never got off the drawing board for us but our immediate neighbours did manage one or two interior design achievements.  They were able to engage the services of a professional interior design studio who were absolutely fantastic.  They always told us it was their best decision ever taken.