Those Crafty Scandinavians

Ok ... our quest for a funky TV stand continues ... after traipsing through Knifepoint's homemaker centre (an exercise in futility if ever there was one), and scowering the greater gertrude-smith area of Fitzroy, we ended up on PO's recommendation at Grandfathers Axe in Northcote.

This place is an absolute hive of retro danish and 20th Century modern furniture!!! If you are partial to a bit of scandinavian wood then this is the place for you. And being relatively unworked on, most of the pieces sold are going for a relatively cheaper rate than those found in the more polished design based furniture boutiques like Three Quarters et al.

We found inspiration in this 40s serving tray which has just enough quirk to fit in comfortably with the other appurtenances in our ramshackle living room. But at $450 (for those in the know this isn't too shabby a price) we had to do the whole "walk around the store again twice before leaving empty handed" thing.

So feeling the old retail hunger pang, we drove to Ikea and got lost in a swirl of flatpacked, modulated madness, covered in a sheen of that odd and slightly vinegary smell that Ikea has and with a soupcon of pram rage thrown into the mix.

We were inspired by this simple modular style blue crate intriguingly called PS Bintje - it was basically a stack of crates in varying sizes that could be bolted to whatever permutation you like ... all painted in a cheery blue ... this started us thinking of other possibilities.

The next thing that caught our eye was the chunky Lack Wall shelving in these brilliant colours, black, red, pastely blue, and butter yellow, and that started us thinking of colour combinations.

Then we found the simple frames of the Besta storage unit ... just the right height with 2 shelves and not looking too poxy at all. We tried thinking of a way we could incorporate the chunky coloured Lack shelving into the Bestra Storage unit frame, but the proportions were all wrong, and there wasn't an already pre-cut length to suit.

Then it hit me ... buy the cheapo Besta storage unit, get some spray paint and voila ... we could create our own little panegyric to Mondrian ... and that would sit very nicely under the Primary Colours of our Arkely print.

So I will endeavour to document this transformation of ugly flatpack duckling into funky (and slightly pretensious) Mondrian Swan in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.