Bank Holiday Homeware Hunting by Maz

A tale of the trials and tribulations of finding the perfect ware, by Maz at Style Treaty!

I hope everyone had as productive a bank holiday weekend as I did. My search for the perfect white tableware is over (Mary T has had to listen to this for months so I’d say she’s as relieved as I am!). I wanted to find the plainest whitest ware I could get, I wanted to buy them separately as I only wanted plates and side plates. (I have cereal bowls from the simply white collection in Dunnes and I have an impressive collection of Disney mugs that I have collected from holiday destinations with Disney Stores).

On the suggestion of my significant other we took a drive to Bunratty on Bank Holiday to have a look at Avoca and Meadows and Byrne. First we called into Avoca to look at their collection of books. I found a great book on Dining spaces and a great one on Kitchens, I think I’ll be making the trip back out there to get those at some stage. They also have a great selection of Cookbooks and luxury food items. Of course they also have clothes and accessories but on this particular day our focus was household!

It was then onto Meadows and Byrne, where I found the holy grail of tableware from this collection. I was able to buy these separately so I got 6 plates (€4 each) and 6 side plates (€2 each).



Here are some of my other favourites from Meadows and Byrne

This table would fill our whole apartment at the moment but in the meantime I can imagine it in the house I don’t have yet….



It would comfortably sit 8 people and is a lovely light colour, €799 for the table and €198 for the chairs. You can also get an extension set to make the table even bigger!!

This Onda dinner set has 50% off at the moment



They also have some lovely glassware, like these Zara wine glasses.



€4.95 each

I would definitely recommend Meadows and Byrne if you’re looking for any Kitchen or home ware. It’s a lot more reasonable than I thought it would be!!

Past Times

Do any of you remember the Past Times store that used to reside on Cruises St. in Limerick? I think it was where the current Thornton's shop is... wasn't it? I used to love that shop and was devastated when it closed, it was always a great place for Christmas and Birthday presents for Mums and Grandmothers!

I was just browsing on their online shop and they have such beautiful quaint gifts such as...

These planters would look great in a conservatory or even by a window in your living room, you can either rest them on a shelf or hang them from the ceiling. They cost £39.99 (approx €58.). To me they look like an old birdcage. If you do happen to find an old bird cage in an antique shop or car boot sale then I'd advise you to snap it up, paint it white and you've got a budget version of these planters!



I love this dragon fly perfume bottle, it's costs £12.99 (€19. ish) and has a dropper inside. I love the ornate detail.



This Blue & White Ball Box which imitates Staffordshire ironstone design would be the perfect home for any treasures or trinkets that you currently have thrown on your dressing table! £10. (approx €15.)



And here's a pretty way to hide your dirty laundry! As the website suggests, this would be very handy to take with you on holidays. This costs £16.99 or €25.



Unfortunately they only seem to ship to UK addresses but they do still have a store on Wicklow St. in Dublin and Fountain St. in Belfast, definitely on my "to be visited list" next time I'm in Dublin. I remember years ago when the store was in Limerick I spent all of my birthday money one year on a Christmas Snow Globe (which seems unusual seeing as my birthday is in August!). It had a mahogony base and a large globe with a girl ice-skating and when you wind it up it plays an Austrian waltz, this still has pride of place on my mantel piece every Christmas!

Past Times also has some beautiful garden pieces, but in protest of the disappearance of our heat-wave I'm going to hold off on doing a post about these until the sun comes out again!

Compliment Your African Art

I love these Klondike lamps from Minnie Peters. I think these lamps would be perfect if you have a few pieces of African Art in your home, little statues etc. The dark wood would go great with the ebony and walnut of African statues and ornaments. They would also work just as well in any room with walnut furniture and cream soft furnishings. These lamps remind me of tribal African shields and are very different to Minnie Peter's usual pieces which are usually ornate and elegant like this Parisian wall light.

Garden Party Essentials

In preparation for my BBQ Friday evening I paid a visit to Dunnes to look for some of those lanterns that I spoke about in the last post. I went to the one on Childer's Road but unfortunately they didn't have any. But I did find some gorgeous tableware. They have tough plastic items in beautiful bright summer colours, I could have bought everything there! Pay them a visit if you want to brighten up your garden party with some colourful serving dishes, salad bowls, salad spoons, wine glasses, coloured ice cubes, coloures cocktail sticks... the list goes on!

Hope everyone had a great long weekend!

La La La La La La Long Weekend...

With the long weekend so close you can almost reach out and touch it, and with the unexpected heat wave we're having set to continue then I'm sure there are more than a few of you planning a BBQ over the next few days!

If you haven't already got your BBQ sorted for this summer then you should take yourself down to Cunningham's Garden, Tipp. Road, Limerick as they have a great range of Sunshine and Legend BBQs in stock. But the best thing about these is the accessories you can get for these BBQs that could actually help to turn the cooking part of the BBQ into an enjoyable task!

I love BBQs but as a veggie I'm often left just eating bread with a few roasted onions, that's why I think this Wok Hot plate is the best invention ever! You remove the griddle or char-grill plate and insert it with this plate so you can stir-fry to your heart's content! Genious!



This warming rack can fit a lot of the BBQs that Cunningham's have in stock, it's the perfect way to keep food warm while your guests are queuing up for seconds!



This Barrel cooker lid means that you can roast whole joints of meat (and maybe some bread or a pasta bake for us veggies!) as it transforms your BBQ into an oven.



If I haven't convinced you yet then these gorgeous garden lanterns might encourage you to decorate your garden and invite your friends over this weekend. These gorgeous colourful lanterns were featured on Homebug last month and are avaliable from Dunnes. Perfect for some cheap and cheerful decorations!



And if there really is no convincing you then I give up, let the experts do the cooking for you by heading to Limerick City for Riverfest this weekend and sample the goods at the River-Feast BBQ on George's Quay.

Rectangular Vase

Maz pointed out this vase to me earlier in the week and I immediately fell in love with it. She suggested that it would look great with some short stemmed flowers - I couldn't have suggested anything better myself!



You could also fill this vase with some colourful summer posies or some simple daisies and use it as a pretty centre piece for a brunch or lunch with friends, dress the table in a nice white table cloth with white napkins and you'll have an instantly elegant table.

If you're looking for good quality flowers on a budget then take yourself down to Lidl or Aldi. I buy flowers here almost every weekend. Last week I bought a really nice bunch of white tulips in Lidl for €2.99, on my way home I stopped for petrol and saw the exact same bunch for €6.99 at the petrol station, I don't think there's any justifying that!

The vase above costs €24.50 from Instore

Design Onion

I love unique or unusual pieces of furniture and I've just recently learned of the work of Limerick born furniture designer Eric O'Donnell. Design Onion was formed just this year by Eric and another very talented furniture designer, Donegal-born Ronan Lowery.

Both men studied Furniture Design & Manufacture at Letterfrack furniture college and their website tells you that they "strive to create unique and innovative pieces of furniture combining traditional woodworking techniques with modern and unusual materials".

This is certainly true of Eric O'Donnel's thatched bench, this was made as a live project for the National Museum of Ireland and was recently featured in the Sunday Times. Click here to read more about it.






Here's another beautiful piece featured on the website, this Walnut coffee table (I love anything walnut!) is said to draw its inspiration from ocean swells.



To check out more of their work or to contact Design Onion go to www.designonion.net

Time for Tea

If you're on the look out for a nice tea set then Carraig Donn is always a good bet. Here are a few nice ones that they have at the moment, I love the grey one, I think it's the cake stand that's winning me over!

Keep that Fire Burning in Summer

Despite all those global warming warnings I doubt we can be really guaranteed a Mediterranean summer here in Ireland just yet! In the event of some chilly evenings I think a patio fire is so much nicer than one of those big ugly patio heaters. I would light a fire inside nearly every day of the year as I think it brightens up the room so much, so this is the perfect way to give me a good excuse for lighting a log fire even in summer!

This one is from Unicahome and costs $450.



If the designer option isn't for you then there are plenty of the ones below available on ebay.ie with prices starting from around €72. I actually prefer this one! I think it would look great with some nice black wrought iron patio furniture with cream cushions.



I know that Lidl did a simple one for a much cheaper price last year, no doubt it will be coming soon again!

Changing Rooms

My Dad bought me this book for Christmas, it was just a few months after I had qualified in Interior Design so he thought it would be a good practical present. Dad's are always great for buying practical presents, mine especially - he also bought me a torch to keep in the boot of my car, practical!

This turned out to be a great little book, if you are pretty good at putting a room together but you find yourself lacking in the final steps, the little decorative touches that transform the room to an actual designed space then this is the book for you.



Amazon review:

There are no wild premises or promises here. This is about handy hints to
update, transform, or liven up your home. According to Barker it's the
"essential finishing touches that bring a room scheme together and contribute so
much to the first impression as the owners walk through the door".

In the first section, Styling from Scratch, the main text (and there's
a lot of it) amounts to basic common sense about creating a new look home, with
advice such as covering sofas with throws, thinking about storage, and throwing
out clutter. This advice continues in the following section, Instant Make-overs,
which focuses on specific rooms. The eye-catching 5-minute facelift tips, are
largely sensible reminders: use floral patterns for a strong message, add a
sensual touch with throws, use lights for a sculptural as well as lighting
element.

It's the final section, Makes, which is the strongest and which won't
disappoint fans of the Changing Rooms TV series. There are 25 projects to have a
go at, making this an adult child's delight. Choose from making laminated paper
blinds, Japanese style seating, or even the sunburst mirror--a an ideal handmade
Christmas present?!