We don’t have family in Wellington, so our spare room is frequently inhabited by family. I wanted to add some art but didn’t want to make it feel like a motel, so chose to decorate with a few of my favourite old black and white family photos. Some are over 100 years old and I love having them around. 

My wide angle camera lens makes the room look huge and the display seem tiny, but I can assure you things are in appropriate proportion in real life!

I used scanned copies of the photos (I would never frame the originals for fear of sun damage), so was happy using cheap frames. I picked up loads of different white, timber, black and gold frames at Briscoes and The Warehouse; I love the eclectic mix.  Even if spacing them out and hanging them took HOURS.

I have a big mix of photos on the wall; some of them are historic, some are beautiful, and others are there for comic value. I think some would make great postcards actually. I love these old photos so much I thought I’d share some with you:

This is my granddad! He looks 2 or 3 to me. Isn’t he cute?

This is my great-grandmother’s sister, Aunty Leah. I think she is just gorgeous.

I adore this photograph, actually from my husband’s family.
These little sugar plum fairies are his Nana’s ballet class in the 1930s.

My grandfather served in J-Force following WWII, this is his troop on duty in Japan.

One of my all time favourites. These little ones are my Dad (on the right), his twin sister (on the left), and their little brother (in the middle), dressed up for a party, and not looking overly happy about it. I’ll leave it to you to deduce what my father is dressed up as, but keep in mind this was the West Coast in the 1950s!

My great grandfather worked for Wright’s butcher in Dunedin, probably about 1910. I think he did the deliveries with this horse and cart.

These three ladies crack me up. One is my great-grandmother, one is her sister (they’re the two on the outside in case you can’t spot the resemblance!), and I think the other lady was a family friend.

Thanks for indulging my nostalgia! Now all I’m looking for to add to my spare room is a Crown Lynn swan…

Do you love looking through old family photos?

We moved into a brand new house last year, and I’ve been slowly getting around to finishing the decor in each room. Last month’s project was my ‘study’, a little nook at the front of our house. Until now, it has served as a dumping ground for stuff that I didn’t have a place for … but now is a light little room where I can hang out and – let’s face it, we’re all friends here – play with pretty stationery!

I wanted to keep the room mainly white, as it’s such a small space. So the desk and chair are from Freedom Furniture (Willow desk and Villena chair). Then for an accent colour I decided on orange. I don’t know why! I’m not usually a big orange fan! But it seemed so fresh and colourful.

Some of the details:

On the windowsill, the white swan is from The Warehouse (so is the orange, heart-shaped rubbish bin – 70c!). And I had a couple of Penguin books already, plus Michael King’s History of New Zealand (I knew 7th form history would come in handy one day!).

Hihi the stitchbird was a Trade Me find, and I know the picture’s blurry but I love this owl eraser so much! I found it at Auckland’s Passion for Paper. And this cute string and scissors set is from macy home.

And I have almost no use for them, but I obsessively collect coloured pencils. A small selection on display!

Add some black and white wedding photos in cheap and cheerful frames from Briscoes …

and we’re all done. Ah. So nice and tidy.

And the best things is, even certainly family members match the colour scheme.