Plywood Party

I would like to take a minute and a blog post to express some appreciation for Plywood! Yep you heard me right. Ever since I saw this material feature on an episode of "The House that 100k Built' which was a great series by the way, I have been researching homes that are using plywood in a variety of ways. I like the way it looks and its cheap! It's made from layers of wood sliced into sheets and compressed together. It is incredibly strong but perhaps a Marmite love or hate situation. Exposed edges mean you can see the layers of wood. I personally think this adds a lot of character but some may feel this looks less solid and cheap in comparison to solid wood.

The use of Plywood is not something new, it was used most famously in the 1950's to make the Eames Lounge chair and ottoman which today is iconic with modern style design.

I have been looking at some modern homes and how they have used Plywood.

 From Made Architects 

 Marieke's Modern Industrial Home on Homes to Love

 Dwell

I discovered Unto This Last who started in 2001 with their open workshop in Brick Lane. A place to make and sell. Using birch plywood to make beautiful furniture of simple, elegant design. 

Carpenter Tom Lindfield has been using Plywood to make bespoke units. He uses birch plywood for its swirling grain pattern and suggests picking out your own sheets so you can choose the patterns you like as every sheet is different. I have been following his work on Instagram, and loving how versatile this material appears to be.
Heres is some of Tom's fantastic work, for more information you can email Tom on tom.lindfieldcarpentry@gmail.com who is based in the Cambridge area.

Please share below any plywood projects, I would love to take a look.

Love Lemon x

Lemon Loves #2

So what are my loves at the moment, well to start with I have really enjoyed catching up on lots of blogs recently and following some great sewing bloggers since completing a dressmaking course in March. I particularly enjoy the Dolly Clackett blog featuring so many amazing dresses in such a variety of brilliant fabrics. I have also enjoyed reading Randomly Happy, Tilly and the Buttons, This Blog is Not For You and What Katie Sews. A whole new world of handmade for me and so many inspiring ideas. I would be grateful for any recommendations for dressmaking blogs. 

A few weekends back I was in London catching up with some friends which was so lovely, we had food and cocktails in Brixton village which I have wanted to do for a while after so many people had told me about it. So much amazing food to choose from, we went for Tapas which we all really enjoyed. I also popped into ED which is a Rigby and Mac store in East Dulwich, it's near where I used to live and I always loved popping in to browse all the colourful and quirky homeware. I bought some great rustic wall letters that are made from old boat wood. A fab addition to the growing collection of items on my hallway wall. 

I started another dressmaking course at Felixstowe Sewing School and I am so excited to be making the Emery dress by Christine Haynes. I really wanted to try an independent pattern this time and did lots of research, checking out all the amazing pattern designers out there. For me the Emery dress was the perfect style and I found some very pretty Liberty fabric at Clothkits who were also offering 25% off at the time. I haven't actually ever bought Liberty fabric so it feels very special to be using some for this dress.

Sun and more sun, it's times like these when I truly appreciate living by the sea. I have been out on my bike with the kids and we have loved sunny trips to the beach. 

There are many things I love about where we live, it's mostly about the beach and friendly people but also smaller things that make me happy like fresh bread from the tiny bakers around the corner that sells the most amazing bread. You can't beat fresh bread and this seeded loaf is my favourite.

I am working on giving my guest room a little makeover, so hopefully I will be sharing that very soon. It's very exciting putting it all together.

Love Lemon x