Thursday, June 5, 2008

cinnamon rooms


My tiny house on the farm is finally starting to look like a home.

Space scented with huge cinnamon sticks found in a Joburg industrial catering shop where the flour comes in 50kg bags and everything is done on a grand scale. The walls are rough textured - an accident of my budget constraints that just works beautifully (tough exterior Cemwash paint aptly named ‘Clarens’). The uplighters are chicken nesting baskets based on an old French design from a garden shop (on sale of course). The kitchen dresser was a hideous monster inherited in the original building. Everyone shrieked 'burn it!'. But something told me transformation was hidden under five layers of variously coloured, gluey, oil paint (I counted because I did a lot of paint removal with my own fair hands). And there was.

I have yet to spend a night in the cottage (waiting for the rings so I can hang the curtains), but very soon I will be installed with dear books, sounds, fire and grace in a place that is entirely me and entirely mine and created from my own vision, energy and labour.

That’s freedom, right there.

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