La Petite Maison Française
Le Livre Noir
This is a list of suppliers and tradespersons that we have used to create our dream home. This includes local businesses in Adelaide, SA, as well as overseas businesses that we dealt with online and over the internet. We have also included our review of the services we received. There are some great business owners out there who have a wealth of information as well as competitive prices.
Adelaide Restoration Centre
John and Jordan have been a wealth of information and ever so helpful to us. When the brass bolts we ordered from Domino Brass came with the wrong fittings, they checked every single bolt to ensure there weren't any other mistakes. Jordan personally delivered one of the parts to our house so the carpenter fitting our doors would not get held up with the work.
John is the go-to guy when you need advice. He gave us valuable advice on fitting our door handles for the french doors (we didn't even buy the handles from him), and helped us find doors with matching style to our existing doors for the WC and laundry.
He is also an electrician. When we needed to have our french brass lanterns rewired, we went to him and he had them done at a much better price than we were quoted for at MItcham Antique Gallery.
If you need help with any restoration work, these are the people you should see.
Affordable Chimney Sweeps Adelaide
Hubby found Sam on the internet. We had 4 chimneys that were in sore need of cleaning. I don't think the previous owners cleaned out their chimney very much. There was always soot and debris falling down from the chimney into our rooms. All chimneys are still in working order and it appears the previous owners did use them.
However, we have no use for the chimneys as we decided right from the start that we were not going to use wood fires. Our new kitchen rangehood will also flue into the existing chimney.
With the final installation of our kitchen coming up, we were pressed for time to get the chimneys cleaned out and ready. Sam was very prompt with his reply to hubby's enquiry. He has a great special going at $150 per chimney. We had lots of leftover building material and wanted to cover up the holes in the chimney to prevent birds from nesting and other debris falling into the house. He was very obliging and did that for us at the same time for a minimal additional cost.
He was friendly, professional and prompt. We cannot recommend him enough. Definitely the person to call if you want your chimneys cleaned.
Air Everywhere
My sister has dealt with Kim through her work and she recommended him to us when we were shopping around for air-conditioning. We had existing ducted air-conditioning in the old portion of the house, and an ancient Daikin unit that had to be disconnected for the reno work.
We debated whether to reconnect the old unit or to get a brand new unit. After much discussion and advice, we decided that to reconnect the old unit to save some money was a 'penny-wise, pound foolish' idea.
We got a few quotes from different air-conditioning places, including some well-known names out there but Kim was the only one who provided us with honest and good advice, instead of trying to sell us the most expensive unit he could. He was also very flexible with scheduling as we wanted the internal unit installed first, prior to having our walls and ceiling installed.
During the installation process, his team was very professional, very tidy and considerate, taking care not to damage our walls with their ladders, or dirty our newly-painted ceilings.
This is definitely the guy you need to see for your air-conditioning needs.
A. M. Altamura Carpentry Contractor
Mike was recommended by Craig, a carpenter who did some work with our builder. He is very experienced and had the necessary skills needed to hang our custom-made western red cedar doors, and install our door hardware.
Thanks to his advice, we had three hinges installed for each door, instead of the two that was previously recommended by our builder, who incidentally is also a carpenter by trade. Our builder also gave us wrong advice about the rebate kits for the mortise locks, which was quickly corrected by MIke.
We were very happy with the final result on our beautiful doors. However, when we had him over the second time round to install new skirting boards for our two front bedrooms and the windows for our master bedroom, we were very annoyed and disappointed with his service. We were on site the entire time he was doing the work and it quickly became very clear to us that he was dragging out the time to get paid more for the job (as he had quoted us an hourly rate instead of a fixed price job as he said that with an old house, he didn't know if problems might arise and result in extra work). Hubby had to push him constantly to ensure the work was done in a timely manner. We were not happy.
Better Home & Building Inpsection Service
This is by far the best investment we have made in the entire renovation process!!! Reinhard was introduced to us by a friend who works in the building industry. He has been like having a consultant on all matters relating to the renovation works on speed dial.
As a consultant, the number of inspections and stages of inspection is discussed prior to commencement of building work. The number of inspections depends on the pressue points of each project, and can be adjusted to suit your circumstances. We decided to go with five. At each stage of the inspection, the builder is to give the building inspector notice when works for that stage is complete and ready for inspection. After the site inspection, a written report is prepared to detail any issues or problems with the work, especially if it is in relation to regulation or legislation.
This service has been invaluable to us as we have had so many problems with our builder. Being able to back up our requests for rectification with copies of the current standards and codes provides validity to our demands.
Reinhard's no-nonsense attitude also gave us assurance and confidence that he would not bow to pressure from the builder to endorse dodgy and sub-standard work. We highly recommend his service!!!!
Bone Timber Industries
Our builder very clearly gave no thought or planning to how he was going to match the new skirtings and architraves to the existing ones. When it was time for 2nd fix carpentry, he tried to convince us to go with cheap, crappy ready-made options. We had to insist that he match new to the old.
The architraves and skirting boards in our house are no longer made, which left us with only one option - custom-made. Hubby contacted a few timber suppliers and struggled to find a company that could copy our existing timber work. He tried asking for advice at Adelaide Restoration Centre and was told by another customer waiting in line to try Bone Timber Industries.
A quick visit with samples of what we needed confirmed that they could do the job. Hubby was served by a guy called Gary who was most knowledgeable and helpful. When our builder tried to go cheap on us by ordering pine for the bathroom architraves, he came to our rescue by insisting that only western red cedar should be used for wet areas.
Bone is a family business established in 1919. Today, it is still owned by the same family. Their business motto is 'we take great pride in our homes as a family and expect to sell to you and your builder exactly the same material as we would use in ours'.
Cabochon Surfaces & Fixtures
After seeing a photo of this gorgeous kitchen on Houzz, hubby and I were inspired to create our kitchen in a similar style. I managed to find out the supplier for this kitchen and sent them an email to enquire about the tiles. The tiles are hand-painted terracotta, which gives it a beautiful, unique 3-dimensional quality. There are quite a few different colours to choose from. There was one problem, the company is in the US, and shipping would be quite difficult, not to mention expensive. We decided to order some sample tiles to see what they would look like before we made a decision. When the sample tiles arrived, we fell in love right away. The tiles were beautiful, with the original, one of a kind quality that only a hand-crafted item could achieve.
My contact person at Cabochon was Jill Gonzalez and she was very helpful. She even tried to find cheaper shipping options that would suit us. Jill was very helpful in making sure our shipping cost had insurance, and she was very prompt with all her communication all the way. Her professionalism and input gave us the confidence to place an order for tiles to be shipped over from halfway around the world.
The tiles arrived in 3 boxes. All the tiles were carefully packed in bubble-wrap and enclosed in foam. There was not a single casualty. Every tile arrived in beautiful, immaculate condition. We were ecstatic and can't wait to see the tiles installed in our kitchen.
Ceramica Tile + Design
I fell in love with travertine floor tiles when I saw this beautiful photo while trawling the internet for home reno ideas. I love the uneven colour, shape, edges... To me, this floor is perfection!
Travertine is a form of limestone, created by the precipitation of calcium carbonate, usually by a geothermally heated hotspring. It is an ancient building material used by the Romans. The Colosseum and the Basilique du Sacré Cœur were built with travertine. I think it is a wonderful material.
Although used extensively in Europe, travertine is still very new to Australia. In fact, trying to find a supplier was virtually impossible. There was no demand for it here. One supplier told me that it was only after the public saw it on The Block, that they started getting enquiries about the product.
So you can imagine trying to find French-patterned travertine floor tiles was a huge task. We tried every single supplier in Adelaide. They either didn't have the colour we were looking for, or they could not get the french-patterned tiles. We finally found Sally at Ceramica on the recommendation of a lady I saw at Routleys. Sally was great. She organized a sample tile to be sent to us, and later on a full French-patterned set. She made sure the tiles we ordered were from the same batch to ensure we were happy with the colour.
Davenport Interiors
Gary has great passion and love for french antiques and that is evident in everything that he does and in the pieces he showcases at his shop. He often tells me that he buys pieces that he loves, instead of pieces that will turn a quick profit.
Honestly, if you are in the market for true French antiques, I cannot recommend this guy enough!!! We have purchased so many pieces from him for our home that I've lost count. He restores every single piece with utmost love and care and attention to detail.
If you are looking for something in particular, he will try and source it for you. When I was stuck with the dilemma of trying to find custom-made vanities that fit our style without breaking the bank, he suggested we look at converting a cabinet into a vanity. He had one in stock which was perfect in size, and he did the conversion work for us. We were so pleased with the result that we got him to search for another. So now we have two cabinets that have been converted into vanities for our bathrooms.
Disegno Luce
We bought new chandeliers for our formal lounge room, master bedroom and guest room. The italian-made chandeliers in our formal lounge and master bedroom are beautiful and have beautifully cut crystals, but the service we received from the owner of this lighting store, and from his son were horrible. We got sucked in with the much-used trap of thinking we were getting a good deal on sale. While I wouldn't say we paid more than we should have, we definitely did not get the bargain we thought we got.
On the advice of Fred the owner, we also purchased LED lightbulbs to go with all the chandeliers. He told us they came with a one year guarantee. Since installing our chandeliers, over half of them have blown, and when we returned to ask for a replacement since they were still covered by the warranty, his son told us that they couldn't keep replacing the lightbulbs since it's the poor quality of the manufacturers. Go figure!
We ordered two wall sconces to go with the chandelier in the formal lounge and when we went to pick them up, we were told that there was no paperwork and they had no record that we had already paid for the sconces. So the son calls his dad up in front of us, and they ended up having a heated argument while we stood there feeling extremely uncomfortable.
eBay seller : dadastuff
The story about how we found these Louis XV brass handles is quite amazing. Hubby went on the internet to look for pictures of door handles, trying to find something to suit the 5 french doors we planned to have in our new extension area.
I figured that trying to find 5 matching pairs of door handles was literally like looking for a needle in a haystack. It was all going to come down to luck. I thought I should get a headstart on looking for them on eBay just to better our chances (I was not very optimistic). Imagine my excitement when we found 5 identical pairs of brass handles in our beloved Louis XV style for sale on eBay. It was perfect for us!
Our handles come from a mas (farmhouse) in Provence. It is made of solid, lacquered brass, weathered by the brilliant sun and the Mistral to a beautiful patina. It will be a wonderful reminder of the wonderful time we spent in that beautiful part of the world.
We went through lots of difficulty finding a mortise lock to fit the dimensions of this handle, and a rebate kit to fit our french doors but it was all worth it in the end. We love how they look on our custom-made western red cedar french doors. Couldn't be happier.
This particular eBay seller has a range of French items. Communication was great and shipping was very prompt.
eBay seller : frenchcellar
I stumbled across this eBay seller while looking for lighting in the french style. I fell in love with a pair of gorgeous Louis XV style wall sconces and decided to purchase it. The pair of sconces arrived in perfect condition and was very well packaged. We checked with a local electrician if the sconces could be rewired to suit Australian standards and we were told that it could easily be done.
Emboldened by that success, I decided to check out a pair of Louis XV brass lanterns that he had for sale for our kitchen. We were communicating via email to determine if the dimensions would suit us. Unfortunately for us, one of the lanterns got snapped up by another purchaser. Feeling sorry for us, Laurent the eBay seller offered me a pair of Louis XV chandelier instead. They were perfect in size for our new extension. We were so happy with the chandeliers when they arrived. Weighing over 10kg each, it was amazing that it was shipped to us without any problems. We ended up purchasing a few more pairs of wall sconces to ensure consistency with our lighting throughout the house and we were so happy with our purchases.
Laurent speaks good English so you don't have to worry about having to communicate in French. I highly recommend him if you're looking for french lighting. Trust me, the prices are pretty good too.
eBay seller : go-vintage-french
Hubby stumbled across this beautiful Louis XV brass lantern on eBay. After various weeks unsuccessful searches, I had given up. Trying to find 3 identical brass lanterns seemed like an impossible task with with was almost certainly going to end in failure.
But hubby wouldn't give up. He emailed the seller and was told that he had a pair of identical lanterns. We checked the measurements and they were too small for us. We needed three. Disappointed, hubby continued looking.
A week later, he heard back from the seller. He had managed to locate a third identical lantern, and wanted to know if we were still interested. Were we interested? We paid for them within an hour of receiving the email.
The three gorgeous lanterns, with their original glass, arrived 2 weeks later, carefully wrapped in a huge box, not unlike the one our chandeliers arrived in. Shipping from Belgium was slightly cheaper compared to France.
We are very excited to see how the lanterns will look above the island bench in the kitchen.
eBay seller : mariel101
After our huge successes on the French eBay website, I decided to continue looking for light fittings and other random items we need to complete the decoration of our home in the French style.
With items like these, it is all about pure luck and the effort of looking for it. This particular seller had a chandelier with the right dimensions that suited us. The item was advertised in French, so if you didn't know the right French words to type into the search option, you would never find it. Our communication was entirely in French and she was very pleasant and helpful. The chandelier was disassembled and carefully wrapped and packaged. Shipping was ridiculously quick. We received the package in under 2 weeks.
The price was a crazy fraction of what they charge for the same thing here in antique shops. Like all our other light fittings, it had to be rewired to Australian standards but even with the rewiring cost, it was an absolute steal. This is a perfect example of what you can find on French eBay if you know how and where to look.
This lady does not speak English so communication has to be in French.
eBay seller : nulldariusz
We needed hardware for the drawers in our WIR. Again, I took to the internet, trying to find French style handles. Trying to find one with the right length was almost impossible. Even the French didn't make them anymore.
I was very fortunate to stumble upon this eBay seller who sells hardware by Bosetti Marella, an Italian company. The hardware had the style and dimensions we needed, and the price was surprisingly low. I was a little apprehensive about the quality, but when we received the order, we were very happy with the quality of the handles.
Shipping was very prompt and prices were very reasonable. Not a bad seller if you're in the market for reproduction hardware.
eBay seller : parts and bargains
Like all our other previous problems with finding cabinetry hardware, we could not find the recessed pull that we wanted for our WIR cabinets. We couldn't find the pulls in the style that we wanted. There was hardly any style available, in fact. Just your usual plain, u-shaped recessed pull in polished brass. The prices were not great either. Really, it was like the stuff you buy at Bunnings.
We decided to look on eBay and found this seller who sells a brand of hardware called Decorlux. Now I have not been able to find any information on this brand on the internet, but this seller describes it as "a brand developed and crafted by a group of master metalsmiths and hardware experts. The company produces door hardware, cabinet pulls, and bath accessories. All metal hardware is solid brass construction (except for stainless steel models), and finishes are actual brass, copper, bronze, gold, chrome, nickel, etc., as stated."
We purchased the flush pulls for the WIR first on a bit of a gamble, not knowing the quality of the product we would end up with. When it arrived, we were so happy with the feel and the weight of it that we decided to purchase pulls for our sliding internal doors to the WC and laundry too.
While the shipping charges were a bit of a pain, we are overall very happy with the quality and the products that we ended up with.
eBay seller : silkresource
I couldn't believe my luck when I found this gorgeous fabric by Scalamandré on eBay. This beautiful, heavy silk lampas fabric is a reproduction of an old French pattern circa 1730, and is based on the French chinoiserie style, which ties in beautifully with our Ritz bed.
This eBay seller deals only in fabric and they can even custom-make the fabric you want with your design and your colours. Communication and shipping was very prompt. We are so happy with our purchase that we plan to source the fabric for our curtains and other upholstery material from the same seller.
eBay seller : skittle113
The problem with decorating in the French style is once you start, you can't stop. After we found those amazing handles for our french doors, every other handle we looked at just didn't compare in style, beauty and value. I was quite happy to buy a standard handle for our laundry door from Bunnings but when hubby and I stopped by to have a look, we were horrified at the prices and the styles available. Anything else with a slight French style was going to cost the same as an as one that I could get from France anyway.
So I jumped on French eBay again. Just our luck, I found this handle in the Louis XV style, with very similar design to the handles we found for the french doors.
This seller can communicate well enough in English.
eBay seller : viedegrenier5962
I originally purchase this lot of 4 pairs of brass handles with the intention of keeping one pair for the laundry and reselling the rest back on eBay. I found them on French eBay for a really good price. They have the traditional Louis XV style, but have a much darker patina compared to the other handles.
The package arrived at hubby's work and of course he opened it to have a look. The photos don't do this handle justice. Hubby was concerned the patina was too dark for our requirements. But when he saw them, he fell in love with them and thought they would be perfect for our interior doors. He even took a photo to convince me.
So now we have 4 pairs of handles for the interior doors but no handles for the laundry. So it's back to French eBay again to trawl for another pair of handles.
This seller doesn't speak English so communication will have to be in French.
Energy Hothouse
We always knew that we had to replace our hot water system when we did the renos. We had an old gravity-fed solar system which surprisingly still worked well, but was never going to be able to cater to more than 2 adults and a dog.
Hubby started doing research on the differrent brands and models and we tried to get some quotes, but no one was offering us a good deal. There was a lady at Energy Hothouse who was very helpful and provided lots of information and advice so we decided that we would get our unit from them as their prices were on par with everyone else. However, there was no rush in getting the unit and we thought we'd just get it closer to the date we needed it for installation.
But then we saw an ad on the TV for rebates on gas hot water service and heaters. We decided this was worth looking into and hubby headed back down to find out more. As luck would have it, Rinnai was offering a cash-back offer on their units so it was a no brainer for us. The cashback paid for an additional controller and we have the Envestra rebate too on top of that. Definite winner!!!
Gas Works Unley
We wanted a large capacity heater that could potentially heat up the entire house. Because we have very high 3.8m ceilings, ducted heating was going to be very expensive to run, and quite inefficient for distributing the heat to the entire room. The benefit of having a large capacity heater is that we could circulate the heater air through our ducted air-conditioning system through the return air intake.
Surprisingly, a large capacity heater is not easy to find. We finally found a potential unit at Gas Works Unley. At least this time we managed to obtain proper specs for the unit. Our Archer heater is Australian made and is capable of heating up to 250 square metres.
The owner, Phil, was helpful enough, and his installers were very professional. However, the after sales service was lacking. We enquired about purchasing a different surround as we found a french marble mantelpiece that we wanted to put in front of the heater. We were told by the manufacturer that the surround can be custom-made to size and just had to be ordered. 3 weeks and a few follow-up calls later, we were finally quoted a price of over 1k. We said thank you but no thank you. Hubby got a friend to cut the existing surround down to our required size for free (well we gave him a case of beer for his efforts).
Harvey Norman Factory Outlet
I have always wanted a waste disposer system for the kitchen. If you had to clean up after my hubby when you cooks, you'll understand why. Having decided on a Franke sink for the kitchen awhile ago, we added a Franke waste disposer system to our list of things to buy.
Because we already had a list of things we needed to buy for our renos, we were constantly looking out for stock clearance sales, and model runouts. So when hubby saw this unit on sale at our local Harvey Norman factory outlet on South Road, I was there the next day. 50% off is nothing to sneeze at!!! It was a brand new item, with its full warranty, and intact packaging. Even the guy serving me at the till told me it was a great buy at half price.
When I was there, I even saw some Schweigen rangehoods on sale. Now anyone in the market for a rangehood know that this is one of the top brands. And they were going for 50% off too.
Hatwell Online Painting
We were recommended this painting company by my sister who works in real estate. We hired them to paint the ceiling of the old part of the house and were quite happy with the work.
When it came time to choose a painter for our 5 sets of custom-made western red cedar doors, the painter that we wanted was very busy and could not do the work for at least a month. So we decided to go with Hatwell's instead.
This turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes we've made throughout the entire reno. First of all, their painters didn't use the correct stain-blocking primer on the western cedar. Then they decided to change the exterior paint to a paint for metal (we assume it's because it gave better coverage) without discussing it with us. We contacted Dulux and they said they would not honour the warranty as it was not used as per manufacturer's instructions. Then we discovered the paint was tinted the wrong colour, and instead of redoing the incorrect paint, they re-tinted the interior paint to match, thinking we wouldn't notice.
After a long argument, they finally returned to redo the entire job. The painter they sent scratched all the glass on our doors. This turned into a liability insurance claim. The hold-up from this has delayed us for over 6 months. As I said, biggest mistake we made!!!!!
Heritage Plasterwork Products
We knew quite early on in the project what we wanted for our cornices and ceiling roses. We began our search at Ornamental Plasterworks. We met the founder of the business, Evan, on a Sunday afternoon. He was sitting over a large plaster moulding, carving the intricate details out by hand. We were impressed by his passion and made an appointment to see his son, who had taken over the business, to discuss our project. However, his son appeared to lack the same passion. Multiple visits to the showrooms yielded no potential samples or pictures, just prices and quotes. But we were never shown the type of cornices that would be used on our project. They had no sample of the ceiling roses they supply, except for a small picture in their catalogue.
Frustrated, we decided to look elsewhere. We were told of Heritage Plasterwork Products by quite a few builders when we were shopping around for a quote for the project. We decided to visit their showroom. We met Adam, who was extremely helpful and had lots ideas. Once he got an idea of what we were looking for, he pulled out lots of different samples for us to have a look. He even recommended a installer. We were so pleased with his product that we made the decision to go with him even before we left the showroom.
Later on, they even made the corbels for our kitchen island bench. We could not be happier with their products or service.
JAS Britestile
We wanted the non-uniform texture and organic feel of stone tiles. This was all well and good but we needed to find a tiler who could achieve our vision. There are not many tilers around in Adelaide who can work with stone tiles. The uneven texture and colourings of natural stone requires someone with great precision and patience.
Johnny was recommended to us by Tony from Taylored Stone. He had done some work for a friend of his in French travertine. We also had another referral from Sally at Ceramica Tile + Design, but while he was very professional, he was so heavily booked that we had to schedule his work weeks in advance.
In hindsight, we were lucky we decided to go with Johnny. We liked his demeanour from the start and he has been very accomodating with working around our delays, and man this guy is fussy (which is such a great thing!!). You don't find many tradies out there who care about details of their work to this level.
Unlike other tradies we've dealt with, Johnny doesn't try to skimp on materials. He used only the finest grade glue and sealer. His work was very precise. Being an old house, our walls were not perfectly straight, so he had to create an optical illusion of sraight lines. Which he achieved beautifully. We reckon he is the one stand-out tradie we've had throughout this entire renovation. And that is not to be sneezed at!
Kitchen Ideas
We discovered Ferdi from Kitchen Ideas on a spur of the moment visit to the Home Ideas Centre on Anzac Highway one Sunday afternoon. We had made enquiries with a few wardrobe companies to obtain quotes for our laundry and WIR cabinetry. We loved the quality and work of Alby Turner & Son but after splashing out for our dream kitchen with them, our budget did not allow us to go with them for other cabinetry work around the house.
We were quite happy with the quality of Ferdi's work on display and made an appointment with him for site measure. He seemed quite meticulous and we ended up contracting him to manufacture our WC vanity, the outdoor kitchen and two hidden bookcases we wanted to install next to the mantelpiece in the new extension area.
While we are overall quite happy with the final product, we were not too impressed with the entire process. We had to request him to redo most of the panels for the WIR cabinets because they were not sanded down properly before being spray-painted. Cabinet doors were not installed in line and had to be re-positioned. He did not do a very good job installing the outdoor kitchen and hubby had to take it apart and redo it himself.
In comparison to the spot-on professionalism of Alby Turner & Son, unfortunately he fell short, which was quite disappoitnting for us.
Marchal Bodin
While we were so pleased with our brass door handles purchase, we did not anticipate the nightmare that would ensue in trying to find mortise locks that would fit the handles.
Mortise locks in Australia do not come with a 70mm centre. The only way to get a mortise lock with a 70mm centre is to have it customized, and there is only one locksmith company in Australia that does that kind of work - Jacksons Lock Manufacturing at about $300 a pop. We needed 5 locks in total and this was not an option for our budget.
It took me over 4 weeks to find a French locksmithing company that was happy to post the locks to Australia. Even so, our choices were rather limited as most locks take the more modern euro cylinder instead of the old-style skeleton key. The people at Marchal Bodin was very helpful and answered all my questions promptly. I did communicate with them in French (which necessitated a crash course in French locksmithing terms) but they do speak adequate English. We received our locks (all keyed alike) without any hassles and we became their first ever client from Australia.
I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for locks to fit european dimensions. Their prices were very reasonable, no different to the prices of mortise locks at your local hardware store.
Mitcham Antique Gallery
This place was recommended to us by Gary from Davenport Interiors when we were looking for an electrician who specialised in French antique lighting. We had purchased all our wall sconces and chandeliers from France. The wiring of all these fittings had to be changed to conform with Australian standards.
The guys at MItcham Antique Gallery were initially very obliging and helpful, as we were looking to purchase some lanterns to hang above our kitchen island bench. They had a pair of Louis XV lanterns which they were very keen to sell to us. We believe that this is why they were very quick to rewire our light fittings the first time round.
However, when we purchased the 3 brass lanterns on eBay and took them for rewiring, we were ignored and brushed aside. The lanterns sat in their store, untouched for over 2 months, until we couldn't wait any longer and took them back.
We then took the lanterns to John at Adelaide Restoration Centre instead. It was interesting for us to note that we were charged about half the price at Adelaide Restoration Centre, compared to price we were quoted at Mitcham Antique Gallery.
Mother Of Pearl & Sons Trading
I found a photo of my dream kitchen on Houzz and this photo inspired our hunt for the perfect hardware to go with our new french provincial style kitchen.
These esutcheons were almost impossible to find. When I finally discovered the brand Brionne, I looked all over the globe, from the UK to France, trying to find a supplier who could source us the escutcheons. I kept gettng told ' Sorry, that model has been discontinued.' Even the supplier in France told me that this model was no longer made.
So when I found an Australian company based in Sydney and Melbourne who stocked Brionne products, I was not feeling very hopeful. But to my surprise, the lady that I emailed, Tracy, told me that she could have them made to order and shipped from France. She was extremely helpful in helping us select the knob size, and even sent us free samples so we could have a look at what the product would look like.
We placed the order for our escutcheons in black enamel and received them in a little over a month. We are so happy with them and can't wait to see them on our new kitchen cabinets.
Provincial Home Living
I will always champion authentic products as much as I can. I love the character and history of an item that no reproduction could ever have. However, we all have to live within our budget and sometimes, using a reproduction makes lots of sense financially.
When looking at a reproduction item, look for characteristics to see if they fall in line with your style, and be sure to check out the quality. This bed ticked all the right boxes, and at 40% off, we couldn't say no. It will tie in well with the slightly more relaxed and casual feel we're trying to achieve for the guest room. We want our guests to feel comfortable and not too restricted, in case they don't share our passion and love for the French style.
There are some good quality items at Provincial Home Living, if you know what to look for. We will probably be looking at buying some of their tableware and servingware for our outdoor dining area. Beware of some of their items with French words though as some have mis-spelling or grammatical errors. Some other items like their bookcases are not so great quality for the prices they're charging.
Still, the salespeople at my local Mile End store are always friendly and helpful, and they play relaxed chanson française in the background. I always enjoy wandering down the store.
Routleys
We went to 4 different bathroom suppliers to look for bathroom fittings for our renovation. I started off with Routleys and The Source when I was trying to get quotes for my Villeroy & Boch and Hansgrohe bathware, and they were the only people who stocked Victoria + Albert baths. We had our heart set on their Toulouse bath.
The lady I saw at Routleys was very helpful, much more than the owner of The Source, We really wanted to support local businesses but the prices we received in the quote were ridiculously expensive. The only discount we were offered was a trade discount if we bought the items through a builder (although the builder would then put his mark-up on it anyway), and a 15% off the Hansgrohe Metropol tap which was being replaced by another model. Buying the same items through Walton Bathrooms gave us almost 40% off after including delivery and taxes.
However, we did get our Hydrotherm heated towel rails, custom-made Stormtech floor grates and our Victoria + Albert bath through Routleys. I could have ordered the bath through Walton Bathrooms but the discount wasn't enough to justify the risk of it getting damaged in transit and the delivery cost.
We decided to get the rest of our fittings from Routleys because they offered better service and advice than the people at The Source, and our builder has an account with them.
Spartan Electrical
Hubby decided right from the start that he wanted the most powerful rangehood we could find on the market that fit the dimensions of our chimney. We looked at Schweigen, Sirius and Qasair and hubby decide he wanted a Qasair. Qasairs are made in Australia, with German manufactured parts.
But they don't come cheap and no one was prepared to sell it to us at a good discount. The best we could get from Spartan was a couple of hundred dollars off. We searched online and on the internet but we could not find a better deal. We almost resigned ourselves to the fact that we would not be able to save ourselves much on this.
Then I heard an advertisement on the radio for the annual carpark sale at Spartan's. We had to go check it out. We found a runout model of the unit we were looking at going at $700 off the retail price. Score!!
We almost committed to buying our Franke sinks from Spartan too during that sale, as they were offering 25% off, but the price that James from Walton Bathrooms got us ended up being about 50% off the retail price here in Australia!!!
Unfortunately, sale aside, we didn't find the service here to be that great. There was the typical sales talk and pressure to buy, and not much service at all.
Taylored Stone
We were first introduced to Tony at Taylored Stone by Kingsley from Complete Marble & Granite. We were at the warehouse desperately searching for Cream & Gold Galaxy granite for our kitchen benchtops. We were also in the process of looking for French-patterned travertine tiles and we asked if Kingsley knew anyone in Adelaide who supplied them. We had already been to a few major tile retailers in Adelaide and they either couldn't help us, or wanted to charge a ridiculous price for travertine tiles.
Kingsley was very helpful and promptly gave Tony at Taylored Stone a call. No he didn't have any French-patterned travertine tiles but he would see what he could do to get them in for us. So an appointment was made to visit Tony at his office.
While he managed to get us some samples of travertine tiles, the colour just wasn't right. While we were at this showroom, we stumbled upon some limestone and marble tiles he had on display. When we enquired about them, he told us he had a few that he was trying to clear out. Tony is the supplier for many large-scale commercial projects and there is almost always leftover tiles from projects of that size. He gave us a list of tiles he had on clearance, and we picked out a couple of them for the bathrooms and wet areas. We got a great deal on the price, and we get to have wonderful pieces of stone with real character and beauty on our floors and our walls.
Tillett Natural Stone Industries
We were quite sure from the start that we wanted natural stone for all our benchtops. We felt that the style that we were going for needed the organic feel of natural stone. Besides, when we discovered the price of engineered stone, it just made more sense to get the real thing.
However, we did not want to pay crazy prices for the benchtops that we wanted. Natural stone can be expensive. After a bit of shopping around, we found Tillett's - a SA family owned company. Our contact person, Karen, was most helpful. We managed to source clearance stock which brought the cost down for us. We ended up with a granite called Latinum yellow for our bathrooms, laundry and WC. We debated about whether or not to get a granite top for the chest of drawers we had made for the WIR. In the end, natural stone made sense again and we managed to source a piece that had close colouring to the stone top of our commode.
The service at Tillett's was not bad. Karen was very helpful and accomodating with our many changes. The guy who came out for site measure was very pleasant too. However, during the final install, we had a very unpleasant experience. The silicone was not applied all round one of the benchtops and one benchtop was not centred to the cabinet. When the undermount sinks were installed, we realised that the stone was not even cut to fit the edges evenly, even though we provided them with the sinks for cutting. So overall, we're not sure we would recommend these guys.
Top Knobs Decor
We didn't want to spend a fortune on cabinetry hardware for the laundry and the WIR as we had already maxed out the budget with our kitchen. However, when I started looking for traditional/french-influenced hardware in Australia, I found the selection was pathetically limited and over-priced. Everything was either made in China and or very poor quality. Even the slightly more prestigious Domino hardware was made in India, and had very poor customer service. They gave us much grief when we purchased surface bolts for our french doors from them, but that is another story.
Again, we had to look overseas for our products. I found an American brand called Top Knobs, which looked really good in terms of style and design. Their products are individually hand-finished and hand-polished, and hand-inspected prior to shipping to maintain their high quality. They use high-grade materials like brass, bronze, steel and zinc alloy and come with a lifetime warranty. Their prices were reasonable too - no different to Delf, Gainsborough, Domino or Superior Hardware here in Australia.
The problem was finding a retailer that would ship overseas. I found this brilliant online company that only sells Top Knobs hardware - Top Knobs Decor. The ordering process was so simple. The only thing I had to do was send a follow-up email to confirm they received my order, and the shipping charges. The products arrived in less than 10 days, very well packaged, and with amazing quality. I was very happy.
Town & Country Antiques
Hubby found us this gorgeous bed from The Ritz Paris. He saw it on the window display of an antique shop down the road. Initially, he was more interested in an armoire that was on sale and he brought me to the shop later that weekend to have a look. I fell in love with the bed immediately. It is a king-sized bed, which is highly unusual for french beds and while I've never been a huge fan of the Louis XVI style, that bed just had a special something. When the owner of the shop told us that the bed used to live in one of the rooms at The Ritz Paris, we were even more excited. This was our chance to hang on to a piece of history from one of the most well-known hotels in Paris.
Sadly, our experience in dealing with the owner of this business was not so positive. He tried to restore the bed by painting the gilding with gold paint. It looked awful!!! In the end, we decided to take the bed to our friend Gary at Davenport Interiors down the road and we paid him for his time to strip the paint away and regild the finials with gold leaf by hand. He also altered the frame for us to fit wooden slats and a king-sized mattress.
Upholsterer : Scott
Gary at Davenport Interiors recommended this upholsterer to us. We were struggling to find an upholsterer who charged reasonable prices, and who would work with fabric supplied by the client. Most upholsterers will only do the work if they also supply the fabric. This is a greedy monopoly created by the interior design industry to ensure that everyone along the supply chain gets a cut of the profits, which is ridiculous as the upholsterer is already being paid for his time to do the upholstery work.
Scott works out of The Monastery Furniture showroom on Unley Road, in Malvern. He does good work and is clearly supported by his local clientele. Great care was taken in determining how we wanted the direction of the pattern repeat to run along the bedhead, and the upholstery work was very neat and tidy. The price we were quoted also included pick up and delivery of the bed.
This service was very professional and met all our expectations. We would not hesitate to recommend Scott to anyone in the market for an upholsterer.
Walton Bathrooms
I had clear ideas on the kind of bathroom fittings we wanted for our new ensuite and family bathroom. My dream was to have Villeroy & Boch in my bathroom. I have always loved their european style and the fine quality of their ceramicwares.
However, they don't come cheap. I visited two suppliers in Adelaide to get quotes on what we wanted for our bathroom and the prices made my eyes water. It was way out of our budget. This was when I stumbled on to a post in a forum about importing from the UK. An Australian guy who was renovating his house came up with the idea of importing his appliances from the UK. He ended up decking out his entire house with brand name items that he bought online and shipped over from the UK, and saved a heap of money in the process. Reading through his posts and the posts of many others who had done the same, I decided to see if we could get our sanitaryware and tapware from overseas instead.
I found Walton Bathrooms after doing lots of searching online. I dealt with the owner himself, James. He had really good prices, and was prepared to sell VAT-free. When I mentioned that I was also looking at getting Franke sinks, he organized to get them from a friend of his who runs a kitchen business. We had all our items shipped over to Australia via sea freight. It took a little over a month but everything arrived in one piece. So I managed to get Villeroy & Boch and more, for the price of Caroma here in Australia.
Woodpend Pty Ltd
A friend of mine who's an architect recommended the Pitella brand of hardware. We were looking for brass hinges for our french doors and could not find any that suited our needs - fixed pin and of solid construction. We found the HP75 model on the Pitella website and I promptly emailed their office in Melbourne to get a quote. We were looking at purchasing 34 units so I was hoping to get a good price. Imagine my surprise when we got the quote back, at full price, with extra shipping cost on top of that as well.
Hubby decided to see if he could find a local supplier here in Adelaide and stumbled on to Woodpend. The guys there supplied us with a quote that was about 10% cheaper and included free delivery. We promptly placed an order with them and received the stock a week later. This goes to show that it pays to support your local businesses.
Pitella hardware is made in Italy. The fixed pin hinges that we purchased are of solid brass construction, with a lifetime warranty. When we received the product, we found it to be solid and heavy, signs of a product of good quality.
© 2014 by BVCLam. Proudly created with Wix.com