Showcase #8: The Desktop Computer as Decoration

desktop computer as decoration

There’s a reason, I think, that when you peruse in IKEA that there will be fake computers on the computer shelves. Not only does it show you what the desk will look like when its in use, it looks better when it has a nice computer on it. Today I want to talk about the desktop computer as a piece of decoration in the home, not just a utility piece.

Computers are handy, of course, but there’s also a reason why people will spend more time choosing their computer case than they do their video card or power box. To clear it up, by desktop computer I mean a PC (personal computer) not a laptop or other device.

People often leave the screensavers on their computers when they’re not in use for that same reason – they look nice. It’s a piece of decoration in the home and although this may be a new realization to some people everyone computer geek should agree right away that they agree subconsciously. That’s why we hide our cords or upgrade their appeal, not only their hardware and software, when they get outdated.

It’s true, real décor is timeless while computers get outdated. But, that’s why some people collect old computers, too. keeping this in mind, then a PC should be considered a timeless piece of art as well.

Thanks for tuning in today!

Antique Appliances in Victoria BC: Mundane or Exciting?

antique appliances on vancouver island

At Avikar Furniture we believe one collector’s excitement is another collector’s mundane. With that said it’s no surprise that ambling through the cities of Vancouver Island in search of antique appliances might be incredibly boring to some people. To collector’s like me however I’ll stay in downtown Victoria BC in a hotel for a week just to visit the pawnshops, the garage sales, the auctions…. Oh boy, it’ll be great when garage sales are open again! Anyway, as you can tell, this isn’t mundane to me so let’s get right to it.

In September 2021 it might be possible for things to go back to normal in British Columbia as people no longer fear the coronavirus. For people like me who love to drive through BC and Vancouver Island at least once every decade to visit the grungy alleys, the colorful markets, the soap-makers, the DJs, the sports fields and fairs–ahhh!–to ultimately find a precious antique appliance… what was I saying. Oh yeah!

I always come home with an antique appliance whenever I visit BC. I once baked bread successfully in an oven from the 1930s that I bought at an auction in downtown Victoria BC back in the 80s and the party I had that night with all the real Canadian Christmas lights on Douglas St is one of the happiest memories of my life. Almost every morning I think about that day before I get out of bed and remind myself how awesome life is. I run downstairs and slap toast into the toaster I had repaired on a boat in Oak Bay one summer. I’m not kidding!

In fact, if we’re talking about antique appliances then I might as well tell you. I had used my buddies cell phone (back then cell phones were incredibly rare) to call in an appliance repair Victoria BC professional to come down to the docks and they repaired the toaster on our boat only after chatting for a few hours. Yup! That toaster was from the 60s and I still use it on Thanksgiving events to impress people older than me, but perhaps less sad. The guy I bought the toaster from ended up sailing with me up to Nanaimo and back. If you can tell me how many times we used that toaster during the trip I’ll give you $50 bucks!

Thanks for joining me on the hunt for antique appliances. Perhaps we can hunt together one day.

What to Expect in 2021 at the Avikar Furniture Blog

mundane foliage

Hello and welcome back. I hope your Christmas and New Year were fantastic. It’s Jan 4th now and I wanted to give everyone a little update on what to look forward to here on the Avikar Furniture Blog as we head deeper into 2021. The world is full of exciting things but no one stops to showcase the mundane. That’s where we come in, and we got a lot of new showcases planned for upcoming posts this year.

We thought about some things we could showcase that you see everyday but never stopped to think about. People have lived their whole lives and died without thinking for a single second about many thousands of tiny things we see every single day. Life won’t change dramatically if we pay attention to these things but choosing not to ignore them has made life fuller in my own experience.

So you can look forward to exploring the mundane with us this year, as mundane is our theme. By the end of 2021 our goal will be to prove that the mundane is only mundane because we don’t stop to explore it enough. Anything considered mundane can quickly become exciting and that’s what we’ll be doing for you this year as we develop our showcase series. So thanks for checking in and come back soon.

Showcase #7: Funky Ceramic Teacups

funky crockery

I call this set of tea cups “funky” not only because of how their colors remind me of the 1970s but also because of how their overall design recalls my mind to the wonders of nature herself. With the plates shaped like leaves and the cups shaped like flowers it’s easy to imagine oneself in a fairy world when drinking tea from this set. I only wish I had an image of the tea pot that matches them.

I can think of a perfect kind of tea that could be drunk from these cups to make them even funkier but I won’t get into that and will just hope one of you knows what I’m talking about and will get a chuckle from it.

The downside of these funky teacups is that they don’t easily match any kitchen. They certainly wouldn’t look fitting if you used them while seated in these Indian chairs. They would look best in a kitchen that is also colorful and funky, recalling the mind to nature. Would you use cups like this in your home? I imagine not everyone would, and many people might cringe at the idea but I would use them! I love these cups and that’s why I decided to show them here. Hope they inspired you and added some color to your day!

Showcase #6: Antique Home Appliance in Saskatoon SK

antique stove

Sent in to us by a reader, this amazing antique stove can still be found in use in Saskatoon SK, Canada. It’s amazing how such old technology can still be useful in the home. Not everyone would be willing to use a stove that is so old, but the family in Saskatoon who cooks with this stove is proud to preserve it, and they don’t plan to get rid of it and replace it with a newer stove any time soon. They plan to use this stove for as long as they can.

The reader who sent us this image also shared a little story that she wanted us to relay back to you.

A Little Story About this Antique Stove from Saskatoon

“Our vintage stove has been in the family for longer than I have! It cooks everything for the children and even turkeys on holidays. Without this stove in our home, our family would not be whole. We love this stove so much that with all the money we gave to Appliance Repair Saskatoon to get it fixed over the years, we could have bought a dozen brand new stoves! That’s how much we love it, and we won’t ever get rid of it until it burns the house down! Maybe not even after that.

A story that will explain why we love this stove so much might clarify things. Because we’re not crazy! Indeed, when my great grandma was celebrating Christmas with her husband, turkey from this stove is the last thing her husband ate before he went off to war. Sad news: he never returned from the war, and my grandma from then on called the stove Ralph, because that was her late husband’s name. Now, my family carries on that tradition, as we call the stove Ralph every morning when we make our breakfast!”

That was a lovely story and we’re honored to get to share it. We here at Avikar Furniture would not be surprised if this stove has a hundred other stories of its own to share. I wonder how many times it needed repair services over its lifetime.

We thank you for visiting, and wish you’ll come back soon for showcase #7! We look forward to having you back.

Showcase #5: Indian Decor in Canada

elephant art

This little elephant of Indian art design brings an exotic culture to Canada wherever it goes. Place it on a coffee table to show your guests how cultured you are, or give it as a gift to a friend who likes Indian decor and elephants.

Can you think of other examples of how Canadians adopt Indian decor? I think this elephant is a perfect symbol of how this can be done. Something like abstract painting has a harder time transplanting exotic culture than this decorative piece that is easy to recognize through its form. So say thank you to this Indian elephant, as we get to appreciate the style and beauty of Indian art in Canada!

Showcase #3: Appliance Repair as an Art Form in Calgary

appliance repair

I had the honor of speaking with a reputable appliance technician in Calgary, Alberta, Canada over the holidays and he told me something special that I wish to showcase today. This is about off topic as our blog can get while still talking about decor because my friend from a Calgary appliance repair company talked about how fixing appliances is an art form. So get ready for an interesting discussion, on our fist post in the year 2020!

We’ve talked about appliances before, like in our showcase #1 when we talked about how a fridge can be a piece of art in the home. But we haven’t talked about appliance repair services per se. Hopefully this will be the only time, because I never thought such a topic could be interesting until my friend explained to me how it can be quite amazing to behold.

My friend has been fixing all kinds of appliances, everything from Samsung washers and dryers to Maytag dishwasher and more, for many years in Calgary and he’s found a way to make it an art, literally. This is how he does it, in 4 simple steps.

4 Steps to Turn Appliance Repair into Art!

  1. He gets the call and is dispatched to a residential home.
  2. He arrives, sets up a camera and begins his work.
  3. He fixes the appliance while his camera takes an automatic photo every 2 minutes.
  4. When he gets home, he finds the best picture and uses a digital painting program to render it into a work of art that gets printed onto a large canvas and then hung in his private gallery or sold to a client.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get permission to share one of his works of art because he has a lot of them that he’s hoping to sell, but I did get to see them with my own eyes when I visited his Calgary home. More on that in a second. He’s sold some of them already to clients across Canada who apparently love what this man does. Who would have thought than a normal worker from an appliance repair Calgary company was a talented artist? Looking at the guy, you would never think that. But let me tell you the art is truly amazing and would compliment any home. Sometimes you can’t even tell it’s a photo of a guy fixing an appliance because of the way the lines are curved and the colors are blended. I hope this story can inspire other workers out there to try it and see where it leads because day to day work rendered into groovy digital artwork is truly beautiful to behold.

Just to give you an idea of what the art can look like, look at the photo below. It looks somewhat like that but only more colorful and a bit more groovy, and of course features appliance parts and technician tools at work.

groovy art

I believe this technique could work for any line of work. Imagine how it would look for a zoo keeper’s work or a firefighter’s! It’s just amazing to know that it’s done and I believe it’s quite inspiring. If the paintings weren’t so expensive I would buy one. Maybe I’ll get one on Christmas if I behave.

To end this showcase I just want to briefly say one last time that many people don’t know how beautiful their jobs are. If we could only look at our everyday jobs from a different perspective then we could see the amazing beauty in them. So I want to say thank you to my Calgary friend for being an inspiration to us all, and keep up the good work!

How to Make Your Own Abstract Painting in 3 Easy Steps!

paint

It might seem obvious how easy it is to make your own abstract painting, but remembering these 3 easy steps will make it even easier! Here we go…

Step 1:

Get a bunch of cheap paints from the dollar store, a cheap canvas and some brushes.

Step 2:

Lay out some newspapers or cardboard on the ground at home so you don’t accidentally get paint where you don’t want it, and put your canvas on top. Then, lay out all your paints with a cup of water to clean your brush.

Step 3:

Splatter paint all over the canvas and move them around with your brush, all the while pretending you’re a 3-year-old who’s has never painted before and have fun until the whole canvas is colored!

This has been my 3 easy tips for painting at home. I hope your finished product is a treasure!

Showcase #2: Dishwashers

dish washing machine

As someone who grew up washing dishes by hand for most of my life, I’ll never forget the day I bought my first dishwasher as an adult. Today I want to showcase dishwashers and discuss them in the topic of how much time they can save you over a lifetime and two special tricks you can remember to make sure they save you as much time as possible without unneeded hassle.

An electric dish washing machine in the family kitchen is a magical thing. They enable families to spend more time conversing at the table rather than washing and drying dishes busily at the sink. Growing up without a dishwasher meant I always had to leave the table early to wash dishes for my parents while they laughed and drank wine at the table behind me. I didn’t realize how unnecessary this was until I had a family of my own. Today it only takes a minute to plunk the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and the whole family gets to spend more precious moments together, seated side by side.

This is the beauty of the time that these electric machines can save you. But what’s a tip for making sure this magic stays efficient? My trick is simple, and it goes for every time-saving appliance in the home. To understand, ask yourself “what’s the point of having a dishwasher to save time if you have to wait weeks or even a month to get it fixed if it breaks?” The truth is, you might as well be washing dishes by hand anyways, because a broken dishwasher sitting in your kitchen for a month will take up precious space and as a decorator I know this space could be used for something awesome like a statue or grandfather clock.

The easiest way to solve this problem is to buy a dishwasher brand new from a trusted brand so it has the least chance of ever breaking down. Stores like Best Buy sell good quality dishwashers, but you can get them anywhere. Buying a used one will increase your chances of having to get it repaired in the future. Another tip is to have a close relationship with your local appliance repair company. Appliance repair is a common house service and I’ll be talking more about this in later posts, but for now just think about calling a company in advance, getting to know them and tell them that you’ll keep their number on your fridge in hope that they can repair your broken appliances as soon as possible if they ever break down. Being polite like this and letting them know who you are will make them more inclined to prioritize you. For showcase #1, I talked about refrigerators and the same advice works for those machines too.

Now knowing how to optimize all the time-saving capabilities of your kitchen appliances, how will you use all the time you save? This is a question only you can answer. I hope you have fun with it! Stay tuned for showcase #3! Bye for now!