At home with Sarah Tebb
Life in yellow
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Close your eyes really tight. Squeeze them shut like you did when you were six years old and making a really important wish. I wish for spaceship to take me to the moon. I wish for a pet horse. I wish for my very own house in my absolute favourite colour. Neil Armstrong went to the moon, and people get horses every day, so why can’t you have a bright blue house? Or red, green, purple, maybe even yellow… Dreams can come true, all you need is a little bit of creativity.
There are some people in this world who can make anything beautiful. They doodle on a piece of paper and it turns into art. They arrange flowers in a vase like a professional. They move into a 100-year-old buttercup yellow house and make it look spectacular. That is exactly what Sarah did. Most of us would have painted over the yellow walls, doors and kitchen cabinets, but Sarah chose to run with it. Mixed into the colour and charm of this early 1900’s cottage, her home is an ode to all things vintage. It’s filled with furniture that has been passed down through her family and dug out of old garages. Her coffee table is a World War Two paramedics box, her bedside table is made from a stack of vintage luggage, and her house is decorated with record players and typewriters instead of TV’s and computers. Sarah has a way with these things, finding cool spots for odd items.
This home is not just vintage in style, its history is evident even as you first walk through the door. The entry is part of an extension, the large porch was used to create new bedrooms and space. Adding extra walls without renovating the existing ones, left Sarah’s home with windows in the lounge room that peer into the two new bedrooms. The entry is home to classic Victorian chair, placed on a cow hide rug and an arrangement of carefully painted sheep skulls, one of Sarah’s many hobbies. This opening space causes you to pause as you walk in, it welcomes you into a home unlike any other. At first take it is yellow and wild and different, but once you’ve adjusted it becomes incredibly calming. “When we first saw [this house] I just thought ‘oh yes! Now my vintage furniture will finally match.’” ‘We’ is Sarah’s family; husband Fergus and two kids under five who can’t quite reach the high doorknobs, so use the interior windows to call “Mum! Open the door!”
My favourite room in Sarah’s home is an old bedroom that she converted into a dressing room. “My kids can share a room,” she laughed and guided me into a closet that looks like the most stylish Vinnies you’ve ever seen… “Most of my clothes aren’t new,” I’ve seen Sarah wear a 60’s flare jumpsuit, and faux fur trimmed jackets, sporting vintage style from any and every period of fashion. She pulled out pilgrim style checked dress, “I made this one.” She’s one of those creative people who excels at all thing’s art and beauty. “I can’t knit,” Sarah exclaims this as if to hid away her obvious creative talent. Living without a TV means she spends her evenings sewing on the porch, and I suspect would pick up knitting in seconds if she tried. Sitting in her yellow home, styled to perfection in a way I could never imagine, I can’t help but think about my dream home from when I was six. Although somehow, I don’t think my hot pink tree house would look quite as good as Sarah’s vintage, yellow home.
