Vintage Items for Sale

Launching the Coastal Chateau group where you can browse & purchase items for your very own Coastal Chateau…. https://www.facebook.com/groups/604999846226636/

As items become available they will be posted on the site … just place a note in the comments field of that item and we will respond with collection details…. Happy browsing…

Childhood & The Gift of Death

My Mum and Dad's marriage was a love story.  They met on a blind date, married soon afterwards.  Not a cent between them.  They had a beautiful boy, then another beautiful boy.  My Dad won a car which they sold and used as a deposit on their first home in Woolooware, Sydney.

My brothers were apparently quite spirited and wild.  My eldest brother was diagnosed with deafness as a toddler which brought challenges.

A few years later I arrived.  When I was 4 years old,  my Mum saw a For Sale ad in the newspaper for a General Store in a small country town in Central Western NSW.  So when Dad arrived home from work, my Mum informed him that we were moving. That was it.  My earliest childhood memory is me clutching my Teddy Bear in the back of the Ford Falcon and waving goodbye to our Sydney house which was to be rented.  Not Goodbye forever, just off on an adventure.

After a year or so, they bought the house next door to the General Store which happened to be a derelict hotel. 26 rooms. Spooky.  What an adventure this was turning out to be.

My childhood was quite solitary in many ways, but beautiful.  Hours, days and weeks spent playing alone in the backyard and in our treehouse.   It was also filled with friends and relatives, fun, laughter and love. When I was nine, my sister was born and was a source of pure joy for all of us.

Then disaster struck.  I lost my beautiful gentle charming Dad to cancer when I was just 11.  He died a slow and painful death. My Mum never really regained her confidence and put all her energies into raising her four children.

I've never really been one to take things for granted.  As a child I went without lots of things. And none of them mattered to me. Maybe it would have been nice to have a Barbie doll rather than a Cindy imitation, but my Mum said Barbie was overpriced and a ridiculous thing for a girl to play with.  In hindsight, she was right.  

When I was 14, we moved to Sydney.  Being a bit different felt awkward as a teenager.  All you want to do is fit in. The fashion in a country town was about 5 years behind Sydney so my new desert boots or "Dessies" just made me a target for torment so I developed resilience by the truckload.  

My Mum had sold the shop and house and began building a new house in Woolooware whilst we lived in the partially demolished house in two rooms with builders plastic for walls.  On the day the property transfer was being processed, the buyers were declared bankrupt and Mum got nothing for her assets.  After years of fighting she received a small sum of money.  Nowhere near what she was owed. She battled on and raised us anyway and gave us everything she possibly could.

Last year, I lost my kind and caring Mum to Motor Neurone Disease. I was 43.  I never dreamt I would wake up one day at the age of 44 and have no parents.  The hole they left in my life is profound.  I have lots of wonderful memories and renewed determination to live a full and inspired life.

Shiny and new

Whilst I love repurposing "things", this year I have decided to repurpose "Me".  After a traumatic and very sad 2012 where I lost my Mum to Motor Neurone Disease,  I started 2013 by finishing multiple projects around the house which I had been unable to finish.  My inspiration kicked back in, with Mum watching over me, I was unstoppable - photos to come.

I have now started the Michelle Bridges 12 WBT, and joined a Learn to Run program run by the lovely Debbie @ Beauty of Exercise.  I am so motivated it's ridiculous!

Feel free to drop by for updates on my progress.

Of course I am always on the lookout for new projects to start and inspiration for the unfinished ones, so you never know what you may find here on my blog!  Chances are, it will be tinged with white paint.
Stay tuned...

Sally X.O.X.O.

Welcome to Coastal Chateau

By way of introduction, I am Mrs Coastal Chateau.  AKA, Molly, Lollylegs, BabyDoll, Mummy, or just,  Muu-uum!

I am lucky enough to reside on the beautiful Northern Beaches of Sydney, surrounded by Coastal and bush environs.  Most days I don't need to play music at home, my ears have a constant backdrop of magpies, kookaburras, cicadas and crickets. At night, the sounds of the waves crashing echoes off the lake as we lie in bed.  Of course the odd dog barking or toot of a car interrupt the tranquil chorus occasionally, but otherwise its just divine.

Once upon a time I could boast a fairly illustrious career spanning IT&T, HR, Travel and Teaching.  These days I'm kept busy by my hardworking & harangued husband Mr Coastal Chateau, and our two beautiful scallywags and their shenanigans - Cooper aged 10, and Flynn aged 8.  We are also blessed to have the worlds most beautiful cavoodle, Coco, aged 4.

I am hoping to soon add a juvenile pink and grey Galah to our family, for whom we have already chosen a name and have the cage ready to go.   As you get to know me, you will become more confused by the juxtaposition of my over-preparedness.  To illustrate, I can pick up a piece of furniture and repurpose it within an hour, good or bad, but the Galah-to-be's cage has been in position now for three years, while I TTC. (Try to catch, as opposed to TTC - Try to conceive, - via the internet, of course).

We live in a lovely brick and weatherboard 1960's beach house creation, which we have been going to renovate for 14 years.  I love finding vintage treasures and upcycling them, sometimes with a Frenchesque touch, and repurposing interesting pieces. Vintage ladders and Ornate mirrors  have been an obsession since we renovated our terrace house in Annandale in the Inner West.  I can still remember the vintage ladder we had in our General Store growing up, (more about that later) and spent hours playing on it, and restacking the Scotch Fingers so that they looked appealing to customers.  Very important in a town of 421 people!

I am an over-sharer - I look forward to sharing my french-inspired coastal creations with you, my journey of self-renewal, and snippets from life at our humble, light and bright, Coastal Chateau. 


Sally