- Sometimes you’re busy, and you’d really like a cup of tea, but you don’t want to walk away from the computer for ten minutes while you wait for the stovetop kettle to boil (or worse, return to the study and forget about it, leaving it to make a shrieking racket until someone else hears it). I don’t mind those breaks, but Jamie likes to stay focused. He’d rather have a closed door than an open one.
2. My giant set of plan drawers, handy as it is, does not lend itself to being a useful piece of furniture in any other way. It’s too deep to comfortably stack other shelves on, and too low to the ground to use as a work top. The surface becomes a large, disorganised catch-all, which is unfortunate when the unit takes up so much space.
Well, here’s our solution for both: TEA STATION IN THE STUDY.
A tea station, you say? Well, gosh, doesn’t that seem a little precious and unnecessary? Jamie’s a big tea drinker, like the rest of his family and most of country Australia. I even made a colourful tea chest for his tea collection, using a set of IKEA mini-drawers. Dude likes his tea, and I like being able to pick out cute tea ware.
Traditional floral tea services aren’t my style, so I’ve been collecting pieces that I like, some new, mostly vintage. The large enamel tray was a lucky secondhand find, as were the brass spoons with inlaid timber handles. The enamel canister is stocked with gunpowder green, and the ‘70s soup-bowl thing — nubbly brown on the outside, tangerine on the inside — collects discarded tea bags.
What’s not vintage: the kettle and double-wall glass mugs (Kmart), the mug tree (Target). I could have got a pretty $120 Delonghi kettle, but the $40 Kmart knockoff will do. All it needs to do is boil water, right?
I’ve also put up a few posters in this corner since we wheeled in the flat file. They’re all free posters from local events, plus a $5 MoMA souvenir up top. (I’m in Tassie, of course I have a MONA exhibition poster!) The crate has various art books, materials and graphic novels in it (or outside of it, in the case of the Building Stories box). I’m a sucker for printed material and ephemera.
Oh hey, fake philo leaves. You’re back.
So far so good! Jamie’s been using the tea station regularly, and it’s nice to have all that stuff in one place. The study is becoming a cozy place for a cuppa.
Other updates in the study: Initial plans; furnishings; flat file storage; DIY linen-weave roller blinds, giving the disused fireplace a makeover.
Oooh I love your gorgeous tea station! And the gorgeous wall posters! I also constantly forget that I have put the kettle on… I am also a bit daft and if Mr Nerd is being noisy while I work, I turn my hearing aids off… so half the time I never hear the kettle shrieking! We have a ‘coffee corner’ (with everything for our tea, Mr Nerd loves tea) set up in a corner of our living room. I put it there more out of necessity when we had the old tiny kitchen and I wanted a bit more benchtop space, but now we are leaving it there…. it’s nice when you’re watching a movie and you want a cup of tea or a hot chocolate!
Thank, Maya! We only started using a stovetop kettle when the previous owners left theirs behind… and we discovered that we liked having that extra bench space. Even if I’m occasionally startled by a shrieking kettle: worth it. Having a coffee corner in the living room is a great idea, it’d be convenient whenever you have people over. I’ll have to get hot chocolate to go with the tea station, thanks for reminding me 🙂
This is looking amazing! I have some reactions.
1. I want a tea station in the office
2. Why don’t americans understand tea? (present company excepted)
3. I want a mug rack.
4. I want a cool vintage enamel tray.
5. Melbourne designers ARE wankers.
Thanks lady! It’s true: most of us don’t habitually drink hot tea. (Iced tea is another story.) I enjoy the whole social custom around tea over here, although I dunno about hot tea on hot days.
You could totally have those things! Maybe even expand some horizons. Or hoard all the tea for yourself, that works too.
That poster is from the 2012 Aus Design Biennale, and the entire foldout is covered in reasons why people would be reluctant to attend… and that context obviously disappears when you just see the poster. It’s okay, I like cheap laughs, especially when they’re printed at A2 poster size.
Such a good idea, love the floral print and the art designers poster 😀
Thank you (and sorry for the delayed reply)! The floral print is just a sheet of pretty paper from Rifle Paper Co 🙂