Over 3 years in the making, here are some photos of the nearly finished Bottle Boudoir. It is a living area under our house, which we hoped to complete with as many recycled items as possible and with as much creativity and locally made features as we could cram in (without too much overcrowding!)

It has been a project of as much love as tears, a project that has seemed at times never ending, with breaks in progress, waiting for inspiration or funds. We are near completion and would love to share this with others: by allowing people to live in it, for friends just stay the night, or for others to visit and take inspiration- maybe to build their own bottle wall or just to ponder the amount of glass and packaging that is made for just one use and then disguarded!…..the possibilities are open..

This amazing iron work, was designed by us, to include a Koru design and was made by Craig of Creative Iron, who is based in the Darwin rural area. The various doors allow air flow but can be closed to allow the bedroom to be creature free or part of the open living space. The various doors allow for the whole downstairs space to be creature-free or open as 2 doors lead out into the garden.

All of the bottle work patterns were designed and built by Jon over 3 years, with one wall being a team effort of interested friends. Jon was so particular about the alignment that he discouraged the working bees and enjoyed working on it alone as his creative project. I collected all the bottles from various places (including friends weddings, bars and bins) in an almost obsessive fashion and cut them to size and made glass bricks. 

This ‘front door’ was donated by a friend who was moving from our suburb, it is a lovely hardwood door, which we framed with rescued hardwood timber that came from an old house, the bottle wall was then built around this. It has been realigned since this photo and even has a door handle and mesh.

This is the feature piece. At first we only had this double door made that opens out of the bedroom into the garden. We were so pleased with it that eventually we decided to partition of the bedroom using the same design, materials and craftsman (Craig from creative iron http://www.creativeiron.com.au/). We even got another door made to also lead to the garden when some home improvement grants were available. 

This is the bi fold door leading from the open living space into the garden.

Here you can see 3 of the 4 bottle walls. We have used concrete, rather than mud or other clay materials due to the unknown longevity in our extreme climate (Monsoonal versus lip cracking dry) 

Below is Koru (the dog) and a blue koru in the wall. Koru means new life and new beginnings. This theme is on apt for re-used glass bottles and also an apt name for our crazy rescue mumma dog. 

Here Koru models the sofa (to be removed from the area when finished along with all the dogs)- hence the dog free partitions! 

IN the making- the orange louver bank in the background is still being installed in this photo, but was rescued/ recycled from a property that was installing new windows.

From inside, modelling the new pallet table bought from ‘Buy/Swap/Sell and made by someone in Darwin and coming with these awesome chairs..View from the garden

A great back drop to any still life…

Below are some photos of in the making-