Vintage Flair

The Sunday Age

Sunday September 30, 2007

Nina Hendy

A decades-long dream has come true for this designer. By Nina Hendy.

Liz Green can remember like it was yesterday the soft folds of fabric draped across her tiny knees as she helped her mother at the sewing machine. As one of seven children, she would take it in turns with her siblings to hold the fabric straight as her mother feverishly fed the sewing machine. "Mum always made our clothes; and without knowing it, this is where my love of beautiful fabrics came from," says Green.

Those childhoold moments prompted Green to travel the world in search of the exquisite fabrics she remembers. "When I was backpacking around the world in my 20s, I never had enough money to eat but there was always enough money to buy fabric if I found something unusual," says Green.

For nearly four years she lived a frugal life abroad, picking up work in fabric shops and saving for another spurt across the globe. She travelled through Europe, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Morocco and Turkey, picking up antique saris in India, linen fabrics in France and Italy.

When she returned home to Ballarat, Green's threadbare backpack was jam-packed with unusual fabrics, which she carefully stored away for a rainy day. She enrolled in an interior design course and toiled away in local retail stores, hoping that one day she might be able to open a store of her own. With two young children, though, the timing wasn't right.

But after 28 years of retail, Green, with the support of her husband Ross, began hatching a plan to fulfil her lifelong dream. "I wanted to stock items that locals hadn't seen before that were hard to get."

While searching for furniture for the shop, Green came across the retro counter she used to buy mixed lollies from as a child at the Wallace General Store, located just outside Ballarat. "I bought it for sentimental reasons before I even had a shop lined up, hoping it would fit."

Finally this year, her dream store, The Upholstery Gallery, opened in a historic building in central Ballarat. It had operated as an upholstery store for nearly four decades before its closure. Crisp white walls and worn wooden floors backdrop pyramids of feather-filled Florence Broadhurst and Cloth fabric cushions. Vintage chairs, lamps revamped in flamboyant fabrics, and racks of Nicola Cerini and Mesop clothing fill the store.

"When it comes to decorating a home, old blended with the new is a really big look,'' says Green. ''My vintage lamps tell a story because the shades are covered in beautiful fabrics that I've been hanging onto for years, waiting for the right opportunity."

While the shop is small, every nook is stocked with knick-knacks such as kitchenware, mirrors, giftware, jewellery, throw rugs and speciality teas. There are toys handcrafted by African children out of recycled tin cans, and Vietnamese rice bags re-designed as handbags.

Green also runs an interior design service from the store, and serves organic coffee and sweet treats in a corner decked out with mis-matched chairs and vintage cushions. "I love to recycle and breathe new life into old pieces, and blending the old with the new is what makes a house a home."

The Upholstery Gallery, 528 Mair Street, Ballarat, 5331 4192

© 2007 The Sunday Age

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