Wednesday Woodworks - Garage Doors

Images by Steve Passmore, Adam Sherwin, David Gallardo, and moi

TC Millwork is well known for our custom built doors; arched, louvered, raised panel, glass framed, exterior, interior, sliding, French, bi-fold . . . . our portfolio is extensive and could go on and on.  A few months back we had an unusual request that we jumped at the opportunity and the challenge.

This client had the standard white PVC garage doors, but after undergoing this extensive of a renovation, they no longer seemed appropriate for such an otherwise gorgeous front entrance and first impression of the spectacular home.   The PVC panels were removed and then replaced with custom built wood paneling, all the hardware and the operating system was salvaged.  The opposite smaller garage door was also replaced with a pair of custom carriage house style doors.

Wednesday Woodworks - Gansevoort Entertainment Additions

The Gansevoort has been one of the hottest, most popular new resorts to hit theTurks and Caicos. TC Millwork has been fortunate to have been a part of making this resort the chic, stylish destination it is today.  Among our many custom built contributions;

Image from realtravel

Reception desk featuring unique stone face front,

Image from booked.net

earthy spa reception desk and beauty product display,

Bagatelle Bistro Bar, which so many people have complimented that it still looks

 this flawless after countless party nights of tabletop dancing (sans stilettos we hope).

All units feature our custom built closets and a few bedroom layouts, these sliding panels shown above.

Image from realtravel

Now there will be a small modification that will create a nice improvement.  The image above depicts a typical Gansevoort bedroom, notice the large looming empty space above the flat screen television?  All that is about to change.

No more empty space!  The televisions will soon be encased in a shelving unit which will allow space for display on top and a tidy little nook for the dvd unit below.   

Caribbean Wellness Day & TCI Rubbish Runners

Image from Race_For_The_Conch_Eco-SeaSwim

Images above from a turksandcaicosproductions shoot for self

 Today, Saturday Sept.11, marks Caricoms third annual celebration of Caribbean Wellness Day.  This years theme is "Love that Body, Make it Last."  To read up on how this great initiative was started, and the top illnesses affecting the Caribbean region, please see the official press release.  Participate in the Turks and Caicos, see the schedule of events here. 

  The TCI Rubbish Runners are 100% behind Caribbean Wellness Day, and thanks to the recent article in the Free Press (quoted below), hopefully more of the community will join us in keeping lean while keeping TCI green!

"While many of us have finished mopping up floors, moving furniture back to its usual locations, and clearing debris from yards, the evidence of Hurricane Irene’s aftermath is still lingering on our beautiful beaches. One community group is working diligently to get our shores back in shape while keeping in shape is the TCI Rubbish Runners. Begun as a branch of the TCI Environmental Club nearly a year ago, the group aims to spread awareness about littering and other environmental issues impacting the Turks and Caicos Islands while encouraging healthy living. Founder and recreational runner Stacie Steensland believes a great recipe for living a healthy lifestyle involves time spent in nature, daily exercise, and making a positive impact

in our community.“A rubbish runner can accomplish all three in as little as 20 minutes per day,” Steensland says. “The club invites all individuals in the community to partake in weekly exercise, but instead of focusing solely on your own health, spend some energy on the health of the environment you are enjoying.

“Litter plagues our planet, and here in this biodiversity‘hot spot’ with thousands of species to protect and preserve, it is all the more relevant to eradicate it.” Steensland emphasizes that all anyone has to do to become a Rubbish Runner is to pick up trash — on a morning stroll, on a post-work jog, on a play day at the beach, or even while “running”daily errands. That’s it. No meetings, no fundraisers, no collective decision

making. Membership is as easy as enjoying the great outdoors and leaving it a better place than when you found it. Public trash receptacles, virtually nonexistent until recently, now make rubbish running even easier, thanks to TCI Waste Disposal Services’ placement of both garbage and recycling bins at several beach

accesses.  Steensland, who began picking up litter regularly in Providenciales in 2006, says the practice came to her as second nature, having watched her father pick up trash all her life. “When I was young, I found

his habit somewhat embarrassing, especially those times in busy parking lots where many bystanders would raise eyebrows. Now those bystanders look oddly at both my father and I, and I couldn’t be more proud.”

Steensland, a creative designer for TC Millwork who specializes in refinishing and reclaimed wood furnishings and cabinetry, in some instances converts the trash she finds into treasures. Recently, stray planks from a shipwrecked sloop were transformed into a kitchen island, and a downed tree was made into a table base. TCI Rubbish Runners could use your help to make the TCI a cleaner, greener place to live. To find out more, visit the Rubbish Runners facebook page or see http://www.pepperandpikey.blogspot.com/.

Field Guide Fridays - Pork and Doughboy

Acacia Acuifera, locally "pork and doughboy" 

"Acacia acuifera only grows in the Bahamas archipelago including the Turks and Caicos Islands. It grows in coppice around the coasts of the islands. Coppiced woodland occurs when trees are regularly cut back to ground level with young shoots reappearing from the trees' stumps. Its common name is pork and doughboy, possibly describing the sausage-shaped fruits. The tree is a favourite food source for the endemic Turks and Caicos rock iguana (Cyclura carinata) which feeds on new leaves, flowers and ripe pods. When the trees' seeds have passed through an iguana's digestive system, any beetle larvae which might have infested them are killed off and the seeds germinate more easily. Seeds collected from Acacia acuifera have been put into storage at the Millennium Seed Bank and seedlings resulting from germination trials are being grown on at Kew for eventual display in one of the public glasshouses."

Above information from kew.org

Acacia Acuifera is found on calcerous soils, is classified as a shrub or small tree, and is described as having alternating leaves and reddish brown to grey twig like stems.  Their bright yellow ball flowers remind me of miniature craspedia or Billy Balls and they bloom all year long so are easily identifiable.  If you would like to see this species, the following habitats migh be explored, information from anbg.gov:

"East Caicos:
rocky headland adjacent to Good's Hill, SE corner of island, 31 Mar 1978, W.T.Gillis 14459 (GH).

Grand Turk:
beach coppice near Gun Hill, 20 Dec 1975, D.S.Correll 46560 (F, FTG, NY);
Waterloo and vicinity, 20 Feb-24 Mar 1911, C.F.Millspaugh & C.M.Millspaugh 9025 (F, NY);
27 Aug-1 Sep 1905, G.V.Nash & N.Taylor 3775 (F, NY).

Middle (Grand) Caicos:
pineland E of Conch Bar airstrip, 3.5 miles ESE of Conch Bar, 14 Jun 1974, W.T.Gillis & G.R.Proctor 12331 (A, IJ).

Parrot Cay:
sandy soil between dunes, 3 Mar 1911, C.F.Millspaugh & C.M.Millspaugh 9204 (F, NY).

Pine Cay:
dry thicket, 26 Sep 1973, R.G.Anderson 45 (A, FLAS);
NE side, 26 Aug 1974, D.S.Correll 43193 (FLAS, FTG);
E of airstrip in open scrubland, 23 Feb 1973, W.T.Gillis 11830 (A);
stable sandy flats, scrubland behind dunes, 24 Jan 1993, P.H.Raven 28203 (MO);
sandy flats N of Meredian Lodge, 27 Jan 1993, P.H.Raven 28273 (MO).

Providenciales:
dune coppice, Turtle Cove, 14 Dec 1975, D.S.Correll 46353 (F, FTG MO, NY);
coastal coppice near the Bight, 24 Jun 1990, B.A.Neis 164 (FTG).

South Caicos:
rocky limestone coast S of Cockburn Harbour, 21 Apr 1971, D.Burch 4227 (MO, NY);
ridge running between Cockburn Harbour and airport, 11 Feb 1978, D.S.Correll 49450 (FTG);
vicinity of Cockburn Harbour, 17 Jun 1954, G.R.Proctor 8835 (A, IJ);
G.R.Proctor 17496 (A);
14-16 Dec 1907, P.Wilson 7591 (F, GH, NY).

West Caicos:
NE of Company Point along N coast with thatch palm, 3 April 1975, W.T.Gillis 12404 (A, IJ, MO)."

DIY Pillow Cover

Before: placemat

I am a huge fan of recovering throw pillows.  Fresh covers can update a room or piece of furniture easily and affordably.  Here is one of the quickest conversions I have used time and time again. Purchase a double sided fabric placemat, take out a 2-3 inch section with a seam ripper, stuff and restitch the seams together.  These two ivory and black pillows took 25 minutes!

After: Decorative Pillows

Fleur de Lys Villa Fourth Bedroom

As of September first, Fleur de Lys Villa is officially welcoming short term bookings!  Due to several inquiries for parties of 8 for the coming season, we decided a fourth bedroom was in order.  Last September we upgraded the guest wing by adding insulation in the roof and painting the ceilings bright white, see the before photos here.   Now, one year later, this bedroom has undergone another purely decorative transformation; from cool blues and fiery corals to a more neutral color palette synonymous with the rest of the villa.

I wanted this room to have a nautical feel; the map of the Caribbean in the corner, a framed photo of the Old Third Turtle, pieces of driftwood.

The guest wing bedrooms are full of soft light with doors and shuttered windows open; views of the courtyard while relaxing in bed.

This mirror will eventually be cladded with driftwood pieces, my collection is just not large enough yet to get the job done.

This rustic, honey colored bedroom set was an acquisition from one of our renovation clients who replaced it with a more modern look; the craftsmanship alone was reason to save it but I knew we would eventually find a cozy spot for it. The pillows were a recycled sweater project.

Straw hats have a long history in the Turks and Caicos; "handmade wide-brim straw hats, made from the dried leaves of the Silver Top Palm, were worn to provide protection from the sun . . . (straw hats) completed the outfit, providing shade from the burning sun on fishing boats and while raking salt in the ponds or picking cotton and sisal on the plantations "  From David Bowen, TCI's Cultural Director, article dressing-up-the-islands-the-story-behind-the-national-costume.  Today, straw hats are still as relevant as ever in the Caribbean, whether useful at work or stylish at play.  To find a handmade hat made by local artisans, please visit the Middle Caicos Co-Op.  To see more nautical and creative inspirations on decorating with straw hats, please see thewickerhouse.blogspot.

The breezy bright white, cool turquoise blues, and coral decor weaved their way from the room above, to the more appropriate poolside studio.  This bedroom is it's own little cottage, separate from the rest of the villa, so the playful style and cheerful hues feel more at home here.

The coral cushion covers were a project I did several years ago, they took months to tediously hand sew the beads, making me realise that crafts like embroidery are just not for me!

The evidence of the cottages former use as an art studio still remains intact; local art, crafts, and beach combing finds remain on display.  Villa guests will be able to purchase some of the shadowboxes, jewelry, and trinkets.

Villa guests will have the opportunity to choose which of the four bedrooms best suits each person or couple.  Which room would be your pick; Master Suite, this guest bedroom, the room above, or the cottage? 

Fleur de Lys Villa follows the above mantra; in our inviting atmosphere and gardens, in our relationships with our guests, and in our love and respect for the islands.  Isn't it time you took some R & R in Turks and Caicos to "make life pretty" too?

Field Guide Fridays - Dune Myrtle

Little information is known about this shrub we call Dune Myrtle in the Turks and Caicos.  It's scientific name, stenostomum myrtifolium, popped up on several medical databases so one can only assume it is being researched for pharmecuetical properties.  All I know is these tiny little white blossoms give off an incredible fragrant scent when in bloom.  

Name synonyms are Antirhea myrtifolia and Stenostomum montecristinum.  If you have more information about this species, please place a comment with your knowledge!