What would you do?

The hardest part for me, when it comes to painting a piece of furniture, is deciding how to do it. This can take years and with some of our furniture it often does. Colours, techniques, styles all have to be seriously mulled over before I can take the plunge. I only want to do it once. I have to get it right.

Now, a few years ago I picked up this baby on ebay.

I thought it looked like a bedside table in the photo so I snapped it up for £30 as I thought it would match my french bed. When it arrived, it was HUGE! The measurements had been on the listing but I hadn't checked. This is a metre tall! Oops! ( Could be worse! I nearly bought dolls house furniture accidentally once!)
This is the ONLY thing I have ever had that I am frightened to paint.

It's old. It has a patina that can't be faked.

It's carved. These are not stuck on!

It's oak. And it has cute feet. ( My photo was too blurry).

But, (and this is probably why it was £30) some plonker has SCREWED the top onto the base!

Mmm, 4 whacking great screws in the top!

So what do I do? Does the fact that someone has already ruined this mean I should paint it? Or should I countersink the screws and fill the holes? (Will that look okay or like 4 brown blobs?) At the moment this is in the corner of the living room with a strategically placed lamp and coasters hiding the screws! The light was too poor to capture the detail so I dragged it into the garden as you do. (The neighbours must think I'm mad, frequently dragging furniture outside for photos!)

I like painted furniture with a wooden top but I don't fancy wooden furniture with a painted top.

I could mosaic it?

What would you do with it?

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M.I.A.

Wow, where the heck have I been? Only 3 posts in November?! Man, I have really taken a break from this blog a little too much.
You'd think that I could come back here and show you or tell you all the MANY things I have accomplished during this time, but sadly I do not.
I've just been feeling a little overwhelmed and when I feel overwhelmed I just shut down and do very little.
So, I am here to say enough with that. No more moping around, this girl needs to get things DONE! These projects aren't going to get done themselves. {Sadly}
What do I have on the list? Well, where do I start? This list is more for me, and what I need to check off.

• Christmas decorating
• Christmas shopping
• Finishing one of my daughter's bedroom makeover
• Starting one of my other daughter's bedroom makeover
• Finishing little touches in our family room makeover
• Taking the bags of clothes to consignment, so my husband stops giving me that "look" every time he drives into the garage and sees them still sitting there.
• Trying to finish a Unit in my Sheffield Interior Design program that I am taking
• Oh, and just trying to keep up with everyday life stuff

I'm not going to cry and complain, since I know I am not alone in this game of huge lists of "to do's". And for you women, that can keep up without drowning, I bow down to your super powers.

Here is a little of what I've been up to lately.

Okay, well I can't really say I did the top picture of the outside lights. That credit goes to my husband. Thanks Honey!
Sorry, the tree is blurry. I need to figure out how to work my new DSLR camera. Another thing to add to my list.
Last picture is the current bedroom I am working on. It's been painted, Benjamin Moore's Gray Owl. New carpets have been installed. Now I just need to finish the painting of the trim. I can't wait to start decorating it, and I know my daughter is quite anxious as well. Hopefully, soon I'll be able to show you the after shots.
Those of you that follow my blog, thanks for hanging in there with me!

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The ugly truth...

You've probably all seen this shot by now...

 

What I haven't shared is the other side of the hallway...

Not quite so pretty!

I decorated as far as I could without taking the radiator off. And it's been like that for almost a year!
With the new floor being laid very soon we finally got the plumber in to take off the radiator so I could finish the job.

Wahey! I took off the skirting too as that's being replaced along with the floor. It looks so much better. I was under the impression that having a radiator off meant we'd have to do without heat but the plumber just capped off the one radiator so I could work on the wall all weekend and not freeze. Genius!

I still need to paint the pipes...

Bit by bit the house is getting there. Slowly!

Despite not being able to put up a single Christmas decoration due to emptying half the downstairs for the flooring, Christmas spirit is well and truly here!
At the Friday Flea market I picked up this sweet vintage box with it's paper labels.

I'm not sure how I will utilise it yet but I love it.

And we went up the road to the garden centre to see Father Christmas arrive in style!

And Freddy is getting very excited!

This is the 'good' cat! He's only looking fed up as my husband wanted him to look at the camera when he wanted to sleep! He didn't mind the outfit at all. I think he has a future in modelling!
The 'bad' one would not tolerate such silliness.

Linking with Magpie Monday at Me and my shadow

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Flea market finds...

I started a new job in a charity shop in Hitchin which was really good! I have never worked so hard in my life and my background is childcare so I think that is saying something! A kids party is a walk in the park in comparison. But it was so rewarding. I put away all the summer clothes as I thought it was a little chilly, and I went through ALL the kids clothes and put out some nice warm items and surprise, surprise, people were snapping them up!
I was up and down stairs, tagging, steaming and sorting and I really enjoyed it.
Then I spied a new donation of Christmas decorations containing some vintage glass lovelies so I boxed them up and stuck a £20 label on them. They sold the same day they were put out, to the surprise of the staff who would have sold them for £1. So I felt great about that.

I even managed to get up early and do the Friday Flea market before going into the shop and scored some goodies!

This little fella I haven't even paid for! I owe the lady the money and will give it to her next week as she didn't have any change. We are a trusting bunch in Hitchin! I think he's from the 60's and will add to my vintage Christmas decoration collection.

[I am dying to show you my Christmas decs and give you a guided tour of my favourite bits as I know I'm not the only bauble maniac out there, BUT... instead of getting it all up on Dec 1st and getting our moneys worth before 12th night it's going to be sooo late this year. The flooring guy comes on the 11th so all the furniture has to be removed from the living room and hallway as we are being screeded, then floored over 2 days (maybe three?) and THEN I have to put the rooms back together, put back all the books and games and THEN get the decs out. It will be a frustrating wait but it's taken us 4 years to be in a position where we can proceed with the flooring (wiring etc) so that takes priority.]

My favourite find was this pristine carpet bag!

I'm not really into shoes and bags like 'normal' girls but this just screamed 'have me!' and cost next to nothing. I am one lucky lady.

I found very little at Sundays boot sale apart from a lovely new friend, the beautiful Rebecca from Crivens Cottage who had never been to boot sale before. Unimaginable I know! Well, she took to it like a duck to water and scored more cool stuff than I did! Not to mention charming the regular stallholders!

I did find one very sweet thing:

A faded Christmassy box containing...

...teeny tiny Christmas crackers! 3'' tall, they are the size of boiled sweets...

...yet still contain snaps mottoes and charms! We were tempted to pull one to see what was inside but didn't want to ruin the unused set. Cost? 25p!

Result!


Linking with: Me and my shadow   A living space   Fath, hope and Charity shopping 

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What to do with Sheila the mannequin...

Remember Sheila my most recent boot sale mannequin?

Well, that blue fabric had to go. It was a foam backed synthetic fabric and the foam had degraded so Sheila was leaving piles of sand-like substance wherever she was put.
I removed the old covering and gave her a good scrub in the shower to get all the 'sand' off.

I mentioned that I wanted to try some decoupage on her. Let me show you my inspiration!

First up:

 This is by Ellinee from Ellinee journal where she gives a helpful tutorial too! Vintage sheet music! So beautiful!

Next up:

 

Vintage dress patterns used to give a corset effect! Isn't that great? This one is by Louise at

 Dearest Jackdaw

She also gives a tutorial on how to achieve this.

But I think the one I shall try to emulate, given the shape and style of my dress form is this one.

Now these don't look decoupaged at all, I think they are moulded card or something similar...but I figured I could try and achieve this look with brown paper. This picture is from Timeworn Interiors 
which is a lovely blog, so much eye candy...

Thank you ladies for giving me permission to show your images!

Back to Sheila:

She's stripped  and waiting! But I'm very overwhelmed as the wooden flooring has arrived, I have to empty the living room and rip off the skirting boards, I have to decorate behind a radiator that's off, and Christmas is coming. So don't hold your breath....

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The finished painted Mule chest

The house stinks of furniture wax. My husband wants to leave me for another woman. Any woman will do, so long as she doesn't keep altering EVERY piece of furniture that comes into the house.
But apart from that, I'm quite pleased with how it's worked out.

Here's the before:

Very useful but very orange.
Here's the after:

I think it's finished. I wanted to add a bit of folk art inspired pattern on the front but keep it very neutral and subtle...

Luckily I have every painted furniture book known to man, so I was able to trace this design onto the chest. And luckily, folk art can be a bit rubbish! Then I clear waxed and dark waxed. I use Liberon Beeswax with turpentine (clear and antique pine on a pale piece like this)

 

The pic above is after the dark wax. It just adds some age and dirtiness which I like the look of.

with clear wax (a bit too clean and new looking)

With dark wax, the difference is subtle but it adds more character

And here's the flooring sample that's my favourite so far:

Hopefully it will add Scandinavian chic. Vanilla oak. I've got paint on it! (start as you mean to go on)

I've been on the lookout for a large piece of fabric or curtain to use for a door curtain to make the house warmer and struck gold at this mornings boot sale with these:

Huge unopened cream cotton lined curtains! Five quid! Wahey! I can always embellish them if it's looking a bit too cream and white in the hallway. I'm really pleased. Don't you love it when a room starts coming together?

Linking up with

 Magpie Monday  PJH DESIGNS  Funky Junk Interiors

Knick of Time
 Elizabeth & Co

 Faith Hope and Charity Shopping 
 White wednesdays at Timewashed  
 From my front porch to yours  
 Miss Mustard Seed 
 Jennifer Rizzo
 

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Pitfalls of painting pine...

The dawn of Annie Sloan chalk paint has turned everyone into a furniture painter. And that's a good thing. I think creativity is to be encouraged and up cycling is good for the planet. There is one type of furniture however that requires a little more forethought than just slapping a bit of ASCP on it.

Pine.
The knottiness can ruin your work as the knots continue to seep resin for years and this will eventually discolour your paintwork and spoil your piece.

Traditionally you would use Knotting solution to seal the knots, but this is only suitable when being over painted with an oil based paint. Most modern furniture painting is done with water based paints like emulsion (latex) or chalk paint.
So what's a girl to do?

It's generally safe to assume a factory lacquered modern pine piece will have had the knots treated and should be okay to paint if you're not sanding and removing that treatment. But if it's waxed pine, untreated pine or you're just not sure, then a stain sealing, high adhesion super primer is the answer. It's water based so you can over paint with water based paints, no problem.

I use Blackfriars Problem Solving Primer. One coat over the knots and another coat over the whole thing. 

No they're not paying me to write this. It's just great stuff.

This is a large old pine chest that sits in my hallway. It's the most useful piece of furniture as all the bedding for the sofa bed fits in the top section, and the drawer at the bottom fits the dressing up clothes in. I think it's called a Mule chest.

This floor is NOT staying!

But I don't do pine. I'm totally with the Scandinavians on this. Orange as a colour is wrong and must be obliterated.
So, two coats of Blackfriars on every knot. ( I know I said do the whole thing, but I want to distress back to wood here not primer, and I'm using chalk paint next so I don't have to prime the whole thing.)

Then I chose three paint samples from Wilkinsons, only £1 each and they have some lovely colours.
I turned a few samples of a mid grey 'Mineral Stone' into home made chalk paint with plaster of paris dissolved in hot water then added to the paint. The ratio is 3 parts paint to one part plaster of paris and as much water as you need to make it the right consistency. Because this is a huge thing I had to keep adding more and more water as I went, as it kept on thickening up. Then what happens is the ratio of the paint decreases and the chalk paint becomes less and less opaque as you go. No matter, I did two coats of transparent grey chalk paint then finished with a coat of pure paint so I got the coverage I was after.
This piece of furniture has been previously waxed and that's why I wanted to use chalk paint. That's the beauty of chalk paint, you CAN paint over previously waxed furniture. All I did for preparation was sugar soaping and removing the handles.
Once it was all grey I rubbed the corners, edges and mouldings with candle wax. My chosen top coat colour was 'Coastline' from Wilkinsons. It's a gorgeous expensive looking cream. Now the piece had been primed with the chalk paint undercoat, I could just use pure paint without adding anything to it. Those sample pots go a long way, even on something this size.
And that's as far as I've got. I'm hoping to finish it this weekend. I want to add some embellishment to the panels on the front...

I've got paint all over the floor, but that's okay as I'm on the verge of ordering our new wooden flooring and these nasty tiles will be covered soon. You might think that after a four year wait I would know exactly what I want for the floor. Well, I did but when the samples came, I decided the grey washed oak I had wanted, looked a little too frantic. I've had to go back to the drawing board, you can only order 3 samples at a time and they take 5 days to come so it's a long process. It's a huge expense and I don't want to make a mistake! I was about to place an order yesterday, when I became paralysed by fear and ordered more samples instead. This could take some time...

You can see how the chest turned out here.

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Things That Matter: A Book Review

After waiting months to get my hands on Nate Berkus' new book, Things That Matter, I have finally got my greedy little fingers on it.
Wow, it is not what I was expecting at all. First of all, I had seen the cover before its release but having it just sitting on my coffee table with Nate staring at me with those brooding eyes. I don't even have to open the book to make it worth the $20 + I spent. The cover is gorgeous on it's own. {Sorry, to my husband if you are reading this, but you know he's pretty darn handsome.}
Anyways, if you can allow yourself to get past the cover, you will find a beautiful and insightful story inside the pages about Nate.
I have watched Nate on Oprah since he first appeared on her show, and followed him over to his own show, but it was so interesting to learn about his growing up years, his love for design from such an early age, how he started his career and his heart wrenching story of his account of being in the 2004 tsunami while vacationing in Sri Lanka.
Nate has been known to say that your home should represent YOU. It should show the story of you. I'm not sure my home does that. Since reading his book, I will be forever more thoughtful of my designs, and the things I buy for the home.
It shouldn't matter where you buy your home accessories, how much you spent on it, or if it's the latest trend. What should matter is if those things bring you happiness seeing them, if they bring back good memories or maybe inspire you.
Are you surrounded by things that matter? This is something that I will always have in the back of my mind. Not only for home decorating, but in all instances of my life. For all the little trivial things that pop in life, I will try so hard to keep in mind, does this really matter? Does this really matter in the scheme of all things?
Thank you Nate for a beautiful and inspiring book. Thank you for sharing your life (so far) story. It was so great to know you a little better.
I can't have a post of Nate without showing some of his beautiful designs....

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Small on Space, Enormous on Style

I'd like to share a home designed by Elizabeth Martin of Elizabeth Martin Design. I found these photos by chance through an interview on the Pottery Barn blog. Okay, where have I been? I didn't know Pottery Barn had their own blog!
It is a only a 700 square foot space, and it is simply beautiful!

 

 

 

Nice, huh?
If you have been in the dark about PB's blog, be sure to check it out here and read the interview with Elizabeth.

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