Interior Design Trend 2014: furniture makeover

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas. I'd show you my gifts but I doubt you'd be impressed by my Poundland mug from my seven year old or the tyre pressure gauge from my dad. My husband and I don't really bother with gifts for each other but he did pay for me to have a real proper haircut by a real proper hairdresser so that was very nice. Actually I hate going because making small talk over loud music, running water and hairdryers stresses me out. I can't hear anything. But my hair is much better for having a skilled snipper let loose on it rather than my usual untrained girl who thinks she can do anything because she has the proper scissors. (That would be me.)

The family lunch at the weekend went really well. The food all turned out fine and everyone really enjoyed squeezing past the half painted wardrobe that still inhabits the kitchen.

We had a stormy trip into Londons West End to see Stickman the day after. It was fabulous, really cleverly done. The book is one of my favourites, written by the Gruffalo lady, Julia Donaldson.

And our Christmas and Boxing day were calm,quiet and chilled. Perfect.

I've been looking back at the years posts and I'm really surprised how much I have done. I always feel slightly idle if there's not some massive chaos creating project going on and I guess I focus on the mountain of jobs that need to be started rather than the ones I've completed.

Halfway through the year I decided to focus much more on painting our own furniture and working on home improvements rather than furniture for other people. What brought this about was the realisation that we were coming up to the five year anniversary of living here and I felt a sense of panic at how much there was still to do.
Also, what's the point of being a painter and never finding the time to tackle our own shoddy furniture?

So the first project was this Edwardian Dressing Table table that belonged to a friend...

With new drawer bottoms, a refinished top and a bit of milk paint it became this...

Next a teensy little old Sewing Table got the milk paint treatment and a new upholstery job for the interior...

I added some much needed curb appeal with a french enamel house number inspired planter.

I altered a small wooden wine table, trying to achieve the look of a Swedish Gustavian antique.

The Painted Stairs!
A monster of a job!
I thought I did this last year! No wonder you all thought I was bonkers when I repainted the walls before Christmas! I have dreadful memory problems.

I turned a coffee table into a bedroom bench...

And I FINALLY painted the double Chest of Drawers in my bedroom... it waited four years.

Next it was a return to my love affair with milk paint on this Dressing table...

And luckily it fit into the living room and with the removal of the mirror, it's now my desk!

Sadly, it's not ever this tidy.

Then onto the dining room. EVERYTHING in here was overhauled.

The Pine dresser...

The plate rack...

The epic table bleaching process...

I learned how to paint on an old window frame...

and even the chandelier was painted...

I painted a marble topped table

My favourite makeover has to be the cupboard doors in my daughters room! By a long shot. The thrill I get from them still hasn't worn off.

I shudder to think that we were going to get them custom built!

I sincerely thank you for reading and commenting over the last year. The positivity that comes from blogging is incredibly uplifting and it's wonderful to share with like minded people. I've reached 100,000 page hits in a year which is wonderful.

I hope that 2014 will mean more completed projects and home improvements. I have a VERY long list! I'm hoping we can tackle our original 1960 bathroom which is GRIM! I'd like to attempt to improve our eighties kitchen on the cheap. I've got furniture galore to get cracking with, a TV stand, an armoire, two bedside tables, two chests of drawers, a headboard to make from a door, curtains to alter and customise, a vintage wallpaper wall to start and a walk in wardrobe and garage window frames to build. Now I've got my lovely electric saw there'll be no stopping me!

I wish all my lovely readers a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2014.

My daughter and I are heading up to York in the morning to stay with my dad for the rest of the school holidays. I cannot wait. I'm hoping to catch up with some friends and do very little else.

Funky Junk

Knick of Time

Continue

I've been tinkering with my new plate rack and I figured it might be time for another carpentry masterclass. Or, how not to do things as the case may be...

This was my inspiration:

Found on Pinterest (Vintage House blog)

Whaddya know? It's a Swedish blog! No wonder it's so gorgeous.

What I loved about the first plate rack I found on eBay is the wooden rails to keep the plates from falling off, for example if your dining room is small and your guests leap up in a hurry, forgetting what's behind them on the wall. To spare those guests from the embarrassment of smashing all the china, a rail is a good idea.


The too small plate rack.

But nothing fit on this one. So onto the next plate rack, very much larger but without the clever rail.

It's a disaster just waiting to happen.

So... here's how I added a rail to the new plate rack. I bought some wooden dowel. I winged it on the size but it would look good to have the dowel the same thickness as your shelves. Luckily mine was.

I measured (VERY carefully this time) and made sure my things would squeeze behind the rail. I used a Spade bit which has a nice pointy middle so you can be spot on with your hole drilling.

As my dowel was 18mm wide, I went for the 18mm spade bit. I asked the man in the DIY shop if that was right.
Well it wasn't right. I had to spend 15 minutes sanding the inside of each hole so that the damn dowel would go in.

When you use a spade bit the top side of the wood is lovely.

The bottom side gets all splintered. I don't care. This is being painted and that's what wood filler is for.

bottom side

Hooray, the dowel fits! Eventually.
I cut the dowel 5mm shorter than it needed to be so that I didn't have bits poking out due to inaccurate measuring/rubbish sawing. The recess was filled so it would be smooth.

I also needed to add a small lip to the shelf to prevent plates from slipping through. Oh yeah. My plates aren't going anywhere! There's a groove for plates to sit in but it's in the wrong place for really fat plates. And I'm thinking of displaying something other than plates on this. And they are fat.

So I took a piece of moulding. It's a bit of pine glass beading. So I popped this on with wood glue and thin panel pins. When using thin beading, the thinnest panel pins are the best. The thicker ones can split the beading. I've made this mistake before with my panelled doors.

old plate groove and new pine lip in front

Caulking the joins is the most important next step. If you don't do this you'll get cracks in your paint along every join. I've made this mistake too.

I'm a firm believer in just doing things and learning along the way! I think you remember by making mistakes. I do anyway!

Speaking of mistakes, I also treated this plate rack for woodworm. Often if you buy things with evidence of woodworm, the seller will tell you they have been treated. Never take their word for it. I bought my reproduction French bed from a 'reputable dealer' ( let's just say they are a French furniture dealer in York with a showroom in London also) who assured me it was treated. Well, it certainly wasn't! You need to sort this sort of thing out well before you paint a piece.

I treated this one, went away for a week, and painted it with chalk paint. Grease marks from the oily woodworm treatment showed through the paint. It takes a long time for that woodworm killer to dry out! As I was in a hurry, I just went over it all in a stain stopping paint. Not ideal.

Eew!

I used Polycell Stain Stop

and it was awesome. Just one coat and no more oil marks. (This is not a sponsored post.)

So, FINALLY time to paint!

I did a bog standard two colours of emulsion, sanding one back so the underneath colour showed through. And I thought I should perhaps try some Swedish embellishment. I turned to my furniture painting books and realised I'd made a bit of a booboo.

You know I like everything as pale as can be? Well it seems that in Sweden, this look is to be found in the 'fancy furniture.'


Posh stuff

I can't do 'posh' in this house as the ceilings are too low. So what I had to work with was more 'chunky country pine', more of a 'folk' vibe.

But all the pictures I found of that kind of thing are incredibly colourfull!

Oh dear, we can't have that!
Fortunately my Swedish dining room is a 'fantasy' Swedish dining room so I'm allowed to break the rules.
I've gone for a hybrid version.
Folky painting with pale colours.

I turned once again to the best painted furniture book ever written...

and found a design I liked.

I was worried it was a bit twee but now it's up, it's so small that I don't think it matters...

The problem I have now, is what to display on here. Are you ready for the big reveal?

The before: