Alpenhimmel Shop discount for all readers...

The lady who runs the Etsy shop I mentioned in my last post has kindly offered my readers 20% off all orders placed between now and 31st October.


The code you'll need is PAINTEDSTYLE.

Here's a link to the Alpenhimmel shop.

So if you were tempted before by gorgeous copper dowry stencils...

or vintage laundry labels...

even vintage wallpapers by the yard...

Oh my!

...or any of the other lovely things in her shop, now is the time to buy!

I've just bought some vintage wallpaper as I get 20% off too! Surely I must now have enough for the patchwork vintage wallpaper wall!

Happy shopping!

 [ Is this a sponsored post? I had already published my previous post before Charity from the Alpenhimmel Etsy shop wrote to offer me and you readers 20% off. I will always tell you about the products I find, use and love. I loved the little stencil so much that I recieved it, used it and blogged about it all in one day! ]

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Secret vintage wallpaper...

I finished the chest of drawers late last night. I hate it. I have to do it again today. It's slightly depressing. As if it weren't bad enough, having to have ALL of ones summer clothing out alongside the winter clothing because it's so cold, I have nowhere to put ANYTHING! There are piles all over the upstairs and my husband and daughter are getting fed up with me.

I'm getting fed up with me too.

So, on a different subject, I bought an old picture frame from a charity shop. I thought it would be nice if my six year old painted me a picture for my future gallery wall. The frame I found was a few quid from Oxfam. It's been painted in the past and that's fine. The glass has little air bubbles in it so it's very old.

On the back someone had stuck some old wallpaper. I guess to keep thunder bugs out. That excited me!  So I took it home and carefully steamed it off, ignoring my husband saying, ''What are you DOING? It's RUBBISH! Who would want that?''

Here's where it got exciting. Under that wallpaper was another wallpaper.

 

And underneath that, was another wallpaper...

 

And under that wallpaper was another one. Probably the nicest one of all but sadly, very brittle and hard to get a big piece.

It felt a bit like pass the parcel. I like to think of someone changing their picture every now and then and re-wallpapering the back every time with leftovers of whatever was in fashion at the time. Make do and mend, indeed!

The two largest pieces are being saved for the wallpaper wall.

Right! Enough fannying around. There's work to be done...

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My bedroom (a work in progress...)

I've been a bit quiet lately. Have I been wallpapering in a patchwork fashion?
No, but I think I have chosen a wall! And it's a different wall to the one I was thinking of. Which means I can have one gallery wall and one patchwork wall. I just hope it doesn't make the room feel smaller!

Here's the new wall I 'found'.

It has a door in it and is half obliterated by a huge mirror and a double chest of drawers so the impact of the patchwork wallpaper will be broken up I think. (And of course my dressing table is ALWAYS as tidy as this. I certainly haven't just shifted piles of crapola onto the floor!)

Sadly I can't start anything as this wall needs to be chased for the upstairs rewiring which hasn't yet begun. So for now, inspired by a picture on Pinterest...

...this will have to do.

But it will leave this wall...

...free for the pictures.

Speaking of pictures, I got another one!

From eBay

I love white flowers. My favourite picture is this one by Van Gogh...

Currently in the living room

Sadly I'm not a millionaire so this is a print in an old car boot sale frame. But I LOVE it.  And the new one reminded me of this one.
I had an old frame which almost fits, I just need to saw the edge off the picture. I like how it looks. Slightly grand and slightly knackered with it's missing corner.

The bedroom is very much a work in progress.

Missing door handle

  I bought this huge chest of drawers when we moved in.

 

It fits that wall perfectly. It's an old 1950's fake french number which had a dated, cracked and peeling paint job. 

 

So I've stripped the top, which appears to be solid mahogany, stained it and lightened it with a paint wash before sealing it.

 

Then I started priming the drawers. I didn't want to sand them in case the paint has lead in it so I used my beloved Zinsser primer.

Er, then I got a bit distracted and started something else. That happens a lot around here. 

But it is NOT going to be white.

And here's a close up of the mirror...

This was a gold plastic frame with a cardboard picture of a ship in it when I bought it from a charity shop for £2 long, long ago. 

 Here it is painted white in my last house...

  We're having important guests to stay in September and they will have this room so I do need to get it finished by then. Even the orange skirting boards! I wish I had a photo of this room when we moved in. Every surface was papered in 1060's abstract textured wallpaper and most of it was orange. Even the door. I can't even remember what was on the floor. I reckon I'm halfway there.

Thank you for all your ideas on my last post. The film poster is going to live on the stairs.

One last pic for today. 

Fat Freddy

A permanent fixture on my bed! 

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