My Week's Holiday....NOT!!!!

What a good week to take off work. The snow from last weekend is still here, and we had more last night. I have stayed in and painted all week and it has been brilliant!!I painted and waxed the retro furniture I bought for the spare room, and picked up the beautiful Laura Ashley wallpaper today and it matches perfectly! Here is the chest of drawers -

Painted in Old White

Keeping original handles

Adding the wallpaper on top

sneak preview of finished item

I pasted the top of the chest of drawers then put the paper on, but I think I should maybe have pasted the paper (as instructed on the roll). It has wrinkled quite a lot and I am just hoping that they will come out as it dries.
The wardrobe was straightforward - 2 coats of Annie Sloan Old White then a coat of clear wax. There are two panels on the front on each side of the door, and depending on how the paper works on the chest of drawers, I might add paper to the panels to tie these two pieces in. Here are some pics of the wardrobe transformation (I love taking these pics)

Before

During

After

Matches so well !

I will post transformation pics of the chest of drawers as soon as it is finished. Just hope the creases come out of the paper. I also have this gorgeous mirror to hang in the room. I picked it up at car boot for £4!!! Don't think I will paint this as I love the old gold colour.

I had a mini disaster on Monday morning. I was painting the wardrobe and had just finished off a pot of Old White. I went to the shed to get another, and there was none! I had taken a week off work to get this furniture painted and had run out of the colour I needed! Thankfully my paint supplier came to my rescue. I placed an order on Monday and it arrived at 10am on Tuesday morning, even with the snow! They are brilliant - a shop in Kent called Dovetails. I would highly recommend them if you don't have a local supplier like me.
Anyway, on to the other things I have been working on this week.
Firstly I painted two coats of Old White on the wee chair I got at the car boot sale -

I am still deciding whether to stencil or freehand the design I want to put on. I will post pics at different stages once I have made up my mind.

I had two of these retro Ercol style chair in the shed. Bought them last year at a car boot sale. I showed you the grey one last week, which sold quickly on ebay for £14. I painted the second one in Old Violet and have put a coat of wax on it today. Once I have buffed it up I will list it too.

Annie Sloan Old Violet

I also have three farmhouse pine chairs in the shed and I decided to try out the new Duck Egg Blue shade I bought on one of them. I wanted the pine to show through so only used one coat. I then sanded to distress, and waxed. Listed it on ebay and it sold straight away!

The girl who bought it also bought a painted plaster mirror I was selling (sold cheaper as there were a couple of cracks in it) and she got the two items for £25. She came to pick them up the same day and was telling me that she would like to try the furniture painting herself. She has bought a little table to try it out on, so I showed the projects I was working on and how the Annie Sloan paint works so well with the wax and gives such a lovely finish. She left very happy with a spare paint chart I had and details of Dovetails (supplier).

Also started a few other projects this week. I hate doing nothing when I am waiting for paint to dry between coats. An oval coffee table I got in a charity shop for £3, an old swing mirror I paid £4 for at car boot, and a wooden cutlery tray (£1)

I decided to add some of my new wallpaper to the cutlery tray, and I think it looks very pretty. I have still to wax this one. I might have to keep it for myself. :0)

It is Saturday today so I have one more day off before I go back to work. It has been an amazing week, and I have accomplished everything I set out to achieve. I cant wait till it starts getting lighter in the evenings so I can spend more time painting. It is still getting dark around 4.30. Roll on Summer!!

Saw these silly pigeons having a bath in a puddle in Crewe this morning and just had to take a pic!

Have a great week, and please feel free to ask me anything, or leave a comment :0)
Julie

RedKittenCrafts: Great start to my week off !

RedKittenCrafts: Great start to my week off !: Hope you all had a great week. I had a busy one at work, but worked from home on Friday as we had quite a heavy snowfall. I seemed to get a ...

Great start to my week off !

Hope you all had a great week. I had a busy one at work, but worked from home on Friday as we had quite a heavy snowfall. I seemed to get a lot more done without all the usual interruptions, phone calls etc. Yesterday I went out to pick up a chair I bought on ebay. It is advertised on IKEA website for £125 and I got it for £25 :0) Really happy with it !!

Got up early today (8.30) with the intention to get painting as early as possible, but Russell put a film on that I thought I had seen, but hadn't, and I ended up watching it all. Constantine, with Keanu Reeves. It was really good!

Ended up being lunchtime by the time I got myself dressed! Then I was hungry so made lunch. I did however manage to get all the tasks done that I had set myself for today. I finished off the 2 x chairs, and the 2 x mirrors, photographed them all, and listed them on ebay. I have a bid on one of the mirrors already. The chairs look really nice now that they are all waxed, distressed and buffed up.

I put the glass back into the mirror frames and photographed them on a nice little side table I have. It really makes a difference where you photograph your items, and staging them with some shabby chic bits and pieces. Here is the before and after of the wooden swivel mirror.

This is the more ornate wall hanging mirror I got at the car boot sale last week. Looks much better in Annie Sloan Old White.

I showed you some wallpaper swatches I quite liked last week to decorate the new furniture in my guest room. Well I found some that I love in the Laura Ashley sale. I wouldn't pay full price at £35 a roll, but they had a wallpaper event and they were all half price. I am hoping to pick it up from their store in Crewe next weekend. It is called Gosford Meadow. My friend Sandy bought this material to cover the chairs I painted for her and they look stunning, so I am excited to see how it looks on my furniture.

In the meantime I can start work on painting the wardrobe and chest of drawers in Old White, which is still my favourite Annie Sloan colour. I haven't decided whether to change the handles, I will wait and see what it looks like painted.  Once I have finished that project I will start bringing up the pieces of furniture from the shed at the bottom of the garden that to paint. It is packed full with a large sideboard, a welsh dresser, a 5 drawer pine chest and numerous chairs and tables! I will try not to buy anything else to paint until I have cleared some space in the shed, so difficult to walk past a bargain at a car boot sale though!!

I should have quite a lot to show you in next week's post and I will let you know how this week's auctions went on ebay. Thanks for reading, and please leave a comment :o)   Julie

And now it has started snowing!

Had a busy week at work, and it has turned very cold here after the mild spell we have had over Christmas. Even though the temperature barely got over 1 degree today we still scraped the car and headed out to Hanley Car Boot sale. We were surprised at how many stallholders had braved the cold, and they were all trying to keep warm with flasks of tea and treats from the hot food sellers

The only thing I bought today was a pretty little child's chair from IKEA that I managed to get for £2. The cost at least £10 new. I plan to shabby chic it as a Birthday gift for my friend's little girl who will be 2 in July. I will post pics of progress on this 

I decided last week to place an order for a few new colours of Annie Sloan paint, and I now have " French Linen", "Duck Egg Blue" and "Graphite". The graphite is very dark, almost black, and I am not sure what I am going to use it on yet, perhaps a table or bedside cabinet. I have still not decided what colour to paint my new bedroom furniture, but as I damaged the top of the chest of drawers taking it out of my car, I may paper the top with a paper I really like to hide this and choose a colour to coordinate with the paper. I quite like these.

So, today I cleared a space in the conservatory and covered up my dining table to use as a work table.

I was determined I was going to start painting today. I brought all my paints, brushes etc in from the shed. It was quite exciting starting again as I haven't painted for a few months and I have really missed it. I thought I would start small, so I began by touching up two chairs that I started ages ago but hadn't finished. They just need a sand down to distress them followed by a coat of Annie Sloan wax.

I also took apart a nice swivel mirror I picked up at a car boot sale before Christmas. It has a really nice carved design and will look great with a bit of ageing wax to bring out the detail.

 I also took apart another wall hanging mirror that has a beautiful detailed gold frame. I decided to paint them both in Old White, as it is such a versatile shade and goes with anything, so makes it easier to sell.

I have booked a week's annual leave for the week after next so it will be good to get all those daylight hours to work, and I might try and get the bedroom furniture done that week, if I have managed to make a decision on the colours!!

Have a great week, and I will post again next weekend, when I hope to finish off the chairs and mirrors on this page, and get them listed on ebay :0)

Happy New Year !!

Well I did say in my last post that I would let you know how my holiday went but I have been so busy since we got back, then the days started to get shorter and it was dark by 4.30 and too cold to work through the winter.

The holiday was fantastic! We loved our second visit to NY, nice to see it in the summer as we had deep snow last time we were there (Christmas 2010). Had great fun shopping and eating out in Orlando, but our favourite place was definately The Atlantic Bay Resort in Tavernier, near Key Largo. It was the closest thing I have seen to paradise! and we will definately go back there.

I have just finished decorating our guest bedroom, and decided to buy some new smaller furniture as the room is tiny. I went for some solid wood retro furniture. Post war utility furniture made by Harris Lebus. Lady sold the set of wardrobe and chest of 6 drawers for £40! I love the retro style with the splayed legs.

I am going to paint them, just deciding what colour to go for. Either a lavendar shade, or duck egg blue I think. I will post pics of their transformation

A friend at work has also asked me to find her a nice solid wood chest of drawers for her flat. She would like them painted in Annie Sloan Old White and then lightly distressed. I am going out tomorrow to a local car boot sale so will see if I can find anything nice there

Been on holiday for Christmas and had family to stay, but Christmas was all packed away today and stored safely in the shed for next year, so time to start painting again. I am really excited about it as it's been over 4 months since I transformed anything !