Art Deco Drawers - Refreshed!

Hello much neglected blog - It was my new years resolution to blog more but life just took over.  I'm feeling a bit under the weather today and have spent most of the day in bed.  However in the moments I wasn't coughing or hiding under the duvet feeling very sorry for myself I created this...  Hope you like.

I like the 20/30's.  In fact is there was an era that I'd like to visit just for a little while it would be then.  Lets skim over the bad bits and think of the fashion, the music, the furniture...   I saw this potential beauty in a charity shop that is literally round the corner from my house.  I'd been lusting after a similar one on eBay but a bidding war and hard times meant I had to walk away.  So when I saw this, despite it being a bit battered and bruised I snapped it up.  The lovely people delivered it in about 10 minutes!  And because it was a lazy rainy Saturday I got to work right away sanding and prepping the surface.

I LOVE painted furniture but sometimes I feel a teeny weeny but guilty about covering all that lovely wood that the trees worked so hard to produce with paint!  So I thought on this one I'd let some wood show through.  Arrrggghhhh,   After sanding for what seemed like hours and giving myself RSI, friction burns and losing three fingernails, I broke out the can Nitromors.  Now this stuff is practically radioactive but it stripped the nasty varnish in about ten seconds flat and let me get on with the real prettifying.

I used Annie Sloan's Old White, I still have loads left and I actually like the colour.  I ignored Annie's slap it on advice this time and actually used a primer because I didn't want any stains coming through onto the paint.  It had one coat of primer, two of old white and finally a coat of clear wax.  I'm in two minds if to distress it or not.  I love it but it won't fit into the little space I have for it :-(  So it might find its way onto that online auction sight...

What do you think everyone?  Please do leave a comment, they make me very happy ;-)

Before...  Uninspiring

During...

Taaaaa  Daaaaaa!!!

Vintage School Desk Makeover

Sometimes you have all the good intentions in the world to start to create masterpieces but then life gets in the way.  Way back when in the summer (remember when it was actually warm?!) I bought this old desk and chair in a charity shop for a few pounds.  It was covered in deep scratches and graffiti at the time and a bizzare rainbow created by years of inkstains.  However, I thought it was charming, so charming that I promptly snatched it up and it sat, unloved in a corner, holding up my TV aerial for months

I still have a stock of gorgeous Annie Sloan paint left from the painting course that I went on a couple of weeks ago so finally last night, I popped the TV on and got to work.  The desk and chair were sanded lightly first and then given a couple of coats of Old White which I adore.  Then the masterplan was put into action.  Using Annie Sloan's Henrietta (pink) and Louis Blue I painted a Union Jack on the lift up lid of the desk.  Now I have to stress that I'm no artist.  I bet I'm the only person ever to drop out of GSCE Art because I just couldn't cope with it.  For this reason I'm sooooo very proud of my wobbly slightly uneven flag.  The desk and chair then had two coats of clear wax and job done.

What do you think?

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Annie Sloan Painting Course

The world has been awash with talk about this marvellous paint.  Paint that doesn't need sanding, priming etc etc.  I'll let you into a secret, I'm lazy and hate sanding things so this paint sounded perfect.  The problem is stockists.  Annie Sloan's shop is in Oxfordshire and I'm all the way up in the frozen north.  I'm too tight to pay for postage but I managed to find a stockist within an hours drive.  When I called the shop they told me about a course that they were running to teach the chalk paint techniques.  I ummed and ahhed for a bit but as they told me that lunch was included I was there!

The course was run by http://www.theofanointeriors.com/ in picturesque Lancashire.  The morning was spent practising paint distressing and application techniques and the afternoon was spent practising the techniques to create our own pieces.  The ladies that ran the course were great, very helpful and sooo enthusiastic about the product.  If you have a spare second I really recommend a browse round their gorgeous shop too.  i could have spent a month's wages in a heartbeat in there and still wanted to get more.

I picked up this chair in a 2nd hand shop for £2.  Bargain of the year.  It's had an application of old white and then the divine Louis Blue,  I applied a coat of clear wax and gently distressed.  I'm pretty impressed with how it has turned out.

Before - In my enthusiasm to get it painted I forgot to take a proper before picture but here is one half way through - the chair was covered in a million layers of orange toned varnish.

Halfway through

Ta daaaaaa!  The finished project - ignore the bushes that are badly in need of a trim!

Easy Like Sunday Morning.

I love Sunday mornings,  I woke up today, the sun was shining and birds singing.  I've had a week off work today and bought a pile of objects with potential.  Not in the mood for some heavy decorationg, my eyes set upon this sweet mini chest of drawers.  They are made from MDF and remind me of something that came from Ikea, however I bought them from my fave charity shop for the grand total of £2.

Some pink loving teenager had been let loose on them with some poster paint and a black marker pen.  I felt a little bad about ruining someone's creativeness but an idea was forming...

I went on an Annie Sloan paint course yesterday (more about that later) but I now have a big stock of delicious chalk paint, wax and a head bursting with creative ideas.  took out the drawers, painted the oustide in Old White - just one coat and waxed when dry.  Then I found a wallpaper sample that I got from Laura Ashley and used PVA glue to apply to the front of the drawers.

Ta Da!!!  I love it,  I think it will become storage for costume jewellery.  Thanks for reading.