Wall Furniture revamp!

“Spring is the time of plans and projects.”

Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

I couldn't decide on a paint colour, I spent hours in the paint section of the store. In desperate attempts to find inspiration I googled painted bookshelves and painted cabinets and nothing grabbed me. I was there so long the staff changed shifts and a fresh group of non-enthusiastic sales assistants asked if I needed help. I certainly needed help of some sort by the time I left. I was fit to scream. So I bought a heap of tester pots in pretty pastel colours and mixed them together at home until they looked good....



Before

It's pine, the wood is nice it has an interesting pattern but it needs something...



It looks a little bit tired

 

The wood was bare, no varnish or oil so I brushed it down to get rid of dust and cobwebs. I painted a layer of Johnstone's quick dry primer undercoat in white. They don't lie...it dryed superfast I could practically paint it immediately.



Some of my favourite china

The sides are painted in Crown Ultimate matt finish for all surfaces. It is a great paint and gives a gorgeous chalky matt finish. The colour is Aqua light. I didn't mix this with any other colour it was perfect as it is.

The back was more of a challenge. I had a few colours for this, Johnstone's matt subtle pink, matt iced petal and dulux pistachio. I used all the iced petal (a medium beige) about one third of the pink and all the pistachio (very light beige). I painted two coats.

 

 

Shabby Chic Kitchen!

 Using a light grain sandpaper I distressed the shelf edges and the sides as well as a small part of the back. It was a bit too easy to get carried away at this point and I almost took off all my paint again. It's fun! A good tip is to keep a small bit of the original paint over so if you get a little over-enthusiastic with the sandpaper you can use your finger or a small brush to delicately smooth more paint over the mistake.
I like the finished piece. Turns out its the perfect place to display select pieces of my Beatrix Potter collection and my late Grandmothers china.


Lamp A&E

“There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.”

Leonard Cohen, Selected Poems, 1956-68

 



Poor old lamp

 

Now happy and cheerful

I have a collection of old lamps. This collection mostly consists of small table lamps that have travelled with us from place to place. They now lie sad and beaten in the garage amongst the bicycles and boxes of old college assignments. I always had a plan for them, they still work - they have plugs and only require a bulb. However I don't claim to be a genius crafter so I'm starting small.  I think the finished piece looks better now and it fits perfectly on my computer desk (even if the lace ribbon is covering a fingerprint in the paint. But you didn't hear that from me) ;-)

I used the original black shade as a template and cut the new one out on some floral paper from the Docrafts Papermania 'Happy days' designstax papers collection. www.docrafts.com

For the metal base I spray painted five, yes FIVE! coats of Rust-oleum Painter's Touch in candy pink, gloss finish. I think in this process I spray painted more of the patio outside then the actual lamp due to the wind changing and all my newspaper blowing away. Now, I know there are easier ways like I always advise you to get a cardboard box, place the object to be painted inside it and spray to your hearts content. However I have no patience. I had no cardboard box and I wanted to paint my lamp NOW. Hence me chasing newspaper around the garden and trying not to spray paint the cat. On the final coat I ran out of paint. No surprise there. Fortunately it was finished, but it took ages to dry and all the cats wanted to scratch their hairy bodies along it while it sat drying on the grass.
Now finished and cat hair free with ribbon and pom pom trim as well as the original shade wiring underneath, I think my lamp looks nice  on my desk beside my newly needle felted mouse or is it a squirrel?

The Desk Project

“Happiness is a very small desk and a very big wastebasket"

Robert Orben

 



This desk was destined for the recycle centre. It's where most desks go to die. Bigger then the computer desks of today & weighing about as much as a small car, it held our first home computer in my parents house and was assembled backwards by my brother. The keyboard drawer wouldn't pull out fully, the CD rack was the wrong way around and it caressed the dust of almost 20 bygone years in its hidden crevices.

 

Grey 90's desk 

 

"They just don't make 'em like this anymore"

 I started enthusiastically reducing part of it to its former flat pack state in order to reassemble correctly, however after four hours on the floor surrounded by wood and bolts I caved and let my husband try. It was like an evil jig-saw. We finally got it back together. There was one screw left over of course, there always is... 

 



floral sticky back plastic/paper




I found some rolls of really vintage looking sticky back plastic (feels like paper) in a discount store for just 1.49 a roll.

I roughly measured the top of the desk and used a sharp craft knife to tidy off the edges. I couldn't find a co-ordinating paper for the shelf so I went to get some free wallpaper samples I chose a duck egg blue textured piece and used decoupage glue and varnish for this. The air bubbles were a nightmare but persistence pays off, layer upon layer of decoupage varnish and the odd pin hole to disperse the air seems to have worked.

 

 



Much nicer!



For the edges, I used floral paper sticky tape then simply decoupage varnished it to finish.

I have a few desks in my studio but this is now my favourite. Perfect for crochet, I can start a project then slide the drawer in until next time. My laptop fits neatly in there too. Oh and my laptop bag sits perfectly on the bottom!

 

 

Fantastically Floral!

Check out http://www.tapeswell.com/ for awesome tape!



Spring is in the air...

"Is the Spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"

"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine..."

Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden.

 

 

 

The white eggs I found in the supermarket are from a local farm they are called 'O Eggs' from Clonarn Clover and they come in a cute pink container because they support action breast cancer. Not only do these eggs taste fantastic (soft boiled with buttery toast, mmm) but they are local and help charity. Wow super eggs! I imagine lots of lovely hens running around green fields feeling so proud of themselves right now. So how could I throw away the shells and container when they are such caring eggs? I just couldn't - not without doing my bit too! so I planted some seeds, daisy, pansy, and a few bulbs they are starting to sprout already. The good thing about this idea is that I can plant the entire egg into a pot or flowerbed outside when the seedlings become more mature and the shells will bio-degrade naturally. The other awsome thing is that when I go to water them there is no mess, any excess water that spills over the sides is soaked up by the paper container. Happy days!