Post Christmas Blues and How I Aim To Beat Them

I’m one of the many, many people who hits a bit of a low after Christmas. I don’t know why, but I start to look back on my achievements and am always disappointed with the story so far! I’ve felt the start of it so far, my house isn’t how I want it, my business isn’t doing as good as it could, I don’t spend enough quality time with my kids and I don’t stay in touch with family anything like enough!

Instead of getting down in the dumps (what a cute way of saying depression and sticking a mental health sticker to my life) I have come up with a loose plan. It’s not a list of ‘new year resolutions for 2015’ but more of a system to make life easier and measurable. Every single day I am going to do…

One thing to improve my home – this could be clearing out a cupboard, making a new cushion or repainting a wall but it has to be one thing over and above the normal housework jobs that we all need to do.

One thing to improve my business – this could be anything at all from writing a blog post, researching new ideas, posting stuff of etsy or just telling someone in the street about my business.

One thing for my family – by this I don’t mean cook dinner and do washing, I mean play a board game, help with a hobby, go for a walk, make that phone call, send that email or make the trip to visit.

One thing for me – this is the one I will probably struggle to fit in! Things for me could be reading my book for half an hour, a long soak in the bath, a walk on my own in the woods or even a nice glass of wine with dinner.

One thing a day, should be easy, right?

The Christmas Window. Or What happend to the rocking chair?

Just last week I wrote a post about an adorable little black rocking chair that we were considering painting white to go into our shop. We actually debated to and fro for a couple of days – Mark even sent me a text message after I’d been in bed for 2 hours (and was fast asleep!) asking if he should just start painting!

In the end we bit the bullet and went for it! We used some paint that we have developed ourselves (very exciting post about this coming soon) and gave it just 2 coats of white. Amazingly it covered really easily, although the bumpiness is even more apparent now it’s a flat white colour.

It will be P E R F E C T in the window of the shop, BUT my love for it has diminished just a little 😦 It’s no longer quirky or cute, it’s a little lacking in the character department to be honest.

The chair!

What it is, is peaceful.  And if you read the original post you know that’s exactly what we were aiming for.

Sorry for the poor photos,  I was having difficulty getting the camera to focus through the window and I couldn’t use the flash!

 

What do you think?

 

Thank you – I really mean that!

Well, my little blog is a month old now and it’s been a bit of a steep learning curve! I hope I’m getting to grips with it, and will be upgrading a little in the New Year and redirecting my www’s to make us easier to find 🙂

I just wanted to post before things get crazy busy over Christmas to say ‘Thank You’ for reading. I can’t help but smile when I see that I’ve had visitors and it blows me away when someone follows our blog. I promise there’s lots of good stuff to come, more freebies, reviews, tutorials and things for sale so check in often and bring a friend!

I’ll be taking a short break over Christmas (though I will probably pop in to say hello) but will be back in the New Year to share some exciting news!

It took me a while to track down where the background image I used here was originally from but when I did I discovered the most beautiful photography blog (via tumblr and pinterest!) Go check out Georgianna Lane if you have a chance this holidays!

Dresser makeover

Really busy recently so not much action on the blog front – sorry! I did, however, find this lovely makeover while having a well earned cup of tea earlier today – Dresser makeover.

Oak Stool Makeover

As I’ve mentioned, I’m really snowed under right now so don’t have a huge amount of time to blog. I’m finding it very frustrating as I really want to share a lot with you but I guess I’m just going to have to wait until the new year!

This project was something I worked on a few weekends ago, a real simple piece but a lovely one!

In fact I was so excited to get started on the project that I almost forgot to take a ‘before’ shot, but this one will do as you can barely see where I’ve started to remove the paint . I found it at an auction covered in a sticky residue and about 20 layers of white gloss paint. It was in a sorry state but fundamentally still a sound piece of furniture.

After I had washed the worst of the dirt off I set about removing the paint from the seat using a heat gun and scraper. If you are restoring an older piece of furniture make sure that you do this, or any sanding, in a well ventilated area and wear a mask as it is likely that some of the old paint layers contain lead.

Once you have scraped off the majority of the paint it’s time to break out the sander. You’ve probably realised that my weapon of choice is usually the angle grinder with a sanding disc but please do practise this on scrap wood before you take on a lovely old piece like this stool.

It was only after some serious sanding that I realised that this stool was actually made from oak and not pine, as I’d first thought! I didn’t want it to look too new so I stopped sanding while there were still some marks and dents to show its age.

Scuff up the legs a little to break up that old gloss look. Then give the seat a few coats of a soft wax. I like Annie Sloan’s Soft Wax as it smells slightly nicer then Briwax but it is a bit more expensive. (I will be reviewing both in a future post so watch out for it)

I love the finished stool and think I might use it in my new ‘corner office’ when I eventually set it up.

We’d love to see your restoration projects and tutorials so why not drop us a line?

A Gift For You… Free Printable

If you are reading this, then you probably already  know that we specialise in re-finishing furniture, what you might not realise (because we haven’t told you yet!) is that we also make lots of nice little bits and bobs that everyone has space for and find vintage treasures to make your home unique! We will shortly be putting some of these items up on our ‘et cetera’ page.

Today we’d like to thank you for reading by giving you a free printable to use as you like.! It’s full A4 size, which makes it easy to find a frame – we find Ikea and Wilkinsons very reasonable.

So, without further ado, here you go! Just click on the photo to go to the full-sized image, right-click and save as.

I would love to see how you use it so please do share your photo’s. If you want to use for commercial purposes then all I ask is that you leave our web site address in situ.

Nikki x

 

 

Before & After: Dark Wood Console Table

I thought I’d share a quick B & A with you this beautiful Sunday. I bought the original dark wood table from a friend who runs a house clearance and second hand store. It was a boring piece that had sat in her shop for a few months so she was pleased to see the back of it – and it fitted my shopping search for something I could complete in an afternoon and test my new paints out on.

I got carried away and started painting before I remembered to take the ‘Before’ shots!

I didn’t sand or prime it at all as I wanted a true test of the paint I’d just made up. The first coat of red went on a dream. The paint was very thick so there were brush marks in the texture but it went on well so I decided that one coat would be enough. I gave it a rudimentary clear wax (Rust-oleum) and then painted directly over that with the blue I’d just mixed up.

The blue was a LOT runnier and I was worried that it would take a few coats to cover such a strong red. Boy, was I wrong! It went on an absolute dream!!! One coat and you had no idea of it’s secret red undercoat 🙂

I like it’s simple elegance

Once it had dried I rubbed it back a little on the legs and a bit heavier around the edges and top of the table, until I got the look I was after. Another 2 coats of wax and a good polish and I was done!

I’m really pleased with the results and the finished piece is available to buy on our Showroom pages or our Lydney shop. £45

Drumroll…

I wanted the red to show through, but not too much!

I like the way the top turned out!

As always, I welcome your opinions!

Nikki x

Amazing Dresser Transformation.

It’s Saturday morning as I write this. Mark is enjoying a well deserved lie in, the kids are doing their own thing and I’m still in my pj’s with a nice cup of coffee and a plate of shortbread! I’ve just given a little table it’s first coat of red paint and, while I’m waiting for it to dry, I thought I’d share some photo’s of a dresser that Mark has been working on for a couple of weeks.

It was very ‘bog standard’ when he bought it at auction, but he had a vision of what he wanted and set about it fearlessly.  He started with Annie Sloan (TM) Barcelona Orange straight onto the varnished surface, force dried it with a hair drier (he’s not a patient man), then over the top with Antibes Green.

It was heavily sanded back to emphasize the distressed look and then given 2 coats of dark wax and polished within an inch of it’s life!  We used Briwax as we like the way it actually takes off a little of the chalk paint as you use it and takes out any sanding marks you might leave.

With the top, Mark sanded off most of the varnish before aging the wood to a beautiful silver. Unfortunately he hadn’t removed quite enough of the varnish (like I said, he’s not a patient man) and the effect was patchy, but he gave it the dark wax treatment and it actually turned out great!

I’d love to hear your comments on the finished piece – I think it might be our marmite dresser (love it or loath it!).

Now for some pics…

The whole thing started out as bog standard varnished pine.

Tools of the trade

Barcelona Orange

Green over orange

Rubbed back

Dark Wax Going On

Force drying can cause paint to crackle (Tut coming soon)

Repeat everywhere!

The top before dark wax

 

With a few props, in the window of the shop!

 

Before | After: Demilune Sideboard

I fell onto this blog post accidently while trawling for something else, but I’m so glad I did! I always feel like a bit of a cheat just showing you someone else’s blog but I figure that if you like mine, then you might like blogs I like!

To paint or not to paint? Or The Christmas Window Display

I am having a MAJOR meltdown over this project. Mark asked me to help design the Christmas window for the shop – a great honour as he can be a little ‘precious’ about the shop as I don’t work there anymore. (Don’t get me wrong, I have input but I don’t physically stand in the shop all day)

Anyway… The town’s ‘theme’ for windows this year is ‘PEACE’, and straight away I knew what I wanted to do…

I wanted a beautiful little townscape made from paper to frame the window. It would have looked a bit like this…

Found on http://meinegruenewiese.blogspot.ch/ via Pinterest!

… but I’m told there may be a problem with condensation as it gets colder here in the run up to Christmas. Okay, I put that idea on hold and move onto the main display.

We are lucky to have a full height window in the shop, but it isn’t huge, and anything we put into a display is actually eating into shop floor space so it’s a bit of a balancing act. I close my eyes and think of ‘PEACE’… but that just conjures up images of tropical beaches and the sea lapping at my toes! So we pull out the old whiteboard and start brainstorming.

Eventually it hits me. Peace is quiet, uncluttered, tranquil, restful… no wonder it took me so long to come up with the idea – these things are all completely alien to my life right now! My vision for the window display is finally taking shape.

I want everything white. The walls, the backdrop, the floor. Then a little wine table that has been kicking around for a while, waiting to be reloved. Then a wine glass to sit on it.  Then an adorable little candelabra Then a book. And a chair…

And BOOM there’s my problem! We have the perfect chair, it’s a tiny little rocking chair. It’s quirky and cute, pretty and functional.  We’ve had it for a few months in the shop, always being passed over for another piece.

Our little rocking chair is black, with pretty little flowers hand painted onto it. There’s something really strange about the finish to it – it’s sort of ‘bumpy’ and we have no idea why. I’ve often thought it would look wonderful beside a log burner on a canal boat. Or in the corner of a bedroom. Or just about anywhere!

Perfect for a canal boat?

So Marks says ‘Paint it white then’, but neither of us reach for the brush. We took it to our house an stood it in the middle of the living-room floor. And still neither of us could start the paint job. We don’t want to keep it for ourselves but we don’t want to write it off either. What we want is for someone to love it as much as we do and to take it home with them!

We need a little chair. We’ve got the perfect little chair. We need to cover it’s quirkiness with white chalk paint to finish our window display for Christmas.  Oh why is this so difficult?

I think we will end up painting it and it will be a stunning display. But it feels like we’re making the perfect roast dinner out of our pet chicken. It just doesn’t sit right for some reason.

I’ll let you know how it goes later.

Nikki x