Tuesday 22 May 2018

Vintage finds and transformations

Finally I finished decorating the guest room and could think about furniture. One of the armoires that had come with the house had a full length mirror and once Andrew made some hanging rails it was perfect. What I was missing was a bedside cabinet and a dressing table.

On the way back from Brive last week we called into a 'depot vente', nearest equivalent in the U.K would be a house clearance warehouse, to see if we could find anything suitable. We spotted a small cupboard plus a side table which I knew would work, total cost was 48 euros. The chair came from our old kitchen and the mirror I had previously liberated from my father's shed.



The bedside cabinet was solid wood, but too modern looking and had shiny chrome knobs. The table was a marriage, a pretty beech base with turned legs and a replacement pine top with an ill fitting drawer. Andrew replaced the drawer base and sorted out the runners. I plundered my box of fittings and found a suitable handle. I didn't have any for the other piece so decided to spray the knobs matt black until I find something more suitable.

On Sundays and national holidays we have to find quiet jobs as we can only use noisy equipment between 10.00 and 12.00 in the morning and so they were perfect for my restoration plans. As you can see from the photographs the pieces are different styles and wood so I needed to unite them. I didn't want to paint them all the same as it would have looked bland so I decided on a combination of cream satin paint and chalk paint in a colour called French Linen. Everything got a good wash down with diluted white vinegar, the table needed a bit more work as it had been waxed quite heavily, and then a light sanding to everything. I always use tape to mask edges to give a crisp and professional edge.



The chair and table base were painted in cream and I used a little of the cream paint on the carving at the top of the mirror. This, the table top and the bedside cabinet were then given a coat of chalk paint. Once this was dry I gently rubbed back the detailing on the mirror to show some of the cream paint to add some interest. I'm not a great shabby chic fan, it can be overdone but I did rub a few areas back. If you want to do this, just think about where wear and tear would naturally occur as it makes the piece look more authentic than random rubbing. Everything was then waxed.


My last job is to sort out window treatments and find which packing case has the bed linen in. Then I'll share photographs!

1 comment:

  1. Wow. Interesting to see this project evolve. I have no talents in this area, so it's fascinating to see the process, from spotting the potential in a piece to creating something different from it.

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