Sunday 28 June 2015

FAIL blog !

Sorry I didn't manage to write a blog last weekend. I didn't have much to report as we had family to stay all weekend so no painting for me!
Last time I said I would update you on the dressing table and bathroom cabinet. I also wondered if I would be able to resist buying any more furniture.......FAIL!!
I found a fantastic listing on eBay but the guy was selling about 7 pieces of furniture and I certainly wouldn't have been able to fit them in the house! I messaged him and managed to get him to sell me my two favourites ;)



They are from a well known manufacturer, LEBUS, and I just love that all this retro furniture is back in style!


I now have a few of these retro pieces to paint, but I have been concentrating on getting more stuff finished off ready for listing on eBay. I am also thinking of trying to sell on Gumtree. Will let you now how that goes.
So the first thing to get finished was the Greek Blue nautical themed bathroom cabinet. I didnt like the original boring pine knob so went online and found this gorgeous sea shell encrusted one. Yes, they are real tiny sea shells!!!


I lightly distressed the cabinet and gave it a couple of coats of clear wax.


Buffed to a lovely soft sheen then added the special handle. It is listed for sale now on eBay.







The dressing table has taken me ages to do, and is still not finished! I distressed and waxed all the drawers and the mirror. The new curved masking tape worked a treat :)



It peeled off really cleanly and saved me so much time! I managed to get a couple of coats on the main piece, but I think it will need a third coat so will do that midweek

Two coats of custom mixed pale yellow Annie Sloan chalk paint.

 I spent some time cleaning the handles, but quite like the old look so decided not to use any rub 'n buff or paint on them.


I will hopefuly get the dressing table finished and photographed through the week, and I will let you see the finished item in the next blog. I am really excited to see it myself!!
Today, in fact 5 minutes ago, I bought this nice little cabinet on ebay for a colleague at work. She is looking for storage for her bathroom and we think this will be perfect. We will discuss colours at work through the week ;)


Bought myself a great little piece of kit on Amazon this week. A stencil cutter ! The fine tip heats up and melts the stencil sheet. Now I can make my own custom stencils which will save me a lot of money, and you know how much I love stencilling!!


Remember the clock coffee table? Well I wasn't happy with the colour of the legs, so I have painted over the Old White with Paris Grey, and distressed with fine sandpaper to make it look old.


I have also finished off with some dark wax on top of the clear for an aged, shabby chic finish. I really like it now, and if I had room I would keep this one !

 You may have noticed in a lot of my furniture pics that my little assistant Ted features quite a lot. he is just so cute and I am sure he helps to sell my work :) I have decided to order some new quirky business cards from a brilliant new company called Moo.






Its around £13 for 100 of these mini cards (half the size of a normal business card, and you can have a different custom picture on each card for no extra charge!! Ted is going to feature on these and I wil let you see when they arrive ;)  Use this link to get 10% off !  http://www.moo.com/share/wgjbbx

Right, it is now very late so I am off to bed. Have a great week!!





Sunday 14 June 2015

Small Furniture, Big Profit !

I know I was telling you that I was going to stop buying furniture for a while as my workshop is so crowded. But how could I resist this stunning solid pine welsh dresser??

 It is in fantastic condition, and will look stunning after a makeover. I think I will sand and varnish the dresser top and paint the rest in a pale french grey or blue. The drawers are really well made.


I struggled to clear a space to work this morning but got quite a lot done today. I stencilled a clock face on the white coffee table, and painted the pie crust edge in grey.

 Once it had dried I distressed the edge to give it an aged worn look and also lightly distressed the legs.

It looked a bit plain so I aged the clock face with some dark wax. I think it has turned out really nice. Might get this one listed on ebay tonight ;)

I made a start last weekend on the nice dressing table with the oval mirror, the one I mixed a custom yellow paint for. I found that oil from the wood was coming through that paint leaving a brown stain.

To stop this happening (as no matter how many coats I apply it will still come through), I brushed on a thin film of varnish. Once dry I gave another coat, and you can see the difference it has made in this next pic.

I have now given the whole piece a coat of varnish, so that kind of held me up with working on it today :( so I turned my attention to the porthole mirrored bathroom cabinet I showed you last week.

Because it has a nautical look I decided to use Greek Blue. I masked off the mirror with my super duper curvy masking tape and have given it 2 coats of paint.


I will finish this one off next weekend by distressing, waxing and adding a quirky handle.

Remember the dolls house furniture I showed you last week, bought for £1 at the car boot sale?

The auctions have just ended. I split the furniture into 3 lots and started the bidding at 99p per lot. The grand total was £14 ! So looks like it's not just the full size furniture that I can make a profit on ;)
Picked up this cute little table last weekend, it has a tiny drawer in one side.

 Someone has made a bad job of painting it, so I will paint over what is there. This one might actually be a good one to use for a new technique I have not tried before - silver leaf. I watched a video on Pinterest the other day that made me want to try it. I have ordered some imitation silver leaf from Amazon along with some gold size. It looks quite fiddly and messy to do but the results are amazing!

Might have to do it outside as from what I have read the little bits of leaf get everywhere!

That's all for this week, but tune in next week for updates on the bathroom cabinet and dressing table, and find out if I have managed to resist buying any more furniture !!






Monday 8 June 2015

Sneaky Monday Off :)

Posting on a Monday this week as I decided to take a sneaky day's annual leave. We have been remodelling the back garden this weekend, and I finally got round to painting the garden shed where I store all my treasures while they are waiting to be transformed :) 

Shed painted in Hammerite Cornflower

Russell has sunk the posts for the decking that leads out from the french doors, and the decking boards are being delivered next Saturday. He bought a lovely new kettle barbecue yesterday so we are looking forward to the first barbecue in the new house soon. So, now to show you what I have been up to this last week -




 I finished off the clock table for my friend at work. This is the second one I have painted for her and she is using them as quirky bedside tables. I also gave the red chair I showed you last week a second coat of Emperors Silk. This will be a bit of an experiment as I have never left furniture unwaxed before, but Annie Sloan assures me that it is not necessary if you want to leave a piece of furniture outside and watch it gradually weathering. I will let you know how it goes.
Yesterday I made a start to this cute little pie crust table (so called as the edge looks like a crimped pie crust). Painting in Old White, but I am considering putting a clock face on this one to see if it sells.


Last week I showed you the gorgeous dressing table with the oval mirror. It took me ages to decide on a colour for this one. I do get fed up of using white all the time, although it does seem to be the most popular shade. I decided to mix my own colour by adding a little English Yellow to some Old White to make a soft pale creamy lemony shade. Difficult to see on the first coat.

 
Just started to paint this lovely piece, and wanted to show you something that is going to save me soooooo much time!! Do you remember how I used to use lots of little pieces of masking tape to fit the curve on a mirror?


Well I have discovered curved masking tape!! It's probably been around for ages, but I didn't know about it ! It is crinkled like crepe paper and you can stretch it to fit round curves so easily. Made masking the dressing table mirror a doddle :)

Not sure if I will get this one finished for next week's blog, but I will keep you updated on it's progress. Yesterday was lovely and sunny so we went to two car boot sales in the morning. First thing I saw when I got there was a beautiful dressing table and matching chest of drawers, and I would have bought them if I had space to store them, but I have been going a bit mad buying things recently and the lovely airy workshop/extension is looking like Dagfields (our local second hand furniture emporium).



I really need to hold off buying any more big stuff until I have cleared my feet a bit. It's so difficult though when I see things I would love to paint :) I picked up my 3rd dressing table last week, a cute vintage style, might use some pink or turquoise on this one and keep with the retro look.


I also bought this old wooden storage box (got it dead cheap) as it's a bit the worse for wear.


I was having a closer look at it once I got it home, and noticed the strangest thing! There is what looks like a secret panel/compartment on the back ! Not sure why it is there, or what it's for!?? If you have any idea please let me know.


It looks like the box has been made out of a tea chest. Paid £1.50 for it and not sure what to do with it yet. I also bought a big shoebox filled with old dolls house furniture. Like little miniatures of the ones I paint :) I love the detail in them, tiny taps and bath plugs !!


Well my lovely sneaky day off work is nearly over, but it has been lovely. I will soon be trying out a job share trial at work and will be cutting my hours (and salary) in half. This will give me and extra 2 1/2 days for my hobby. The trial period will be for 3 months from end of July, and they will then decide if it works or not. I need to see if I can afford to do it!!

Thanks for reading, and see you next week !!