Topsham, Devon and beautiful furniture

 Just got back from a quick trip to Devon to see family, friends and the sea. And of course a bit of coastal town charity shopping!

 We stayed with family at Topsham where I met Karen from 'The White Approach' at a vintage sale. It was funny, I read her lovely blog http://thewhiteapproach.blogspot.co.uk/ and I know she mentions Topsham sometimes but I was surprised to see her sign up and went to say ''Hello''. That's the first blogger I've met!

These images of painted furniture are from the Topsham Museum which is well worth a visit! I could find space for any of these!

 The sweetest cooker ever.

 I am SO doing this to my stairs some day!

 Funny how these are desirable again.

 I found the most awesome thing in a charity shop down there, which I'll show you another time...
The train passed right by the Reading Festival on the way home and we could see all the tents and stages which was pretty cool. Then sooo many people got on our train, it was standing room only all the way to London and they STANK of urine and beer! Eew! And we had been feeling smug, travelling on the bank holiday morning, we kind of thought we'd have the train to ourselves!

Now I'm having a hyperactive spell and ripping the tiles off the kitchen walls whilst simultaneously painting the ceiling and a wardrobe that's blocking up the dining room.  The mountain of ironing and name label sewing can wait...


Linking up with http://www.frommyfrontporchtoyours.com/2012/08/treasure-hunt-thursday-71-highlights.html

More fifties fake French furniture...

 This 1950's wardrobe from the Walnut Cabinet works was the find of the week. It's in the more rare walnut veneer finish and came from ebay. Quite often the matching wardrobes to this type of furniture are quite boxy looking but I'm loving this with it's curved top. It was £50.
 

This is the applied moulding near the top.

And the cute feet!

Unfortunately, despite being described as being in good condition, it has these whacking great scratches down one side. And of course it's the side you see the most of. Darn it, I'll just have to paint it! (who am I trying to kid?)

And it matches very well with my vintage chests of drawers at least in shape. If they're all painted the same you wouldn't know they're not a set hopefully.

And the matching bedside table, although in a different room. I'm already tempted to re paint this... I did it in a hurry and I don't love it. I was going for a seventeenth century French look in here with French furniture and toile de jouy .... 

Unfortunately my six year old daughter has her own passions and more unfortunately they are 'Disney Princesses' so the other view of the room is blighted by the damn creatures for now. But at least I have managed to keep the room a pink free zone! Cruel mother that I am!
The wardrobe will stay as is for now as it took me ages to build it, clean it and remove the old one. But I would LOVE to try something like this http://www.abitowhimsy.com/2012/08/fabulous-french-armoire.html

This lady is seriously talented! Okay, my 'armoire' isn't quite as stunning as hers is but I can have a go.
Sorry all my writing is tiny, I had big trouble getting the text where I wanted it so I did it all as captions. I have no idea what I'm doing half the time...



Delighted to be linking up with Treasure Hunt Thursday at  http://www.frommyfrontporchtoyours.com/
although I haven't painted it yet. Hopefully that's okay. I hunted it.

Colourman Milk Paint from the UK review

 I wasn't holding out much hope for this paint being any good. It's not milk paint as we know it as it comes ready mixed. But I was pleasantly surprised. I test drove it in two colours, on two wooden objects. I didn't sand or prime either, just sugar soaped.

 The coverage was good but it's thinner than chalk paint and I needed 3 coats. You can lay it on pretty thick.

 Once sanded you get a really nice two tone texture and on waxing it gives a lovely primitive feel. The adhesion was impressive considering I didn't sand or prime. You really don't need to with this paint.

 On the down side, this ready mixed milk paint was very expensively posted and would have been much cheaper had they just taken it to the post office. The company I bought it from are more geared up for shipping cement and mortar I think!

 I do like the finish, and much prefer it to modern emulsion and would use it again if I want an authentic antique feel. You can see the two tone in this photo.

 Next up, a wonky little sewing box with a broken lock and missing embellishments. I had some filling to do on this one. Again, I didn't sand or prime, other than sanding the filler!

 Three coats later...

Then I sanded and added a graphic from The Graphics Fairy, sanded again and waxed. 

 But, the biggest issue I have with this UK paint is that it doesn't behave badly like it's Canadian cousin. I love that naughty chippy behaviour and this did not perform.

Homestead House still reign supreme! And their customer services and postage policy are unbeatable.

So I'm saving the window frame mirror for the good stuff!



Linking up with http://www.frommyfrontporchtoyours.com/2012/08/welcome-to-treasure-hunt-thursday-69.html  

and
http://elizabethandco.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/be-inspired-features-and-link-party-32.html 

and

http://www.funkyjunkinteriors.net/

and

http://maleviksrosentradgard.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/saturday-show-off_17.html?showComment=1345287249361#c4719810997869445208

Ooh la la!

 Okay, this isn't the post I had planned! By now I was hoping to have test driven my UK milk paint but it arrived while I was out and our local Post Office collection centre has closed, and they haven't opened the new one yet (idiotic!), meaning I have to walk miles to get my paint, and it's up a very steep hill so I'm saving that for monday when the weather is going to be pants. Sorry! It's just been so hot!
I could have gone this morning but my lovely friend drove us to the boot sale instead. And look what I found!
I used to have a pair of these in my last house but didn't have room for two in this house so I sold them. They don't turn up very often at boot sales so I was very lucky to find this. I think the reason nobody wanted it was because someone had attempted to paint it with black artists acrylic(!) and realised it looked dreadful and gave up.
Naughty me, I didn't take a before shot, but take it from me, it was half black and half the original ivory finish. Anyway I got it for £10 and felt very pleased with myself. Pairs of them are fetching huge amounts on ebay these days!

 Just one bedside table is perfect for my daughters bedroom. She's soon going to be reaching the age where she will read her own bedside story so we can take out the chair and put this in instead.
I painted it with ASCP in duck egg and highlighted the mouldings with old white. It looks a little bit Wedgewood now!
Excuse the hideous floor. We can't sort the floors out until the rewiring is completed and I have no clue when that will be!

My daughters chest of drawers is the same design and that will also be painted to match at some point.
Aren't small projects great? I've had a really pleasant afternoon painting this!

I've also done some work on an Edwardian dressing table I was given by another friend and I'm waiting on a delivery of Canadian milk paint to arrive so I can finish it.
I took the top off  to make it easier to refinish and the whole thing fell apart so I have used my capentry skills on it!
This is the third time this has happened. The perils of old furniture!

It's set to be another lovely sunday so the boot sales will be big ones! Happy hunting wherever you are!

Linking up to Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special and
http://faithhopeandcharityshopping.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/ta-dah-tuesday-fruits-of-my-child-labour.html

Mirror mirror on the wall...

 A friend had admired my hall of mirrors and couldn't believe it when I told her the large one was plastic so I said I'd look out for another for her. This one came from a charity shop for £5. Gold plastic.

 Here it is now it's been made over. Much less blingy.

Close up of the paintwork. 4 colours were used and dark wax.
I hope she's going to be pleased!

I've ordered my UK milk paint which is meant to come tomorrow. I don't have high hopes for it. The carriage costs alone were so steep it could have come from Canada. Not a great start!

Stay tuned for the definitive international milk paint comparison!















Delighted to be linking up with From my Front Porch To Yours!

Friday Fleamarket Finds

I'm intending to try out the British made milk paint to see how, if at all, it compares to the Canadian  variety. Presently, I'm waiting for the colour card....

But with future experimentation on my mind I headed off to the Friday market looking for small wooden items to be my guinea pigs.

 This was the haul. One wonky wooden box, I think it was a sewing box, that has lost some decorative parts and has a broken lock. Nice and big though...

One wooden egg holder.

And a quirky window shaped mirror just itching to be shabbied up. I'll save this for last as I think the Canadian paint will look damn fine on it. I don't want to sacrifice it to unspectacular paint. It has lovely bevelled glass in each pane. I recently treated myself to a little gun like a staple gun but for glazing tabs as I do a lot of mirrors and always prefer to paint them with the glass out. It's so much easier to rebuild them with the right kit. (The pole sticking out of the table is the parasol pole. I can't get it out as the rain has swollen the wood around it.)

The British paint is ready mixed unlike the Canadian so it will be very interesting to see if there are any similarities between the two beyond the name 'milk paint'.
I'm really hoping it performs like the Canadian paint so I can stop paying shipping costs!

Boot sale tomorrow, better get an early night!

Remember this?

Remember this 1930's Lebus dressing table in a sorry state? 

 Paint falling off amongst other ailments and home to the largest spider! ugh!

 Here she is now! We went for a gloss finish as it needed to be wipeable in it's new home, a dog grooming parlour!

 And I was under strict instruction to add a little distressing. There is a new mirror to be added, the frame of which will be painted to match...but I haven't finished it yet.

 

New knobs finish it off nicely and they all match now. 

In other breaking news, look what I got! I saw it in a shop window and fell head over heels in love. Especially as I was born in 1970 and am indeed a bit of a purveyor of fine accoutrements! But it was £19.99 so I didn't buy it. Until today, when I called in to the shop and found this one with a small hole in the back that can't be seen from the front and it was £7! I am one happy lady!

And yes, that is a hole in the floor at the side of it.