Restyled Vintage

Restyled Vintage in Romantic Homes Magazine

2013-05-14T09:27:00.001+10:00

Good morning! I had some exciting news last night, my blog and a couple of my furniture projects got a mention in the June 2013 issue of an American publication, Romantic Homes Magazine.

I was contacted by the magazine a few months back and asked to supply some pictures. Beth Livesay from the magazine told me that the pictures would be in the June issue, which of course is Spring in the US, so she asked if I could send pictures of projects that had a Spring feel. My signature style is pretty, bright, fresh and happy which fits with a Springtime theme, so that was easy enough. Narrowing down my favourite projects was tricky though! The following pictures are the ones I sent:

Before and After- Vintage Green Sideboard

Before and After - Shabby Chic White Sideboard

Before and After - Shabby Chic Dressing Table

Before and After - French Country Hall Table

Before and After - Vintage Green Kitchen Dresser

Before and After - Gelato Colours Bedside Cabinets

Before and After - Beachy Bookcases

Before and After - Shabby Chic Standard Lamp

Before and After - Pastel Blue Kitchen Cabinet

Before and After - Cute Painted Shelving Unit

And following is what was published in the magazine. I wasn't expecting all my photos to be published, and was thrilled to even get a mention to be honest, but it is interesting to see which ones made the cut. I am happy with the ones she selected as I think they give a good indication of my style.

Below is a closer view of the text. I had to laugh (and shudder!) about being called Australian.

(An Australian wouldn't like to be called a New Zealander, either!)

I am very happy and fortunate to live in Australia but that is as close as this proud Kiwi will ever get to being Australian...I couldn't even sound like an Australian if my life depended on it ;)

These pictures are as close as I can get to the magazine, which I can't buy locally. I'd like to thank my friend Kim, of the gorgeous blog Savvy Southern Style for sending these pictures to me.

I'm headed to my workshop to paint something. Catch you later!

Guest Bedroom Updates

2013-05-01T16:30:00.001+10:00

After a few more tweaks, I am happy with how our guest bedroom looks (phew!)

When I posted about it here, I had a little to-do list which included changing the artwork and a new duvet cover. I have ticked those things off the list now, which leaves finding a light fixture, and painting the trim (not going to happen just yet!)

Here it is today, ready for some very special guests who arrive on Monday (my parents...yay!)

The prints of pencil sketches of Bath, England go perfectly in here, just like I had hoped they would when I posted about finding them here.

I've just taken delivery of three gorgeous scented soy candles from a local lady who hand makes them and sells via party plan...the one you can see here is Black Raspberry. I also got Honey I'm Home and Sonoma Sunset and they are all absolutely divine!

Here is a link to her Facebook page if you are local.

I found the perfect duvet cover for this room at Kmart for only $30. I like to put a King size duvet on a Queen bed so it has plenty of overhang, and I've found it hard to find reasonably priced King size duvet covers locally (alot of them seem to only go as big as Queen). We don't have a Kmart here so I was happy to get a look there last weekend on a day trip to Forster. It is probably just as well there isn't one closer...I could go a bit mad with all their reasonably priced home decor items ;)

(I probably need to get used to doing more online shopping...but some things I just like to see and feel before I buy them!)

So that's it...ready and waiting for 'Grandma and Grandad' to check in :)

Our bar....and how I painted the tiles.

2013-04-24T20:54:00.000+10:00

This is the final instalment in the series of posts about our Rumpus Room.

The other two can be found here and here.

Our home was built around 1990 and although that doesn't seem that long ago to me, it kind of is when it comes to home decor!

Our apricot bathroom is proof of that ;)

One area that really isn't even that fashionable to have in a home any more is a bar. I've seen them rip them out on television shows that help people update their homes in the hope of selling them.

This is our bar area, in a corner of our rumpus room...

The sign is ours and I quite like it :) I had already taken down the gold coloured pine shelves to paint them when I took this photo. I'd also removed a very ugly mirror that we wondered why was even in a bar. We found out why...it was hiding a big patch of mortar.

Oh dear.

As 'unfashionable' as having a bar in your home apparently is these days, we are quite fond of it, for a few reasons:

- Our rumpus room makes an excellent party room, and as our kitchen and main living area is on a different level in our home, it is very practical having a mini 'kitchen' downstairs (don't let my husband hear me call his bar a kitchen, lol!)

- Our guest bedroom is adjacent to this area so I like to have a jug and tea/coffee supplies set up here so our guests can help themselves to a hot drink in the morning then hop back into bed if they wish

(a small bar fridge is on our wish list!)

- this level of our home, with a couple of minor adjustments, would work very well as a short term holiday let, and given that we live in a beach side village in a popular tourist/holiday area, this is an option that we may be keen to explore further in the future. The bar would become the kitchen with the addition of a fridge (as mentioned, on the wish list!), a microwave and a small hotplate and benchtop stove.

- my husband has some prints, photos and memorabilia that is special to him, and the only place I think they work in our home, is in a bar, as in...'that's going straight to the pool room'...lol, love that movie...probably only Kiwis and Aussies with excellent taste in movies will get this ;)

After we did the planked walls, I turned my attention to the bar, and how I was going to make it 'fit' into the newer lighter room, without spending really any money (which is pretty much the sum total of renovation budget we have left for this room right now).

Paint was the answer...I always have that on hand!

I decided the answer was to paint the tiled bar top, which to be honest I was a little worried about but I figured I really couldn't make it any worse...and if it didn't work out, I'd just have to chip off all the old tiles and re-tile it in a better colour than brown (a bigger job, but something I could do, having managed to do some tiling jobs before).

Here's how I did it:

I started off by cleaning the tiles thoroughly, which meant several hours of scrubbing the grout which had, I think, 20 odd years of parties on it...yuck! It turns out brown grout is a good colour for hiding muck that I didn't even realise was there till I started scrubbing. Once I got all the muck off (I used a fine scrubbing brush, hot water and Jif cleanser) I rinsed it well with a clean wet cloth to ensure it was totally clean with nothing left to interfere with the adhesion of the paint. (This is always really important whether painting tiles or furniture...many residues can interfere with adhesion, even the natural oils on your hands).

Once clean (and dry), I used another clean cloth to wipe the entire surface with methylated spirits to make doubly sure it was clean, then I primed with Zinsser Cover Stain. I could have also used BIN but Cover Stain is what I had on hand. (I find the two products fairly interchangeable although for covering tannin bleed I get far better results with Cover Stain than BIN). Cover stain is quite sticky to work with when brushing it on, so you have to work fast and not go over and over your strokes or you'll end up picking up patches of paint that have already started to cure (yes I learnt this the hard way!) What I found worked well was quickly brushing over a small section of the grout lines, then using a foam roller to go over the tiles which also blended in any brush lines.

I didn't take any photos of the primed stage, but it would be fair to say it looked shocking and I did wonder what on earth I had got myself into for a short while! I reminded myself that paint jobs often (usually!) look worse before they looked better, and kept going.

I did two coats of primer then once it was dry, sanded very lightly, and wiped down with a clean wet cloth.

For the top coat I used water based enamel in semi gloss (Dulux Antique White USA). I used the same brush/foam roller technique and it went on really nicely. I did four coats then left it for several days to harden, then applied three coats of Porters Clearcote (water based sealer). This last step possibly wasn't necessary since I had used a semi gloss paint but as these tiles are a work surface, I wanted to ensure the finish was as durable as possible.

Here it is now...

(The white door leads to the guest bedroom, it is the first door in the house I've painted...I have lots more to do, but what an improvement it makes).

These are the previously gold coloured pine shelves that I painted. In hindsight I should have also painted the shelf brackets, but oh well, another job for another day!

Remember the big ugly stripe of mortar I mentioned at the beginning? I found the perfect way of hiding it, with this print of old number plates in the shape of the Eiffel Tower.

(I've been a fan of old number plates as home decor for about ever...some of my favourite possessions are four rusty old number plates my Dad 'borrowed' off decommissioned buses in South America in 1999...wherever I hang them makes our home feel like home to me).

I actually saw this print while looking for something else, before I knew I 'needed' it. I fell in love with it instantly but thought I had nowhere to put it, so even though it was only $10, I left it there. Then the brainwave hit me in the middle of the night a few nights later (does that happen to you, too? Please tell me I am not the only one!) I rang the shop (Lincraft) just before closing on a Saturday and asked if they still had it...luckily they did...I didn't actually ask for measurements, I just willed it to fit, and it did ;)

The bar is certainly a busy little corner of the room, but my decorating style is not, and will never be, minimalist ;)

I'm pleased to say we have most certainly given the durability of the paint work a good testing with plenty of drinks raised and lowered, and it is holding up perfectly.

So, there you go...a cost-effective alternative for making ugly tiles disappear.

This may not be our forever solution, ideally I'd still love to replace the bar top with something much more modern, but it looks a whole lot better than it did before, and it works for now.

That's good enough for me :)

How to make planked walls

2013-04-18T03:00:00.000+10:00

Hello, here I am back as promised with some details on how we did the planked walls in our downstairs living area. I guess if I was in America, this would be our 'basement', as our main living areas are on the floor above. We tend to refer to it as our rumpus room which I think is a weird term...however I just googled it and got this definition:

'rumpus room n. US, Canadian, and NZ a room used for noisy activities, such as parties and children's games' (Collins English Dictionary)

Noisy activities and parties sums it up about right. Rumpus room it is, then!

Right from when we moved in 14 months ago, I had plans to lighten up this room and cover up the awful chipboard walls.

To plank the walls, I first painted the chipboard white. The reason for this was that I wanted small gaps in between the 'planks' and didn't want to see the dark wall through these little gaps. It proved to be a wise move, as up close you can see the wall in behind.

To make the planks we bought 6 sheets of 2400 x 1200 x 6mm MDF from Bunnings. We had them slice it up into 150mm wide planks. This was our first mistake as we thought this would give us 8 evenly sized planks per sheet...but we forgot to account for the saw blade which makes around 2-3mm of board disappear from each cut. This meant that our 8th plank was much narrower than the rest, so we had a bit of wastage...at only $20 for each sheet it thankfully wasn't a hugely expensive mistake.

Here are the first few boards up. We used our air furniture staple gun to put the boards up, after squirting the back of each board with construction adhesive. We made sure each board was level as we went. We only needed one join in each row so we staggered these evenly into kind of a zipper pattern down the wall which we thought looked good.

We were left with a smaller gap than 150mm at the bottom of the wall so we just got a narrower board cut. I used gap filler over the staple holes, and in the gaps between the top board and ceiling, and between the bottom board and skirting. I sanded the wall all over before priming and painting (we also sanded the edges of each board before putting it on the wall).

We also planked down a small hallway as shown on the right of this photo above. It wasn't too difficult, just a matter measuring before cutting, and fixing any gappy bits around the door, etc, with gap filler (wonderful stuff that it is!)

I painted it in a favourite white of mine, Resene Karen Walker Milk White. The trim and door is half Milk White (one door down, lots more to go!)

One last tip: next time I do this, I'd paint the edges of each board before putting it on the wall...painting between the little gaps was not much fun!

I am so happy with how this turned out, I think it suits this room really well, and says 'beach house' so much more to me than brown chipboard ever will!

Do you want to plank a wall in your home? I'd love to hear about it!

House updates

2013-04-16T10:18:00.000+10:00

Hello, yes it has been a while since I've popped in here. Just busy with you know, life.

If you follow along with my Facebook page you'll know I am still alive, and have an idea of what I've been up to ;) It is so much easier and time-efficient for me to update a facebook status than write a blog post.

Furniture is taking a little bit of a back seat for a while as I focus my time and energy into freshening up our home. We've lived in it for about 14 months now so it is about time we made our mark on it.

Our major transformation has been the downstairs living area, which we took from this

to this...

(Yes I painted the tiles on our bar. I will do a separate post about how I did this soon).

to this...

The 'before' photos are all from the real estate agent from when we bought the house and show the previous owners' style. Lucky I saw through it ;)

The ceiling, as you can probably see, is still a work in progress. After sealing it twice with the best stain blocker, something in the timber is still bleeding through, so we are going to reline it.

The major transformation in this room is the planked wall. It has lightened the area up no end and I absolutely love the cute rustic effect.

I am writing a separate post on how we did this, it will be up later in the week.

I've also been slowly working on repainting some of the rooms, which were all this very dated 90's yellowy-cream. This is the guest bedroom...

With green carpet, no less! That carpet came up the day before we moved in...no way was I leaving it there!

Here it is with the previous owners' furniture in it...

And here it is now...

I still have the paint the trim around the wardrobe doors white. I did find it quite hard to get good photos of this room**, and I'm not sure the paint colour is reading true (it might look a bit purple, which it is definitely not). The colour is Taubmans Zurich White, a lovely beachy driftwood grey with the slightest hint of taupe in it. It is just the colour I was imagining and I am so glad I found it.
**(Edit...I've had another go at the photos at a different time of day...they are a little better I think!)

The way I did find it wasn't my usual paint-colour picking method...a couple of weeks ago on Selling Houses Australia they updated a very dark home with lots of brick internal walls by re-lining the walls and painting them in Taubmans Taupe Grey. I thought the colour looked lovely so off I went to Bunnings to check it out. While I was looking for the colour chip I also came across the Zurich White and just knew it was what I had been looking for. I bought 6 litres on the spot and since then have splashed it on our guest room, the kids bathroom, and the toilet.
The upstairs hallway is next on my hit list ;)

Here is a close up of the blind. I got it on clearance at Spotlight for around $40. The grey pattern is lovely and ties in nicely with the wall colour and the mortar in the brick.

I love the internal brick walls in our home, they may not be the 'in' thing right now but I love the character they add and I have chosen to work with them rather than get rid of them.

On my 'still to do' list for the guest room:
- new lampshade/light fixture
- paint the trim around wardrobe
- new duvet cover (maybe grey stripes?)
- change artwork?

So that's what's been keeping me out of trouble lately.

Back on the furniture subject, I am taking a break from the markets for now, and am selling my smaller furniture items at Paradiso in Hastings River Drive, Port Macquarie. Still open for commissions if you are wanting something of yours updated :)

Client Commission: Dining Suite for Ian

2013-02-22T11:07:00.000+11:00

Today I've got a very different project to show you - well it feels different to me, anyway. A lovely man named Ian approached me at my market stall a couple of months ago, and asked if I would paint a dining suite for him.

It had 4 chairs but for some reason only one made it into the before photo. You get the idea, I'm sure.

When I went to his home to quote a price for the work, he showed me where he wanted to put it - on an outside covered patio area. He wanted it to match the colours of his home which was a terracotta coloured brick with cream mortar, and cream patio railings and fences.

The cream colour was easy - we used Colourbond Classic Cream which was the exact cream colour of his fences and railings etc. I left him to choose the terracotta colour, and he decided upon Dulux Great Dane.

I got to work sanding the whole suite back, cleaned it thoroughly, then spray primed it. I haven't used my spray gun in quite a while and it was great getting it out again. Spraying is obviously quicker than hand painting, and gives a smoother result which is what I needed for this project as the client wanted a clean looking non-distressed finish.

*That is not to say you can't get a smooth finish with a brush, you absolutely can. All you need to do is use a good quality paint brush, have a steady hand, and sand with a fine grit sponge (then wipe with a clean wet cloth) between coats.*

Spraying does have its downsides though. You need an area to do your spraying in (I've made a spray booth in my garage) and it needs to be sealed, clean and dust free. Spray painting creates a lot of 'dust' as the paint particles fly all around and don't just end up on the furniture. As a result, you use around 30% more paint when spraying vs hand painting. Keeping your pressure at the right level (high enough to get the paint out nicely and low enough not to blast the paint everywhere) is important and takes a bit of trial and error. As does thinning your paint to the right viscosity - too thick and it won't come out of the gun nicely, and too thin and it will run.

I lined up a couple of little tray tables to prime while I had my gun out. It is time-consuming and fiddly to clean properly so I like to make the most of it while it has paint in it!

This is my spray gun. It is about the third gun I have owned and the first one I have learnt to look after and keep properly clean!

I've said this many times before, but I always work on tables upside down first, so I don't have to put a newly-painted surface down and risk damaging it. It also makes it easier to get in and around the table legs and underside of the table, which I always paint to freshen it up (the undersides of tables are often filthy, especially around the edges).

Here is the part where I got busy and stopped taking photos, sorry! The table top and seats were to be terracotta and the legs and chair backs cream, so I masked up the chair seats and got to work spraying the chairs with the cream colour. I also spray the chairs upside down to start with, it is easier to get into all the nooks and crannies that way. I didn't need to mask the table top, I just sprayed the cream colour while it was upside down, then flipped it over and hand painted the table top in terracotta.

Once I had finished the cream on the chairs, I removed the masking (I used cling film and masking tape) and hand painted the seats in terracotta, then sealed them (and the tabletop) with water based poly. The paint and sealer I used is specially formulated for use outdoors - although this suite will be undercover I wanted to make sure it will stand up to the elements.

So here it is, all done

Whilst these colours are not my favourites, I think it looks lovely and will look perfect in Ian's outdoor living area. It was fun for me to go outside of my usual colour palette and do something different. It was also fun to do a cleaner style, as I do tend to distress everything I lay my hands on!

I am thankful to Ian for the opportunity to transform his dining suite, which has allowed me to show off a different side of my painting skills. Here's hoping he likes the result!

Rainbow Pastels Dining Suite

2013-02-10T18:19:00.001+11:00

I don't know how but I seem to have missed doing a post on this dining suite as soon as I had completed it...oops!

I picked up this gorgeous pine farmhouse table along with some rattan bentwood chairs which were awful and didn't suit the table. I got rid of those, knowing that I would find some better chairs without too much trouble.

The table was in great condition, it just needed that golden honey colour removed, and oh how I love to do that!

I started by stripping the tabletop with paint stripper.

I sanded the legs and apron.

Sorry about the shadows, but you can see the table looks better already all stripped back!

I primed and painted the legs and apron in my favourite off white, then lightly distressed before sealing with wax.

Here is the table with just primer on it. The top is still in its natural state.

I lightly distressed the legs by hand, then waxed them. For the tabletop I followed this procedure that I have used several times for achieving that perfect shade of french willow grey that is so popular amongst shabby chic and French country fans.

I didn't take any before or during photos of the chairs, but they were just ordinary brown colonial style kitchen chairs, in good solid condition. I sanded these back then primed and painted them each in a different pastel shade, something I had been wanting to do for a while...I got the chance to do some here for a client and I wanted to do it again, with a couple of extra colours thrown in.

I distressed each chair by hand (a huge job!) and then sealed them with two coats water based poly. They have an absolutely gorgeous smooth feel and look which is hard to capture in photos.

Here is the suite all done...

I am thrilled with how the dining suite has turned out, it just has such a happy feel to it.

This suite is for sale, please contact me if you are interested in viewing.

Retro Kitchen Step Stool Makeover

2013-02-06T11:14:00.002+11:00

First of all, Happy Waitangi Day to my fellow Kiwis! Nothing quite like being away from your home country on its National Day, or being in another country for theirs. Feels a bit odd!

I absolutely love these stools - when I was little, it seemed that every home had one of them.

They are so handy - great for using to reach the top cupboards but also great for little kids to kneel at the kitchen bench to help with baking, or sit at the dining table comfortably - especially with the lid flipped open, giving them a backrest.

These two stools are mine, and I am keeping them forever :) I am always on the lookout for more though, because I know how popular they have become over the past few years - indeed they have become very hard to come by, particularly ones in good condition.

These two I brought over from New Zealand, and since being in Australia I've never seen any of this style. Maybe they didn't make them here? I have seen plenty of the ones with flip out steps though, but most of them are rusted beyond help, sadly. You can imagine how thrilled I was a couple of weeks back, to find this then...

It was in good solid condition with a bit of surface rust that I managed to remove most of using elbow grease and steel wool. The black step covers are unfortunately a little bit chipped but it doesn't affect the use of them at all.

I shared this on my facebook page the other day, but I am still gobsmacked by it...this was the cardboard label covering the underside of the seat:

See down there, right at the bottom?

It says 'European Labor (sic) Only'. So I take from this that when it was made, the factory felt it had to let buyers of this product know who/what race of person had made it? Wow. Still gobsmacked! Is this how you read that? What other way could it be read?

Perhaps I should add a new label 'upcycled by a girl' ;)

Anyway moving right along, the orange vinyl seat cover didn't do much for me, and you know I cannot help myself when it comes to oilcloth, particularly dots and florals ;) Back in New Zealand I would have taken this along to my magic upholsterer man to whip me up a new seat cover, but since I haven't yet managed to convince him to up and move to Port Macquarie, I decided to give it a go myself. (Hi, Val!)

I was on such a mission I didn't take photos but these are the steps I took:

1. I unscrewed the top from the stool frame (just 4 screws) then removed all of the old staples in the upholstery (never a nice job).

2. I removed the vinyl cover and turned it inside out, using it as a pattern for my new cover. I just traced around the top part of the old cover and for the sides I measured a strip of my new fabric.

Cut my fabric out.

3. I made some piping out of a blue gingham checked oilcloth for a bit of contrast, then sewed the piping to the top part, clipping the the piping as I went, to ease it around the curved corners.

4. I sewed the side piece to the top and piping, (starting at the centre back so that is where my join would end up) then stitched the centre back seam.

5. I clipped through all the corner seams then turned it back in the right way.

6. The stool base and foam was still in excellent condition so I reused it. I eased my new oilcloth stool cover over the foam and wood base, then stapled it around the edges. I then stapled another piece of oilcloth to the underside to keep it looking neat.

7. I purchased new foot stoppers for the 6 feet this stool has, and also replaced the plastic caps on the step part, as they were quite brittle.

8. I reattached the top to the frame, and here it is now...

I don't think I did too bad a job for a first time attempt :) (I have covered plenty of stools before, but steered clear of the oilcloth ones requiring sewing and piping).

With the steps folded up.

This stool is for sale, please email me for details if you are interested :)

A fresh new look for an old desk

2013-02-04T11:04:00.001+11:00

This is a custom job that came to me via the article in the Port Macquarie Focus Magazine...the lady had read the article then made a special trip to the markets to talk to me about this little desk...

She had owned it for about 50 years and had completed the current paintjob herself about 40 years ago. She saw some other white pieces I had done and decided that this desk needed a new look.

The green finish was chipped and worn so I decided it needed to come off completely. I did this by using paint stripper and sanding. When I was uploading the photos for this post I found this one I didn't even realise my daughter had snapped...there I am hard at work! All that stuff on the ground is the old paint...I keep telling you that this is a glamorous job, do I not? ;)

Once all the paint was gone I cleaned the desk with methylated spirits on a clean rag to get rid of any paint stripper residue, then primed it with my favourite Zinsser BIN but found that I got some tannin bleed through in a couple of spots so I did another primer coat of Zinsser Cover Stain which fixed it.

Then onto the top coat (well 4!) of my favourite off white. A light distressing by hand with 240 grit sandpaper followed, then I sealed the inside with water based poly and the outside with wax.

Here it is now...

Once again, white paint fixes everything!

If you have something you'd like painted and don't want to do it yourself, I can do it for you...email me with photos and I will work what it will cost :)

(Location Port Macquarie and surrounds, NSW Australia)

Home Made Chalk Paint - My Review

2013-02-03T19:22:00.004+11:00

I am so late to this party, that is for sure ;)

I finally, finally (!) got around to trying chalk paint, well home made, at least. Annie Sloan's version is very very close to being here in Australia and New Zealand, and I am looking forward to trying it after all the hype I have seen (read) over the past two or so years.

I picked up this desk last week and decided this was my guinea pig for chalk paint...

(phone photos...sorry!)

There are lots of recipes on the internet for home made chalk paint, they mostly consist of mixing plaster of paris and water into acrylic paint (some use calcium carbonate and some use grout). I went with plaster of paris and mixed it into a paste with water then mixed that into some low sheen water based acrylic (good old classic Dulux Antique White USA).

It mixed to a nice consistency fairly easily and I started painting the desk straight away (after cleaning it thoroughly but not sanding it...this paint is meant to stick to 'glossy' surfaces). After about 10 minutes it started thickening, at first not too thick for me still to paint with, but a few minutes later you could stand the brush up in it, and it needed watering down again.

I had read that this paint dries very quickly once painted on the furniture but to be honest it didn't dry as quickly as I thought it would, but we have had some pretty wet humid weather here lately (I painted on a fine sunny day though). I ended up doing 3 coats in total over two days. In between coats I put the lid on the container with the chalk paint mix in it and it kept it fresh, just needing a bit of a stir and some more water and paint on the second day.

After it was fully dry I distressed the desk by hand (using 240 grit sandpaper) and true to what I had read, it did distress very easily...almost too easily for my liking!

I personally don't like an unpredictable chippy distress job which I think is what this chalk paint is meant to do...see in the corner there...that is what it did and I don't particularly like it. I was worried it was going to come off in big chunks if I kept sanding. Some people like that look so I wouldn't necessarily say this is a flaw...it just doesn't suit me and my preferred style.

I don't love the handles either but as this was a real trial piece, I decided to leave them as is.

I finished it off by sealing with wax. It has come up quite nicely and certainly an improvement!

My verdict on home made chalk paint:

I am not convinced at all. I don't like the way it chipped off in some areas like it wasn't going to stop. Maybe I watered it down too much after the first application but I put it on pretty quickly...if you need to remix with water and more plaster of paris/paint every 10 minutes or so it isn't very user-friendly. If I am going to go to the effort of finding and paying for a nicely shaped piece of furniture to give new life to, I want to make sure that it has plenty of years of new life ahead of it.
I don't have faith that home made chalk paint will definitely give me that, so I am going to stick to the tried and trusted quality procedures and products I usually use (and wait for Annie Sloan's to land here!)

What I found this week...and how to find it

2013-01-25T15:28:00.001+11:00

It has been quite a while since I did a post showing some of my finds, but today I've decided to show you what I have bought this week.

I get asked all the time...where do you find the furniture you upcycle? My answer...all locally, mainly at op shops and tender centres.

I do the 'rounds' of my favourite local haunts alot. Like several times each week. Sometimes I set out to go there, other times I am going to Bunnings or the supermarket, butcher or wherever my errands take me, and it seems silly not to just pop in on my way past and see what treasures are on offer! I never seem to have any trouble finding what I am after, and I always find great stuff that I never knew I 'needed' till I spotted it there for sale ;) Consistency is the key to finding great treasures. You can't go in once and write the place off as smelly, full of junk and a waste of time. You never know what is being unloaded off the next truck to pull in there!

I may have *ahem* been known to hang around when I see a truck being unloaded...hey...you snooze you lose! I have bought great pieces that way, straight off the truck before they have even priced them.

I live in a small regional area so even though there may be more places to hunt, such as estate auctions, on offer in the big cities, don't write off small towns as not having good stuff. They do...it never ceases to amaze me what people get rid of. Actually the fact that ebay, gumtree and the like don't seem very well used in small towns like this is probably why the op shops have great stock...it is too hard for most people to get rid of stuff online. Or maybe we are just a charitable bunch that like to support the local op shops...I know I certainly hand over a fair bit of money to them :)

Of course, I miss out on a lot of awesome things too. The upside is, I don't know about them because they are in and out of the stores before I even see them. (I go there a lot but I don't live there!) It almost goes without saying, but...if you see something you love, grab it, don't walk around and think about it, don't come back tomorrow, next week, whatever.

It won't be there.

So this is what I found this week:

A large solid wood sofa bed for out on our back deck. I have been after one of these for a while, and most of the ones I have seen were the tubular metal type...not exactly the look I was after, and they all seemed to be priced too high - at around $85-$100. More than I wanted to pay for something that wasn't quite what I wanted. Luck/good timing/persistence/call it what you will was on my side this week as I found this one for....$15. The shop was overstocked and had put all their furniture on half price. This would have been a bargain at full price, but I wasn't going to argue! The mattress is a bit tired and obviously the frame requires painting, and I will sort those things out as time permits. In the meantime, a duvet cover over the mattress makes it a comfortable and welcoming spot to sit.

Today I needed to go to Bunnings, and the paint shop. So it was a 'I'll just pop in on my way past' sort of a trip. I found myself staring at these prints of some pencil sketches of Bath, England. Not even my usual thing but there was something about them that I really liked.

I had been wanting something different to put on the wall behind the bed in the guest bedroom and I just found it, for $6 a piece.

I love all the detail in them.

I think this 'Old Bond Street' one is my favourite.

There were actually six in the shop but I thought four was plenty behind the bed and I didn't really like the other two, plus the frames were slightly different.

(I actually did a quick frame switcheroo on the floor of the shop to ensure that the four frames I bought were the same. That left the two in the shop with matching frames so I think I was helping everyone by doing it!)
Sometimes I have no shame ;)

My best find of the week has to go to this lamp...

It is a really pretty cut glass table lamp, really heavy and well just gorgeous. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it. Why? Well, because about 15 months ago, I found the exact same lamp in a local op shop...and now I had a pair! I thought I had posted about it, and I know I shared photos on my Facebook page at the time, but I can't seem to find them now. Here is a photo of my other one...

I pulled the lamp to bits and painted all the brass coloured pieces white to freshen it up. The base on this one was in just as bad a condition as the one I got today, so I know it will come up nicely with a bit of work. Hope I can get the same silver shade...or if not, I'll just buy another two that match :)

How much did I pay for the lamps? They were both $15, at two different op shops, 15 months apart. Funny!

Last find for today is this solid wooden desk...

Just a sweet little simple desk that will look gorgeous with a coat of paint. Watch this space!

Happy New Year, halfway through January!

2013-01-16T09:43:00.000+11:00

I'm a bit late for a Happy New Year post, aren't I!?

I am still enjoying holidays with the kids, they start back at school at the end of the month...gosh 6 weeks goes so fast, I am loving having them home and not at all missing the school morning and afternoon routine!

We had our first trip back to New Zealand since moving to Australia in 2011, and it was wonderful. We got to catch up with our much loved and missed family and friends, and enjoyed it very much. It was so nice for the kids to see their mates, too. They miss them a lot. We had two weeks there and it went so fast, as holidays tend to do. Would have been nice if we could have spent longer with everyone but that is one of the downsides of choosing to move away, and I accept that.

This is where we spent the bulk our of two weeks - at my parents' home in the Marlborough Sounds. You can't drive there, it is boat access only which makes it even more special. I took this photo standing on the deck of their home. It is an absolutely stunning spot, and I am so glad that my parents had the foresight to buy a block of land in the bush 30 years ago (even though we had to go from a nice home to a doer-upper in order for them to afford it!) They have worked really, really hard over the years to create a beautiful home and stunning landscaped gardens, and recently they have decided to share a piece of their paradise with others, renting out their holiday cottage on the property. It is proving very popular and I think it is wonderful that they've done this.

Christmas morning fun getting dragged around behind a boat...we went faster once we got further out!

During our time in Christchurch, we had a wander around the CBD (what is left of it) and it was pretty overwhelming. The lack of tall buildings left was a real eye opener, as was seeing our old work building (the Westpac Canterbury Centre) completely down. I absolutely loved the Cashel Street container mall though, it was far better in person than I was expecting it to be, what a lovely buzz the place had about it...seeing and experiencing that gave me real hope and excitement for the future of Christchurch. It will take a long time to rebuild but it will be an amazing city once it is all done.

Excuse the quality, this was taken from our moving car. This was a large department store, Farmers. The building still standing is the Central Library, also to come down I believe.

Again a moving car shot, and in the rain, not great sorry. This lovely clock tower on Victoria Street stopped at at the time of the Feb 2011 earthquake...12.51pm, and still sits stuck on that time almost 2 years later. Still can't believe this happened to my city!

Before we knew it we were saying our goodbyes and back on the plane to Sydney. After a night there, (and a Saturday morning trip to Ikea!) we were in the car on our final leg home.

Isn't home always sweeter after you've been away from it for a while? Doesn't everything look a little bit different for the first day or so? Or is that just me, lol! When we opened the front door Geoff commented that it 'smelt like home', and it did. You can only ever notice that once you've been away for a while. I hope it is a good smell ;)

A week after we got home it was market day (last Saturday).

It was a great day, and thankfully not windy like December. My oilcloth doorstops proved very popular again, which is exciting. I am waiting on the delivery of the next lot of oilcloth, which should arrive any day now. I have lots more projects in mind for that, including a super cute retro kitchen step stool, will show you soon.

Over the next couple of days I am picking up two custom jobs to start work on - a writing desk and a dining suite. I am also dropping off some of my smaller painted items (and some more doorstops) to a local store - Paradiso in Hastings River Drive. I've also been doing a few renovation jobs around home since we got home (I always do that...I miss my home so I come back all inspired to get stuck into it!)

So although it is still holidays, things are starting to wind up again, and I feel rested and ready for it...2013...bring it on!

Oilcloth Doorstops

2012-12-07T13:36:00.002+11:00

Hello, bet you didn't expect to hear from me again so soon after my last post ;)

My family and friends who read my blog won't be surprised that I haven't been able to wind down as much this week as I planned to ;)

This project came out of necessity...a necessity to create, which is constant for me, and the need to stop my doors slamming. We are very lucky to live in a stunningly beautiful coastal village in an area with a wonderful climate that to me feels like summer almost all year round. It does get hot in the actual summer but because we are near the beach we usually get a lovely coastal breeze that helps cool things down a bit. I love having the doors and windows open to let the sea air in, but that means doors don't stay where they should, and often slam. I have been using those little rubber wedges but they don't stay properly under all my doors. So...as I was staring at my pile of pretty oilcloth offcuts the other day, thinking I ~~wanted~~ NEEDED to make something with them, it came to me...oilcloth doorstops. I had seen some in this pyramid shape a few years ago and thought 'I must try those one day'.

So here they are...

Once I had made a few for myself, I figured I'd make some to sell as well - they are cute and practical and I am sure I'm not the only one with slamming doors round here! I think they'd make a great gift...something the recipient can use, but also something nice and pretty to look at, something a bit different. Some of these have sold already, and one customer said to me she'd been looking for a doorstop but all she could find was a chicken, and she didn't want a chicken (don't blame her, lol!)

The doorstops are filled with sand and weigh approx 2.5kg each. I have double stitched the seams to ensure no sand escapes. Where I left a gap to turn them in the right way, I glued the gap shut before hand stitching it. The base measures approx 17cm square and the height to the top of the handle is around 21cm. This fabric is known as oilcloth but it is nothing like Mexican oilcloth which looks and feels completely different (it is basically plastic). My oilcloth is actually pvc-coated cotton and excellent quality. This stuff will last for years and years.

I've amassed quite a collection of prints and styles of this beautiful fabric over the years, and look forward to replenishing my stocks in the next few weeks.

I will have a selection of these with me at the Port Macquarie Foreshore Market tomorrow.

They are $25 each.

Client Commission: French Country Hall Table

2012-12-01T15:14:00.001+11:00

Hello! It is a hot one here today as forecast so I have been hiding in my workshop finishing off the table that I mentioned yesterday that I had been battling with. Here is what the 'before' looked like:

A cute enough hall table but just a bit outdated colour-wise. And that colour was what gave me all the grief...it was covered in thick wax which proved a bit challenging to remove but I got there in the end with a trolley load of 80 grit sandpaper.

I think I lost 2kg in sweat working on it yesterday, not that I am complaining about that ;)

I primed it with Zinsser BIN which is the best product to use on a previously waxed or oil-contaminated timbers to ensure the paint adheres properly.

The top is being left natural, the timber (I am not sure what it is) is beautiful and has lots of character on the top, it would have been a shame to cover that with paint.

I had to paint the sides and back of the drawer which isn't something I would normally do, but due to the design of this table, they are visible (you can see what I mean in the finished photos further down this post).

The owners of the table wanted me to trim it down a bit to fit in a specific space, so I had to get over my fear of using the circular saw in a hurry! To ensure I cut a nice straight line I measured 15mm out from the front and back outside legs of the table, then used a sliding square to draw a line up the edges and along the table top.

I then held my circular saw on the table top and lined up where the blade would cut with the line I just drew. (The little notch on the black part of the saw marked '0' is where the cut will be). I held a piece of scrap timber against the right hand side of the black part (don't know the technical term for it!) and clamped it in place at one end. I then measured the distance from the edge of the scrap timber to my line (35mm), and measured the same distance at the other end to make sure my timber ran parallel to my line, then clamped that end and fired up the saw.

I am pleased to say it worked a charm...what a lot of sawdust two little cuts make though!

After one coat of primer I gave it two coats of off white, lightly distressed it and waxed it - clear wax over the paintwork and liming (white) wax on the table top.

You can see what I meant about the drawer sides being visible in this photo above.

I'm also just about to put the finishing touches on a little pine side table I bought a couple of days ago, I think it will be a keeper as I have just the spot for it on my deck, right between my wicker armchairs.

Once that is done, that will be it for me and painting projects for the year. I'm closed for commissions from now until the end of January so I can spend the next few weeks getting into the Christmas spirit in a relaxed fashion...baking Christmas treats with my kids, attending the school end of year Christmas concert and prize-giving assembly, Christmas shopping, packing for our holiday home to NZ for Christmas (which we are all VERY excited about!), then enjoying the rest of the school holidays in January before school starts again in February. Sounds like a long time away but I bet it will all go in a flash. Always does!

I have one more market stall for the year, The Port Macquarie Foreshore Market next Saturday 8th December. I will be having some super special deals on the day so if you are local and have had your eye on something, here's your chance to grab a bargain! Even better if you want to make me an offer before the day...you can contact me here if you want to do that. And you can see here what I have got for sale at present.

Restyled Vintage in Focus Magazine

2012-11-30T16:31:00.004+11:00

I have some exciting news I can now share!

I was approached recently by Port Macquarie Focus Magazine who wanted to interview me along with my market buddy and good friend Suzi. The issue has just come out today and I am still waiting to see if I am granted permission to publish it on my blog, so in the meantime, here is a link to the online version of the magazine if you are interested in reading it :)

Port Macquarie Focus Magazine

We appear on page 39.

The interview was conducted via email and I was asked to submit a few photos. I got a bit carried away and submitted 39, lol! It was interesting to see which ones she picked, but I think the article looks great, I am very proud of it :)

The photo above made the cut, and below are some of the ones that didn't...

Above is the 'Duck Egg Distressed Hutch' that I talk about in the article.

Well that's it from me for now, I am going to put a coat of paint on a hall table that I have been fighting with all week. It was previously waxed and I have been battling to strip it all off in order to be able to paint it (and more importantly, have the paint stick!) It is lucky I am stubborn and don't give in easily...it took a lot of time, sweat and frustration (and paint stripper, thinners, and sandpaper!) but I am showing that table who's boss!

We have had some hot days here and it looks set to continue over the weekend, so for the all the Aussie dwellers reading...stay cool!

Vintage Green Sideboard

2012-11-27T13:09:00.000+11:00

If you've been reading my blog for a while you're probably aware that I have a bit of a thing for that perfect shade of 'vintage' green. It seems I am not the only one - I get emails every week asking for the name of the green paint I use. As a business decision I choose not to share this information, but what I tell people is to find something that is the shade you are after (fabric, vintage china, even a picture in a magazine), and take the item to your paint shop where they should be able to colour match it for you...then you have your own personalised custom paint colour in just the right shade :)

I had been using the same shade of green for quite a while, and decided that it was time for a change. It is very different to the 'old' green when put side by side but the overall effect is the same. Colour is a funny thing like that. You don't need to use exactly the same shade as someone else has to get the same effect.

I found this unloved little sideboard a couple of weeks ago and or course saw the potential...

It was pretty beaten up but I loved the detail. Once it was home I sanded it right back to bare timber (it is solid pine).

Looking better already!

It needed a good clean inside...has this been inside someone's home like this, I wonder?

Here it is, all stripped, sanded and cleaned ready to prime.

I painted the inside with white Aquanamel to freshen it up and make it easy to wipe clean. It has a middle shelf which is also painted white.

TIP: when painting a shelf, or a door where you won't see the top and bottom edges, hammer in a couple of nails to each end, then use them to rest on two saw horses while you are painting them. Once you've painted one side you can flip it over using the nails as handles...makes your job twice as fast and means you don't have to rest your freshly painted side down on anything while you paint the other side :)

Here it is all finished. I put some sweet little floral knobs on it, I think they finish it off perfectly.
I have more of these available to purchase in my online store

This sideboard is for sale, details in my online store.

Restyled Vintage Online Store and an Update

2012-11-19T14:53:00.001+11:00

Hello, long time no see!
This post is a bit all over the show as I catch up on what I've been doing on the furniture front. Bear with me, please!

For a while now I have been advertising the items I have for sale on my Facebook page which was OK, but far from ideal...just last week I realised I hadn't received notification of some comments potential customers had posted in regards to one of my products. They had left the comments a week earlier...so that resulted in unhappy customers, and missed sales for me :(

I wasn't going to risk that happening again, and decided it was well and truly time to open an online store. You can find it at www.restyledvintage.bigcartel.com or by simply clicking on the tab underneath my header titled Restyled Vintage Online Store.

Obviously most of my upcycled furniture is local pickup only due to the size of the pieces, but I have lots of items that I am able to post and will happily obtain postage quotes for anything in the store, all you need to do is ask :)

The weather around here over the past couple of weeks has been very wet, so I have had to cancel two markets two weekends in a row. I have everything crossed for fine weather this coming weekend so I can show off my newly finished pieces! I didn't get a chance to have a proper photo shoot before loading up for the market that didn't happen, and the pieces are still loaded on my trailer waiting for the market that DOES happen! I did snap these quick phone shots though...

I don't have a full length photo of this French Grey sideboard completely finished yet but will take some when I have set it up at the market (hopefully next Sunday 25th November).

Handles still to go on

This has come a long long way since I bought it, when it looked like this...

That's a faux woodgrain effect on there. It wasn't pretty...and got worse before it got better, I stripped it back to bare timber.

I also transformed this pine table and these chairs

Into this super cute dining suite

Those chairs are ALOT of work (I hand paint and distress each one - I cheat and spray the primer on though!) but well worth it when you see the end result :)

In the last week I've also stripped back this sideboard

to bare timber as the varnish was practically falling off (see bottom kick rail in about photo)

And now it is sitting in primer white while I decide what colour/s to paint it. I have too many ideas for it!

I can see it going beachy in pale aqua and white, French country in putty and off white, shabby chic in chippy white, and grungy vintage in a palm green, just to name a few...what colour/s would YOU paint it?

Before & After: French Country Style Dining Table

2012-11-01T16:43:00.000+11:00

I've had this table for quite a while...I kept finding handy spots for it in my own home as a sewing table, a desk, and a second dining table before one day a couple of months ago I decided its time had come for the makeover I had been envisaging ever since I spotted it for sale.

I started off by stripping the honey coloured varnish off the tabletop...always a pleasure to get rid of this!

In the above shot you can see the nice wide planks that the tabletop was made out of...I love the character of these.

For this stripping job I used a heat gun and sander to remove the varnish fully. Sometimes I choose to use paintstripper but I find the heatgun quicker and easier (and cheaper!) for some jobs. Heatguns are particularly good when the surface you are stripping is flat and has a fairly thick even coating on it. Obviously paintstripper is better for more detailed pieces...in the last couple of weeks I stripped an ornate sideboard right back to bare timber and that took lots and lots of paintstripper...too fiddly for the heatgun!

I didn't take photos of the middle part of the process, but once the tabletop was stripped, I flipped it upside down and primed and painted the legs, before lightly distressing them.

To get the whitewashed look on the tabletop, I used the process I developed and explained in this post.

Here it is, all done...

The table goes really well with these industrial style stools that I had reupholstered in a taupe gingham oilcloth.

The table legs are the same colour as the sideboard in the background

(as at 1/11/12 this is still available for sale).

Client Commission: Beachy Bookcase

2012-10-15T19:49:00.002+11:00

Last month at the market, I sold this bookcase to a lovely family.

You can see more pictures of it and read about the transformation here.

When she came to pick it up from my workshop (most people don't just happen to bring a trailer with them to weekend markets unfortunately!) she told me that she had a smaller bookcase that she'd like painted to match...this is often the way I get commission jobs, people will buy something off me then want other things they already own done to match, I love that!

Here is what it looked like when she dropped it off to me...

It was a similar style with v-groove backing boards which look great when painted and distressed.

Here is what it looks like now...

I'm sure it will look great in her home!

Upcycled Furniture: French Country Style Sideboard

2012-10-12T21:44:00.002+11:00

Yesterday I showed you the mirror that was originally attached to this piece, to make it a duchess/dressing table. I decided to split these two pieces up and give them new life as a wall mirror and a sideboard/console.

I did paint them the same, and also gave them the same finish, so if someone wants to keep them together, they can. The two pieces might work quite well together in a large entrance way with the mirror on the wall above the sideboard.

Anyway, on with the pictures!

Again, the before. Dated, yellow coloured finish. I didn't get a good picture of the top but it had several patches on it where the original finish had worn off. It really needed a new paint job!

I always paint the insides of cupboards to freshen them up...one of my pet hates is seeing pictures of lovely painted furniture with dark grungy cupboard interiors!
My motto is do a job properly or don't do it at all :)

This piece has the most beautiful detail on the door and top drawers.

It is hard to capture a good photo with my little camera, but the finish I have given it has a metallic sheen to it which really helps to highlight the mouldings.

I painted the handles the same colour as the sideboard but didn't put the metallic effect finish on them, so they look a bit lighter.

This piece is loaded on my trailer to come to the Port Macquarie Foreshore Market with me in the morning, if you are local, come on down for a look!

**edited to add, this piece sold at the market 13/10/12**

Before and After: French Country Mirror

2012-10-11T17:10:00.000+11:00

I couldn't believe my luck when I stumbled across this beauty a couple of weeks ago.

Excuse the photo, was the best I could do in the narrow shop aisle.

This gorgeous mirror was attached to an equally gorgeous console.

I loved all the scrolly mouldings on these pieces and knew they would come up beautifully with the right treatment. I sanded, cleaned and primed then brushed on three coats of my favourite off white

(name of which shall remain top secret ;)

I then lightly distressed, cleaned away all the dust then applied a metallic paint finish as a 'glaze'.

Here is how the mirror looks now...

Oh I also chopped off the finials on top of the mirror. They really didn't do it for me!

I love how all the details pop now, before they were kind of lost in the yellow toned finish.

This mirror will be coming to The Foreshore Market with me this Saturday.

I'll be back soon to reveal the console part.

Furniture Makeover: Shabby Chic White Sideboard

2012-09-21T07:00:00.000+10:00

This sideboard actually spent its previous life as the bottom half of a hutch dresser.

Solid pine in that golden colour that is everywhere.

I had already removed all the doors and started prepping it before I remembered to take a before shot.

I thought about the size of it, and who would potentially purchase it, and what they would use it for.

As my main sales channel is market stalls, transporting a piece of this size is tricky, as is displaying it safely on grass at a market.

My decision was made (only after I had prepped and primed it though. Oops!) This hutch dresser was going to become a sideboard. Lighter, easier and safer to transport and display, and a much more multifunctional piece of furniture that would fit in many more homes than a large 3 door hutch dresser.

I kept it simple with a lovely off white, sealed with wax.

I painted the interior with a water based semi gloss enamel.

I used the original handles, I thought they suited it quite well.

This piece is for sale, details are on my facebook page or you can email me to arrange a viewing

Before and After: Shabby Chic Standard Lamp

2012-09-20T07:00:00.000+10:00

Last week I picked up this standard lamp. It has been a while since I have done one of these, and this one turned out so cute, I can't wait to find some more!

The 'before' photo is terrible quality I am sorry.

I sanded it back then primed and painted it in my new favourite off white.
Actual colour is my trade secret though sorry!

I used one of my favourite fabrics on the shade, and trimmed it with white ric-rac.

Here's the lower portion of the lamp stand.

This is for sale, you can head on over the my facebook page for details, or else email me to arrange a viewing.

**edited to add, this lamp has now sold**

Furniture Makeover: Willow Grey Distressed Drawers

2012-09-18T12:31:00.000+10:00

I have a set of drawers to show you, but I forgot to take a before shot...oops!

They were just your regular brown stained pine drawers.

Here they are now...

I gave them exactly the same treatment as these bookcases

It is a gorgeous colour, I think, and as I said in the bookcase post, could be beachy or french country depending on how you style it.

I lined the drawers with scrapbook paper.

As you can see in the above picture, the top two drawers don't quite match up. They work perfectly well but whoever built this set didn't quite make them the same size!

All adds to the charm I say :)

These are for sale over here on my facebook page or you can email me to arrange a viewing

**15/10/12 edited to add this piece has now sold**

Before and After: Cute Painted Shelving Unit

2012-09-17T13:15:00.003+10:00

Please click here to read more about this item