My recent decoration of the Breakfast Room left one piece of furniture standing out like a sore thumb, a cupboard I had perviously overhauled as a shabby chic affair.  However, it was the wrong colours for the room I felt, and did not fit the new scheme.

I am really into using wallpaper on furniture at the moment, and spent ages scouring the net for something with dark backgrounds and botanical to compliment the room.  It needed a smallish pattern as I want to use it in the inset panels on the doors.

Everything I found that I liked cost at least £90 per roll, and some were an eye-watering £270… but they are stunning.

Kristjana S Williams wallpaper

Cole & Son palms

House of Hackney palm wallpaper

Badgers of Bohemia Optical Tropical

I wanted a very punchy green for the rest of the woodwork, and I had a pot of Annie Sloane Olive Green sitting around, but it is a very dark, sludgy colour and not as eye popping as I wanted.

The green chalk paint

At this point I gave up, thinking that I could not get want I wanted on a tight budget…. BUT…. THEN…..  HALLELUJAH!!!!!

I was in my local B&Q (a place I can found in very often actually – some like Prada, I like paint shops), and I found this wallpaper by Ideco Home in EXACTLY the colours I wanted for the piece… navy and chartreuse or lime.  And it also only cost £14 for a roll…. Bargain!

It has beetles, flowers and everything that I need.  So I promptly matched some Valspar paint to the green, it is called Chartreuse:

I painted up the cupboard in the green (eggshell, water based), and wallpapered the panels.  It looked very bright and had quite a sheen… maybe a bit too bright… so I was not convinced.

So I then mixed up some of the ‘Olive’ Annie Sloane Chalk Paint with the Valspar eggshell, and mixed until I found a tone somewhere between the two.  This also was great as it turned the eggshell into chalk paint, which I much prefer to paint with.  A coats or two of clear wax after and I was done….

Starting to apply the new tone of green paint

I warm up my wax to make it easy to get into crevices.

Here is the finished result, I love it and it suits the room much better.  I still have nearly a whole roll of the paper left over, and I was really tempted to use it on the chimeny breast, but then it all becomes a bit ‘matchy-matchy’?

The finished cabinet

Before & After: