Chinese Chippendale Chair Makeover

before and after, Decorating, DIY, Interior Design, Makeover, recycling, Soft furnishings, Upcycling

A couple of weeks ago I was up really early doing an MOT on the car, and I had to wait a while for them to do it, so I went for a walk around my town.  There is a furniture junk shop, which occasionally has some OK bits in it, and I meandered in for a nosey.  At the back of the room, on its own was a chair.  Not just any chair, but a Chinese Chippendale one.

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This is the Jonathan Adler chair currently selling at £795

For those that follow the blog, you may remember my lustings for a set of Jonathan Adler Chippendale chairs.  I managed to find a set of similar style bamboo chairs when I revamped my dining room and gave them a makeover, you can read about it here.  Whilst they are lovely, they are quite large and not totally the real thing.  The real ones are wood carved to look like bamboo with grooves and notches.

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This is my earlier bamboo chair makeover

But this morning, this was the real thing.  It is made in solid carved maple with a very girly upholstered seat, and I think it is late 20th century.  Incredibly well made and sturdy, and the shape was totally the one it should be.

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The man in the shop told me it had come from a very smart house in a very smart village nearby.  And I could have it for £15.  I kept a straight face and asked him to set it aside.  He then mentioned there had been another 5 but they had already been sold individually…. GAH!  I could have wept, but never mind I still got one at least.  I then skipped off to collect my car, and didn’t even mind that it had failed the MOT and needed new tyres.  As I waited to get the car fixed I was already scheming on what to do with my new chair when I got it home.

So here it is on its arrival home.  It is very 80’s looking in colour and fabric.  So straight away I removed the seat and stripped it back.  Underneath is another fabric nasty, but I will leave it as a base for new upholstery.

Colours for upholstery

Previously I did my dining room chair versions painted white with groovy Thibault orange, orange and green irate fabric and cut velvet cushions.  But this new chair needs to be moved around the house, where colours are darker and more traditional.  It will probably start off in the sitting room.  I am having an armchair upholstered at the moment for the same room in a large scale raised velvet damask and velvet, so I have some spare fabric available.  The colours are spiced orange and neutral taupe.  Thus it makes sense to use some of it on the chair as it will live in the same room.

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Colours for the wood

Again, I don’t want it to look like the dining room chairs, although these chairs do look great in crisp white or a zingy bright colour.  I have a few pieces of painted dark charcoal furniture which I really like so I decided to do a modern take on an ebonised Chinese chair.

And so, out comes the trusty Annie Sloan chalk paint.  I have a pot of Graphite which is like the magic porridge pot in the fairytale.. It just keeps coming and never runs out.

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A good sand was done all over first, as although chalk paint doesn’t really need it, this chair will get used a lot, so key areas that will be handled such as the armrests need to be have the paint really well attached.

A wipe down, and coat number one was put on, diluted 20% with water to get a smooth finish.

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This paint dries very fast and looks very matt and chalky.  After a couple of hours it was bone dry so I applied another coat which was not so diluted.  Once that was dry, I applied Annie Sloan clear wax all over the painted areas with a brush so I could get it into all the nooks and crannies.

Once that it done it is buffing time.  This is where you can chose how much lustre you want with the finish.  I use a simple J-Cloth and polish away.  You can almost feel the wax harden as you go.  Once polished, leave it to harden more overnight.

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Reupholstering a drop-in seat

This is where staple guns are the most amazing invention.  I simply cut a square of fabric about 3″ larger than the seat pad, and made sure the design was centred on the fabric that will become the cover.  Then you place that face down on your working surface, put the seat upside down on top and start pulling the fabric over and stapling it.  I always start on each corner first with a holding staple and work diagonally so the fabric is pulled tight.  Do the sides first and leave the folding corners until last

When you get to do the folded corners, its a bit like doing a hospital bed sheet.  My seat had a shaped corner to the front so it was a little tricky, but you can always undo the staples if you are not happy until you get the neat edge you want.  Pull it really tight as you staple.  You need to get the seat to drop back into the chair frame so it cannot be too bulky.

The finished chair

Here she is… the whole project took a weekend, and out of that only about 6 hours was working on it.  Much of the other time was waiting for the paint and wax to dry, interspersed with some Netflix box set bingeing….  I love it, and when I get bored with it , it will be really easy to repaint and re-upholster.  Long live junk shops!

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MODERN BOTANICAL DIY PRINTS

Decorating, DIY, Graphics, Paper Art

EASY DIY BOTANICAL PRINTS WITH A TWIST

This is a simple way to create your own botanical prints with a contemporary twist.  This weekend I picked up two very nice simple black chunky frames on offer for 2 for £10 at Homebase, with mounts inside already cut to fit A4 prints.  I then made the prints myself at home, using downloaded botanical and paper images, normal photocopier paper and a printer.  I have seen examples like this on sale for a lot of money in smart home decor shops, galleries and on Etsy, but you can make them yourself which is far more satisfying and far cheaper.

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HOW TO MAKE THEM:

Start off by finding large sized botanical prints on-line.  There are lots of places to find them for free:  The Graphics Fairy and Botanicus are great paces to browse, especially the latter for thousands of botanical themes.  Download the picture you want to use, in Botanicus it comes as a large pdf of a botanical collection of the book’s plates, whereas at The Graphics Fairy is it just one image as a pdf or jpeg.  You do not need to print them out, but the below are examples of ones to look for, they need strong colours and lines to show up in the finished piece.

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Enclosed here is a ready to print dictionary piece of paper, (but you could use old sheet music cut to A4 size, or other old text paper you may have available).  Print this out in colour onto a piece of A4 paper, and make it fit the whole page as much as possible on your printer by using the ‘scale to fit’ option..

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When it is dry, reload this printed paper into the printer, and then print out the botanical flower of your choice straight onto it.  You may need 2-3 runs to get your grade right for your own tastes, (and not to do it upside down which I am guilty of a lot!). You can tweak your grade in your photo browser directly if it is a jpeg, or if it is a pdf you will need to convert it to a large sized jpeg first.

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Then frame up your print, and hey presto… done in a jiffy….

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Have a go, it is really not that hard to do and the possibilities are endless for printing images.  Just make sure they are dense in colour and line.  You can even do a 3rd print run with text on to personalise it for someone.

How to make your own scented soy candles

candles, Decorating, DIY, tutorial

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Scented candles are incredibly popular at the moment, but can also be very expensive for long-lasted, heavily scented soy versions.  I love ones by True Grace, Diptyque, Tom Dixon, Kenneth Turner and the Cowshed -but they come at a hefty price tag, especially as I burn them constantly.

So I decided to make my own for a change, and have discovered it is REALLY SIMPLE and they smell AMAZING!!!

I wanted to make a variety of candles in both rich floral and then more musky scents, and they have come out very well.  They also work out so much cheaper than buying ready made scented candles. 1kg of wax costs approximately £7, and from that I made 5 candles, and reused old candle pots and a cup and saucer set.  I had a few bottles of essential oils lying around already, and you can get 5 bottle of candle fragrance oil for £5 roughly online.  Wicks are about £1 for 10.  have worked it out to be around £2.60 per candle, a lot better than the £28 upwards costs of my usual candle purchases!

Here is what you will need:

  1. 1kg soy wax flakes.  I used Kerawax 4015 as it has a good scent throw and adheres well to glass containers.
  2. Essential Oils or specific Fragrance Oil for candle making.  I like to mix my scents up as I am making the candles, so have a variety of both.
  3. Candle wicks with metal bases
  4. Glue Dots
  5. Wooden sticks
  6. Metal container
  7. Large Saucepan
  8. Glass Containers (but china also works well).

Instructions:

Most Hit Posts of 2016

before and after, Decorating, DIY, Flowers, Ideas, Inspiration, Makeover, plaster, Soft furnishings, tutorial

Today I have been looking back at last years blogging, sometimes done a bit intermittently I must admit, and noticed that the most popular posts always seem to be the DIY ones, so here is a round up of the ones that still get the most hits, and I only hope that as a result there are many Ikea hacks, Plaster Flowers and No-sew curtain pelmets floating out there now!  More DIY ideas coming soon as I tackle a spare bedroom in the coming  months.

Click on the photos to take you to the posts and tutorials…

DIY Plaster of Paris Flowers

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No-Sew Curtain pelmets

finished wide

Ikea Hack Bookcase

 

 

Slate Effect Painted Fireplace

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Moppe Drawer Makeovers

 

 

How to make your own Street Art

Art, Contemporary Art, Decorating, DIY, gallery wall, recycling, Street Art, Upcycling

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ROLL OVER BANKSY… AND APOLOGIES TO DAVE…

I have been preparing for a gallery wall, and wanted to make some of my own artwork for it as well as using existing pieces.

I had started to hunt around for original prints, and found some images I really liked, but the artists’ works are REALLY expensive, and then they would need framing and so on.  So I thought I would pay homage instead and get creative for next to nothing.

I found this very cheeky artwork by Dave Buonaguidi.  He has worked in advertising for over 30 years, founding St. Luke’s, the world’s first Co-operative ad agency and most recently Karmarama in 2000. In 2003 he created the iconic MAKE TEA NOT WAR poster for the anti-war march. It now is part of the collection at the V&A and hangs in the Trento museum of modern art. He loves to make work that creates a reaction.  And this one really is a bit full on, but I like the text over a map.

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Obviously I needed to tone down the wording on my homage to this, I can just imagine the looks of horror from people visiting with kids if I copied the above verbatim!  So this is how I made my own version by changing the working to ‘I bloody love this place’, far less brutal text than the original but still a bit cheeky and a bit ‘English’.  I also have older teenage daughters who would not be offended than younger ones would be, so I think I can get away with it…. maybe… just!?

HOW TO MAKE YOUR STREET ART

I had a vintage framed map of Milan lying around in storage.  It has fond memories for me as I lived there for a few months many years ago, and had a blast whilst there.  So I thought it was a personal piece that I could adapt.  This was going to be the base of the artwork.  I carefully opened it up, and cleaned up the glass on both sides. I measured how much space I had free on the part of the print which would be visible when re-framed.

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Download the free font ‘Marigold’ from fontspace.com, and then you can make any text you want and it is a lovely curly handwritten font.  If you don’t want the bother of making your own document I enclose a pdf you can use but it does have my wording on it, be warned!

I then printed out my wording, in my case on A3 paper as my print is quite big.  Print with black ink.

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Vintage Bottles – Labels Freebie

accessories, DIY, Labels, recycling, Upcycling

Well, sort of vintage bottles…. they will look it when you are finished.

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I was given a collection of clear glass bottles with corks, (without labels), and was wondering what to do with them.  Perusing online, I found some great old labels which were a whizz to download, print out and use on the bottles.

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Some of the titles are hilarious, I am especially fond of ‘White Oil – For Man and Beast’, what this was used for once upon a time I have no idea?!

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I enclose the files that you can use below, they are jpegs and good enough quality to print out and use yourself.  What will you use them for?

Old Chemist Labels 1Apothecary style labelsOld Chemist Labels 2Old Chemist Labels 3

Ikea Hack – Bookcase Unit – Part 2

before and after, Decorating, DIY, hack

How to hack a Kallax or two….

So it seems ages ago that I started on the Ikea Hack, which you can read my plans on here.  I spent 3 afternoons at my sisters building away, and it took ages to get around to photographing it due to flu, distance and time!  However, here it is finally.  Apologies in advance for the photos not being totally crisp, but the room has very little natural daylight so my flash was needed a lot…

Ingredients

We went down to Ikea and spent ages looking at the bookcases they had available. On reflection, we decided to forego the breakfront effect and go for a freestanding simple piece that could take all of her LP’s, books and more.  LP’s are deep, so they fit best in this type of storage system.  Kallax units seemed the best as they are extra deep.

As you can see they are very modern and graphic.  But they baskets are nice made from rattan and palm leaves, and give a future option for storage.

So we bough one 16 x cube Kallax and one 4 x cube horizontal Kallax.  We then headed home and I put them all together (top tip, electric screwdriver…)

Putting the Units together and joining them

The larger Kallax went underneath and the horizontal one was put on top.  This made the unit a good height.  Obviously it needed to be secured into one safe piece, so on the rear I used fixing plates at regular intervals to keep it secure.

Once that was done, we also added  simple 2 x 4 wood batons to the base at each end and in the middle so we had extra height for the base board we wanted to be attached.  I also added felt pads so that the piece can be easily slid on the wooden floors without catching and causing damage.

Now this was done we measured the sections we would need cornice for; top and bottom would be the same piece but inverted.  On the front of the piece is a double width horizontal section of front shelf where the two Kallax units meet, and so we measured this to make sure we got decorative moulding to cover it. You can see this wide section below.

Master Bedroom gets a makeover

before and after, Decorating, Interior Design, Makeover

Farrow and Ball paint and things lurking under the stairs.

This week I was browsing a paint department, and happened upon a discounted 5L tin of Farrow & Ball’s ‘Brinjal’ matt emulsion.  This leaves me with 2 thoughts:

a) I need to get out more and stop loitering in paint departments when I have free time.

b) Loitering in paint departments can be seen as serendipity when bargains are to be had.

Anyhow, onto the paint… This is the most intense dark aubergine with red rather than blue tones, and I have always dreamt of doing a room in it.  Like an Olympian athlete I launched myself toward the paint pot it at high speed, and clutching my bargain I sped home.  I also managed to secure some bargains on some anthracite emulsion paint on sale, which have been stashed until I decide what to use them for, no doubt they will appear soon in a post….  (and if you don’t want to read through the procrastination and details, scroll down to the bottom of the post for the before and after photos.)

This is what the colour look likes… wow, it’s dark…

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Photo: Brinjal by F&B photo from Farrow and Ball Decorating with Colour by Ros Byam Shaw

The Existing Room

The Master bedroom is already shades of Khaki, (this paint is called Drab), with aubergine accents, but it has been like that for quite a while, so I thought I would use the paint to overhaul the room.  The ceilings are really tall, and the expanse of white from the picture rail upwards to the ceiling sort of annoys me, as the rest of the colours get lost in the room as the eye automatically goes up to the brightness and it is so WHITE.  I love aubergine, so decided to paint out the khaki walls with the new paint, but to leave the wardrobes as they are.  So I am sort of reversing the colour scheme.  I am happy with where the furniture is and accessories, so it is just a case of the walls and woodwork being changed.

Wonderful Tattoos that come off!

Art, semi-permanent, tattoos

This is a bit of shameless reblog, but it is so cool I had to share….  I am not even sure if I can get this paper in the UK but I will endeavour.  The post comes from the fantastic Apartment Therapy and the lovely photos are by Ashley Poskin.

Homemade Holiday Gift Idea: Make Custom Temporary Tattoos

Personalized temporary tattoos make the best little stocking stuffers or secret snowflake gifts. Create your own artwork, or find clip art online, and simply print them out on specialized temporary tattoo paper. It’s a fun way to spice up the holidays and pull a fast one on grandma.

What You Need

Materials

  • Temporary tattoo paper (we used this brand)
  • Digital art
  • Design software (Photoshop or software provided by paper company)

Tools

  • Color printer
  • Water
  • Washcloth
  • Scissors
  • Burnishing tool ( a spoon works great!)

Instructions

1. This first step is the most time consuming, as it requires quite a bit of surfing around the web for art and/or creating your very own one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Once you’ve collected the art you’d like to use, you can create your template in a few different ways. I made a new document in photoshop by choosing “US Letter” which comes out to be 8.5″x 11″ at 300 pixels/inch. I then created multiple layers by dragging all the images I wanted to print onto the sheet, arranging them until they all fit perfectly.

If you don’t want to mess around with Photoshop, most temporary tattoo paper companies will provide free downloadable templates to use, just check the back of the package for download instructions and you’re on your way.

2. My packet came with two sheets of thick, white temporary tattoo paper, and two adhesive sheets stuck to green film. The white glossy paper is what you’ll send through the printer, face up. Wait until the ink has dried completely before moving on to the next step.

3. Remove the adhesive sheet from the green film and press it firmly over the printed designs, starting from the top and working your way to the bottom. Work carefully as the adhesive will cling to anything it touches.

4. Transfer the adhesive from from the top sheet to the white paper using a burnishing tool such as a wooden spoon, popsicle stick, or scraper tool. It’s only necessary to burnish over the designs, don’t worry about the negative space.

5. Cut each design from the sheet, then go back and cut around each design in detail, leaving as little negative space as possible. The area with a design does a great job of masking the film that transfers to your skin, but any space that doesn’t have a printed design (significant space around your tattoo) will show up and look kind of filmy. Definitely not rock ‘n roll.

6. Apply the tattoo to your skin by pressing it face down (paper side up) and holding it in place with a wet cloth for 20-25 seconds. Once set, the paper backing will slide off easily.

Vintage paper tree ornaments

Decorating, DIY, tutorial

To continue on from my last post of vintage paper Christmas decorations, I have been adding old sheet music paper to ready-made basic shop purchased wood shape decorations, plus also creating 3D paper ornaments.

revamping old decorations:

For the wooden decorations, I really simply added shapes cut from old musical scores:

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Decoupage:

With a plain wooden decoration I simply added torn up strips of old paper glued on with Modge Podge:

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And hey presto:

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3D paper Decorations DIY:

Finally, I made some 3D decorations which are really simple:

  1. Cut 8 identically sized circles/shapes.  Fold all in half with a strong crease in the middle.
  2. Glue one 1/2 side to the next piece, work your way all around until you have 2 pieces left to glue.
  3. Add a ribbon and glue shut.  Here is a really simple video tutorial on how to make them in case the above makes no sense!
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Circle shapes

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Diamond shapes

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Heart shapes

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Very simple, but very sweet I think….

I shall be trying all sorts of shapes now.  In fact my children had better keep busily moving about or I may decoupage them….