Work is still going on under the stairs and at the back of the hallway. As the back door is the only one in the house that’s not double glazed retaining heat is a big consideration. So I adapted this curtain to keep the cold air out and the warm air in.
You’d be amazed at the cold chill you’re hit with when you draw the curtain back in the morning. Speaking of tiebacks, I got these from ebay.fr. They’re meant to go either side of the window, but with the door being right next to the wall one tie back wouldn’t work. So by doubling them up like this they work.
It had been too long, so I took the end off and sewed it as a trim on the top, adding this lovely lace.
That and the dog draught excluder make an enormous difference.
The painting is one I found at a brocante a long time ago. I think the slightly battered frame and her wistful expression suit the area.
The area needed light, as the one that had been there was tucked under the stairs behind the new cupboard.
I bought some beautiful, crystal chandelier wall lights from the same brocante, but there wasn’t a power outlet on the wall. This is my solution, so this is my solution. Now, I’m not an electrician, so please don’t take anything I’m about to say as professional advice.
I bought a lamp, electrical cord. It had an integrated light switch and a plug on one end. I attached this to the wall light and fixed the latter to the wall. Then I secured the cord to the wall and beams with cable clips. Finally I plugged it into an extension cable and clipped this to the beams length until it was plugged into a light socket.
I’m going to disguise the cord in another of my winter proofing techniques later.
We’re so happy the floor is finally laid, but I thought that as there are so many tutorials on YouTube I would do a post on the difficulties and pitfalls you might experience. Why? Because throughout the laying process I kept grumbling “they didn’t tell you about this in those videos”.
One of the main reasons for my griping was that they all miss out it hurts. Some mention that your knees will hurt, that’s true, but I don’t just mean your knees. I mean everywhere. Your back, your legs, your bum. The lot. I started laying the floor on the Friday and winced any time I sat down all of the weekend. To put this further into perspective, I’d only finished 1/4 of the floor by then.
In all the videos they had a bare room, but we just weren’t able to do that. The kitchen island couldn’t be moved safely into another room and the damp autumnal weather meant I couldn’t store them outside whilst I worked.
As a result the fact that our heavy kitchen island was in the room dominated the whole project.
Added to that was the uneven walls of the room. There’s not a single straight line, because our house is built following the curve of a route. So the interior walls are all angled, or they have doors or built in cupboards. This all impacted on how we could proceed.
I had thought originally that I would lay the floor across the middle of the room from door to door. However the walls meant a safer course of action was to start running the lengths across the room in the other direction, however this meant the monstrosity of the kitchen island.
One more difficulty to overcome was that I’d moved all the laminate into the kitchen area to become acclimatised. It had been in the room adjacent, but needed to go in there and have all the boxes opened to let the air circulate. So, one more obstacle. Or, more precisely, lots more obstacles.
Because we didn’t have a straight run my dad, who was helping me, and I decided to go against all the recommendations and started to lay them in a staggered pattern. You can see how I left them on the first day…
We’d managed to fit one length under the island to the edge of the tiles I’d laid but the legs of the island meant we couldn’t fit any adjacent to that and moving the island at that point wasn’t an option due to the opened packets of laminate.
So we continued into the corner as much as possible, then as we laid more I had some space to move the laminates onto, creating more space.
At the end of the first day, apart from aching, I was worried we’d created a mess that we couldn’t rectify. If we kept laying boards the necessity to stagger them would mean a need to somehow slip boards in between what amounted to fork like prongs. Tricky.
Then I went in the next day and realised that I’d created sufficient space to start to swing one foot of the island onto the already laid floor and this created space to start lay boards in the space. It was a game changer.
After the weekend I started again; focusing on the corner that will house the dishwasher and sink. I’d tiled this area, thinking there might be future water leakages, and it therefore created an awkward area to work.
With the island moved I could fit in there to do the work and just concentrated on cutting to size here and then along the irregular wall and into the doorway.
Here we are at the end of the second day….
For the next two days I worked hard in there and eventually managed to finish most of the room. I was then left with those built in cupboards and needed to use a jigsaw to cut out the curved shapes. I didn’t have one. All ours were broken, but I couldn’t continue using the multitool I had been as I needed something easier to handle.
In the end my husband ordered me a Bosch cordless jigsaw. I cannot emphasis what a difference this made. I managed to fir the laminates pretty close to the cupboards (although they couldn’t be too close as there needs to be some give).
The room now looks like this….
I have to do the skirting boards and trim yet, but that’s a job for next week. So too are the two last boards at each doorway. I have temporary boards in there at the moment, but I need to remove the upvc door to do the one leading outside and the other will be replaced.
I’m intending to continue the laminate into the room next door which will eventually be the dining room, but there’s a wall to be removed first and that’s just too much before Christmas. So I’ll relay that final board, which needed to be cut in half to meet the existing floor, and continue straight from there.
I’ve been trying different furniture in there; the larger table I’d intended to have will never work, so I moved this round one in there. The chairs are going to be changed and I’ll update you on that soon.
I’m about to move onto the kitchen floor, but I thought I’d take this opportunity to update you on the areas that I’ve managed to finish. Nearly all ‘above ground’ is now done, apart from the two lengths of ceiling that I have to leave incomplete because of the electrics that need finishing. So ignore the floor, and let me tell you how I’ve been getting along…
I posted about this bookcase that I turned into an open, shelving unit. Here it is now with the decorative brackets attached and stained and varnished brown. As I said in my previous post, I’d realised that I was going to struggle finding a buffet unit narrow enough to fit on this wall without it meeting the oven shelf. I’d dreaded moving it as I knew I’d need to strip it again….😫. But I think it looks good here.
The bookcase now cupboard was replaced with this buffet top. It is the partner to a base which I’m going to reduce its width and lace beside the oven. The space directly next to the oven will hold a gas bottle, so only the right side will be a working cupboard. Nevertheless it should give me extra workspace too.
You can see the side cupboards which I can now show you without cropping images to emit the mess behind the open doorway. The area just beyond is a mini vestibule entryway which leads to what was the doctors waiting room. This will be my next project – knocking through to create a long, formal dining room. The doorway is a hollow, 1970s plain door. Not appealing. I’ll be posting about how I developed into this tongue and groove door.
My girls have been sitting at the island already 😊.
I’ve started to add some more decor. I’ll be changing the wreath on the mirror door as the pinks are too bright with the more subdued tones of the other decor. I think these other pieces add a more grown up feel to the pink. The painted milk churn is going to be used to store twigs to start the fire eventually.
Speaking of the fire I’ve spray painted this fireback and basket with high temperature spray paint. I have an appointment next Thursday to clean the chimney.
As well as gingerbread elements in the cupboards I told you in this post how I wanted to develop an aea with this detail. This is where the staircase was, and I finally managed to create a false ceiling here. Above it is a staircase, so no one will need to stand there. I couldn’t add beams, so I just tongue and grooved the area and then glued squares of light, pattern polystyrene tiles. They have a flower pattern, which suits the kitchen stile, and I disguised the tile edges with this trim.
The gingerbread elements are actually all sorts of finials, brackets, decorative furniture legs, a side strut of a bed….just everything really. I hope it works, but I’m trying to disguise the huge cement beams which were there to hold the ceiling up in spite of the staircase opening. As you can see the pendant light will fit where the arch is, and this will rest just above the dining table. I still need to repaint and add more acrylic to fill in the gaps.
The final one I want to show you is the cooker shelf and the tiles. The latter are from Bricocash, which is well worth a visit if you live in France and have one near you. Their considerably less expensive than Bricomarche- I got these tiles for 8€ a 30×30 square. I tried to grout them without letting the grout nestle in their crevices; however, even with a sealant applied prior to the grout it didn’t work. I still like the effect though.
You can see that I’ve tongue and grooved the doorway, but I’m waiting for the last bit of electrics to be done before finishing the final, wall section. I’m going to do more work here, I’m thinking of painting the door. But just changing the door handle gives it less of a upvc look, don’t you think?
Please God the COVID restrictions for travel end soon. My husband’s business is in the tourism industry, so there will be no electrics without his salary. And that’s the least of our worries.
This year our salvaged marquise went up – the difference it’s made to the front of the house is substantial. I have more plans for the front that I may work on progressively over the year.
Here’s a quick reminder of what it looked like before….
And here it is now…..
The first thing that I’m thinking of changing is the colour of the marquise; at present it’s this purple. Originally it was spray painted lavender, but the paint got damaged when erected and I couldn’t spray paint it in situ. As a result I tried to recreate the colour with white metal paint and a colour addition. The lovely grey purple I’d had just couldn’t be replicated, to my disappointment. So I’m thinking of going classic Parisian black or grey like this….
What I’m definitely wanting to do is add some garde-corps like this….
These can range from 100€ to 250€, so depending on the cost it’s possible to get a garde rail up per month.
At the top of the house there is one, long central window and I’d like to have a bigger, Juliette style grill as it will be on a hallway…..
So a quick one today, still tender from New Year celebrations. I hope your twenties have started well.
This is a really simple post for New Year’s Day. I’ve been thinking about how to add mouldings to the walls in the part of our staircase that has the turning stair leading up to the higher floors. Unlike the front hallway at first glance this isn’t a simple one third, one third, one third prospect where I have a type of moulding below a dado, something above in the next third, then a picture rail and ceiling section of moulding. The need to follow a diagonal line which turns into a flat can make this simple formula complicated.
The below dado section is fine, but if you want to add a series of panelled mouldings in the next third, as I do, they have the challenge of having to follow the diagonal line too.
I managed to gain inspiration from great houses and how they handled this dilemma.
Here in this green painted stately home you can see how the mouldings have been used in lines to section off areas giving clear horizontals to create tableaux mouldings. So a narrow, moulded frieze runs from the base of a higher floor around the visible stairwell.
Here it is in a more simply painted white decor, although the mouldings are magnificent.
Here is what I will base my blue and white colour scheme on, with the possibility of less expensive stencilled panels surrounded by simple, wood appliqué moulding frames.
Obviously the ceiling moulding is never going to happen, but it’s interesting to see how the final area on a stairwell landing can be treated.
My main goal next year is to finish our new kitchen at long last. I’ve written about it many times, but we still haven’t finished. Nevertheless when it is finished our plan is to move the dining room to the room that’s beside the kitchen, connected via the small entrance area that I spoke about in yesterday’s post.
I love chinoiserie and thought about how I could get the look in the hallway, bedrooms and now I’m thinking of the dining room.
Chinoiserie is expensive, so the only way we can realistically afford this look is if I hand painted it with the help of stencils. I’ll, of course, share here when I do it. However in the meantime you can click on this link to see my last attempt at painting birds with a stencil like tool.
Now to the chinoiserie.
Blue
Neutral
Taupe
Green
Panels
Grisaille
Which is a way of painting in shades of grey, as the name suggests. I love it, but I don’t think I’d ever be able to manage it myself. Here are some of the images that make me want to blow the budget though.
I’ve started decorating the living room for Christmas, so this post is as much about that as the development of the French Country style. By the way, for images of the decor lit up at night follow me on insta.
I have a habit at Christmas time of removing a lot of my decor accessories to better display the Christmas decorations. Then, following twelfth night and when the latter are packed away, I take out my old friends again. It’s so good as it gives you an odd pick me up when you’re past the festive cheer. I’ll update you when the decor is in its purer form.
As you can see I’ve squared off the living room, as I talked about in this post. This means that rather than have one, long, oddly shaped living room we have a still large, square space. The couches face each other, both in faded lavender shades that match despite their differing patterns.
The couch that acts as a room divider is the smaller of the two and was the second one that I’d ever covered. I bought both fabrics at bargain prices at different times and was so pleased with the cost and their suitability. I share how to get bargain fabrics here.
The bigger sofa has a scalloped edge that I’ll be posting on soon.
This space is defined with a neutral rug and the re-purposed table sits perfectly in the middle. Even though I’ve maintained the table’s wood, it’s pantina compliments the painted, vintage pieces.
This includes the French Grey table that I shared here and I’ve repositioned below this wall of vintage, French photos and etchings. Here are some close ups of them.
Many of them are local landmarks such as the cathedral and church in nearby Coutances….
Saint Michael’s mount….
it’s equivalent in Cornwall….
and the ruins of the Abbey d’Hambye….
along with a Madonna and child….
In the re-purposed buffet I have throws ready for use, a basket to hide toys that the kids have dragged through from the play room and my beautiful Art Nouveau bust. It’s faded beauty suits its new home perfectly.
I teamed these bird prints with the oval mirror that I painted gold from a dark mahogany.
The final piece of furniture I upholstered this year was the loveseat in lavender linen. I added the trim that I later used on the Aubusson curtain to hide the tv. I really like it and I’m thinking of removing the structured skirt of the small couch to replace it with something similar.
You can see that I have lots of luxurious velvet cushions along with the simpler cotton, Christmas ones. I really like the combination as it seems to reflect my liberal use of glass with the more vintage elements.
Lastly I painted the fireplace in this soft grey. It makes a huge difference to the room – so much lighter and brighter. We knew we couldn’t put a fire in there after the advisor came around, so we will probably keep the fireplace there with the Art Nouveau wood burner there just as it is. The fairy lights give a fire effect with none of the hassle anyway.
One of the reasons for this decision is it’s going to be expensive and messy to remove the fireplace. I think it’s got metal within its structure, as well as concrete and piping. If we remove it I don’t know if it would even be successful. So I think a project for next year will be to straighten the flu area with plaster board and add moldings to compliment the rest of the French Country look.
I already have some beautiful Art Nouveau sconces in the form of Mucha style busts that I plan to put on either side of it, and I also have large damask tiles from Laura Ashley. I think I’ll put the tiles on the back walls and pair them with a simpler grey tile on the floor. Then I’m going to soften the solid block of the mantle by extending it with a shelf and cornice.
OK, I’ll stop brainstorming now and get in with showing you some close ups of the Christmas mantle decor.
I’ve already posted on how I’ve hidden the TV.
Behind the small couch I’ve put the marble and iron pastry table, typically found in bistros in the past. The grey marble suits the room to a t, and the weight keeps the couch in place even when the kids bounce on the couch when they sit down.
I bought the lamps to go on the repurposed buffet top, but they are so tall they touched the chandelier wall light that’s there. So I ran an extension lead from the tv side, covering it to protect people from catching their foot on the wire.
As it runs from the tv side it’s not a normal passage. At the moment it has Christmas decor on the mirrored tray, but I’m going to try and use items that have a dual aspect so that you’re not looking at the back of everything.
In this second half of the room you can see the goblet top curtains that I made during the year. I’ve added beads, buttons a velvet ribbon to them – what can I say? I’m a girl who loves trim!
I’ve already shared about the wicker sofa and cupboard. I just wanted to show you the table that I painted again when I decided to really define the room’s style. I love round tables that you can fill with photos like this. Here it is in its black and gold form with the compass motif. It looked good but I couldn’t put as many photos on without hiding it.
And on a sunnier day today…
I’ll be moving the wicker sofa to where the rose chair is eventually. The rose chair and ottoman will go elsewhere in the house and I plan on covering a small sofa we have in white and putting it against this wall.
I also plan to take up about two thirds of the wall in bookcases. This will give this side of the room a more clearer purpose of reading area. With all the sunlight streaming in it’s perfect for that.
Following on from the difficulties we face getting a wood burner in here a longer term plan is to move the dining room, which is currently through the bi fold doors, to one next to where the kitchen will be. In its current room there is a chimney and hearth. If we’re able to open it up and get it working we’re going to put a fireplace in there and use it as a music room.
If that all goes ahead I’ll move the ottoman in there and have more formal, French style swatting in there.
One last plan for the room is the bi fold doors. I want to put some form of cornice above them and the entrance door too. In the meantime I’m content with the vintage door handles.
No more work in this room until the new year. Between now and the 24th it’s just Christmas stuff. How’s it going where you are?
I’ve written about the decor review I’ve made of the living room and how I was planning for it to reflect more of an American, French Country style. In the corner of the room was a cupboard and its obviously a modern style.
So I decided to change it to something more along the lines of how I wanted it to look. I used the same technique that I used for the hallway; wood appliqués. I’ve also used window film and faux lead light (click the links to see the other projects that use these items too).
Adding the appliqués
I used 3 rose lengths and 4 rose corner appliqués, along with some half rounds.
The first thing I did was put one appliqué aside and painted it in the same French grey that I did the rose table in. This room seems to be developing a theme. I intended this appliqué for the top of the cupboard, so painting it like this was easier.
Next I placed the rose lengths. I used no more nails glue as I couldn’t get the door from its hinges and with that, when you put it on the horizontal surface, it stays put.
Measure the centre of the door and put one of your unpainted rose lengths on. Using a spirit level make sure it’s horizontal.
Then ascertain where the centre line is on the bottom of the door. Measure the same distance from the bottom as there is between the top and the appliqué. Put your second rose length there ensuring they’re a direct mirror image. I chose to put the second one upside down because of the central roses I intended to use later. Make sure this appliqué is also horizontal with the spirit level.
Ascertain how far you want the corner roses to be from the rose length and using your spirit level place them either side. Use your spirit level horizontally to make sure that they are directly vertical on the exterior edge.
Then cut your half round to fill the gaps between the corner and rose lengths. Glue them on too.
Score the door horizontally using the spirit level edge placed against the bottom rose length. Then do the same thing vertically using the exterior edge of the rose corner. You should now have scored intersections to place your last two rose corners.
Measure, cut and apply the final horizontal half rounds and then do the lengths.
Measure again to determine the central point then place the roses in a mirror image in the centre.
Allow this all to dry prior to using wood filler to smooth any gaps between the appliqués and the half rounds. Leave it to dry again before painting the cupboard.
When it’s finished being painted glue the final rose length to the center of the top of the cupboard prior to sanding and sealing it. I actually sealed this with clear, water based varnish for speed. I needed to put everything back before the kids got home.
Once this is finished it’s time to apply the window film. Here’s the instructions from Laura Ashley…
This was left over from another project and was a wee bit small. So I disguised this by cutting it to be a central panel and then adding faux lead light.
The room really is beginning to look more of the same style and the cupboard had been a jarring note in that. I’m so pleased with the results. I plan on revealing the whole room tomorrow so I hope you’ll subscribe and see how I’ve I’m decorating for Christmas in a French Country style.
I said that I was going to share how to use insulating primer to save you time and money when chalk painting old furniture white. As part of my review of the living room, developing it so that it reflected a American French Country style theme, I painted this piece white.
A quick word before we start. Sometimes it’s difficult to find a small bookcase or cupboard with interesting features. I’ve found that buying buffet tops gives you a piece with decorative character for little money. Most are small as they sit on top of something else so, whereas an ornate buffet may be a squeeze in your home, these repurposed won’t.
This buffet had damaged stained glass doors. I managed to salvage one, but the other may not be saved. Still working on it. However taking the doors off still left me with a lovely bookcase/console style table for fifteen euros. The glass door I have salvaged will be used elsewhere so more on that later.
Here is the cupboard having been spray painted with insulating primer….
I obviously did the spraying elsewhere, then moved it to paint with chalk paint. Here’s a close up of the primer….
It’s bobbly, but it can be easily sanded down.
The reason it’s advisable to use on dark, vintage pieces is that it stops the old varnish bleeding into the new paint and causes ugly stains. When you clean a piece prior to painting then you may notice on your cloth lots of dark colour. It’s more than likely it hasn’t been that dirty and it’s the stain already bleeding. That’s when you reach for the insulating primer spray. It will seal the nasty and let you get on with the job.
Here’s the finished piece; chalk painted white on the exterior and the French grey of the rose table on the interior…..
The mirror was a dark brown, wood one that was only 13€. For some reason these are incredibly cheap whereas buying a gold mirror is expensive. However painting it gold uses hardly any gold paint and is a quick job. If it’s a square or rectangular shape it’s even easier as you can just mask off and spray paint it.
What furniture have you repurposed in your home? Have you ever had a varnish bleed disaster? What did you do about it?
I saw this wicker sofa in the brocante and it’s been sat in my parent’s garage over the summer whilst I finished other projects. As my plans to give the living room an American French Country focus have developed I felt it was time to get it out of storage in time for the Christmas period.
I do this every year. Set myself an unrealistic amount of decorating projects coming up to the festive season, imaging a beautifully finished home to welcome guests in style. It is never finished to the extent I want and sometimes I’m left frazzled from the effort. However each year I’m closer to the home that I want, so there’s that 😆.
I wanted to make it lighter to fit the style of the room so I thought I’d chalk paint it. Normally I don’t give a how to for any chalk painted piece of furniture as there are so many excellent tutorials out there. However as this involved caning I thought I’d share this piece’s transformation with you.
Remove any trim and fabric
The first thing to do is move any trim and fabric. Mine had nail head trim which was rusty. I had to use pliers and a flat head screw driver to get them all out. Levering the nail head with the screwdriver first then prising it free with the pliers.
Clean it
Mine was covered in nailhead rust and other dirt so a good clean down was needed. I always check my cloth now to see if there is any stain on it along with dirt. After painting my secrétaire and having lots of trouble with that I didn’t want to go through hours of painting to no avail.
It looked ok, but more on that later.
Paint the caning with chalk paint
I started with the caning as I’d heard I might not be able to paint it. However chalk paint did a good job. I used a round headed brush and applied it in a circular motion. It’s really important to only added a little paint to the tip of your brush as you’re painting a holey surface and too much paint will just make a mess.
Applied over a small section on one side then catch the drips on the other, again using a circular motion and effectively using the same paint to cover both sides. You have to really work the paint into the caning to cover it. You can see an image below of blobs if paint that had accumulated before I’d done the other side. Without catching it it would form drips.
Here it is after I’d painted the first panel of cane….
Paint with chalk paint
Next I painted the frame. I alternated between the caning and the frame like this, eventually adding three layers of chalk paint. I needed so many as it was a dark piece which was difficult to cover. However I always get inexpensive cans, so it didn’t break the bank.
As I continued it was evident that I did have some bleed from the old varnish; just in some places the paint was developing a very distinctive pink tinge. Also in spite of my nifty brush work the cane wasn’t completely covered. Onto the next step.
Spray any bits
I got some insulating, white primer and sprayed this over the patchy areas of cane and the pink tinged wood. It was just here and there – I wouldn’t recommend this for an all over job as it can have a bobbly texture due to its formulation. I can show you this in a bookcase post soon.
Double check the legs are well covered
Turn it over and paint any areas missed on the legs. At this stage it’s obvious how disintegrated the underside is (the pictures are below). More on that in a bit.
Sand
Lightly sand the chalk paint with fine sand paper, taking extra care on areas that had insulating primer and the caning.
Secure underneath
This isn’t the most professional how to. As the sofa will be rarely used and the springs seemed secured I just removed the grotty covering fabric, secured the webbing then recovered in a heavy weight piece of upholstery fabric that I had.
It was a leftover from a previous upholstery job. The fabric had a fire proofed backing which had a plastic like feel. I’m hoping this does the job, but if not I’ll have to redo this part. At present though I’m on a deadline for Noël.
If it does need redoing I’ll put a note here and a link to how I handled it.
Add padding and base upholstery
I added extra padding to make it more comfortable. As I said in the post on making an extra large, coffee table ottoman, I often recycle washed, worn quilts to use in various soft furnishing projects. I just used some of it like batting prior to covering it with the same fabric as the underneath.
Adding the first layer of upholstery
I’d already used the original fabric as a template and cut another piece, leaving an extra inch around the outside whilst cutting.
I started stapling at the back, tucking the edge of the fabric under and stapling it in the middle of the setee first.
Immediately stapling the opposite edge, keeping it taught. Do that all around the outside.
Using a clean, round headed brush apply the sealing wax a little section at a time, then polishing with lint free cloths before moving onto another section. Do the caned area too.
After covering the cushions this is what the little setée looks like….
I haven’t included a how to for the cushions as the technique is pretty much the same for the fitted chair.
What do you think? You can see it’s next to the round table I re-painted. It suits the style of the room so much more now. I keep this largish, dining table in here as I love to display lots of family photos like this.
The room is really developing that American French Country style now don’t you think?
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