I haven’t been posting regularly because I’ve been, you guessed it, getting ready for Christmas. let me tell you, my early work has really paid off.
I’ve bought and wrapped the majority of the presents; just the stocking fillers need to be done over the week. Luckily for me, as I took on a project in this final week that seemed simple. (Narrator: it was not).
So having found my time consumed by it I didn’t spend as much time with actual Christmasy things. That being said, the cards that had been written were sent without much fuss, the teachers presents had been completely forgotten about. Panic struck my heart when I realised it was the last day of the term and I hadn’t…..oh, wait a minute. I had. Ages ago.
This last week I’m about to send the girls out with the bottles of wine already bought. This has meant I got to go and see a Christmas parade with the little ones without any feeling of stress, I’m off to meet with friends and their son for a last minute children’s movie and lunch and those last few presents can be wrapped with a glass of wine and some Christmas music in the background.
All bliss. All good.
The outside of the house was decorated with lights in time for the village Christmas market and I’m spending this last week putting the tree up and decorations out. I like to do the majority of this post school break up because the kids are there to enjoy it and…..I’ve got to be honest with you…..if things go up to early I’m a bit fed up of them in the middle of the 12 days. I like to keep things in their proper time.
This last week will see us baking and making some other craft things. However I timed this so that I’d have activities to do with the children. How wonderful.
Having finished tongue and grooving the two walls near the back door I added a panel to lengthen the under stair so they ran parallel to the other side….
The panel is the side of the armoire that the mirrored door in the kitchen came from. You’ll notice the wood block underneath; this was left in the garage by the previous owner. I’ve used others that were there in the will be kitchen.
As the side of the armoire had a detailed piece that I didn’t want to lose and it didn’t quite reach the top the block served to raise it up to fill the gap. Well, almost.
I just marked on the wood the lowest point where it needed to meet the stairs and the highest. I cut along the line I drew between the two with my jigsaw.
As there was a wood strut where the stair panel ended I glued the two together and clamped them tight.
I carried on gluing tongue and groove to the brick wall under the stairs. I have another armoire door (don’t ask 😖) and I thought I could make a cupboard under the stairs using this.
It’s incredibly heavy. As I heaved it down the stairs the weight made me think about how to support it. Although I have heavy duty hinges I thought it would be a good idea to add a few rollers to the bottom too, just to be sure.
I measured the door and it came to just below the back of one of the stair treads. There’s an additional piece of wood that runs along the stair as it descends that juts out slightly. I ran two lengths of wood horizontally beneath that in line with where the door will stand.
I finished tongue and grooving the back and side of the space.
As I finished that days work I took a length of wood and glued it so it ran parallel to the base of the door. The wheels that needed to be screwed in where too wide to attach without doing this.
The mirrored door was a little too narrow so I added a panel to the side of the cupboard.
I left this part of the project at this stage to continue with the doorway. However, having found a bargain Henry II buffet, I used a lovely detailed piece from that to finish off the door.
You can see in the above picture that I’d originally painted the surrounding area white, but not the door. I wasn’t sure at that stage if I wanted to have it all white and thought a contrast might look nice. But I decided that painting all the section would help to unify the whole area in the end. This hasn’t got its fin coat yet, but you get the idea.
There’s lots more work to do, I’ll add another update soon.
I went to the brocante over the weekend and bought this Henry II buffet. These normally go for anywhere between 30-100€. I bought this for 2€; I spotted it a while ago, but it was only 25€ then. It’s obviously something they just wanted rid of now.
Although I had to pay 30€ for delivery it worked out the same amount that I was about to spend on wood to finish off the ‘vestibule’ under the stairs. I could use wood from this to do that and I’d have something to use as a project that I wanted to finish before Christmas.
So, before I tell you what it’s going to be used for let me know…..how would you use it?
I thought I’d focus this post not so much on the how to, but the what to use in terms of recycled items. It’s not only good for the environment in terms of less landfill, but saves money, time in terms of shopping trips, packaging, and fuel going to get/having delivered the resources.
I’ve always loved this style of French cane chairs…
Gorgeous isn’t it? So when I saw this on le Bon Coin I knew I wanted it. For 35€ it was a good price too, particularly as the style above is sold in the region of $1,500…
The fabric is obviously 🤢, but the frame is solid with no woodworm and the springs are strong. I checked this when I went to buy it, but the other thing I noticed was that the seat cushion filling is a little strange. It’s sort of….crispy 🤨. Not dirty, but it has a crispy kind of sound when you press it. Weird.
So straight away I knew that this would need to be replaced. That’s ok though. As many of you who follow the blog know I like to salvage as much as I can, so I actually have some feather pads and foam from furniture that is no longer wanted for various reasons. When I first started doing up old furniture I was shocked at just how expensive these items can be, so now any furniture that may have been just taken to the tip gets a good going over to see what can be kept in the attic until I can use it.
You can see that my chair and the one I like are different in shape, which I’m ok with, but the back rest is very different. It doesn’t have wings, but I wandered if behind the padding was more cane. When I got it home I started to look under the fabric and found this…
A solid wood frame, and some strange wadding. It also reeks of cat, yuck.
So there’s no lovely rattan back to reveal, so that’s going to have to be reupholstered in a similar style, but I wanted a more modern wadding. Under the seat pad it looks like this….
The wood itself I really like and, although I had intended to give the chair the whitewashed effect of the target chair, I started to think I’d actually like to keep it as it is. The one thing that gave me pause was the idea that I already had this ottoman….
which I thought would go really well with the chair. However it’s legs were painted white, so I needed to check out if if they could be made like the chair, or if the chair would need to be made like the ottoman. Either away I wanted to bring the chair more in line with this structure on the left, so that I can put the two together like the one on the right…
I knew I’d need to have a second pad on the top of the ottoman that will match that on the chair. So let’s get to work.
After removing the fabric and wadding at the back of the chair I could see those strong springs and this interior section which is still in good shape.
Here’s the front – I’ve yet to hoover off the remainder of the wadding. As I focus on recycling it’s obvious that this is something that can be maintained.
I had to unscrew the side arms to remove the material tucked in. It was hard going as it’s a well made piece.
I disconnected the two springs holding the material that he’d the seat pad above in place and removed it, splitting the worn material open to reveal this deteriorated sponge. I shook that out and washed the remaining material; this and the internal panel was kept. It might not be pretty, but is still strong fabric. So it needed to be washed and have foam placed on top to replace the interior foam. The frame and back were hoovered really well as it was mainly in good condition.
I then used some salvaged foam from a sofa bed that we aren’t going to be using in this home. I cut a foam seat pad in half before cutting it into the shape of the backrest. The second half was going to be used on the seat.
I used fabric glue spray to attach the foam to the seat back, and added fresh wadding from an unused throw cushion that I stapled into place with its interior lining.
The remainder of that sofa bed is going to be used on other projects, so I’ll keep you updated.
The rest of the chair was covered with this knew, lavender velvet material. I also added a new seat pad from the additional back cushions of the sofa bed….
Then for the ottoman.
I made another pad from the sofa bed cushion and sewed one side of a zip along its length. Then I sanded the legs and stained them with this stain and wax, left it two hours then buffed it into a shine.
I took material sufficient to cover the original ottoman and placed it on top of it. Then I put the new pad on top and pushed into both ends of the other side of the zip, then further pinned it along its length. Undoing the zip entirely, I then sewed the second half to the still loose material.
Reattaching the two sides of the zip to make sure the pad was placed correctly I stapled the material on the four sides of the ottoman with one staple each side. After removing the zip again I then stapled the fabric to the ottoman and covered the base in the contrasting fabric.
I’d already added grey piping to the pads, but now I finished the project with some gold, nail-head trim.
It has a very different feel to the target chair, but it goes very well with the room. My daughters love it. Its positioning in t window gives it a perfect place to read and dream 🥰.
I thought I’d focus this post not so much on the how to, but the what to use in terms of recycled items. It’s not only good for the environment in terms of less landfill, but saves money, time in terms of shopping trips, packaging, and fuel going to get/having delivered the resources.
I haven’t just recycled the chairs, I’ve used elements from a sofa bed in this and other projects; so this is one of a series. The sofa bed just didn’t fit the style of our house, but it has foam, wadding, webbing for seats, wood etc. There’s a lot to reuse.
In this case I ripped off the material that covered the padding on the frame of the sofa bed and found foam and wadding that was clean and ready to use.
Here are the chairs pre upcycle…
…..you can see the seat pad is quite thin and it’s quite low down. This is because the part that covers the chair dips down and the seat pad nestles in there. I wanted to smooth out that area so I could just cover the seat with material rather than reproduce something like this…
I removed all the nail heads first. As you prise them off they become too irregular to nail in again and I want to replace them with gimp braid trim anyway. Nevertheless I think they may be able to be salvaged for another project. Perhaps seperating out the reusable ones, and then removing the twisted nails from those that can’t be used. The latter can have their heads used by gluing them on, with the salvaged nails used spread throughout the project.
The material I’ve used to cover the interior of the chair was one I’d bought online at minimum expense from a discount supplier on eBay. The material was originally distributed by Next and is this lovely lavender velvet. It’s also very thick, so good for an upholstery project. As there are two chairs I knew there wouldn’t be sufficient to cover both entirely, but I’d already considered using a second complimentary fabric on the exterior. I was really pleased with the result when completed.
Throughout the project I reused the padding that was already there, as the chair had evidently been reupholstered in its life and these were in good condition.
I took the original apart and sewed the new interior sides and back together in a similar style. However I couldn’t get it as snug.
Oh, and I also built up the seat here.
I hand sewed the gimp braid, adding a stitch every cm or so. I think it gives a cleaner look than the alternatives.
The telephone table was actually lovely. I’d bought it online in the U.K. prior to our move to France from someone who did upcycling and sold pieces on eBay.
I especially loved the seat and plan to do something with the fabric.
So why did I decide to change it?
As it was half seat, half table it was difficult to place it in the house. When telephones were a new invention and you had one at a fixed point in the home this made sense. Answer a call, sit and have a chat. Need somewhere to store a phone book? There’s a little slot.
But….that’s not what we do now is it? Since the 80s we’ve had hands free phones, not to mention our lives tied to mobiles. We’ve seriously considered just keeping mobile phones. The only thing that stops us is an emergency scenario where a fixed phone could save lives.
You know where it is.
Since moving here the telephone table has been under the stairs. Too wide to fit in snugly under there to make use of its seat, it was wasted really, with its positioning against the wall running into the stair treads.
The creation of the vestibule area and the evolving sitting room encouraged me to look again at the piece.
I thought I’d share here because, even though this is the simplest of upcycles, it might give you ideas so you can save a similar piece in your home.
This isn’t a how to, just a you could. But here’s how it was….
And here’s how it is…
Everything is recycled. I removed the seat pad, shelf and back and then I took some old seat pads to make an upholstered bench.
The seat pads where from a set I’d bought for garden seats that I loved. They had a paisley pattern with a gold shimmer. However the pattern, including the shimmer, faded and it ended a dirty grey.
So I split three sides of the pads along the seams and used them for the padding on the bench. I then used a staple gun to secure it in place with the clean, but bleugh, material as a lining.
Then I used the left over velvet form these chairs as a cover, before trimming it with piping and ribbon.
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.
As we have a long house we have several entry points that each have their own problems. From draughty doorways sucking all the warm air out, to muddy boots left by doors and unsightly coats seen by anyone calling at our front door.
However, because of the size of the house I’m considering making some vestibule areas to counter these problems.
For those of you who don’t know what they are, they’re an area that links the entrance way to the main house. They can become a small bootroom style area, or can be more impressive depending on the style and layout of the house.
They work as a buffer between the temperature on the outside and on the inside too.
We are fortunate to have a large hallway, however although it’s layout has similarities to a vestibule layout, it falls short.
It has large double doors that provides privacy to the back of the house, you don’t see our stairway for example, but it keeps the two interior doors in this section opening onto the space. As the only radiator of the hallway is here all it does it lock the warm air in that section, where it can escape easily when the front door opens.
Added to that I like our staircase; it’s the mess under the stairs that’s a problem. That and the original, brown carpet stuck to the walls.
I’ll go into more details in my next post about the what and the why for this central areas vestibule. However we’re also thinking of making a dual purpose vestibule next to the will be kitchen.
In the meantime I thought I’d share these inspirational ones I found on Pinterest…
My husband went to put some peelings in the compost bin recently and found four little eyes staring out at him 🥰…
Of course they came to live with us. They’re adorabubble. However, they bring to life the meaning of Phoebe’s lyrical genius…
Don’t tell me that she’s not up there with Tolstoy for communicating the mysteries of redemptive suffering; not after I’ve lived with these babies.
They’ve just had their first vaccinations and the desire to get them out and about to do their business has become imperative. However, our back door is predominantly glass. Where to place a cat flap?
I’d bought one for our small dog to go in the will be kitchen, but living on a hill means that it’s very windy where we are. I’ve got an idea for how to counteract the wind howling through the flap, but it’s going to be a next year thing.
Furthermore, the fact that we won’t be using the room next to the kitchen until it’s decorated and a form of heating is put in next year, means that we will need to keep the doors into that area closed throughout winter. That hindrance won’t be conducive to encouraging the little kitty cats to use outside as their litter tray.
I’d already been thinking of ways to deal with the cold emanating from the glass door in the main part of the house. It made maintaining the heat in the hallway a challenge last year I can tell you. A draft excluder had gone some way to helping the situation, but it’s still a challenge.
I’d been talking to my husband about how to solve it and suggested having another internal door, perhaps a front door, just after the one into the living room. At the moment that passage way cuts under the stairs into the current small kitchen. The reconfiguration would mean that we could treat this newly sectioned off area as a mini boot room / porch way.
As we intend to use the current kitchen as a playroom when we transfer over this would have additional benefits. It would be a little area where coats, bags, shoes can be neatly put away as the children go in and out.
I know.
You’re laughing at my naivety aren’t you?
Neatly put away 😏.
The idea has been given a new lease of life with the cat situation. There may not be an opportunity for a cat flap in the current glass door, but surely I could have one in this more interior door and leave the glass one open during the day?
It’s a start to a solution anyway.
I’m still continuing with the will be kitchen where, surprise, surprise, I’m facing another, newly discovered challenge. Yet when that gets too much for me I’ve start work on this little area.
As you can see the wall had already be stripped. There had been brown, carpeted walls here. Mmmm…
There’s probably a logical reading for that to do with heat or something, but – as you can imagine – it created a very gloomy atmosphere. One day I got so fed up with it I started to wrench it from the walls. Even the bare walls was better, although I found a few nasty surprises underneath.
I loved the look of the tongue and groove I’d used in the kitchen and decided I’d do it again in this little section.
I bought just one pack of tongue and groove and cut in line with the door frame, gluing the pieces straight to the wall. When it got to the corner I didn’t cut a piece to fit, as I’d only bought the one pack and knew I’d only just cover the two walls I wanted to start with, so I finished it with some left over wood moulding and a 1/4 round.
There was a gap between the lengths I’d cut and the underneath of the doorway (I don’t know why I ended them there 😣) ans I used various off cuts of wood mouldings to fill this gap, but also to extend the section up so when I had a plinth running around the area it could smoothly continue around in the section above the door.
Here you can see I used a wood cornice topped off with a quarter round – extending under the door frame – a piece of beaded trim, the the plinth.
None of these are perfect fits, but I intend to paint it white to ensure that it’s bright, so I can just smooth acrylic into the gaps.
On the second wall I cut one length of tongue and groove to fit up to the door frame where I intended the plinth to take over.
Then I started to use the cut offs to continue right up until the final length when I used another full piece. I did this because I wanted to use this panel somewhere (it’s the odd door left from the buffet I broke down whilst working on the will be kitchen) and as I was short on tongue and groove doing it like this meant I just had enough.
I intended to have two horizontals of plinth as I wanted two rows of hooks to hang coats on. I intended making this plinth work for me though. The carved door is very well made and very heavy, so I une it in place. Then using lengths of wood I glued with the strongest glue I could find I built up the area so that in effect the panel could rest on it.
If you want to do something similar I think it’s important to note I didn’t let it rest on this wood yet, I allowed the glue to set for a couple of hours first. Then I continued to encase the cupboard door with the other parts of wood.
I topped this side with another plinth and a quarter round to both sides as there was a small gap on the door side. I let this adhere for an hour then I got to work caulking both sections.
This took a day, just fitting it around other things. it certainly isn’t a time intensive project so far. However, to be able to put a door in this section I needed to extended the side of the under stairs area. That proved a little more tricky.
Here it all is with the first coat of paint. I’ll update you on the second part soon.
I updated you on the changes to the layout of the kitchen last week, but as I was working on that I had started on this little side area.
On the adjacent wall area will be the range oven we would like. As a result this space is very narrow, only 40cms. Added to that the right hand, workable area underneath the counter is only 50cms. This is because the left hand side, just prior to the dividing panel, will buffer against the oven itself.
In the French countryside there aren’t gas lines, so we’ll have to rely on small, LPG gas bottles. When we were going to have the range oven underneath the chimney breast we had a pipe put under the floor that connected to the garage, which would store the bottle.
Visiting a friend we found they had theirs in a cupboard next to their oven. So this gap seems a great place to store ours and means we don’t have more, expensive work done.
The dividing section is hinged, and you can open it so you can easily slide out and replace the bottle.
The pole is from the stairs I took down in the corner of the kitchen, and it’s framed by the same wood appliqués that I used on the bookcase glow up.
As with the other areas I’ve created this wooden splash back. It’s going to be finished in maritime varnish just like the others to ensure its longevity.
I’ve checked the height and this is a workable space for out peddle bin and maybe the compost bin too.
We’re going to have additional plug sockets put on the back wall, so we can use it for the blender, slow cooker etc. The main point of the area is to give you elbow room when you’re cooking , but also have somewhere that you can place things should you need to.
The skirting board are done and I think it’s looking far more polished.
I’ve just finished varnishing the interior of the base cupboard that will be on the back wall, and I’m starting to paint it. When I have that in place I’ll have the height that I need for the butlers sink.
lacoeursacre.wordpress.com 