Lincrusta is like linoleum for the walls and ceilings. It differs from Anaglypta wallpaper; it’s harder wearing as it doesn’t have a paper or vinyl base. As with Anaglypta it can be identified by its raised relief. It can be painted, and is perfect for hard wearing areas such as hallways.
It was very popular in the Edwardian period. I used to go to many Victorian houses in my old job and the, now sad looking, grand premises often had stained glass doors with Lincrusta on the hallway walls. They’d often be painted in gloss paint and, although they interested me, they often looked….bleugh. But it doesn’t need to be; more on that later.
Bleugh!
Lincrusta is expensive. It’s about 300€ per roll and a freize with a Lincrusta design on it is the same amount. So bear that in mind if you’ve moved into a period home, spy it and want to tear it all down!
It’s made from a paste of gelled linseed oil and wood flour spread onto a paper base. It is then rolled between steel rollers, one of which has a pattern embossed upon it. The linseed gel continues to dry for many years, so the surface gets harder over time. This is why it’s so expensive and hard wearing.
Not only is Lincrusta expensive to buy, applying it is different from putting up standard paper or vinyl based wallpapers and would need a specialist. You need to cut the Lincrusta panels to the required size and then soak them in warm water until they are malleable, before sticking them to the wall using a special Lincrusta adhesive. The expertise is especially significant as it can’t be cut to allow it to go around corners.
A little history. Lincrusta was invented by Frederick Walton who also patented the aforementioned linoleum flooring in 1860. Lincrusta then followed in 1877 and was used in places from royal homes to railway carriages, hotel foyers, bars, restaurants and casinos.
Can you believe that it was in six staterooms on the Titanic? It’s also in the White House. Like I said – if you have it and are restoring please don’t tear it down!
Although Lincrusta was originally manufactured in various locations all over the world it is now produced in Morecambe, Lancashire using traditional methods.
Both oil-based and water-based paints can be applied to Lincrusta. Below are some inspirational images, but it’s worth bearing in mind that it can provide a base for a variety of treatments.
These are some traditional dado style Lincrusta. As said earlier, this is likely to be found in a hallway. Even giving it a fresh coat of eggshell paint will make it look dramatically different. However you’ll see other treatments too.
A whole wall of Lincrusta? Take a look at these…
Stunning isn’t it?
I can’t afford Lincrusta, I don’t even think I can afford Anaglypta – it’s poor, but still expensive, cousin. However I might be able to afford some embossed wallpaper. Why would I want to introduce this into our house? When you live in a period, stone house you notice the cold. Once it gets warm it stays warm, but this is largely because we have double glazing. However we’re always looking for ways to add insulation.
As there are a lot of these types of homes here in France using a thin layer of polyesterene prior to wallpapering is common. It adds a layer between the cold stone and the wallpaper, stops the heat seeping into the wall.
In the upper rooms and hallway we have a lot of polystyrene tiles on the ceiling for this reason (😱). So I’m thinking of replacing that with a polystyrene sheet and some embossed wallpaper. It won’t have the durability of the Lincrusta, but you don’t exactly get a lot of traffic on the ceiling. Why would I do this? Take a look…
The other way I’ve been inspired by Anaglypta is the friezes. They’re as much as the wallpaper. Yikes! So I’ve come up with an alternative. I’ll tell you about this shortly, but here’s what’s got me salavating…
I’ve had a terrible chest infection, it’s something I’ve been susceptible to since forever, but this one has been very hard to shift. It still lingers, but I’m starting to be able to join the land of the living -even if I limp away after short periods of time.
However as it’s the feast of the Sacred Heart today I thought I’d give you an update on the hallway, with its dedication to the Sacred Heart, and in particular the doorways that I’ve painted. The hallway isn’t finished so you’ll see some snags in the paintwork amongst other things which I’ll touch up prior to those final details.
The doors originally looked like this…
I’d already added the vintage fingerplates and I knew I’d paint and gild the doors as I did in the dining room, but as you can see from these picture I’ve also added a feature on the top….
These were wood mouldings bought here that I didn’t painted gold. They tie in with the wood carving over thee main door. Those of you who read the blog at that time will remember that I’d bought this old top from an armour and put it above the door (the post is here).
As you can see I’ve highlighted this in gold too. I’m considering hand painting some roses in the panel that is bare as I did with my secrétaire. When I have more energy I’ll get to it.
On the doors you can see I’ve filled the gaps between the armoir carving with these wood mouldings bought here and spray painted gold.
You can also see that I’ve added additional flourish mouldings bought here and, again, spray painted gold. I’ve also highlighted details on the door in gold too. I did this as these doors are original Art Deco, which would be great in a more modern scheme but doesn’t really go with this. I took a chance that the details would bring it in line with the rest of the room and I think they’ve worked.
Previously I’ve given how tos on the panelling (here and here) but these were literally paint, glue them on and then repaint any details that need it. I haven’t done that last part yet due to my illness and you can see that when I remove the masking tape a little extra gold and blue came with it. It will be done.
You can see the little, porcelain door handle that used to be in the dining room that I’ve now moved here as I thought they went so well with the decor theme and colours.
I gave you a sneak peak of the marble relief picture, but here it is in more detail…
You’ll notice I’ve used the picture rail. The picture is so heavy I’d taken it down for fear of it dropping and smashing. I’d ordered the wire and picture rail hooks from here and here and it had taken some time to get to France (I hadn’t seen an equivalent here). They’re the brace to the belt of the picture hook and eye system that I’d already used. I’m a little more confident now that it will remain there.
The Queen Anne chair has been pictured on both sides of the room as shortly after I took the photos my husband came in and complained about its position. He thought that as it was just in front of the door it was an inconvenience. So I moved it to the other side.
Here’s a close up of the ceramic umbrella stand which is an original Art Deco piece and suits the colouring of the room superbly. I think it mimics the central chandelier with its pink candle cap light shades and the ceiling rose that reflects the stained glass design I made (see here).
In these shots you can see the cornice I’ve added and, unfortunately, the unfinished side panels. The one drawback of ordering the wood carvings from China is that they take soooooo long getting here and I’m waiting for two more pieces.
I was going to add some more wood carvings on the ceiling and above the picture rail, but it looks ‘enough’ now, and I don’t want to spoil it by adding more. Some of them have already arrived and I think I’ll use them in the dining room where I’d intended to do something similar.
What I am also waiting for is some crystal droplets to arrive for the chandelier – I’ll post with the other details as well as one more little thing I want to add.
So I moved the chair on the other side. I covered this about three years ago and had considered recovering it in gold damask as I have some material upstairs just waiting to be used. However seeing it here I’m not so sure I’ll rush into that.
Here’s a reverse shot of the chair. I’ve always loved the rose pattern on the reverse of the chair. I think the umbrella stand looks good here too.
Above the radiator, which I’ve spray painted pale blue along with the gold shelf, are some old dress design prints. One is from a collection in 1914….
or season one Downton, and the other is from 1922….
Now is that season three or four? Doesn’t the old telephone suit them?
Anyway I think they’re beautiful and the black and gold seems to tone down the cutesy girliness of the room as does, I hope, the muted pink and taupe.
I’ve replaced the photos of my great grandmothers, again. Whenever I decorate a new room they are ceremonially moved into it it seems.
Here’s a close up of that beautiful clock. I haven’t even tried to get it going yet. I don’t think it has a key. I know I won’t be winding it up every day so why fuss?
Finally here’s a close up of my Sacred Heart statue. I’ve added some tea light holders and flowers so it doesn’t look so bare as before. I’m dedicating all my family to Him anew today. Are you?
I haven’t been posting or even reading other blogs as I’ve been hard at it trying to complete the front hallway.
Do you remember when I said I was only going to do a little bit at a time? Ha! I’ve put up a cornice, a picture rail, painted it, added details to the doors….I’m aching 😩, but now it’s taking shape and I’m so happy and excited 🤩.
With lots more to do I thought I’d take the time to share these little glimpses of how it’s taking shape.
Here are my beautiful, vintage Sacred Heart if Jesus and Mary statues on a gold shelf…
Without intending to it seems that the décore of the hallway compliments them beautifully.
This relief is marble and incredibly heavy. I bought the little lights when we first started coming to France. As I dreamed of living here I tucked them away. Now they’re on our wall!
This Art Nouveau holy water fountain is perfect here isn’t it? It’s in pewter and compliments the doors superbly. As you can see I’ve yet to finish the first set of panels as I’m waiting for some more pieces.
I’ll post on the details I’ve added to the doors soon.
Although I’ve mainly been posting about the potagère I’ve had some projects bubbling away in the background and I want to share this one with you today.
I’ve posted some of the stained glass doors that I love here, but as I said in my post about our house front it’s uniform, drab exterior was one of the down sides of our otherwise wonderful home. I’ve racked my brains to make it more ‘us’, whilst not spending a fortune or opening up our house to the elements. Having rented in an old, Normandy farm house with traditional wood windows I treasure our double glazing!
So when I saw this video of a couple creating a stained glass window effect on their doors I bookmarked it for later.
I really would take a look at this, anything I’m writing here is an add on to this helpful video.
Find a design
First to my inspiration…….
I love it and as we have white, double doors it seemed to fit perfectly. I approached the project a bit differently than the couple in the video as I had a design to work from. There are loads more photos of stained glass on Pinterest as well as designs for you to copy.
I used one of these for my upper window…..
the centre is obviously intended for a house humber, but having just been to La Basilique du Sacré Cœur I’ve included that in the centre
Make a plan on plastic backed, squared paper
So, studying the door, I made a plan of it on squared paper. I used the kind of stuff you cover school books with as it has a plastic backing. This meant that I could just stick the plan to the other side of the front door to follow and if it did rain there was a little protection whilst I got it inside.
The first thing I did was to measure a piece of it so it matched the door’s window area. This meant I had something to scale.
I found if you look at the door design it naturally fall into thirds, so having marking off the exterior border, I divided my door plan similarly. You can see by the series of photographs I took below how I made my version section by section….
The circles were made by drawing round a glass pebble as I intended to use these in the final design. There were occasions when I made mistakes, but any time I did I just went over that area with a red line so I knew to ignore it.
The final design wasn’t perfect, and the end result I adapte a little, but it was a good place to start.
Put the design on the exterior window to follow
I just stuck mine to the outside window with masking tape and followed it internally.
Cut approximate lengths of ‘lead’ and follow the design
Unwrap a length of ‘lead’ to the size of whatever part of the design you’re copying and cut it with scissors. It pays to add a little extra on to ensure you have enough. Unpeel the backing then attach that strip to where you want to start applying. Using the tool given rub the strip really hard to get it to stick well. Continue removing the backing, following the design and rubbing until the entire length is applied. Be prepared for a sore arm! Once you reach the end, if you need to, trim the length to fit the design.
Whenever you come to an overlapping part press down and rub really hard to ensure it’s stuck before continuing.
For curved pieces consider cutting the tape in half
On the video she scores the tape prior to cutting, but I found I couldn’t cut it in half as it was difficult to be sure I wasn’t at an angle. So I just ended up cutting with a sharp pair of scissors and that worked fine.
With half the thickness the tape is more flexible and easier to create the line you want.
Stick glass beads to the window with waterproof gel glue
When you’re approaching a point when you need to apply a glass bead add a little glue to the bead base and some to the point you want to stick it. Continue working leaving the bead to the side so the glue becomes tacky, then stick the bead on. Keep an eye on it to ensure it doesn’t fall off, pushing it back in place when necessary.
When the design is finished use liquid lead for joints and surrounding beads
Just go over any joints with it to ensure it’s secured well, and encircle the beads too.
Take a step back and look at the design to ensure you’re satisfied
When I did this I wasn’t entirely satisfied; this is what I saw….
I suddenly realised the design I was copying was on a slimmer door and mine looked squatter. I chose to broke up each section by adding dividing details as you can see in the final section.
When the design is in place use glass paint to finish
My husband, who is never one to hide any scepticism of my decorating projects, kept coming and going throughout giving me funny looks. However when I took the plan down from the door and called him over he looked so pleasantly surprised it was comical!
Painting the glass with glass paint is relatively easy but be careful not to overload the area with the liquid as it will seep into the leaded areas and will show up on the other side. So lots of light layers.
I used these colours…..
I’d sometimes add layers of different, complimentary colours after one had dried. Sometimes I’d do this more towards the base or top or outer edge depending on the effect I wanted. Add several layers to get a more authentic look.
It looks good from the outside too, but I’ve got another little project currently being worked on so I’m going to post some pictures of that later. In the meantime here’s some close ups…..
I love the way it compliments the chandelier.
Some men came to deliver something to the house the other day. It was nearly done at that point, but I still had most of the colour to do, so it was evidently an ongoing job. He asked if I’d done it and seemed impressed. When the second man came over and they thought I was out of earshot they were discussing the window. In French one was pointing out the intricacy of the design in seemingly glowing terms and the other was saying he loved the colours. So between them and my husband I’ll take it as a job well done.
If you have any questions drop me a line and I’ll do my best to answer them.
As I said in this post I love kitchen signs, particularly the ones that look handpainted and a little Victorian. I really wanted a sign on the side of the bookcase where I’ve put the French baguette bin, but as it was a fixed position I had two options.
The first was to do a seperate sign and the fix it to the wall. This would have given me the opportunity to take my time in painting the letters.
The second was to apply something to the wall itself. I’ve never got to grips with image transfers, but as I’ve recently found water slide decals this seemed like the best option (see here and here). It meant that I could choose something with a lot of detail too, which is a bonus.
By the way I used an iPad and Canva app to do this, so the instructions obviously reflect that, however I’m sure you can adapt them for other systems.
The first thing was to design a sign. I’d done a lot of inspiration research and I really like a mixture of typefaces and scrolls etc. I also like illuminated letters. I trawled through Pinterest for free to download Wreath illustrations (thank you graphics fairy) and monogram letters to use.
Take a screen shot
When you come across an image or piece of typography you like you can take a screen shot of it – all computers have different ways of doing this, so you may have to look yours up. However on an iPad, as I tend to us, it means pressing the circular home button and your on/off button to the side of the iPad at the same time. When you do that a photo of the image you want will be taken and stored in your photos.
Edit the screen shot
Your screen shot will have lots of other things apart from the image you want on it, so you need to get rid of the excess. On your iPad when you have your photo open in images you’ll see an icon for editing it in the top, left hand corner; press on that.
The edit facility will look like this
The third icon down, the square with arrows surrounding it in shot 2, is the option you chose to edit the image. Once you’ve clicked on it the image will be smaller and you’ll have two capacities on your iPad; to rotate the image to a position you want it in using the dial on the right, or to resize it using the four corners at the edge of the image. Just move the highlighted corner to move the edges inward until the image is cropped. When you’re done press ‘done’ on the right hand side and your image stays like that. However if you want it to go back to the original go back through the edit system and press revert.
Creating your layout
Once you’ve selected typefaces and decorative details for your sign you want to create a layout. I used the Canva app to do mine, which is a free app that you can download. At the top of the open app you’ll see lots of different options – I chose poster for this project.
You can use a pre-existing template, but I just wanted a blank space to try different set ups on. In the left hand tool bar (see above) you can see an option saying uploads. If you click on it an icon for your photos comes up and clicking on this shows you your photo gallery including your cropped images.
Select your image and slide it into the work space. Above the image you’ll see lost of different functions. Move the image to where you want it and make it smaller by touching on one of the black circles moving them in (below).
As I wanted a monogram effect I’d already decided I wanted a stand alone type face in our surname, so I had the image stored in the gallery and added that in the same way. I used the same method to move and make smaller the image. As you can see in the image below, images added from your gallery will have a solid background, so if they overlap another image from your gallery they will block out that part of the image. Canva text boxes don’t have this problem though.
You can see in the next shot that I just position the V in a way that ensures no overlap.
In the next one you can see I’ve applied a text box using the text icon. There are lots of pre-existing layouts you can use, but I find that some are stuck in caps so it’s easier to use the simple ‘add text’.
In the next image down you can’t see a tool bar has come up above the keyboard. It does that when you touch the text to alter it. On the left hand side you can see the typeface which you can scroll through to get your preferred one. Once you see the one you like touch it and you’re text changes. Use the large and small capital to increase or decrease the size of the text and then position the text where you want it to go.
Carry on in this way until you have the design you want. You can see in my final design below how the text of ‘akery’ overlaps the B typeface that I’d downloaded. This is because the text box, unlike the downloaded images, doesn’t have a solid background so they give far more flexibility.
The image below is towards the end of my final design. If you look at the ‘Pastries’ text you will see there is a turning arrow symbol. I used this to give the pastries word a slant that mirrored the scroll design. You can also see the scroll design below has a part of the image I couldn’t crop out, but as I’m going to apply them with water slide decals this doesn’t matter as I can crop them in real life with scissors.
At this stage it’s best to download your image by pressing the download function button on the top right hand side of the screen and a box appears for you to download (See below). I always use the top option and it saves the image into my photos. I then insert the image into a document page and make sure it’s at full size.
The next thing to do is seperate all the parts of the image so that you can remake them on a bigger scale. I did this by using the additional page function, then copying an element of the design and putting it on an individual page.
If you see the images below you can see I’ve copied the image by pressing on the two, overlaying rectangles in the right hand margin. To get lots of seperate images delete all but the part that you want to use in a stand alone capacity. So the wreath and family name I’ve kept as one image on a page, the bread and cakes part another and so on. Some I didn’t make a page for, like the B, as I already had a cropped image of this to make this mock up.
Take a screen shot of these stand alone parts (see below) and crop them as before (below again).
In your pages section, using the mock up as a template, seperate out the parts so that you’ll be able to print them on waterslide decal paper.
In order to determine how best to lay your design out you need to think about how many pages your design will need to be spread over. I did this by holding a piece of A4 paper in landscape and then counting how many I would need to fill the space in the top portion and the bottom. The design was spread over this many pages.
Do a mock up first; printing on plain paper and placing them where you think they should go. This way you won’t waste any decal paper.
Also, once you have an idea of the text size you’ll need, you may want to rearrange your components of text into different groupings in order not to waste too much waterslide paper.
You’ll notice that the finished piece has some additional illustrations. When I put them on the side of the cupboard I wasn’t satisfied with the gap at the top between bakery and our family name in the wreath and bakery, so I hunted around for a suitable illustration and followed the steps again.
I’d also started placing the bottom part too near the base and there was an unsatisfactory gap. The illustration of the woman drinking her tea was perfect to fill it. As far as I’m aware all these are free to use by the way.
Finally, I’d planned to fill the original bakery B with my own colours, but as I sealed the design with a coat of spray varnish they ran. I’d use different sharpies and expected that to work, but alas no. So the B you see in the image was my second attempt.
Also, as you can see, I’ve changed the baguette bin from lavender to a teal blue. I think it’s a better tone for the yellow, don’t you?
What do you think? The kitchen is no where near finished and I might be a bit crazy to have done it already, but I’m super pleased with the result. Even the hubby likes it!
You may remember my beautiful Art Nouveau stove that I managed to find at a brocante, well it’s been sat in my front room with fairy lights in it. It won’t be it’s final home, but I love it so much I couldn’t let it sit there on its own. The lights are so effective that I regularly walk into the room and think ‘Oh lovely, a f…oh no, no fire’.
The other day we had guests for dinner and one of our guests sat in a chair that is situated behind the chimney area. He did a double take as he suddenly realised there was no flue and went to check the front. Here’s what it looks like….
Anyway, we definitely want a working woodburner, so I was super excited to find this Art Deco one in the same brocante. It was only 80€ and as a regular stove costs upwards of 1500€ I thought it was worth a gamble. Here are the pictures…
and this is a more detailed look at the other stove.
I’ve expressed my admiration for the period before, but today I thought I’d highlight some details you can incorporate in your home. Some are inexpensive and easy to find, others tricky and will cost your pocket more. But they’re all lovely.
1. Fingerplates
These are actually really inexpensive way to get a touch of Art Nouveau in your home. Easy to fit on wood doors they add a touch of elegance to a period interior, or even one that’s modern with period touches. Buy them on eBay; new tend to be cheaper that the genuinely, vintage article.
2. Lead light windows
I would love a lead light windowed door, I think they’re stunning. However if, like me, you’re not lucky enough to have one in your home already you can find the real McCall on, again, eBay or from salavage merchants.
Altenatively you can’t try a DIY project for a low cost alternative. I hope to have a couple of different methods coming soon to the blog, so sign up to follow and here about it straight away.
3.Tiffany lampshades
I have a very inexpensive version and it’s stayed with me since my first house purchase, a turn of the last century terrace house. I used to have a beautiful pendant light with dragonflies on it, but made the mistake sacrifice of giving it to my mother in law.
I would give the advice though that if it’s going to be a central light be sure to be careful about your colour selection. One of the reasons for giving my dragonfly light shade to my mother in law was that it had been a central light fitting and it’s blue tones gave people a deathly pallor as they stood in my hallway where it was located. So, if you don’t want to be continually reminded of the scene at dawn between Juliet and her Romeo, chose a warm colour for a central feature.
4. Artwork
I have a framed Klimpt print in our bedroom, as I said in this post here about our Art Nouveau wood stove. It’s beautiful and the colours are wonderfully evocative of the era. Mucha is of course a favourite. If these aren’t your style there’s some more inspiration below.
5. Fireplace
Again, unless your lucky enough to have one already in your period home, this can be something bought on eBay or salvage dealers. Some of the finer pieces in these examples will be more specialist and, understandably, more expensive. Dreams cost nothing though, don’t they?
6. Tiles
Art nouveau tiles are surprisingly expensive. I would love some, but I know I will have to use them incredibly sparingly as on our small budget the cost is prohibitive. Tant pis pour moi!
7. Frames
No matter how modern your decor, the wonderful thing abot Art Nouveau is that stand alone pieces can be at home in even the most modern of decors. There are good reproductions, though one of my favourite stores Past Times has closed down.
8. Draw pulls
I was going to have these in our kitchen, but my mind has turned to other things. I don’t doubt though that a creative furniture project may have just such a touch in the nearby future.
9. Anaglypta wallpaper
Incredibly hard wearing in hallways, Anaglypta wallpaper is wonderful for wainscoting. However similar, paintable wall papers are also used on walls and these are less expensive and easier to apply. I’ve added some more modern treatments in the illustrations to give you a newer take if that’s the way you want to go.
10. Illustrations
These are examples of the Art Deco period, often confused with Art Nouveau, but they’re so lovely. These and illustrations of the earlier period can be bought imexpensively, framed and displayed. If you’re going for authentic period decor maybe it’s a no no, as I don’t think it was the norm to have any outside of commercial enterprises.
Art Nouveau is my favourite decor period; it has the more restrained elements of the Edwardian period, after the excess of the Victorians, but still maintains beautiful, intricate details. The decorative style wasn’t as commercial as the aesthetic it’s ofen confused with, Art Deco, primarily because the latter is more easily mass produced having cleaner lines. However where I find Deco too sparse and clinical (sorry to you Deco fans), for me Nouveau communicates the romance and, perhaps, innocence of the prewar period.
I naturally gravitate to the colours of the period too and have found, having researched it, that many of the decor items I already owned are of this time. In fact if you look in my wardrobe it reflects this tableau of era’s colours.
The tones are far lighter than the Victorian palette, primarily because of new technologies. The Victorians had acquired wealth, so their decor was opulent with lots of fuss and nicnacs in order to show that new found money, but due to the gas lighting a lot of the textures and colours were sought for their capacity to hide the resulting soot marks. With the introduction of electricity this wasn’t such a necessity.
I say all this to introduce you to a find I fell for today – hook, line and sinker. This little Art Nouveau stove. It’s dirty and I doubt I’ll be able to get it to work, but I still couldn’t resist it. The beautiful intricate metalwork, that soft Art Nouveau blue – heaven.
I naturally did a little research on it as it’s name was proudly emblazoned on the top. I found this website of a company near Fareham, coincidentally my old stomping ground, where they refurbish old, French stoves. They’re a mine of information.
The company, Deville & Cie of Charleville in the Ardennes, called the model ‘le non pareil’, or the none equalled. The French Antique Stove refurbishment company found it advertised in Deville’s 1930s catalogue with the subsequent information on it.
The stove was manufactured in the early part of the Art Deco movement, with production between 1925-1935, however the style is evidently Art Nouveau.
The design, described as a ‘pôele à bois’ visible et continue’ by the manufacturers, was revealed at the 1925 Paris exhibition. It was developed with style conscious Parisians in mind. The site continues that if you look carefully at the film Chocolat, you can see a honey brown “le non pareil” in Judi Dench’s character’s parlour, but I’ve done an internet search and can’t find any images (not even on one of my favourite sites Hooked on Houses),
Here are some close ups of the working stove on the refurbishment site, just to give you a taster of what mine will look like when it’s been cleaned up a little. Mine won’t be in situ for a while; I have to finish the kitchen first (as well as the finishing touches on the dining room and the soft furnishings in the living room) and then move to what will be the family dining room. So, lots of work. Can you tell I’m loving it?
I love this painting, it reminds me of the french revolutionary period. It’s incredibly old. However, my husband doesn’t love it as much. He actually encouraged people to vote on whether she was attractive or not once; let’s just say that I could see how devastating the Tinder app could be for teenage girls nowadays.
Dinner service
I have an entire dinner service like this, with different scenes on the plates. It goes exactly with the shades of teal and blush pink I have in the dining room. No way Autuman is here I’m waiting for a dressy Sunday lunch to get it out. When I do I’ll post it in all it’s glory, so subscribe if you want to see it.
Art Nouveau bust
I know I posted about this here, but I couldn’t resist including it in my latest favouraite Brocante buys top ten (for the devious one take a look here).
Dressing table
I love the carved side mirrors on this, as you know Art Nouveau is one of my favourite decor periods. It’s evidently a homage to the period as this light wood would never have been used during this period. I orginally thought of painting it, inspired by similar painted pieces on Pinterest. However I decided in the end to keep it as it is; I didn’t want to risk spoiling it.
Chandeliers
Just two of my lovely chandeliers. I’m avoiding posting some of the others as many of the have carpeted walls for a background as you saw in the house tour when we first moved in.
Café set
These was my Christmas gift from my mother. We’d spotted it together when we were in the brocante and I loved it. It’s Art Deco and beautifully feminine. I have plenty of vintage tea sets, but this is my first coffee set. As our friendships here progress I hope to be able to bring it out for a café with friends. So far I’ve been using a set I don’t mind destroying as I haven’t wanted to risk it with the children around.
Bistro table
This wasn’t from a Brocante, but leboncoin.com – a site where individuals sell unwanted items. These bistro tables were traditionally used to display patisserie on, with the marble top keeping them cool.
Pink Jesus
As he’s called in our house. I saw him in the Brocante with my friend who was travelling through to her holiday destination, with a planned stop on the way back. When I pointed him out she looked at me oddly, evidently wondering what was I thinking. I mean, he isn’t a pink Jesus. Then when we got home she saw Mary in the dining and exclaimed ‘That’s why you wanted him. Yes, you need to get him’ out of the blue. So convinced of this was she that when she returned she actually reminded me of him.
I love his golden heart – what a perfect centrepiece for Easter?
Copper saucepans
These were a bargain at 25€, and I think serviceable. They’re obviously on the small side as a set, but I hope to add bigger pieces to them. I’m gradually starting to do up the room that will be our kitchen – it will take a while as we need the big electrical items as well as new flooring. Nevertheless I already have most of the cupboards we’re going to use, as I’ve opted for free standing vintage pieces for a farmhouse look. I’ll update you on that in the coming weeks and months (I think it will take that long to get the money together).
Architectual prints
I actually had bought two large, black and white photographic prints taken at the turn of the last century of the area surrounding us whilst we were in rented accommodation here in France. I loved them and was keeping them seperate, waiting to put them up in our new home. I’d wrapped them carefully, but somehow along the way they got lost in our move. I’ve searched and searched, praying all the time to, as yet, no avail.
So when I saw these prints in our Brocante they went some way to making up for their loss. They’re actually hung in the hallway but, again, the brown carpeted walls put me off photographing them in situ.
I haven’t been posting or even reading other blogs as I’ve been hard at it trying to complete the front hallway.
lacoeursacre.wordpress.com 