The Salon; Remodelling a Modern Cupboard to French Country Style

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.

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Measure the centre of the door and put one of your unpainted rose lengths on. Using a spirit level make sure it’s horizontal.

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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.

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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.

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Then cut your half round to fill the gaps between the corner and rose lengths. Glue them on too.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Buffet Top Upgrade

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…..

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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?

Wicker sofa

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 😆.

Back to the sofa. As with my French Country decor post I’d coveted ones like this…,

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…but found a simpler one like this….

for 40€ in the brocante.

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.

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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?

French Grey Rose Table

I first told you about this rose table in a brocante buys post. It was a real bargain and I love the carved details. However having reviewed the way the living room decor is going I decided that I needed more continuity in the furniture. So I’ve opted to paint and slightly distress the table.

I’m lightening a lot of the furniture, but I didn’t want solid white either. So I mixed the inexpensive pots of “moss green” and “grey” chalk paint that I got from Action here in France and painted away.

As with the painted wardrobe, I’m not going to go into how to paint with chalk paint as there are lots of tutorials out there.

Here’s the finished table. I painted it whilst the kids were in bed and then they “helped” me sand and wax it. FYI if you have eager hands to help I found giving them a normal piece of brown paper instead of sandpaper keeps your project intact.

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I like the way the distressed paint highlights the rose details on the table.

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I’ll update you soon on further changes to the living room. À bientôt!

Painted Wardrobe With Highlighted Relief

This wardrobe was a 30€ bargain at my local brocante. You can see from the before photos below that it was a well made piece of furniture. With its interior lined with fabric, intricate carved details, it’s draw lined side cupboard and brass fittings – I fell in love with it.

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The wood was worn in places though, some of the trim had been knocked off and it was very dark in the little bedroom I planned to make its home. I decided to paint it with chalk paint and highlight the ornate carvings. I’m not going to bore you with the application of chalk paint – it’s not new and there are lots of how tos on Pinterest that are excellent quality. Instead I thought I’d focus on how to highlight the trim.

FYI – normally I’d remove all the hardware, but this was impossible with this scenario, so this has affected the way I’ve dealt with the piece.

Remove all the drawers

I spray painted the shelf like drawers entirely with gold paint. I then spray painted the interior of the other drawers. prior to painting them with chalk paint.

Paint with chalk paint

I know you will probably know all about chalk paint, but I love to use it as when it, inevitably, gets knocked and some comes off it doesn’t leave ugly, chip holes.

I put on about two to three thick coats. I needed the extra layer to cover the dark stain. Thank God the old stain didn’t bleed into the paint like when I up cycled this secrátaire.

Sand with very fine sand paper

I find doing small, circular motions the best to sand. It’s not a glass like finish, but it is smooth to the touch.

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Start with the Flower

You can see my paint here, which is acrylic paint. You notice I have two shades of the pink and green along with white…

Start with the paler pink and paint the roses, not forgetting the underneath of the flowers…

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I needed a couple of coats, but there’s minimal drying time. Take a flat artists brush and put some coral pink on there, then start to dab it in the gap between the bud and its exterior petals. Add some within the centre of the bud and underneath and at the edges of the petals.Keep blending to have darker and lighter pinks.You’ll notice I used darker in the crevices on the bud’s petals.

As that’s drying move onto the leaves.

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You can see my different shades of green with the white below. Start with the darker shade in the crevices, then start to add a little of the lighter green to give it some dimension, then start to add more lighter shades on the tips and high points of the leaves, as if sunlight is catching it there.

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Paint the ribbon with the coral colour, without adding any lighter paint.

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Go over the coral and exterior trim with gold paint.

Start to highlight areas of the relief in gold as below. Just after this was dry I went round with my flat brush again and painted the chalk paint over the top to clean up the edges.

Wax the painted finish

Complete the entire wardrobe with chalk paint, highlighting the relief and adding gold to any other details you want to. When this is done wax the exterior of the wardrobe with transparent wax. Then you may want to take some dark wax and give it an aged feel.

Add gold to any interior areas you want to

As I had some interior areas that I felt could do with some extra highlight I painted these gold too.

Use acrylic varnish on the inside

The interior of the wardrobe is going to have a lot more wear on it, so you may want to varnish this with water based, transparent varnish. You can even use this on the exterior instead of wax if you wanted to.

This is what the wardrobe looks like when completed…

It reminds me of the one in Beauty and the Beast….,

(I don’t know whether that’s a good thing). It goes beautifully with the secrétaire in the corner. I’ve got a dressing table and some chairs to finish then I’ll post an update.

Update On The Upcycled, Freestanding, Vintage Kitchen

This is taking a lot longer than I thought it would and, as a result, is a little frustrating. However this is mainly because at present the kitchen to be hasn’t any light in it, so as this is winter and the light fades early it inevitably cuts down on the time I have to work in there.

Added to that I’ve changed the colour scheme. I’ve kept the yellow, obviously, but instead of lavender I’ve added a pale, duck egg blue as well as the teal for the baguette bin.

Additionally the amount of coats I’ve had to put on the wood has lengthened the time. As it was a dark colour, even though I’d used a spray primer coat, it’s taken several coats to cover it sufficiently. I thought that spray primer would save time, but it never goes on thick enough and just seems to give me a cough. I just swapped to a normal primer and it’s seems to be going a lot quicker.

Nevertheless a glimpse of what the kitchen will be like is there. I’m hoping that if you’re in a position, like us, were funds are limited it will give you ideas about how to get the kitchen you want with minimal outlay. I’ve outlined costs of the furniture throughout to give you an idea of how much this would be as a project.

The bookcases were in situ prior to the start, so I can’t put a price on them. However it’s a good example of using what you have in an inventive way. I’ll post some picture later with close up shots of them, but there are a few to give you an idea in this post.

They have taken a long time too, because I wanted to cover the wallpaper on the back of each case. I used some polyfiller to give a rough, textured appearance to the rear. You can see I’ve painted the casing the soft, buttery yellow and left the shelves in the wood. These needed staining and a few coats of clear varnish each side to bring them back up to scratch. There have also been coats of varnish on the cupboards themselves, which I want to add more to to make it extra durable.

It might seem a little crazy, but I’ve moved some of our kitchen items in here already. Firstly so I could work out where everything would go and if there was enough cupboard space and secondly as our current kitchen that were using in another part of the house is too small for all our stuff, so it’s handy.

Here are some close ups of the shelves. I love these old, vintage, French images that I’ve put in new frames….

You can see all the storage jars which I’ve separated out into three seperate sections….

I love the black and white Virgin Mary picture.

I think the combination of wood and paint gives it a more sophisticated edge than the paint alone would have.

The sideboard you can see here in its original state….

We bought this in France for our huge living room in the house we initially rented. It was less than 30€, I think because it was so huge and old not many people would have bought it. It is really solidly built, with not a piece of flimsy board anywhere on it. The drawers and everything seem to be solid oak. I love the way the yellow paint shows up the intricate wood detail.

The dresser top you can see we brought with us from the uk. It is also a second hand buy, solid wood throughout and well made. It cost me £60.00 originally, so so far for the furniture alone we’re talking about 120,00€ maximum wth exchange rate and, as like the bookcases, we already had these items I haven’t actually spent any money on them beside the paint since we’ve moved. Heaven knows how much solid, freestanding kitchen units would cost in reality (but take a look here to get an idea).

As I was painting it I suddenly thought of the rose handles I had and gave them a try. I love the result, but you can’t see them very clearly in the pictures. I’ll put a better set on later, when we’re a little further along with the project.

I’ve yet to add some window film I already have, you can see it here. It’s Laura Ashley’s Josette pattern and features roses.

When I realised how well it would go together I also remembered that Laura Ashley did a wall tile in the same design, so I’ve got some for the splash back (about £150.00 for 3m squared). Here’s they are..

We plan on having the sideboard house the sink with brass taps. It will mean cutting a hole in the top and we’ve already reduced the height of the sideboard by cutting off the bottom of each legs.

To make it waterproof we’re going to put tiles on the top. I originally chose these Laura Ashley ones in grey as I thought they would reflect the stone chimney breast well. However they are huge, and are not really adaptable to a work top. That’s the problem of buying on the Internet I guess.

We’re going to use them in the entry way you can see just between the bookcases. I think I’m going to go for some kind mosaic tiles for the worktop, we’ll see.

We’ll need some money to have the plumber come to sort out the plumbing for the sink and also the electrics, so I have to concentrate on other areas in the meantime.

My attention has therefore turning to the kitchen island, which was an old sideboard and somebody had already turned into an island. Here it is before….

I’ve managed to find some wood mouldings (about 25€) which I’ve applied to make it more in line with the sideboard and I’ve painted it yellow and stained the top dark too. Inside, as with the inside of the side board, is the light, duck egg blue colour.

I’ve added the iron towel ring, the rose hooks, and the dark oak curtain rail as well as the paint and varnish job. In total these other fixtures were about 50€. Also the handles for the drawers, which I think reflect the iron towel ring really well, are original Art Nouveau ones that I’ve salvaged from elsewhere. I’m yet to complete it with curtains on the open side of the island.

However one thing I have added are these draw organisers with waterslide decals that designate what each compartment is for. Here’s a sneak peak….

but I’ll do a complete post on that later.

The island, at 450€, was my worst buy. I was taken in by the fact that it was already done up as an island. But, you know what? I could have bought the cupboard for about 30€ like the sideboard, which is basically what’s it is and the same size, and I did the same amount of work anyway. Annoying really, but again you live and learn.

However, having said that as every other pierce of furniture in there so far has been something we already had so far we’ve spent 500€ on the kitchen, which is pretty much the island as we had the sideboard etc. Even if we’d bought the sideboard and dresser it would have been about 600€. I think the maximum I’ve spent on paint was about 150€, and I’m over estimating that.

Again, where would you get a solid, free standing vintage kitchen for that amount?

I’m about to start painting the ceiling and hopefully we’ll at least have the lights in soon. In the meantime if you want to see more of my kitchen plans you can look at this post here.

Adventures With Ceiling Medallions; Too Liberace?

I’m hoping I haven’t gone into full Liberace territory with this, so any feedback is welcome. Our hallway when we arrived was lovely and spacious, but I of course I was itching to decorate. With the most minimal means possible. As this post showed I’d removed the existing radiator shelf and had salvaged the buffet top to add a little period style, and some art nouveau style prints complimented these.

Then for Christmas my hubby’s aunt and uncle gave us a welcome gift of an Amazon voucher. He didn’t get a look in. If you remember he’d gone away to America for six months and having found beautiful ceiling medallions on Pinterest (you can follow me at the top of the page) I’d ordered one and had it sent to us.

By that time I hadn’t put up any light fittings by myself, something which I’m becoming more accustomed to, and so I’d put it aside waiting for someone to help me. In the meantime I’d concentrated on adding details to the dining room and utility, as well as putting up the odd picture here and there.

I’d managed to fix some polystyrene coving in the dining room (I’d chosen this in the end over pricier options because of, you know, price – and ease of putting it up). I’ll go into this in detail later, but I really learnt a lot from the experience.

One thing I did take away from it was painting the surface before hand. When it just comes to applying the coving and painting it white if there is a contrasting wall colour then it’s probably best to not do so, or at least be prepared to touch up areas afterwards. However when I tried to paint the ceiling medallion it was really difficult in situ, so I’d decided to paint the other one before hand this time. This is the Orac medallion before hand…

these are the steps I took to paint it…..

 

and this is the finished medallion.

I was eager whilst I was doing this to put it up straight away. However now I have a dilemma; if I do so before painting I’m bound to get some on the medallion and need to touch it up. However, if I paint first experience has taught me that the thick white glue I’ll use will go on the painted surface, so I’ll still have to touch up this, which will mean the possibility of touching up the medallion. Mmmm.

Let’s face it……only one of these options has me putting up the medallion straight away so all things being equal…..

Secretaire

 

So my secretarie is finally finished – it was a hard slog. Just in case you’d forgotten here was it before.

After I’d removed the hardware and started to clean it I had what should have been my first indicator that things were going to be difficult. I cleaned it with a spray cleaner and paper towels and as I did so the towels were covered in brown. That had never happened before, but I just carried on regardless.

The attractive thing about chalk paint is that you are meant to be able to use it without any prep whatsoever and most of the time that works. This time however as I painted I had ‘bleedthrough’; whatever was used to coat and protect the wood before was seeping through my paint. I didn’t take a picture at that stage as I thought if I kept painting it would eventually cover it; it’s chalk paint, right???!

Wrong!

The stain kept coming through after two, very thick coats of paint. That’s when I started to duck, duck, go. The options where to sand through it or use and anti-stain primer. I decided to try sanding first. I realised though once I’d started that the details on the secretaire would make them difficult to sand to the extent I was having to to get rid of this treatment. So, on to the next…

I have functional French and can cope in most situations even if I’m not exactly smooth in my delivery. However it’s still hard communicating and understanding technical vocabulary, so I was relieved to get through the experience understanding what had been said to me.

After a coat of the kind of primer that stops stains they still peeped through, I was starting to get really worried. I realised that the design I’d wanted – the white exterior with pink interior that you can see on my research post – may have some serious difficulties. After a little more research I found lots of aged, green designs and figured I’d just work with the stains.

I had a can of moss green chalk paint and two coats of that went on and to my relief no stains! The interior had a faux leather writing area that couldn’t be removed, but after I’d used the primer on that too I could paint it with the moss green easily. However I wasn’t happy with the uniform colour and decided to try spray painting it gold – I’m so pleased with the results. Where the chalk paint creates a brush stroke the spray paint on top ends up with wonderful effect as some of the green peeps through. So pleased with it. I finished this area with two coats of clear varnish as previous uses of gold spray paint have taught me you must seal it to protect it from being gradually worn down.

I also use the gold spray paint on the sides of the drawers so there’s a flash of gold as you open them.

Then I hand painted roses on it with acrylic paints and stood back to admire my handy work. Even though the bleed through wasn’t showing the freshness of the paint was too bright, too new in the 19th century dining room. Particularly as, as you can see in the pictures, I removed all the carpeting and the original floor beneath is intact. So I decided to age it with some dark wax.

I’m not going to lecture you with a tutorial on this – its chalk paint, its been done a million times right?

I’m pleased with the result after all the mis-starts – whats do you think?

By the way, these photos are of my great, great grandmothers; cool huh?

 

20 Inspiring Secretary Desks

I just managed to get a secretary desk on the French website Le Bon Coin (like eBay, but no bidding). It only costs €20 and seems to be made of oak, there doesn’t seem to be any woodworm and it seems solid (except for a little gap between one of the drawer bases and the frame).

It has lovely details; here are some images below…

 

 

It obviously needs some work doing and I plan to paint. I’d also planned to cover the damaged leatherette interior, but as you can’t remove it this would be a bit hard. So I’ve turned to inspiration from Pinterest and these are my ideas.

Colour

 

 

 

I love all of these colours, although the top left and right look like they have a bit more technique then a quick coat of paint to them. I don’t mind this normally, but I’m planning to do something a bit special with the carved central detail, and as we have so much to do in the house then I want the main paint colour to be a simple task.

The bottom right image is simple and effective and the shot of the interior is making me lean towards copying that.

Interior

 

 

I love all of these interiors, but as I said above the pink against the ivory is lovely and would really suit my dining room where I’m going to put it. I do love that gold and purple though.

Writing area

 

 

As I can’t remove the leatherette I’m going to have to look for other ways to deal with it. The picture on the left above is actually a stencil, and paint with a stencilled design could be a good option (maybe I can get that gold with the pink?!). The other option is to decoupage?

Details

 

 

These gold highlighted details are both beautiful, I think that gold details on the ivory would work? The alternative is to do a pink exterior, with white details and a white interior?

Carved centre

 

 

The central, carved feature is crying out for a painted area, and I have actually handprinted roses on furniture before. The image on the left has the side panels painted too, and theres similar on mine. The greens not bad either. Mmmmm…maybe I’ll change my mind regarding the colour?

What do you think?