10 Brocante Buys

Oil painting

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.

Breaking In

One of the big plans we have for the house is to turn an ajoining bedroom into a walk in wardrobe and on suite. The walk in wardrobe part sounds very upscale, but I’m actually talking about something like this…..

which is a lot cheaper than a fitted wardrobe.

We took an unexpected step towards this situation over the weekend when we tried to move an armoir into our bedroom. The owners had kindly left us two of these wardrobes…

and I wanted to move the armoir in, but we couldn’t due to the layout of the landing. There is already an interior door between ours and the spare room, but it was sealed. The hubby and I were contemplating putting the armoir back and unsealing it during the week. As we talked about it my Pops, who was there, asked for a hammer and a flat screwdriver. If you’re British you’ll have heard jokes about Scousers, of whom my Pops is one; let’s just say he lived up to the reputation. Within minutes the lock was broken, the door taken off its hinges and we were in. Here are some photos of the doorway…..

Don’t you love the floorboards? Alas it looks like they don’t extend to our bedroom, so we’ll be keeping the laminate. But the floorboards will definitely be a feature of the bathroom/walk in wardrobe.

The armoire is in and it looks like this…

The room seems to be taking on an Edwardian/Art Nouveau feel. I found the chandelier on a site called Le Bon Coin and chose it because it went so well with the Tiffany lampshade that sits on the dresser and it was a steal at 15€.

Speaking of the dresser, which I love, it was only 120€ and is incredibly well made. I’ll post some more photos of the details on it at a later date.

In this image here you can see the curtains that where in the living room when we first moved in. They were left by the previous owner and are incredibly thick and well made. However they didn’t quite go downstairs, so I thought I’d move them here. I’m not 100% certain if they’ll stay and if they do I intend to add a cornice.

At the moment I’m only working with what I’ve got in the bedroom. My main concern is getting the walk in set up and finishing the dining room and living room this year. It’s really a next year project, but I like how it’s coming together; especially now I’ve removed the insulation from that interior door.

What do you think?