Tag: freestanding vintage kitchen

Giving the bookcases gingerbread flair: Part 2

Last time I posted about the armoire door that I adapted to work as a sliding door on this bookcase. Just a quick reminder of what this looked like orginally…..

Both bookcases looked like this. Notice how the bottom has been finished with a laminate trim. So I’ve finished adding details and, although I’ve yet to finish painting them with chalk paint sanding and finishing them you can get an idea of what they look like with these images…

It’s all a bit dusty and messy in there and, as you can see, there’s still a lot of work to be done. Nevertheless it’s starting to take shape; here are some more images where you can see the kitchen island….


The changes have been made using predominantly recycled pieces of wood from furniture I’ve bought at brocantes and have been broken down for one reason or another. This is partly why it’s taken so long to get to this point. I’ve had to be adaptable and at times I’ve had to go away, leave the project and allow my mind to tick over as to how I can use what I’ve got. As a result there’s been some unusual items thrown into the mix.

I can’t give you a how to – what’s the point, it’s all based on my rag bag of things, but I can give you an idea of what and how I adapted things to turn from one to the other.

The first thing I’ll draw your attention to is the base of the bigger unit. In my post on the sliding door I said how I needed a lip to keep the door in line so it didn’t slip and cause it to be pulled from its top, potentially wrecking the entire cabinet. I made this lip from the base of an armoire that had the majority of its parts used elsewhere, and the wheels of the coasters run on two armoire struts which made up the door frame.

I needed the latter as I wanted the pole for the curtain pole for the door to be as in line with the upper shelves on the unit as possible, so running along the struts gave it height. You can see the lip here…

This isn’t just the armoire base and struts though, it’s a real Frankenstein monster underneath the chalk paint. I wanted the armoire base because of the curved corner, but I needed more height as a result of the struts so I added the edge of a buffet that’s too big for the area. It still looked unfinished so I glued to 28mm 1/4 rounds together and added them on the top. I’m not going to lie to you I used a lot of acrylic to fill gaps – I think the entire project is about 10% acrylic.

You can see where I added finials to give the cupboard a finishing touch. Well, they don’t only serve that purpose. the mish mash of wood bits didn’t look good on the corners, so they were added to disguise the not so smooth transitions.

When this bookcases was done and before I’d painted it it literally looked like…

Here are a series of photos to show you my using various quarter rounds to give a more finished end; you can see how it changes from horror show to more presentable with acrylic…

When I’ve painted it and sanded it smooth it you’d never know it was such a freak show. Here’s the other end which is on its way to looking presentable – I’ve built this up with my favourite 1/4 rounds of various sizes, one of the beads from my daughters play set (yep, you read that right) and I’m smoothing it and adding form with acrylic. Here it is as I’m building up layers of acrylic – I’m going to add another after this has set to give it more definition. I’ll update you when I’ve finished the painting..

I said in my 1st post that the rail for the door to run on was a real trial and error process. Well in order to fit the rounded end curtain rail I needed an extra piece of wood…

As you can see I’ve added this detailed panel; it was the central panel of one of the now defunct armoires, as I couldn’t place it centrally I used these rose hooks to counteract it being off centre. I already had the hooks. The light switch is going to be replaced for a dolly light switch.

I’ve already written about how the tops of both cabinets are put together from salvaged furniture, however the corner brackets are found on ebay. In my last post I showed you this image…

Due to the curtain pole’s fit I needed this piece of wood to screw it to and these brackets to disguise the ugly. You’ll notice that the slight arch in the original bookcase mean that the brackets don’t fit all the way along so, as there was the metal curtain pole, I added these small, iron knobs.

Because the bookcases are large I’d had the choice of removing them or struggling to find a place to put our fridge as a result of wanting a dining corner and wanting to keep the fireplace. So in the end I decided to have the fridge inside the bookcase itself. So I needed a step for it to rest on. Along came my second armoire base to form this…

This is made up of the armoire base and the original top of the buffet come kitchen island. I’ve added the same finials….

Again it’s looking a bit scrappy, but you’re able to see how it will be when it’s finished.

The armoire which had the detailed side panel used on the large bookcase had an additional top bar along with the side casings which is used on the sliding door. I cut this and put it on the bottom of the smaller bookcase and added it to the other side of the bottom of the armoire on the step. As it was the right hand of the armoire base and I needed it for the left hand corner of the cupboard I put it upside down, then I added some left over edging from the buffet.

You can see that this is again a mish mash of various salvaged pieces. Added to that I’ve put together an end section for little spice jars and bottles. I’m not going to go through it step by step, unless you want me to, but here are some images of the various stages…

It’s looking all higgeldy piggeldy, then it gets smoothed over with acrylic and the first coat of paint goes on…

Again, it’s not finished and this is chalk paint so it looks uneven, but I’m rather pleased with how it looks. More out of the ordinary things are used; some smaller curtain finials, the 1/4 rounds, and some little wooden craft dollies of all things!

My husband is the main cook – he’s very excited about his spice rack!

So this is where we are so far. We have the wall and the floor to do next, as well as finishing the ceiling. If you want me to go through how to make the spice rack let me know. In the meantime stay well!

20 Inspiring Breakfast Nook Ideas

Over the last week both my daughters have been home, we thought my little one had chicken pox and cancelled their time in the centre récré. It was a false alarm, but it meant we spent time together as a family so little decorating work has been done.

So I’m returning to some inspirational dreaming to get me back in the mood for some heavy lifting this week. Here are some breakfast nook areas that I’m inspired by this week. Tell me our favourite.

28 Inspiring Boulangeries Including Ladurée

I’ve spoken about wanting to include a mirrored door as part of my kitchen plans. I don’t know whether I’ll be able to do it, but if I manage to recycle the old, arched mirrored door I want to give it a French bakery look. I found these images that inspired me…

..but amongst these were images of the Ladurée bakery. I thought I’d go into a little more detail about this inspiring brand.

Ladurée is a French luxury bakery and sweet house created in 1862; 15,000 of their double-decker macarons are sold every day. In fact it was this macaron which enabled Ladurée’s rise to fame. In 1930 the grandson of Ladurée, Pierre Desfontaines, had the original idea of the double-decker, sticking two macaron shells together with a creamy ganache as filling.

The first bakery was founded on the Rue Royale, Paris in 1862 by Louis-Ernest Ladurée a miller who, in typical French style, was also a prolific writer and produced works in almost every literary form including plays, poetry, novels, essays, historical and scientific works, more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets.

He was an outspoken supporter of social reform. Despite strict censorship laws and harsh penalties for those who broke them, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma and the French institutions of his day.

In fact, during the Paris Commune uprising of 1871, the bakery was burnt down. It was this time that the visuals of the brand formed. When the shop was rebuilt Jules Chéret incorporated in the interior decoration the chubby cherubs dressed as pastry cooks. They were painted by him on the ceiling, and are now part of the company’s emblem. The interior of the premises were painted in the same celadon colour as the façade.

Desfontaines also opened a tearoom at the pastry shop. Ladies were not admitted to cafés, which were the exclusive domain of men (again, how French) so this was enormously liberating for women as well as an inevitable commercial success.

You can see why the beautiful Belle Époque style decor would inspire me. Simply delightful!

Oh, and a little more inspiration…the interior of this unknown bakery…

12 Inspiring Tapis des Carrés

When you are doing up an old house you have to make do and mend. Not only to get that vintage look but, unless you’re a millionaire, because it’s an expensive process. We’ve been lucky so far in that there have been no unforeseen costs – well apart from our boiler that is. We’ve just got our quote for that. 7,000€. It could be worse, but that’s a big dent in the finances this year.

As a result we make do with what we’ve got.

Having had the electrics nearly completed in the will be kitchen, we need the flooring done to be able to connect them to the kitchen island and move further forward. Yet the flooring will be expensive…😬.

I got a quote to have the floor tiled and the work alone was 4-5000€. Even pre boiler quote that just wasn’t possible post COVID. So we were considering laying a wooden floor ourselves. This is slightly more practical to diy than the tiles, which can be tricky to lay on a well used floor without the possibility of future cracking.

Even with that as a future plan money is a problem now. Leaving us with the expensive electrics almost completed and the majority of the bill paid for, but the need to finish the flooring around the wiring laid in the floor to be finished. As we’re using solid, freestanding furniture we have the options of laying the rest of the floor later, as long as we have the tiling around the central isle and the sink finished first. The latter would be needed so we could get it plumbed in without it being disturbed in the future.

A while ago I bought these tiles as I was going to use them for a splash back and worktop respectively.

I remembered the tiles and wondered if there was a way I could just tile these areas and then lay the wood around them at a later date. What would this look like? I started searching for some ideas. Here’s what I came up with. Some of them is just where wood meets tiles and some are a specific design called a tapis des carrés – or tile rugs. Let me know what you think…

Upcycled, Vintage Country Kitchen Update

It’s been ages since I posted on the progress in the room we wish to have as the kitchen. You can see the last update here. However since then there has been work going on in the room; it’s just that preparations for christmas, work on the living room to entertain guests, COVID, sickness and everyday life has meant that it’s been somewhat slow.

A big change has been that the electrics are nearly completed. We have these lovely Tiffany lights installed (Tiffany lights in a kitchen – crazy talk) and the flooring has all been ripped up so that we could have electrics in the Centre Isle. That’s been stalled until everything else in situ.

What might be a bigger obstacle is that COVID has meant the industry my husband works in has been suspended, so money is tight. Add to that the fact that in between times our boiler has gone kaput. It’s going to be an expensive year.

After being sick I started working on the ceiling of the kitchen. We want to keep the beams as much as possible. However there is a spare room above it and so to keep the heat from escaping I wanted to have insulation between the kitchen and the upstairs. Also, no guest wants to feel that every sound is going to be easily carried to the room below.

As we’re struggling with money, and anyone who follows the blog knows that it’s something I practise as I decorate anyway, I wanted to use what we already had to hand to complete the task. Eventually I figured out the ugly tiles of the suspended ceiling were smooth on the other side, so if I could find a way to use them like that it would save. Furthermore there were already sheets of insulation within the previous construction, so of course I aimed to use them.

I orginally came up with the idea of a baton of wood nailed to the sides of the beams, with a second quarter round nailed just below it. The theory was that I could staple the insulation to the floorboards above, then cut the tiles to size and slip them between the two horizontal pieces of wood.

However the tiles are of a paper maché style substance and easily break. There were a lot of broken pieces as I tried to slide the tiles along. It was hard work.

As I was struggling with one piece I fell from the ladder platform and really hurt my ankle. I was shaken, I can tell you. I had to stop work for a week until I could walk easily again.

In the meantime I had another think and came up with an easier way of putting up the ceiling. As you can see in the pictures I nailed the baton to the beam, as before, but lower down. Then I slipped the cut tiles above the batons and, when I had two or three in place, cut and slipped the insulation between the tiles and the ceiling. I finished this off with the quarter rounds glued to the side of the batons.

Here you can see the two techniques; the one on the left was when I was stapling it to the ceiling. The one on the right is the latter technique pre painting and quarter round…

I’ve been filling the seams of the tiles and any gaps with acrylic. But it takes. So. Long……

So in order to give myself a reprieve I’ve been painting the walls an off white colour and the bookcase cupboards too. I’ll return to painting the ceiling when all the gaps are filled.

I’m starting to add some details to the cupboard, starting with these wooden, carved tops. One has been fashioned from a top of a wardrobe and the shelf holders from an old dresser. Here’s me putting it all together…

….and how it looks now…

The other is the top of a different dresser…

I’m going to be adding a sliding mirrored door to the cupboard soon, so will post when I do.

Every other project in the house is taking a back seat to this at the moment. My target is to finish by Autumn, even if we can’t afford the new range oven I want. We have a small, freestanding oven from when we rented, so we’ll make do with that if need be.

Since moving here I’ve aimed to have the kitchen done by Autumn each year, promising my girls we’ll make the Christmas cake and pudding on their birthdays (both in the Fall). I’m fed up of breaking the promise. This year I’m determined it’s going to happen.

Family Bakery Sign How To

Family Bakery Sign How To

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!

If you have any questions drop me a line!


Update On The Upcycled, Freestanding, Vintage Kitchen

Update On The 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.