How To House Sign Inspired by Golden Victorian Typography

After my Art NouFaux stained glass front door and update of the front of the house I’m adding additional details. I absolutely love these signs, as the post shows, and I thought of a way to get a similar look for our house. It’s normal in France to have your name near your door so, even though I already had the iron number on the door, I thought this would be a good solution. It’s sooooo simple. Honestly, one of the easiest crafts I’ve ever done. Here are the simple steps…

Spray paint a picture frame to make it weatherproof

We have a French glass porch, so I’m not expecting the weather to be able to get at this too much. However it always pays to weather proof. Mine started off grey, but I thought it would blend too much with the stone, so I chose black and gold throughout.

Spray front and back. I intend to attach mine and try and seal it to waterproof it from behind, but just to give it a bit of extra protection I think it’s advisable.

Spray paint the wooden backing and glass with mirror bronze paint

As my frame is round I spray painted the insert that goes behind the picture gold too. I didn’t know how see through the colour would be and didn’t want the mirror like shine to be diminished.

I originally thought of doing this with an actual mirror, but then realised there might be accidents outside my house with glare from the sun 🤭 😆. I wouldn’t have been popular in the village!

So this mirrored finish gives the same feel, but without the danger.

Create your design and print it on clear, waterslide decal paper

I used a frame from the graphics fairy and a monogram. There’s obviously no point in my doing a print out for this. Follow the instructions on your packaging, but you can see my how to here for this craft. This is a picture of the image before sealing and the decal clearly stands out from the backing. The mirror image looked super shiny too.

As I’d cut the decal out too small you could just about see the edging in the one above, so I redid it. But, like pinning your hair in a chignon, finding a couple of stray hairs and attempting to make it perfect, it wasn’t to be. I had the decal équivalant of a messy chignon, because it kept puckering. I don’t know why. I tried a couple of more times to no avail. Tant pis!

Seal the image with glossy, acrylic craft varnish

So, on my slightly less satisfactory, final attempt I used this really thick craft varnish to create a waterproof finish and seal the gaps between the glass and the picture edge. Make sure it’s glossy to keep the mirror shine.

On the second image i don’t know if you can see that the letter is slightly raised from the backing giving it a 3D affect. I haven’t put it up yet, but I’ll update you when I do.

Golden Plant Markers

These will stand out in your borders – just spray paint with gold and write on them with a permanent marker. When you need to change the name spray paint again.

Little Details

Just the door – don’t look at what’s around it (ha).

The bedroom is still a strong yellow, but I’m planning to have decorative paneling half way up the wall in this dusky pink and toning down the yellow above. But after we broke through the doorway I couldn’t resist painting the door after I did added this glad she door handle.

If you look at the other post you’ll see the door had wall paper on the paneling which actually had a fabric like mesh underneath. The only way I could completely remove it was with a heat gun – the kind you use to strip paint.

The top panel felt funny as I was working and then when I heard a cracking sound I realised why – it was a window. The other side of the door is padded and I didn’t  have a clue.

I carried on carefully working round the broken glass anyway as I remembered I had this ‘Josette’ window film from Laura Ashley tucked away. You can see in the next image the cracked glass which the film is now holding together.

The finger plate is an original, mirrored Art Deco piece and I got it from eBay along with the vintage glass handle.

I haven’t taken the other side of the door off yet so the panelling is behind the glass. It will eventually lead to a walk in wardrobe and then a bathroom if we’re able to get the plumbing in place. That’s going to take a little while yet though. In the meantime I’m loving the little vintage pieces.

What do you think?

Little Details

I’ve so wanted to share this with you, another of my little finds. This handle is of porcelain Limoges and I found it through French eBay. I put it on our bedroom door and, even though I have no intention of decorating the rest of the room yet, I couldn’t resist going to buy a can of paint to paint the door around it (hence the imperfect paint job at present).

I won’t get around to the rest of the room until next year probably, but as I said in this post it’s beginning to take shape as I find little things in brocante’s that I can’t resist.

I’m also working on the internal door we managed to open the other day. It had been locked and as there was no key so I was finding it difficult to close the door. I’d taken off the lock completely and managed to get all but one of the screws off – however that one screw meant I couldn’t get to the locking system and open it.

Faced with a choice of a new lock I took it to the chandlers across the road. The lovely couple who run it are so helpful with the husband helping me with advice on how to do things, which professionals to use (pointing at names in the phonebook and shaking his head when he thinks they’re not very good) along with the correct pronunciation of my adopted tongue! I explained the situations searching for a new lock – but he took it from me out the back and fixed it!!

I was so pleased I brought them both a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates.

I’ll post a picture of the internal door with its glass handle and mirrored finger plate when I’ve got that little bit further. (Yes, I’m still finishing those curtains – this weekend I’m hoping)

It’s Worth It!

I found this chandelier in a state at a local Brocante for 4€. I was so excited because, even though it was badly tarnished, the detail was exquisite. I had placed it in the passenger seat next to me in the car and was driving to pick up the girls when I glance over at a set of traffic lights to admire my special find. That’s when I noticed it, the parts where the light bulbs where held had the electrics burnt away.

My heart sank – would I have to throw this beautiful thing away?

My mind whirred – what could I do with it instead. It simply couldn’t end up in landfil! I considered removing the electrics completely, gluing tealights holders in their place and hanging it from a tree outside as a form of external, candle lighting for al fresco dining.

Then one day in the supermarket I saw what I realised were replacement light fittings. I bought one and asked my Pops, who lives here in France, could they be used to replace the destroyed ones?

My dad’s a star! After much tinkering he managed to attach it. We ordered more and the remainder were replaced to.

When we first moved here at Christmas I took it out and set to work cleaning it. An entire week later and an aching arm saw a gleaming, beautiful chandelier.

Halfway through the project I’d lost the will to live. My mother in law was over for Christmas and she’d sat with me as I’d scrubbed with brasso. At one point, about two thirds of the way through, I looked up and said “maybe I should just paint it white?” She’s from the rougher parts of London, but as a grammar school girl she sounds posh and is a cultured woman who is able to relate to everyone, irrelevant of class. At  this moment though it was like an Eliza Doolittle moment as she exclaimed “What after all that work!!!”

So I reconsidered.

After the job was finished I put the chandelier away with the view of putting it up as soon as possible, however other things have intervened. With the completion of the ceiling medallion I couldn’t resist putting them both up this weekend.

Unlike the light under the stairs, or in the laundry room or even our bedroom this was a trickier task and I had to call in my hubby to help after I did started as it was too heavy to do all on my own. Nevertheless when the bulbs where in and the candle cap shades where on I was so pleased with the result.

The hallway is starting to take shape.

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?