My Little French Baguette Bin

In this post I included in my list of French period home must haves a baguette bin. A little while ago I bought one for 10€ and it’s been sat there, ready for me to do it up. I used the easiest method to do so, in actual work time it took less than half an hour.

Here it was before…

The first thing I did was remove the panel which held the material, which was super, simple. It just consisted of putting a screw driver between the two pieces of wood and prising it away.

I also unscrewed the lid to paint separately.

Then I cleaned the wood and painted it in a white undercoat. I didn’t paint right inside the box, as it was too deep and would have been messy. I painted it enough to make sure you couldn’t see that.

When it was dry, thankfully undercoat always dries quickly, I spray painted it with this lavender colour. My colour scheme is grey, yellow and lavender like this….

I waited a half an hour, getting on with other things. I gave it a second, light coat and waited again. Each coat takes about a minute to apply and 15-30 minutes to dry. Then when it was dry I sprayed from the inside out, to make sure the bar detail was covered well.

I had this lavender toile material already and decided to use that for the covered panel. I used the old piece as a template, cutting round it and then spraying the board with aerosol fabric glue, before laying the fabric in place and smoothing it out. I attached it back to the inside of the box with my staple gun and replaced the lid.

• 

• 

• 

• 

That’s it!

The two shades, although complimentary, are a little vibrant together (and of course the background, being the old doctor’s surgery, has a lot of work to be done). However, I’m going to be surrounding it with sign writing which should tone it down. I’ll give you an update on that soon.

In the meantime God bless!

A Bargain Art Deco Bar Cart

Although we live in an ancient French village house our sitting room is more modern in its layout; it’s had an extension on the back and all period features have been removed. So it’s been a challenge to try and blend it in with the rest of the house, particularly as the room is separated from the very period dining room by bi fold doors.

The rest of the house I’m introducing Art Nouveau touches as we’ll as French country features (although the French think it’s English country – I think we’ve borrowed their style along the way). So in the sitting room I’m trying to introduce little touches of traditional, period items as well as decor with a more modern sheen.

I was recently at a store that had this amazing bar cart…..

I loved it instantly. However, firstly it was close to 300€, too much for my pocket. Secondly it was very big and I didn’t know where I’d put it in the room. Nevertheless if I’d had the money in my pocket at that moment I think I’d have bought it anyway and taken it home.

A few weeks later I was at a discount store here in France, Action. They were selling this for 15€…..

With spray paint at home it was the answer. All I did was spray paint it up in the attic like this…..

giving it a couple of coats each side, so about two cans of copper or rose gold spray paint, and then spraying the black screws when it was all put together.

I love the way it sits just beneath the glass cabinet with the glasses in. With two little ones around I’m not even going to attempt to use it as a bar cart, it’s dangerous enough with the little vignette. I’m happy with the faux, rétro radio stereo instead. It’s next to my finished purple chair that I can’t seem to get the cat off.