Shabby Chic; Volume III

Spendaholic_Chick

Hi everyone...I've just accquired my first shabby chic items (already shabbied by someone else ) - a dressing table and chest of drawers that I'm over the moon with. I've waded through this thread and been totally inspired -so much that I've bought a couple of pieces to try myself.

I'm a total novice though and not sure where to start. The first one is a small three drawer pine bedside cabinet - now this has already been painted white, but pretty badly - I want to paint it with a white satin paint but can I do it straight on top? Or is it best to sand (and if so, what to use?)

The second is a fab orange pine cupboard that seems quite heavily varnished - I want the finished thing to be white satin again, but where do I start?

Would appreciate any advice as I'm dying to get started!

Hobsons_Choice

You need to sand the white chest just to provide a key for the paint you want to use.
The pine cupboard needs to be sanded down harder, to remove most of the varnish. Then I would use an undercoat (just slightly watered emulsion would do) before painting. Always...two thin coats are better than one thick one!
Use sandpaper on both, maybe a grittier sandpaper on the cupboard.
Hope this helps - and enjoy!

Spendaholic_Chick

Thank you, HC - I will add sandpaper to my list for today! Think I'll go with the drawers first, might be easier and get me into the swing! Will be sure to post before and afters

Diflower

Spendaholic Chick if you have a market near you, you should be able to buy a pack of flexible sandpaper blocks, they're much kinder to your hands than the sheets and also get into the shapes (mouldings etc) better. I get 10 for £2, and usually have the finest plus one grade up, which seem to be all I ever need. hth.

Flibsey

Rachel_G wrote: »

Hello everyone! This is my first post on here - I'm ploughing through the thread slowly and I love your pictures!!

I have a question, if anyone can help - I have a cross stich that I did years ago, all pastels colours, and I never got round to doing anything with it! I always planned to make it into a cushion, but instead, I would like to frame it. Do you think I should edge it before I put it in a frame? Or just cut it to the right size and put in? I'd be grateful for your thoughts!!

I love SC, though my husband keeps telling me off for buying what he calls 'chintz and frou frou'!!!!! We are redoing our kitchen - moving it into a new extension to the dining room so 'new' but reusing our current maple units to save (lots!) of money and I'm going to enjoy SC-ing it to go with my purple le crueset which is my pride and joy!

Hope everyone is having a good day! xx

here's a tutorial on how to frame neddlework, good luck.

chalkysoil

I love this thread, I lurk quite often and smile at kindred spirits. Flibsey's room made me feel at home. Here's mine and me ( not dressed & glued to the pc!) The white drawer was part of a 70's tv wall unit -like a giant chest in brown melamine. Now stuffed full of wallpaper ends and Things with Potential.

hmo

ok my kitchen is slowly coming together, this kitchen is not what i had planned when we were building this house, but this build was far from easy in either money or mentally, everything that could go wrong did and as such when we did get in at new year i only had a very basic kitchen layout.

we came across some M&S light oak units which we bought and have just managed to buy the corner cabinets and oven housing and as luck would have it we also managed to buy a stack of doors, so we have had wall cupboard carcases made and used the doors to front them (very mse) as doors were only £40ish for 10 solid oak doors

its this range

http://www.marksandspencer.com/s?node=43670030&keywords=sonoma+kitchen

what colour scheme will bring it to life, i have the oak table and 4 brown leather high back chairs too and plain white walls.

i need to bring some colour in for a blind and tea towels etc but dont know what colour, any help appreciated if theres a special thread for this kind of thing can someone tell me where it is

uropachild

hmo, i am loving grey and yellow at the moment!! Grey walls with yellow patterned fabrics, bright daffodils in spring etc. Check out this blog for LOADS of inspiration: http://inspirationfordecoration.blogspot.com/

Kaz2904

hmo, (HI *waves madly*!) did you have a roman blind you made for in there? I think you could go for any strong colours in there. Spots or stripes would be very nice for tea towels. I have 2 different sets of tea towels ought from asda. 1 et is whites, beige and browns mixed and the other is turquoise and whites mixed. I have a bright red utensil pot with my bright red silicone and metal utensils in and pale blue, wood and chrome tea/ sugar/ coffee pots. I have painted the walls "lauren" and "guava green". I also have my green CK peg bag and my Ulster weavers gingerbread apron hanging on a pretty white wire peg rack.
The different colours are all on different walls/ in different areas. We have pale units and black tops/ floor.
Hope this gives you some ideas

Bibbitybob

Hi hmo! I think it sounds like you have a fairly neutral 'background' to play with so you could choose any accent colour you liked! I love oak, cream & red together for a warm, shaker style theme. I'm thinking lots of hearts & gingerbread men! Honestly though, anything would look good, it's a gorgeous kitchen

I painted up a frame over the weekend and am in the process of turning it into a chalkboard.