Old-Style Interior Design

squeaky

I made a fish tank stand out of one old TV stand, and a padded stool out of another. With wheels on

An old stereo cabinet has been laid on its side and used as my TV stand and hold my much smaller stereo and the video and DVD players.

My "all in one printer stand and everything" was made from a low chest of drawers, and the small drawers from that went into my fish tank stand to hold all the bits and bobs. The printer stand has since been recycled into a new look clothes cabinet.

needmoney

Luv this thread good on ya all:j

Mrs_Thrift

You all put me to shame with your skills and imagination!

My favourite ways of filling our house with lovely things are having generous parents (who have re-decorated their whole house as well as buying a few houses recently for Buy To Let, some of which had bits and pieces left behind in them) and being friends with old ladies!

One lady who had no family and had appointed my parents as executors "donated" many items to our family after she died. (Don't worry, my parents "bought" them from the estate, giving the money to her chosen charity.) And with the sense of humour that our family always applies to death, (in a nice way! ) we are now the proud owners of a DLTV (Dead Lady's Television), DLP (Dead Lady's Pen - a lovely Parker, she was a journalist), DLF (Dead Lady's Felt - for covering games tables), DLR (Dead Lady's Rug) and I have DLS's and DLB's - scarves and bags that are lovely vintage things.

Another lady who is still alive keeps telling me what I am to have when she goes (which I hope won't be for many years) and has already given me shoes (the green ones I wore to the MSE meet in Dudley so they've been seen in a photo on this site!), beautiful kid leather gloves, unused sheets and towels, and a set of napkins and place mats that she embroidered herself. Oh and a Suzy Cooper coffee set as a wedding present, that she'd had from her husband in the 1950s!

I love the eclectic look that we have from our gifts and donations of household things and furniture, mixed with our Ikea furniture.

Oh, and I picked up lovely, slightly odd ornaments from the Church Fayre that were going to be thrown away till I spotted them as I was helping clear up! (I did make a donation for them though as I'd feel too guilty seeing them staring at me every day, hehe!)

Aril

When our cat had wrecked the unremovable cover on our settee which we'd had as part of our wedding present I needed an interim measure to cover the damage whilst I saved up to have Plumbs come in and make replacement covers. I bought some dust sheets and dyed them and used them as throws for a year or so.
Regards
Aril

Ticklemouse

Curry_Queen wrote:

Pardon????? :rotfl:

LOL - I was just reading this thread, thinking that I hadn't posted on here and wondering why it was showing that I had - the above post was courtesy of 2 yo DS2. He's quite good at decorating too - anyone got any walls and pencils?

Curry_Queen

Ticklemouse wrote:

LOL - I was just reading this thread, thinking that I hadn't posted on here and wondering why it was showing that I had - the above post was courtesy of 2 yo DS2. He's quite good at decorating too - anyone got any walls and pencils?

LOL! I did wonder if little fingers ... or even paws ... had decided to make a contribution ... must be our youngest MSE'r :rotfl:

Austin_Allegro

I love the 'shabby chic' look and have a book called this also. Being a bloke I prefer a somewhat 'masculine' lived in look - officers' mess/boarding school/cricket club type thing that's 'classic' so won't date too badly. Here's some tips that I've used to achieve this:

Cheap furniture: you can get old junk furniture, sand/strip it and paint it in light matt/silk colours which you then 'distress' by light sanding when the paint is dry.
Horrible cheap woodchip laminate furniture can be revamped by glueing on false panelling and cornicing using MDF beading. Repaint using laminate paint and add some old fashioned knobs, handles etc.

Coffee table tops that are too scratched to repair (like mine that cost £2 from a boot sale) can be recovered using Fablon - they do a really realistic rosewood which is about £4 a metre.

Cover up a shabby carpet with an oriental carpet, you can get nice worn ones quite cheaply.

Cover up stained/frayed furniture with Indian style throws you can get cheaply from 'ethnic' type shops, or pay to have the furniture professionally recovered.

Buy cheap photo frames from pound shops and put old prints/postcards in them - usually available cheaply from second hand bookshops. Or you can buy cheap old books with coloured plates and cut these out and frame them.

If you have dodgy coloured tiles don't replace them, you can repaint these using special tile paint.

needmoney

Now that Spring is here what are we all dissatisfied with in our homes and what changes are we making as in from winter to summer? All moneysaving ofcourse no spending megga bucks!

Queenie

Good question needmoney - as I have said a few times, my overall aim is to have "seasonally themed" ornaments/soft furnishings/pictures - as a result I have re-examined all of my "hordings" in the studio (part converted loft lovingly referred to as the "Studio" ) a) so I can store them better and b) rotate them.

I really enjoy making things and am currently making cushion covers from some embroidered linens which I'd bought from Charity Shops over the past couple of years. I'm changing some of the pix in the frames on the wall to give a softer, summery look to each room (I'm not removing the orginals - simply "rotating" LOL )

This week dh has had his ears pinned back as I really, REALLY, want to reorganise our can't-swing-a-cat-in-it kitchen and the "dumping ground" utility room. Neither of us are any good at DIY - but he's good at earning and the heavy lifting, my (comparative!) strengths are creativity and Tardis-like imagination

I have my DIY manual, my determination, imagination and so I will be re-shuffling the two rooms to make both work more efficiently! I *know* that I will uncover tins of paint and long forgotten "gems" (gems as in pre-seasonal theme thinking ) so I'm looking forward to getting stuck in

In the quieter times, I'm in the process of making use of fabric I'd previously washed my hands of as "not my taste!" and looking at them with renewed interest to make plant pot covers, quilt panel pictures, table runners, napkins, valances and trims (all take very little time to rustle up and certainly give a "quick fix" to most rooms )

Next!! ........

Curry_Queen

I'm waiting desparately to move and then I can get stuck into all these brilliant ideas you've all come up with. There's very little point in doing anything here as none of the windows are standard size or anything and I have masses of curtains and fabric that I've dragged around with me that I want to save for the new place