Shabby Chic Thread?

Gigervamp

It's amazing what a lick of paint will do! All that 80's honey pine furniture must be about somewhere!

EagerLearner

Loving that this thread is back up - I gave up on the Cafe as well due to the log in etc...

Hoping that this Summer I will sand down our 2nd hand living room table, would love it to be a sage green - any suggestions as to what I'd need to buy? Now that the weather is nice I might give it a go...

Also I saw a book called the Virgin Gardener in Borders, where she recommended you could paint the inside of pretty jars with white paint, they looked lovely, may do that. She also said you could always tie some string round the jar necks and have them hang off the wall or any hook, with flowers or anything decorative inside (pretty buttons? Dried flowers).

Also have been saving my Bonne Mamman jars and using them for Bicarb / soda flakes / Borax etc so at least cleaning stuff looks pretty... have some pics on my blog *see sig* but not sure what section now...

Have a good evening everyone and here's to shabby chic inspiration MSE style! x

luxor4t

EagerLearner wrote: »

...snipped
Also I saw a book called the Virgin Gardener in Borders, where she recommended you could paint the inside of pretty jars with white paint, they looked lovely, may do that. She also said you could always tie some string round the jar necks and have them hang off the wall or any hook, with flowers or anything decorative inside (pretty buttons? Dried flowers).

I put tealight candles into clean jars for garden night lighting. They look great hanging up, but I use wire for safety. Might try a swirl of coloured paint inside for contrast

Gigervamp

EagerLearner wrote: »

Hoping that this Summer I will sand down our 2nd hand living room table, would love it to be a sage green - any suggestions as to what I'd need to buy? Now that the weather is nice I might give it a go...

What's the table made of? Is it solid wood? If so, you just need to sand it a bit (not completely back to the bare wood) to give it a "key" for the paint to adhere to.
A waterbased paint is easy to clean up afterwards. Eggshell will be more hardwearing (Farrow & Ball do a waterbased eggshell), but emulsion is cheaper. If you use emulsion, you can varnish it (look for a non-yellowing varnish) or wax it after painting it.

*zippy*

Eagerlearner what a fab blog you have :T Looking forward to having a good read through.

Good idea about the jam jars, i've started slowly putting sugar, flour etc into glass jars as I see them reduced, didn't think to put the smaller items into jam jars.

Patchwork_Quilt

The best jars for the pantry are Bertolli pasta sauce jars. I have all my sugar, beans etc in these and we eat the sauce anyway.

*zippy*

How have you marked the contents of the jars on the front? Only thing I can think of is some pretty jam jar labels.

Gigervamp

*zippy* wrote: »

How have you marked the contents of the jars on the front? Only thing I can think of is some pretty jam jar labels.

One idea I saw (I think Lakeland sold them) was jars with a label size bit of blackboard paint on them so that you could use chalk to write what was in them, then wipe it off when you put something else in the jar. Thought that was a good idea and bought a small tin of blackboard paint to do it with my jars. (Still haven't got around to it though. )

*zippy*

Gigervamp wrote: »

One idea I saw (I think Lakeland sold them) was jars with a label size bit of blackboard paint on them so that you could use chalk to write what was in them, then wipe it off when you put something else in the jar. Thought that was a good idea and bought a small tin of blackboard paint to do it with my jars. (Still haven't got around to it though. )

Thats a good idea...home bargains did have a childrens stick on blackboard for 99p that could easily be cut up, i'll see if there are any left today.

EagerLearner

Luxor4t that's a fab idea that i will steal in the Summer for garden lighting as will have had at least 2 more jam jars worth by then!

Zippy - Thanks for your lovely comments re my blog - I only wish I could find the piccies of the jam jars with the labels! Hey if you come across them in your reading, let us know
I have some normal labels for addresses and a template on Word. I have added a small detail design of a rose to the middle. Then above, in nice text, the name of the item, like 'Bicarb of Soda' for example.. Definately the cheap option! I love the Bertolli jars but never have much pasta sauce, however we do have bonne Mamman Jam, so hey presto - and with gorgeous gingham lids too!

GingerVamp, I have to say i'm embarassed to say I don't know what the wood is... probably varnished pine? It was 2nd hand and is quite light so unlikely to be something decent like oak