Shabby Chic Thread?

Ches

If you like Cath Kidson try looking at www.countrycream.co.uk I was given a catalogue and its full of the stuff you are describing.

maypole

Ches

What a fabulous site ( country cream ) beautiful things there. Some of the little bits of furniture and things though could be bought cheaply and painted to the same effect. The fabrics interest me, I want to re do my bedroom and can't decide on a colour. The bedding is gorgeous!

Just another thing, why does new pine go sort of orange? old pine had to be new once and it doesn't go like that.

mary43

Brilliant site............some good ideas that could easily be copied..........love the spotted broom................lol Think if I painted ours like that OH would think I'd gone mad..................lol

maypole -Just another thing, why does new pine go sort of orange? old pine had to be new once and it doesn't go like that.

There's a lot of different sorts of pine and I think years ago the wood used was treated differently...........normally it was painted anyway.
The pine bought nowadays is totally different to look at - the grain, knotting, all that sort of thing plus its treated with something.........not sure quite what, but it tends to give it that 'orange look'.
We managed to disguise it in our bathroom by putting some dark oak stain on -didn't stain it really dark as we sort of wiped it on and wiped it off, just to give it that older colour.............then we clear varnished it.
There's even some old pine that can have an orange look to it, particular if its 'pitch pine'. A lot of really good quality furniture was made out of it as its a very sturdy wood.
Our kitchen table has a brand new top on it (the old one was a bit too much on the 'distressed' side............but we've never treated it in any way, just scrubbed it now and then. It's turned a lovely 'old' colour now........more than likely due to air, dust etc. that gets ground into the wood.

Ooops.........sorry..............didn't mean for my type to go all dark like that.............lol

lilmisskitkat

www.dotcomgiftshop.co.uk is great for shabby chic and reasonably priced too, i have quite a few bits from there They do a 'Tea and Cakes' range and also an 'English Rose' one which is simiar to Cath Kidston.

Hth

Kate xxx

maypole

Thank you Mary43 for that information. I have a "new" pine kitchen table and I can cope with that, it doesn't look so bad as it is washed and scrubbed occasionally, but the bedroom furniture yuk! when we first bought it, it was a lovely honey colour, we got it from Barker and Stonehouse and it is really nice and solid, I would paint it but husband hates painted wood:mad:

mary43

You might find it fulls down after a bit just by being exposed to air. If not, try putting some wax polish on it............wipe it on, let it dry and then buff it off. Might give the colour a bit of depth.

HariboJunkie

We had an orange pine fireplace in the living room which we couldn't afford to rip out and it was a nice simple shape. The orange seems to come from the varnish so I stripped that off with nitromors and sanded it down. Then I just waxed it and it looks fab.

maypole

Thank you Mary and Haribo for those tips.:T

mary43

OH just reminded me of this tip.............strip the varnish off the new pine, find a local pine stripper and see if you can scrounge some caustic soda thats been used for stripping old doors/furniture -youd only need a coffee jar full. The fact its been used it all to the good and brushing it on would give a good colour to the pine.
OH used to work with new pine and his boss bought the furniture unvarnished, coloured it with 'dirty' caustic then wax polished it.............worked a treat and its not at all messy but make sure you wear gloves (not rubber ones.........old pair of leather is best or heavy duty rubber or gardening gloves) and old clothes just in case...........and its best done outside in case of the odd drip.

moanymoany

Haribo, you have a lovely kitchen.

At the moment we are preparing our home of 18 years for sale. Our hope is to move to the coast and although I love this thread just reading it makes me jittery as I feel I'm tempting fate and our house won't sell. EEEEEK!!!

Reason, so much of what is on here is what I want to do.