Shabby Chic Patchwork China Cabinet

Hello there, we are having a super lazy Sunday today...it is raining, it's the start of the school holidays, and I've had a massive couple of weeks painting wise - we delivered this dining suite back to its owner yesterday in the pouring rain and didn't get home till well after dark.  She absolutely loved it (phew!) and had another job all lined up for me...a large bookcase that she wants shabby chic white with multi coloured pastel shelves...I am so excited to work on that and see how it turns out!

Friday and yesterday I worked on a coffee table which I've done the beachy/french willow/weathered barn wood/driftwood finish on the top of it again...getting boring haha but I do love it...I own four tables in my own home that I've given this treatment to. How many tables does one house need you ask? More than four when you love furniture like I do ;)  The table is all finished but I haven't photographed it yet.

What I'm showing you today is this china cabinet...

I bought this about a year ago and got stuck straight into it ripping the wallpaper off the interior.  Then it sat, and sat, while I thought about what to do with it.  I knew I wanted it pretty and girly but still it sat, until recently.

I wanted to do something different with the interior, so I made up some upholstered panels like this:

They are pieces of 6mm MDF that my Dad cut for me (thanks, Dad!)

Just realised how blurry this pic is sorry, but it shows how I put each panel together.

I repeated this for all eight of the panels, then glued them into the back of my freshly painted cabinet.
Here it is all finished...

In this shot there are a few other little bits and pieces that I painted in Old White Chalk Paint®, I won't be posting about them separately, they've all gone to the shop.

I envisioned this cabinet being bought by someone who maybe wanted it in their craft room, or perhaps display in a shop.  I wasn't far off...as soon we took it to La'Bella Petite, Cathy decided she needed to keep it there for display and purchased it off me.

It looks right at home in the Girly Room!

One last thing...I've just got my head around pinning my own projects to Pinterest...if you'd like to follow along, you can find me here.

Sharing at Lilyfield Life Paint Parade

Introducing 'Sweet Pea' the Green Bookcase with Toy Chest

Here I am back already with another finished project, I really am on a roll at the moment and loving it!

I picked this up on Monday after purchasing it last Friday.

Unusually for me, I didn't have an immediate vision of what colour it was going to be, but I knew I didn't want to do it white...for one thing, I've just done a white dining suite and bookcase, and while white is nice (and right) for some things, it is a bit boring all the time and I thought this shelf needed a bit of character that white just wouldn't give it!  

I started playing with my Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® collection (it's not much yet, I only have 3 colours!) and came up with this green which I absolutely love...you know I have a thing for green ;)

It is a 1:1 mix of Antibes Green and Duck Egg.

Some of you might think that I am limiting my market by not sticking to 'safe' saleable colours.  

To that I say: I do this because I love it, I have an absolute passion for it and each and every piece I create, I would be thrilled to leave in my own home.  If I painted everything 'safe' colours I wouldn't have lasted very long because there is no thrill at all in that for me.  

I like to paint things in a way that makes me smile when I look at them.  

If you are reading here, hopefully they make you smile too :)

I love how this paint distresses!

So why on earth have I called this Sweet Pea you ask?  Some people name or number their painted furniture and I've never done that, mainly because I think I would have trouble thinking up cool names. I wouldn't have trouble thinking of numbers, obviously, but like too much white and neutral furniture, that's a bit boring ;)

Last night on Facebook I wondered about a name for this colour and some of my readers posted great suggestions.  I got Mint Fudge, Clementine, Esmerelda Emerald and Summer Field which were all beautiful, but the first suggestion won me over...it's something I call my daughter...Sweet Pea - thanks Yvonne for the great suggestion!  Of course I can't really give the paint colour a name, it's not my paint to name.  So I've named the piece of furniture instead....next piece I paint this colour might have to be Sweet Pea 2 or Mint Fudge!

Sweet Pea is for sale, please feel free to contact me for details.has sold, thanks.

Shared at Lilyfield Life, Savvy Southern Style, Miss Mustard Seed, Blue Egg Brown Nest The Happy Housie and Elizabeth and Co

Beachy Bookcase and Dining Suite

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I've had a busy week working on a client commission plus projects to stock in the shop.  I'm finding since using Chalk Paint® that my enthusiasm has gone up a bit and the excitement of getting a piece finished is having a positive effect on my productivity!

This dining suite belongs to a client who wanted it restyled into a white shabby chic beachy look with grey washed tabletop.

Her kitchen/dining area was painted the most gorgeous shade of baby blue and had a gorgeous beachy feel.  Lightening up this dining suite was going to finish off her space perfectly.

I got to work stripping the tabletop back to bare wood.  I used paint stripper, my heat gun and finally my orbital sander to get it done.

Here it is, nearly stripped back enough, you can see in the photo that there are still slight marks on the table...don't want those there!  A fine grit sandpaper got those out.

I painted the chairs and table legs with 3 coats of Chalk Paint® in Old White, distressed them 220 grit sandpaper then finished them off with a 'Fine' 3M sanding sponge.  I cleaned off all the sanding dust then waxed with Annie Sloan Wax in Clear before buffing with a clean dry cloth.**  Hard to tell in my photos but the shine is amazing and they feel super smooth.

**re-reading my explanation might make it sound quick and easy.  I can assure you there are many many hours of hard physical,dusty and fiddly work involved in this transformation, just in case you were wondering ;)

The tabletop got the same treatment I have explained here.  I love this look.  

(That also took much longer to execute than it did to type it out!)

So much nicer than just doing the table all white.

Here is the suite now...

The bookcase you see above is something else I've just completed today.  I picked it up last week looking like this...

After a couple of coats of Old White and some wax, it looks much cuter :)

Two coats of Old White straight onto darkish timber, once waxed, gives quite a translucent 'whitewashed' effect which I like for certain pieces.  The three coats on the table legs and chairs give a much more 'solid' colour white.

Weather permitting, we are delivering the dining suite back to the client on Saturday...here's hoping she likes it (I always worry a bit!) The bookcase is for sale and if not sold prior, will be headed to La 'Bella Petite Boutique on Saturday too.

Shared at Lilyfield Life, Savvy Southern Style, Blue Egg Brown Nest, Elizabeth and Co and Miss Mustard Seed

Duck Egg Drawers

After being given some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint to try out recently, I loved it so much I have become a paying customer, purchasing another tin of Old White and a tin of Duck Egg from Crab Apple Vintage in Newcastle this week.  I was absolutely thrilled with the service I received from them - I ordered the paint around 11am on Tuesday, and 24 hours later it was on my doorstep some 200+ km's away.  Their courier costs are the cheapest I have found of all the NSW stockists too (just over $10 for up to 4 tins).  I'll definitely be back for more!

Of course I got straight to work putting this paint on something...a couple of things actually but the other one is still a work in progress.  I picked up this little set of drawers and thought they would be perfect in Duck Egg.

I gave them a clean, filled the extra handle holes, then applied two coats of ASCP in Duck Egg.  The photo below is after one coat (sorry it's not a great photo, but the only one I took!)

I hand distressed with 240 grit sandpaper then waxed.  I found the colour changed quite significantly after I applied the wax, much more so than with Old White or Antibes Green.

These crackle finish porcelain knobs are my favourites at the moment...I've even put them on my kitchen cabinets :)

*I paid full retail cost for the paint at Crab Apple Vintage and they don't even know I am mentioning them...I was just highly impressed with their service and wanted to share that fact :)

This chest of drawers is for sale has sold, thanks.

Sharing at Lilyfield Life