We went to stay in Brighton and the B+B we stayed in was not painted like a mad white cube.
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| Colour!!! Partner said, at least it had a white ceiling |
So I began to feel I could introduce some colour into our lives. I have been considering painting a bit of furniture ever since I saw a painted chest of drawers on the front of
Making magazine, which was quite nice, and which chased away terrible memories of stencilling, and of ragrolling in mediterranean colours which you will understand my shuddering at if you are of my vintage (37)*. Anyway, the other day I trotted off out to buy the Observer and someone had put a small table out to be taken away (they had. I didn’t just take someone’s table. It had a sign). It was a house near where the Worst Cat In Cambridge lives, I just tell you that for local colour: anyway, I came home with the Observer and a free table, which surprised Partner a bit. And today I have painted my table. This was the table before I painted it:
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| I think it's highly unlikely this table was worth money but if it was, please don't tell me |
And this is the table now, painted in Habitat Mediterranean and Cumin (Habitat go into administration and now suddenly they’re everywhere, doing paint in Homebase and featuring in the Argos catalogue, who knew):
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| I'm not 100% sure I like the colour of the legs. I shall sleep on it |
I bought two tester pots of emulsion and a pot of varnish, which came to £13.59 (I had brushes/ masking tape/ white emulsion for undercoat already). So, this is my £13.59 table which is reasonably thrifty, I think. I shall touch it up in daylight and then I shall varnish it. I am gradually making inroads into our bedroom, and this is going to be my bedside table. I am going to move the current bedside table and beanbag to the study for Reading Nook purposes and make a replacement beanbag for the bedroom, which is a work in progress. This is all displacement activity because what I really need to do is sort out Partner And The Ridiculous Book Mountain, but baby steps, people, baby steps.
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| Bonus picture of cows who just come and hang out in the city centre as if that is both normal and acceptable, stopping me getting to the PUB |
* If you are reading this in a room with ragrolled stencilled walls, don’t listen to me. I’m sure it looks lovely, and please enjoy your tuscany-effect ceramics, sun-dried tomatoes, and affair with the milkman.
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6 comments:
You could always take a cow home and paint it to introduce some more colour in your life?*
If they're there to keep the grass down they aren't doing a very good job, just sitting there. Slackers.
*I'm not being serious, no need to call the rspca
I know exactly what you mean about stencilling and ragrolling, though my immediate memory of it is that my sister stencilled some ivy leaves around her student room and they looked rather good, so when I wanted to tart up the kitchen cupboards I decided on stencils, and you know what? Can't find them anywhere these days. It's all huge vinyl wall stickers now.
and... http://www.panoramio.com/photo/4552468
Ohhhhh I just love the table! The colours are fab and I especially like the one on the legs. I have so much furniture awaiting a makeover, I keep collecting it from the charity shop and car boots with the intention of painting all these mismatched items and then they will magically look like they belong together. In reality it's all in use and my living room looks like someones allotment shed.
As it happens I have just had a delivery of some upholstery fabric to cover my sofa cushions. The sofas are those part-wood up-righty ones commonly favoured by older folk. I find them so much more comfortable for sitting and knitting in (yeah, I'm really sounding young here aren't I?) I was wondering if I should paint the wooden frame or leave it natural and now I'm swaying towards painting it after seeing your table. Plus I actually need to learn to upholster first and might change my mind 50 times in the meantime.
Love, love, love the table! We did some renovations in our basement last spring, and purchased a new sofa and love seat. I still haven't found a small table to put beside them, but after seeing yours i now know what I want. I am going to start looking at the thrift stores.
I do love sun dried tomatoes, so I got some yesterday.
Good table, you've done a great job with the paint, I can't really be bothered to do that, but I wish I could. You do find these things, I found a rug and 2 chairs waiting for me to take them away. I needed the chairs, otherwise I would be siting on the floor typing this.
I still like stencils. Some of them. Never was sure about the rag rolling though.
P.S. I love that "The Guardian"'s Sport section is your messy-job-paper of choice. It's the section I automatically reach for when doing such things.
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