DIY: I Nailed It!

For the past two weeks, our local craft shop has been having a little bit of TLC.

Crefftau y Bont, meaning Crafts of Pontardulais, has had a beautiful revamp over the past fortnight. The magnolia walls are show shades of grey and lilac; the once glossed furniture has been stripped and whitewashes; new furniture has arrived and been chalk painted and distressed; and all new products are coming in ready to celebrate Valentine's and Mother's Day.

This is some of the work I've done.

I started sanding the top of the cabinet and found that the gloss was in fact peeling off. So I got a little metal scraper and started scraping the gloss off. It didn't take long to finish the top and sand it back to its original condition. 

It was really nice wood, so well worth a little effort of taking the gloss off. 

Myself and a few of the ladies from the craft shop went for a drive up to Ystradgynlais (Swansea Valleys) to visit a beautiful little shop which sold a houseful of beautiful cushions, blankets, jewellery, candles and soaps, clothes, cards and home products. We went for inspiration for a colour scheme for our little shop and we most definitely inspired. 

As we were leaving, we happened to mention that we were also looking for some furniture for our shop as we were lacking some larger pieces. We were guided to a furniture recycling warehouse just outside of the village so off we went in search of this place and when we finally found it, we were quite unimpressed by the small front of shop that was filled with sofas. Until, that is, the volunteer worker took us through to the warehouse FULL of old furniture, cupboards, chests, dressers, chairs, tools and tons and tons of wood. 

Safe to say we all got quite excited and the situation escalated quicker than any of us anticipated. With only a Ford Fiesta to carry us home, we opted to have our 3 large dressers, a 6-foot cabinet and 2 chairs delivered to the shop the following week. 

I bought this huge dressers (below) and it was decided that it was too dark for a shop environment and it was in need of a bit of TLC (Turps/Love/Chalk-paint) in order to make it a lighter piece of furniture for displaying my chutneys and pickles and whatnot. 

This is what I did...

I sanded back the top surface area and the middle surface area in front of the lead windows. The plan was to have these white-washed so that the natural wood would still show through, or to varnish them and keep it natural. 

After I'd finished sanding it back I noticed that the wood was quite stained and wasn't perfect, so I used Annie Sloan "Old White" on these sections. 

The rest of the cabinet is Annie Sloan "Duck Egg."

Ta-dah! The final product (apart from the draws not being in, it's finished!)

When all of that was done, I had two final mini-projects to finish.

I had these chairs from the furniture recycling place in Ystradgynlais. They were very dirty; the wood was covered in grime and dust the fabric on the seats had rotted. I removed the seats, tore the fabric off and threw it in the bin along with the foam. I bought new, thicker foam so they'll be much comfier seats from now on.

I washed them with sugar soap to get all the dirt and grease off and let them dry. Then I applied two coats of chalk paint which went straight on to the gloss without having to sand or prime! Big time saver.

The paint is Annie Sloan chalk paint and the colour is Old White.

This is the fabric I've use for the seats. It's curtain fabric rather than upholstery fabric; its much thicker and more durable. It was also in the sale at £10 a meter so you can't really go wrong with that. Oh, and it's from Laura Ashley so it's really nice fabric. Chuffed. 

 Et voila! C'est fini.

I think I'm going to start upcycling and fixing furniture as a hobby. After I've finished all my cooking and gardening and and writing and general business bits and bobs for the day. It's a very therapeutic thing, making something old and tattered into something new and beautiful; and, of course, it serves a purpose!

Ruth x