Painted furniture update

As promised, it's time for an update on the painting and general furniture makeover progress at the Gorgeous Things Studio (aka the dining room at the old village hall).

Here is a lovely bun footed bureau. I love these pieces of furniture - I think they are really practical. Little Thing 2 has one in her bedroom painted white, but with a pink girlie interior! They are great bedroom pieces, cos you can store stuff in them, but then you can fold the desk part down for using your laptop, and then fold it up again out of the way when you've finished. How practical is that? Brilliant, I think! As a furniture revamper (is that what I am?) I love the fun of the foldaway part - it is just asking to be decorated with a bit more pizzaz than the outside, cos it isn't always on view.

See? A lovely bit of Cath Kidston floral there on the inside. Now it's looking pretty good, huh?

Cute little cubby holes for all those bits and bobs.

And a pretty desky bit to cheer anyone up while they are working or doing their homework.

Another feature about furniture that I love painting is "the twiddly bits", so when a cheval mirror with lots of twiddly bits came my way I was very excited. Not only did it have some nice twiddly bits, but it also had a nice flat surface (back of the mirror) which was just asking to be prettified with a bit of floral.

Front (above) Back (below)

Shall we have a closer look at the twiddly bits?

I love these bits so much. Little Things 1 and 2 are both pretty keen on this mirror, so I'm not sure it will make it as far as the shop! Luckily I have a few more pieces which are WIP , like this little what-not..

...which needs another coat of paint before I set to with some decoupage on those shelves. Then I have this plate stand thingy which has been through the mill a bit here in terms of me trying out some paint effects.

I have just painted over the paint effects at the moment, but after another coat of Farrow and Ball "Pointing", then I will start to distress it, and then the paint effects underneath will emerge - I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out! Meanwhile, these Midwinter plates look right at home on it!

And, just in case I don't have enough in the revamping studio - I have just picked up some more pieces !

This rather dirty lloyd loom chair is just crying out for some gorgeous vintage cushion - well, after it has had a good clean! But I'm thrilled to have found an original green one - the colour is really, really gorgeous!! Needless to say this one will not be painted over!

Then I'll have a bit of painting and upholstery to get this lovely shaped chair ready. I'm thinking of some sort of patchworked vintage fabric seat for this one - luckily it is a drop in seat, which means it is pretty straighforward to recover.

And I managed to find this nice shaped dresser back - which is always popular in the shop.

I'll get the knotting solution over this one whilst watching the tennis this afternoon! Then it'll have its undercoat on before the school run. I really don't like orange pine - so I'm in a rush to get it covered up!

By the way, if you are interested in buying any of my pieces, please drop me an email. I am in the process of getting a blogshop up and running, cos I don't want to fill this blog with a list of items for sale. I'll be linking to it from here just as soon as I get it sorted.

Oh yes, more gorgeous things!

I know my house is already full of stock, but I just can't help buying more gorgeous things. I haven't been to the shop for a few days, so I'll just have to hope that the shelves are bare, so that I can fill them up with all the lovely new stock!

But who could have resisted this 50s tablecloth? And I had to have this stripy number - reminds me of my granny stripe blanket - but it would look fab on an outside table in the sunshine, wouldn't it?

These ones are a bit more traditional, but have lovely embroidery...

Pretty flowers and colours - shall we have a closer look?

And a nice piece of monogrammed bed linen - a huge linen pillowcase which is fastened with lovely old buttons.

The embroidery on this one is really fabulous - and it has never been used - never even washed.

But the simplicity of this cross stitched rose design is very cute, so I used this to set up a quick backdrop for some of the pretty pieces of china I'm taking up to the shop tomorrow.

It's just the right colours, don't you think?

Ooooh the pretty things!!! The painting on this little lidded pot is exquisite - that little blue winged bird!

So there are a few of the bits and bobs which I have remembered to photograph!

There are lots more to come, and if I can just get my stock cleared down a bit, then I'll be able to get that sewing machine out and get creative again - I can't wait to get started on making some gorgeous things with my vintage stash, as I have so many ideas. Just for starters, I did manage to sneakily get the sewing machine out in the kitchen whilst Mr Thing was away (I do worry about my mess spreading!). I made this cushion from an old 1980s tapestry - I love the retro design and colours.

I can't wait to get started on some more, so I'll have to get the backlog of furniture painting finished - which I'll blog about very sooon!

Toodle pip!

What lovely needlework!

I have a huge stash of hand worked linens. I've been buying for the shop, of course, but I just seem to find it so hard to part with them! So today I decided that maybe I need to break this job down into smaller, more manageable goals. Like getting just two out of the stash and ready for the shop. Which I have managed, but then I thought I'd just photograph them before I let them go - so I can share them with you!

How about this beauty? I love the strong use of colour and the scalloped edging is divine. Can you imagine how long it must have taken to embroider? Let's have a closer look at some of the needlework.

oooh those pretty scalloped edges.

But for those of you who like a bit of crochet, my second piece is a real beauty...

Little Thing 1 and I are currently crocheting the granny stripe blanket by Lucy at Attic 24, so we are in awe at the amount of work in this table cloth. It is all done in lovely white cotton, and looks and feels really fresh. Personally, I would never use it on the table (too many messy eaters in this house), but it would make an amazing throw on the bed or even sofa if you have one of those "different shades of white" style interiors. I would love to achieve a calm, white interior, but this doesn't seem to work with my need to collect stock for the shop! So it's more like Steptoe's yard meets school art room. Shall we have a closer look at the crochet work?

 I wonder how many stitches are in this cloth? Sooooo pretty!

And here is the progress so far on my first ever crochet project - - somewhat rustic compared to the tablecloth above! But I'm quite pleased with it, and my crocheting speed is definitely improving. I can't believe how quickly I'm getting through the wool. I'm using Patons Fairytale 4 ply which comes in some lovely colours - but I am finding it challenging to choose the colour combinations, as this sort of bright colour is not my usual thing - but I am loving the challenge!

I'm hoping this baby gets a lot bigger over the Wimbledon fortnight - know what I mean???!!!

Toodle pip!

Gorgeous Glass

I love all glassware - as anybody who knows me, or visits the Gorgeous Things Flagship Store at Bourne Mill will know. But the coloured glass is just soooooo divine. Here is one of my shelf units covered in lovely, jubbly coloured glassware. On the top shelf here is a 60s lemonade set which is a real cracker - the jug is a great shape - sleek and tall - and the set of glasses not only are in harlequin colours (my favourite) but have an unusual lustre to them.

I have soooooo much glassware (and other gorgeous vintage things!) waiting to go up to the shop - would you like to see some of it? 

Some lovely blue glass here - and, of course, the sparkly cake stands.

This milk glass goblet shaped vase is more unusual. It is by Anchor Hocking an American company who produced a lot of this type of glass in the 30s, and it has their impressed mark on the base - it is quite unusual to find makers marks on glass, so I was very excited when I found this one! Although my photo may not do it justice, it has grapes and vine leaves impressed on the sides. It is really pretty!

I'm not so sure about the little Virgin Mary statue - she is an experiment. I have painted her in Farrow and Ball Pointing - so she looks all virginal! She is definitely a unique "interesting" object. I am having a bit of a thing at the moment for painting things other than furniture - like statues of Virgin Mary, wooden bowls, biscuit barrels, basketware etc. I love the clean but old kind of look about them - you know, they look like they are old, loved objects which have been refreshed to give them a new lease of life. I suppose that is what I like to achieve will all my painted furniture.

So, are you ready for a bit of colour again, now?

Here are some more of the lovely, 50s stuff I'm getting ready to make a display of in the shop.

And some more....

Got any favourite pieces amongst this lot? I know I have!

As soon as I have the new set of shelves painted and ready, these lot will be going up to the shop, and there will have to be a serious sort out and rearrangement day (what fun!)

I am always happy to chat about any of my items further if you are interested in them - just email me. (Don't worry, there is never any obligation! Browsers and chatters are most definitely welcome!!!)

The Glamorous Fifties

So glamorous! So stylish!

I was just saying to Mr. Things the other day over a cup of tea - why don't the young Things and I go and visit my very good friend in France as soon as school is over for the summer. We've been invited to spend a week near the glamorous Biarritz. So I have consulted the travel brochures ....

It looks pretty sophisticated - I'm going to need to glam up! I'll need  a nice frock to travel by air - this one from Horrockses might do..

...but I think I'll take a handbag rather than a coffee pot (not sure what that's all about). Oh and gloves - yes dress gloves will be needed.

And when I get there I can sun myself and frolic on the beach...

...all whilst looking incredibly glamorous, of course!

I have a modest collection of 1950s magazines - they are fascinating to leaf through. The articles are pretty interesting, but the photos, and some of the ads are brilliant - really evocative of the era. While I was setting up my latest gorgeous things to show you, I suddenly thought that a couple of 50's magazines might help to set the scene. But, of course, I couldn't resist checking through them, and was amazed to find the article on Biarritz - I have literally just booked flights to go there this morning - spooky coincidence. So I managed to waste (?) quite a bit of time day dreaming about the 1950s.

Well, I ran out of time to finish photographing my 50s themed china collection, but I'll show you some of the snaps, as it must be time for another picture...

I have amassed quite a quantity of Midwinter Stylecraft and other 50s china. It is just so amazingly jolly! I just picked a few of my yellowy themed bits and pieces here.

The picture above has one small difference to the previous one - can you spot what it is? Sorry, no prizes - well not today! Let's have a closer look at the detail on the different thing.

Oh my, those colours are so pretty! And I can't wait to set up the turquoisey themed pieces, and then the black/red/grey one - oooooh, I'm getting hip hoppy happy thinking about setting that lot up!

As you can probably guess, I'm supposed to be getting some of my 50's china collection ready for the shop, but I wanted to show you some of it first - cos I'm sure it'll all be snapped up and gone in a jiffy once it's over at Bourne Mill.  I've got loads more to photograph, so if you fancy seeing some more I'll post again tomorrow (and try not to spend too long looking through the magazines!).

This little number by Johnson Brothers is called "Gay Fantasy" - I was thinking of titling this post the same, but I'm not sure whether the audience I attracted might be rather disappointed by the content! Still, it might get my hit count up! Hmmm.

Toodle pip!