Rescued baby blue bathroom box...

For about a year, Ive been looking for something to put in my bathroom to tidy away cleaning products and toilet rolls etc....Ive come across and purchased a few things that were intended for this job but never quite made the grade and either got used for something else or sold on. I knew exactly what it was that I wanted....just a simple deep wooden box with a lid but as easy as you might think it is to find one of those....it proved to be elusive!!

Then, this weekend just gone, I was clearing out my grandparents house down in Devon....and I noticed something sitting in the bathroom. It was under the sink and I hadnt noticed it before. It was an deep wooden box with wheels on it. It was old and the paint was weathered from getting wet in the bathroom. The lid had a cork seat on top of it....which was so old it had dried out and was cracking off! The nails which held the cork seat in place were rusty.

It was going to be another little project  which I was excited about anyway, but then I realised it was exactly what I had been looking for to go in my bathroom!

It was perfect!

I pulled the cork seat off the top and removed the rusty nails. I wasnt going to replace the top with a seat, instead I wanted to paint it and probably will put some sented candles on top of it, or fold freshly laundered hand towels and pile them up.

You can see this box used to be yellow before it was blue! I imagine my grandfather must have painted it blue at some point? The chances are he even made the box...im sure there is a story about it which I may never know!

Blue  Storage Box (Before)

The paint was peeling and whilst I liked it as it was because it had a rustic charm, it needed some work to bring it back to life and I was going to have to paint the top anyway, so decided to give the whole box a lick of paint!

The inside was still yellow! I intend to paint it all the same colour.  

The box was almost the same exact shade of blue as the stool I had painted to sit in my kitchen! I still had some of that paint left so it was decided it would get a fresh coat of that baby blue paint which will fit in with my blue and white bathroom too! It was The Paint & Paper Library in Blue Charm.

I took the handles off the sides and gave it a couple coats of the blue paint. Once it had dried I put the handles back on.

Little Blue Box (After)

Little Blue Box (After)

Finally, all the cleaning products and toilet rolls can be hidden from sight!

I like having this box in my bathroom knowing my grandparents had it in theirs for all those years..... and I think they would like it too!

Spice Rack

There is nothing I enojy more on the weekend than a good old fashioned car boot sale! Its amazing what you can pick up for a couple of pounds!

'One mans junk, is another mans treasure'

These are some of the things I picked up last weekend!

A gorgeous vintage step ladder which will go in my garden and be a new home for all my plant pots, the little pine stool, a couple of cute wooden wall hanging shelving units and a wicker basket! And probably my luckiest find....18 different coloured sample pots of Farrow & Ball paint!

One of last weekends car boot purchases was this litte shelving unit...presumably built for use as a spice rack which is what I intend to use it for! It has a cute little swag detail across the top and bottom. Sorry about the dark photo..this was done before my resoloution to take nicer better lit photos!

Spice Rack (Before)

I already had a nice wooden spice rack, but it was tall and thin and I quickly filled it up and was having to put some spices etc next to it as there was no more room. Ill probably do something with the old one havent decided what yet!

Once I have given the spice rack a few coats of Farrow & Ball Tallow No.203 Estate Emulsion paint. It was transformed...it fit perfectly in the space I was thinking for it...and all my herbs and spice jars fit on it perfectly!

Spice Rack (After)

I love wood in its natural form, lots of the things in my kitchen are left as natural wood and just given a coat of beeswax...but sometimes, if you have too much wood, it just looks dull and dark...so painting things a nice shade of white or a pale green or blue can really brighten them up and make them sparkle!

Little Blue Stool....

I spent so long looking for a little stool to go in the corner of my ktichen.

I have a coal skuttle which I painted in farrow and ball off white, the same colour as my kitchen table legs, and I keep it filled with white roses. It was a bit lost on the floor next to the table, so I wanted something to elevate it so they could be appreciated more.

Finally after weeks of searching I came across this...

Stool (Before)

It was perfect because the legs didnt span too far and would fit snuggly in the space I had for it!

It was perfectly cute as it was, but on the same day I had aquired a small sample pot of The Paint & Paper Library paint in Blue Charm....which I was dying to try on something!

I sanded down the legs and top, but only painted the legs and gave the seat a couple coats of beeswax. I love the smell of beeswax so love to regularly top up my kitchen table chairs and now this little stool with a fresh coat!

Stool (After)

The blue came out much 'bluer' than I was expecting but I love it and next to my pale green and off white kitchen furniture it really pops! Its amazing what a few coats of paint can do to give a new lease of life to an otherwise unremarkable peice of furniture!

From now on I've made a vow to start doing proper photos of my little projects.....these are always just last minute shots I just take on my iphone. I need to get my photography hat on and start taking photos that do the furniture justice!

Little Trinket Boxes

Hi All, Just a little project to share today....I found one of these lovely little wooden boxes at a car boot sale one day, and oddly enough for the other...which is a exact match from a different car boot a few weeks later?!

Trinket Boxes (Before).

Even though they were already quite cute, I knew I wanted to paint them in some pale green farrow and ball paint I had and spruce them up somehow.

I gave them a few coats of the paint. I am pretty happy with the results and think they came out lookly lovely....and a blank canvas for ....what!?

Trinket Boxes (Painted in Farrow & Ball).

Now there are so many options of what to do with them...im not sure where to go from here! Im thinking a lovely stencil in light grey would look nice on the top of them, however im not sure what it should be of? Words or maybe an image? I like the idea of words...but havent decided where they are going to go yet, or what im going to put in them...so I will wait until I do before deciding!

I didnt want to leave them sitting there looking so plain. So I got some pale green polka dot ribbon and glued some around the bottom edge which I think looks cute!

Trinket Boxes (After).

They still arent finished....I think they need something else....or I might even take the ribbon off all together and go in a different direction!

Chairs Chairs Everywhere...

I needed some chairs to match my beautiful kitchen table...

After a few days scouring the internet, I found a small round table and chairs for sale on gumtree for £10...the chairs were perfect but I didnt really want the little round table. Mostly people try to sell second hand pine chairs like this for about £50-£60 for a pair!? I guess these people just wanted rid of them as they were pretty old. I drove out to pick them up...when I got there...they were in a state, really old and stained however on the upside, they were so old that any varnish on them had come off which meant sanding them to paint would be really easy!

The chairs (Before).

I collected the little round table along with the chairs, I didnt really want the table but they wanted to get rid of it so I sold it on.

I spent a sunny afternoon in my garden with my chairs, a quick sanding, any last bits of varnish just crumbled away with great ease so it took literally a few minutes to have both chairs sanded and looking brand new!

I gave the backs and legs a couple of coats of the same Farrow & Ball Tallow NO.203 Estate Emulsion paint that I had used on the table, leaving the seat base in its natural wood and just giving it a good rub with some beeswax which smells amazing!

The chairs (After).

A perfect match for my kitchen table. The shabby chic country style of the table and chairs compliments the terracotta kitchen floor tiles so well.

So thats 2 chairs....I need some more chairs....

Im thinking 6 would sit around my table nicely...

They say the heart of every home...

...is the kitchen.

For me...its my kitchen table!!

This table was the item which really sparked my love for furniture (and getting a total bargain!) and its the piece that led to me to turn what had for so many years been a rented house into a homely home.

The weekend before I purchased my table, I had bought a more modern round table for £20, which when I got home realised wasn't the right shape for the space, and because of the deep red/brown terracotta tiles in the kitchen, the modern look was not a match. So, I sold that round table for £40 (without doing any work on it?!)...I then bought the new table for £20...which basically means the new table was totally free!

The before pic is from the advert on gumtree for it and is taken in the sellers house. When I saw the table online, I knew straight away it was exactly the table I needed for my kitchen. Its was old and grubby, but I could see past that and knew with a bit of love and effort it would be amazing.

This is the table (Before).

The weekend after I had purchased the table, I saw a tin of Farrow & Ball Tallow NO.203 Estate Emulsion paint at a car boot sale and snapped it up for £2! I couldn't believe my luck as it was exactly what I was wanting to paint the base of the table with! Perfect!

The table needed a VERY good clean, and with the help of my father in law, we cleaned the top up using white spirit and fine wire wool and lovingly coated it in bees wax, I then gave the base 3 coats of the bargain F&B paint...and..

...here she is....(After)

My beloved kitchen table.

Now...I just need some chairs to match.....

'Ah well.....There's a story behind that'

I thought I would start a blog....Ive become quite addicted to reading some of the fantastic blogs I've stumbled across, mostly about interior design, furniture restoration and up-cycling, in particular anything with the words 'Shabby' Or 'Country' associated with it.

Basically, I LOVE furniture and 'things'. Anything really, but mostly anything I can turn into a little project. I like to spend some time sanding, waxing, painting and customising my furniture items so that they aren't just a piece of furniture, they are a labour of love. Each piece in my home has a tale, a story of how it came to belong to me, and why it looks the way it looks.

There's an 'in' joke in my family, which stems from my Grandmother and Grandfather. Everything they owned had a story. Everything. Some of the stories are historic, interesting and even quite funny...some of them less so....but none the less, EVERYTHING had its own story. My Aunt had the brilliant idea of documenting most of the items stories and so those little tales live on despite my grandparents having both passed away.
 

My grandparents.

If you picked up a Charlie Chaplin figurine in my grandparents house, and asked where it came from, the response would be, 'Ah well...Theres a story behind that'...and that's how I find myself living my life now. I love everything to have a story. To have some thought gone into it. If you comment on my new side table you'll be told the story of how it came to be in my home and if you switch on my standard lamp you will learn the tale of where it came from.

So here is my blog....where I will show you my past little projects and, hopefully, my new projects in the coming months, while my husband and I begin the search for our first proper family home. Everything has its own tale and here I will share them with whomever wants to know them.