Apr 16

Latest finds on ebay

Posted in Latest Find

Just wanted to share with you my latest treasures from that wonderful bargain source: ebay. I drove for 3 hours this afternoon and trekked across the city and back again to pick them up, but it was worth it – I love my new finds! I plan to recover the chair myself  – I love its shape and detail. I had originally planned to repaint the chinoiserie tables as I’m starting to accumulate a lot of black furniture (and was happy to discover the greek key pattern is carved not painted, so it would still be there even if I repainted them), but my Mum informs me that painting them would be sacrilege! And I think once I clean them up they will look gorgeous. Is painting over hand-painted things wrong? I’m not sure..

Anyway I’m determined that the chair will not be another project that waits years for attention – I want to get started tomorrow!

comments: 3 » tags: , , ,
Mar 27

Sunday

Posted in Latest Find, my home

Well, the weekend is almost over and I’m enjoying just pottering around the house this afternoon while my 3 boys are all at the football. I dragged my boys out of bed early this morning and we ventured out into the dark to get an early start at the Sunday markets – one of my favourite things to do, though I hardly ever do it. Every time I get there I tell myself I must try to go every couple of weeks, if only for the flowers! I was slightly disappointed I didn’t find anything ‘wow’ today, though I suppose markets are hit-and-miss and that’s where the fun lies. I completely forgot to take any photos while I was there (bad blogger!), but I spent a good hour being shown every star wars minifigure at a lego stall, and another hour sifting through pokemon cards. I did get some lovely flowers for myself though!

I also picked up a nice little still life painting which I’m deciding what to do with; I like the painting but don’t love the goldy gold frame:

I got these etchings to add to my growing ‘etching wall’:

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! x

comments: 1 » tags: , , ,
Mar 15

Latest finds and green paired with purple

Posted in Latest Find, projects/ my work, purple and green, Uncategorized
I have been busy this long weekend painting lamp bases that I’ve had around the house for ages waiting for me to do something with them. Remember the lamps from this post? Well I went to the hardware shop looking for some good spray paint in either kelly green or a nice shade of purple. I have to say the options were rather limited! I have since found that you can buy any colour in the rainbow from spray-paint suppliers online, but I’m a right-now kind of girl so I went ahead about bought the least offensive colour that I could get my hands on immediately – actually I bought a few options:
I thought I’d use the pink on a lamp for my office makeover. And the purple for the pair of lamps. I figured I’ll see how it goes and I can always re-do them later when I get a shade I really like. So I taped up the brass fitting at the top and the cord,
gave them a a bit of a scrub to remove all dirt and then gave them a couple of coats of White King super prime spray. I find it covers dark colours so well, and makes the top coat colour stick well and look better. This is after one coat of primer:
 
Then a coat of my purple spray paint:
After another coat of purple, I let them dry overnight then took off the masking tape:
It’s not quite the shade that I would wish for - a little too ‘grape-y’ for me but I think it will look better once I do the shades. I have some black velvet ribbon which I’m going to trim some white shades in, but I’m having trouble finding shades in the right shape. I’ve wanted to incorporate purple into my house for awhile, and I’ve long been inspired by this image:

domino

I just love the purple ikat on the chair, especially paired with the black-and-white greek key rug.

As well as this lilac library:

angie hranowsky

Now THAT’S the colour I wanted for the lamps! It’s got a bit more grey in it, and less candy-ish.

And I know I’ve been going on about being obsessed with green at the moment, so my plan is to bring in green and purple, with some ikat in either shade, with some hints of pink and green as well. To fit with this I have been planning to recover these in something green:

But I scrapped that idea last night when I bought these on ebay:

The green velvet upholstery will go nicely with some purple/pink, plus I don’t have to worry about having anything recovered! I knew if I prevaricated for long enough it would all work out for the best..

Here are some purple-paired-with-green rooms – the boldest and the most subtle – that are inspiring me..

via apartment therapy

jonathan adler

via porterhouse designs

maison francaise magazine

 

lynn morgan design

comments: 0 » tags: , , ,
Mar 6

Today at my home

Posted in fabrics, Latest Find, my home, Uncategorized

Like a lot of people I’ve been laid up at home with a cold (is it winter already? not technically, but I’m feeling the symptoms). Hence my failure to post a Saturday House of Inspiration yesterday – I plan to post one during the week. So, it’s been a chance to take it slightly easier than normal, start sorting through my horrendously large pile of magazines awaiting my attention, and to get onto some small jobs around the house. Today, I am:

Enjoying some of the last vestiges of greenery in my garden before it becomes a sticky winter garden – I don’t have many flowers planted yet but I love the green and brown magnolia leaves,

and the last purple flowers on the wisteria.

Admiring my cute gold china teaset ($6 for the set!)

Just like the one I saw at the antique fair a few weeks ago, (which I posted about here):

I’m contemplating a colour and finish for this pair of lamps, which are currently painted with flowers, but I want to do something more modern with them. I’m thinking green or purple bases with shades also trimmed with colour, or maybe white with patterned fabric on the shades..

Either way the lamps are to sit on either end of this buffet, which I bought this week.

I’m still feeling inspired by this home (in Vogue Living which I posted about here), and want to use more of the colour from one of my mum’s paintings; purple, pink green and blue.

Soo, I’m also deciding what to recover these chairs in. I’m leaning towards the Peter Dunham paisley – gorgeous right?

Hope you’re enjoying a great weekend! x

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
comments: 4 » tags: , , , ,
« Previous Next »