Category Archives: step-by-step

Bedroom blitz

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So we had a fire. In our bedroom. Which meant 2 things. 1: A valid excuse to expedite its re-decoration, just 1 day after the kitchen was finished. And 2: The need to find a new way to clear the smell of little sleeping people doing an innocent poop in their nappy, that does not involve tea lights set in precarious proximity of the sheets. Thankfully, the little person in question was sound asleep in her own bed by the time the fire got going. We managed to limit the damage to just the bed and surrounding items, by dragging the burning stuff outdoors. (“That front door just paid for itself”). Most things were replaceable but perhaps the most annoying loss was this huge and luxurious bedspread which i picked up years ago and now can’t replace.

So i decided to try and salvage it by making things from what was reasonably left. This turned out quite well in the end, as i had been looking for inspiration for our large window and fancied a long fabric seat to go with the plethora of scatter cushions. I have a weird sensory sensitivity to foam (makes me shiver!) so i didn’t fancy the thought of having to handle a big wad for the project. I was therefore pleased to find an old window seat at the salvage yard and stripped off the cover to reveal this cotton-covered foam piece.

A word about piping. For most projects i try and convince myself its ok to skip piping, owing to the time involved in making it, and then having to fiddle around with getting it all in place and sewing through huge wads of fabric layers. But for a window cushion i reckon its pretty indispensable, so i made some out of an old skirt lining in a similar shade.Here we are with the basic shape taking form. Adding a zip somewhere is a good idea so that you can turn it all inside out at the end without having to do a magic trick. Also good for washing it at some point.Here it is in situ, alongside all its other little cushion friends.The middle turquoise one was a pleasing find, its a vintage William Morris print for Sanderson. The blue floral ones are from a (more recent) Sanderson remnant, and the grey floral is an Ikea fabric. Sadly this pic highlights my wonky piping. 

The window seat used about a quarter of the fabric, so i decided to motor on and make some bolster cushions too. I’ve made them before but obviously had forgotten how annoying they are to make. After one failed attempt, i worked out the basics. This time, to cut a corner (i love cutting corners, especially in sewing, which is overall quite a time-consuming pursuit), i cut off the edging to use as piping.Turned out quite well in the end!

Chair Lift

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There seems to be a revival happening in the world of painted furniture, but its not like the good old ‘changing rooms’ days of the early 90’s. I recall aged 13 painting my first two-tier table. By today’s standards it would be viewed as positively twee, but back then it was all about the pattern (stencils? everywhere, please), shine and colour. For this particular project, I stripped both the table tops, did a strawberry vine hand-painted decorative border on each, painted the legs gloss forest green, and finally varnished the whole thing. This gets 3 black marks by today’s standards. The ‘chalky paint’ look has come to dominate the scene, the more unfinished looking the better. When painting furniture, one must try their best to miss as many corners and edges as possible, if not achieiving this then attacking your carefully painted piece with a healthy dose of sandpaper and strategically positioned chips, the more the better. As my pal Ali said the other day, don’t forget to start off with a truly gawdy colour which you then allow to peek forth, reminiscent of some long-forgotten era where green gloss and strawberry vine might actually have been considered fashionable.

Painted furnitiure is quite handy for the thriftily minded like me; buy an ugly old thing cheaply and liberally apply some Annie Sloan paint and wax til it wouldn’t look a bit out of place at any French brocante. Of course, Farrow and Ball or indeed the recently discovered Craig and Rose 1829 range will do just as nicely but for the purist, the chalkier the paint finish the better. I haven’t done a huge amount of furniture painting within the current trend but i recently did this project and i think its given me the bug! Mainly because of the joy in working with the beautiful paint range and textures from Craig and Rose. I have prevously used Crown or other standard range eggshell finish but working with a more finely made paint makes a remarkable difference for both durability and overall look. Not to mention the simple pleasure of reading the paint charts (sounds almost as appealing as watching paint dry, but read on….). For example, choose Porcelain Blue and you will discover that it is ‘a colour inspired by an Adelaide Alsop Robineau 1865-1925 porcelain vase.’

This bentwood chair was a street find. This doesn’t happen often so when it does i get all a-flutter. Harking back to the good ol’ days again, we had a series of Bentwood chairs at home in Tullyroan, mum had painted them all white gloss (same mistake as me it seems) and i remember being less than fond of them. So here i am investing an afternoon’s work in doing just about the same, but 25 years later. The apple doesn’t fall far…

Firstly i applied a layer of standard undercoat, i have skipped this in the past but you end up wasting more of your actual paint by having to do additional layers, so best to do this when working with untreated wood. If you are impatient like me you can thin it down to make it more workable, but make sure to use a nice attractive tin of pomodorini cherry tomatoes for doing so in case you suddenly decide to take pictures of the whole operation.

Here we have the chair at stage one, drying in sub-zero temperatures outside.

I then applied lavishly in two coats this delightful colour given to me by Gemma called Moonstone Grey. (“Originally named after a semi-precious stone from Sri Lanka”). Its a classic ‘of the moment’ shade; grey and blue and green all wrapped up in one.

Now here’s the bit that i rarely get around to. Go over all the edges and corners with fine sandpaper to create a distressed look. I fought my anti-commercialist tendencies and bought some of this Annie Sloan soft wax, this protects the finish against proper wear and tear chips which annoyingly never look that good or intentional.

I am not a fan of distressing the hell out of the item so as you can see here it’s quite subtle. In fact, come to think of it, you can’t see it at all but we’ll just blame the photographer for that.

Not satisfied with just one chair, i decided to re-vamp a former project which didn’t quite stand up to the test of time and community living. Incidentally, i bought this chair for 50p at an auction so not much is lost if it all goes wrong. I followed the same procedure again and then replaced the seat cover. All you need for that is a staple gun and some nice fabric.

I love this material by Colefax & Fowler, I picked up a scrap in a charity shop and have been trying to make it last ever since.

Under cover

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Having just moved house, you would think that making our files look pretty would be quite low down on the list of priorities. Not so. What could be more important than making a group of quite ugly yet functional and highly necessary objects into a visual vignette of vintage fabrics?

Here’s how i do it. I am sure there are better tutorials out there for this kind of thing but this is my quick and dirty version.

1. Use spray mount to attach the fabric. This gives a clean and non-rumpled finish. However its not great for going around corners so…

2. I use PVA on the other side. I also de-bulk the corners…..

3. …to make the edges a bit neater. That’s basically it!

4. I’m a big fan of plain old packaging labels. Really, any kind of label i could say i am a fan of. But most people know that.

5. Now for display. Line them all up in pretty rows and complement with other pointless but aesthetic items like a broken 1920’s typewriter.

Here’s the full set. I originally had them all in a big happy row but it somehow didn’t make the most of them. So i’ve gone for the interspersed look.The bottom row consists of magazine racks covered many moons ago. Oh, and another typewriter….

 

Easy up-cycled cake stands

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Now that Christmas is done and dusted, i can write about some of the creations that have found new homes via the packages in the previous post. The easiest of these was the cake stands, a joint effort with my pal Ali T. To swiftly summarise, pick up some old second hand cast off plates, drill a few holes, and bring together with fittings ordered from ebay.

I have sourced these from various places including my trusty salvage yard, local charity shops and some antique shops which often sell lovely single plates for £1 or £2.

Drill a hole in the centre using a diamond tipped drill bit. You will also need a water sprayer as it gets red hot and can blister the glaze. Put a few layers of sellotape over the guide hole as this helps give some grip to the drill.

Once you have all the plates drilled, match them up in funky combinations and screw together the fittings. You can get either a 2 or 3 tier stand. I think 3 tier is a bit more decadent, and you get to put more inventive plate combinations together. Here are the finished products….

And here is our trusty sellotape holder for the task…

its a wrap

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Many will know that i’m a stickler for a well wrapped present. Perhaps i’m reading too many interiors magazines of late, with stacks of stylishly wrapped gifts piled high under chic trees (no tinsel in sight.) Despite the fact that wrapping is of course designed to simply be torn off to reveal the goods within, i nonetheless enjoy the process of putting together paper, ribbon and tag in a way that makes a bit more, for me, of the true sentiment within gift-giving.

The cornerstone of good wrapping is, obviously, good wrapping paper. Forget the feeble glossy white stuff, i always go for thicker brown or matt white paper, which in general has better festive prints. My top tip for paper sourcing is Ikea in October. By that i mean going in december is a waste of time, certainly in edinburgh, as everything christmas-related has sold out by then.

This year Ikea came up trumps with this pretty blue paper with white snowflake-theme print. Like many things, i love to layer up to get the most out the complimentary colours. Using brown paper underneath also works well – a respectful nod to the traditional parcel.
Using various ties and ribbons is another great way to pimp your parcel. Raffia makes an appearance every year on my presents, this year combined with Baker’s Twine. Labels also are worth a thought. Again, you can’t go far wrong with the traditional brown parcel label. I had originally planned to do letter stamps on each one but it didn’t show up very well so i printed off labels in American Typewriter script, and added a wooden star (discovered serendipitously in my ever-faithful collection of filled Altoids boxes of old).
Last year Paperchase had a fine range of paper, and i’m returning to some of it this year again as i think its a great option for kids, with fun colours and funky illustrations. A simple ribbon is all you need when the paper can happily speak for itself.This year i managed to do handmade christmas cards. I don’t send cards every year (keeps ye guessin’), but when i have the time i do love sitting down to conjure up a design that is both crafty and, here’s the key, easily replicable. A bit like sista, i’m a very economically aware kind of person (pffft!) and hence have used FT newspaper for the trees, cut out with pinking shears. Ikea paper makes the perfect snowy backdrop, and my alphabet stampers complete the look.
Finally, have all your materials strewn across the table so that you can mix and match your collection. The last key to successful gift-wrapping is making a great big mess, plus plenty of festive drinks and snacks to get you in the mood!

Hedgerow Membrillo from Drumsesk

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Here we have another esteemed guest blogger joining us with her inspiration and salvage secrets – our auntie Gladys (mum to Brona, also a guest poster of old), who has been busy this autumn in the Rostrevor thicket….

I am excited about having the time and intent to use whatever is available and full of potential so I’ve had a go at using the quince on the neighbours’ bush that they barely knew existed beyond being ornamental.  The irony is that one little apple tree has sprouted on our side of their fence right at the quince so the young tree is loaded with bigger apples than any in the old orchard –   only a little birdie could have done such a thing…!

With a bit of support from my daughter Alix I harvested about 4lb of quince, wondering if I could make what is called a “spread” with the apples without using sugar as in jam.  Finally recipes appeared in search of something I had not seen or experienced before….Membrillo!  Now I wondered what it was with no pictures as yet forthcoming so I was blindly crawling before I could walk.  After spending time eyeing my basket full of little wizened yellow fruit that bore some resemblance to crab apples for about two weeks, I was still uncertain what to do.  Eventually I plucked up enough verve to halve them and remove rotting brown bits or black spots on the skins.  I’m blessed to have the use of an old sixty year old Esse stove that still works if properly maintained and I have discovered that the coolest part on top will bring hard fruit towards a luscious pulp by evening with a minimum of added water.  The lemon golden pulp when cooled to hand heat was placed in a sieve draped with a small muslim cloth and allowed to drip overnight.

I wondered what to I do next….use this lovely juice only and dispose of all the coarse pulp?  Yet again a friend helped unfreeze my mind to shift from the mental mud.  I have a sieve acquired from I don’t know where that has a hinged lid enabling contents to be pushed through and transformed into the finest and lightest of consistency.  The coarse quince went through to produce a fine pulp which I then blended into a beautiful cream.  I knew by this stage that I was getting somewhere but where?  Was I going to risk making a spread without sugar that was going to grow a beard by christmas or was the sugar the best solution.  I weighed the pulp and added its equivalent in cane sugar into the warmed juice and thanked Gaia for yet another wonder plant to preserve my efforts.  I stirred the pot continuously and slowly a clear red golden glaze emerged that brought a smile to my culinary efforts.

Along came another friend at a critical moment to keep me brave for the next decision when this hot pot of gorgeous gold was ready.  We poured it onto flat tins lined with oiled greaseproof and placed it for a few hours in the bottom oven where I imagine meringues would crisp without going brown.  Later that evening a panicky moment emerged when the top and bottom of the four trays were darkening and losing that wonderful transparent red gold glaze.  It was time to rescue them and transfer to the hotpress.  I found a way to stack them alongside the stacked towels and there they remained for three to four days slowly drying into what reminded me of turkish delight though in much thinner sheets.  It was only then I discovered a site online that sold the spanish membrillo wrapped like the soft galtee cheese triangles that kids love.

Online I found the spanish cheese recommended to go with this in Sainsburys – Manchengo!  Brona had just arrived with Mark who has been christened Tomo or Mr T to differentiate him from son Mark and we had Membrillo straight out of the hotpress with this hard cheese for dessert and a bottle of Reisling.  It was a wonderful treat by candlelight and I began to recall stories of Brona as a babe, a physically non stoppable child and bossy adolescent so she bore it all serenely knowing love was in the air!

 

Seasonal salvage, and some nostalgia

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I’ve been particularly seasonal in spirit this year, given that its only dec 3rd. Christmas tree decorating yesterday, mince pies today, advent evensong tomorrow… I have also been getting busy with thrifty decor, making my usual wreath and fireplace garland from the wealth of wonderful foliage at Blackford Hill. I find the trick is to be bold and extravagant with your materials, abandoning the functional details in favour of simply applying precarious piles of whatever with fervour to any surface that happens to cross your path. This i learned from the two masters of the art, my mother and our neighbour elizabeth harty, both of whom have now sadly left us. But they leave behind an inheritance of exuberant decorating with foliage, exemplified most beautifully on many occasions at tullyroan methodist church. Though not always appreciated by the wider congregation at times, i have fond memories of such times, celebrating nature the way nature intended. In particular i recall a harvest service where the door to the vestry was entirely obscured by catoni aster and ivy. i think elizabeth may have been asked to prune that back a little at the time, perhaps by a well meaning minister requiring access to the hymn books.

Anyway, back to the wreaths. Start out with lots of lovely bags of inspiration.

I use some fir for the base, building up with holly and finishing with some boughs of berry.

Bend a wire hanger into a circle, and be ready with some garden wire and secateurs. 

Build up the fir base, then attach on the holly with the wire.

 I have dried these orange slices which make a nice addition to the wreath.

You can make a bow by stapling together some lengths of ribbon in the middle.

Here is the finished product in situ. Hopefully no-one will need to use the door knocker for a while.

Don’t forget to ply yourself with other seasonal goodies whilst creating christmas cheer. Note here my tasty mince pie, the first of the season. Looks like something from an M&S add, eh?

 

 

Box file magic

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Back when i was famous and people asked me to go onto the radio and stuff, i received a lot of love for the covered magazine folders featured in this post ,which were discussed on the salvage sisters ‘Saturday Morning Show’ radio slot. So here i am at it again, covering every white ikea file in sight including these ones used at the front door to organise all the messy pups living in this house (if you live here and are reading this – just saying that to make the task seem more important and necessary.)

Here are some tips i have learned along the way, for those who might be interested in pimping their very own box files. Step one involves cutting out the basic shape from some lightweight fabric, leaving a margin of about 2 inches all around. I like to mix up floral and stripes when doing a set of boxes.

The two key tools for the job are good quality spray mount, and micropore. They are both ideal for fixing material, especially the micropore which comes in handy for finishing touches. It is fairly easy for me to get my hands on, but if you are a non-nhs worker, you could try bribing your local doctor for some. (Note how i have laid paper on the desk whilst using spray mount. i won’t even go into what happened the first time i used the stuff without adequate, ie extensive, covering.)

Fix the material onto the sides, front and back. Cut the overhang at the top into 1 inch intervals, to allow you to wrap it around the curved edge of the box. Then fix the strips to the inner edge with spray mount. Its tricky to not get the sticky substance all over the inside, resulting in magazines becoming permanently attached to the side, but there are worse things in life that could happen.

Then, fold the material at the bottom in the way you might wrap a present, and fix it to the bottom using spray mount, then secure the edges with micropore. Oh, and do the securing edges thing to the material at the top as well otherwise the flux of important things going in and out of your box with eventually unstick the material. Here are some fine pictorial examples….

Voila! Your lovely set of box files all pretty and unique for your hallway. Not a sniff of ikea identi-kit round here any more.