Buffet to Bedroom Dresser

My first posted project. What do you think? Jason and I went to my favorite charity shop cum flea market sale last week. It was a quiet day, because of the classic English rain that was falling. I dug around under a tarp to see what goodies were hiding & saw this wooden dining room buffet (I'm guessing it's from the '60s or '70s). I figured with some paint it could stop looking like the '60s era wooden paneling in my parents' house and be something that makes me smile.
I like this etching, but it's almost invisible. Even the raised carvings in the arch doesn't show up well.

I had sample pots of Farrow & Ball paints that I'd been wanting to use. My options were Pale Powder, Skylight, & Borrowed Light. Since I'm trying to decide if Borrowed Light is my future house paint, I thought I'd give it a try.



I painted the drawers first, so that if I didn't like the Borrowed Light, it wouldn't be difficult to paint over in another color.


Even with just one coat, the drawer looked much better painted. So, I started in on the rest of the buffet.


I put on four coats before I called it quits.

The corner etchings still don't grab your attention, but they are much easier to see now.


Once I put it all back together & used my husband as an unpaid laborer, it went up in our bedroom.

Shameless Shade

Once upon a time my friend Sarah & I discovered my favorite antiques shop. It should be the setting for a children's story. (A future project, perhaps.) It's owner could be the English Mr. Rogers, tidy cardigans and woollen trousers. He's quiet and lets me explore as long as I want...and he constantly undercuts his own prices. I've walked out of there feeling guilty about how little he has charged me for vintage linens, dishes, and antique books. He also always sends me home with something that I never expressed interest in & usually didn't even know was in the shop. The first time it was an enormous hiking backpack, the kind that will hold your tent, sleeping bag, and a week's worth of food. He gave it to me to get an antique mirror home. Since I was traveling by train, it was quite handy. On a subsequent visit, the proprietor sent me home with a wooden lamp with an atrocious shade. That afternoon I stripped the 70s brocade off the shade & had its nude frame haunting odd nooks of my house.


Rather than leave the frame naked forever, I gave it a shirt.


It looks pretty dapper, doesn't it?


The process takes a couple of hours, so this was my watching-Sherlock-with-Jason activity. I'm pleased that I could recycle Graham's stained school shirts by using large swatches of unmarked material (usually the back and upper arms) and hand stitching them to frame. I did find a unmarked button placket, so that inspired three columns of three buttons around the shade.

This is actually the second frame I've covered using shirting fabric. The first time I stitched the bottom & gathered the fabric before stitching the top. This time I reversed the process & it makes the fabric tauter.


I'll paint that lamp base someday, but it works for now. And that mirror behind the lamp -- it came home with me in a backpack.