Tea Cosy

Recently I have been seeing 'handmade' style, appliquéd tea cosys everywhere and I thought that I would try making one. It was easy enough to make a semi-circle pattern big enough for my tea pot and go from there. They tend to retail at about £30-£40 in smart home-ware shops ('not on the high street.com' also stock them for this amount) which seems somewhat pricey considering that they don't really take too much work to make. Now i have made my first one and have a pattern i think I could make another in about 1 1/2 hours. I still need to perfect the design but its a start.... I may try one with a tea cup design next. A tea cosy would make a nice Christmas present so I will try and make a couple more in time for family members. It all depends now on when our baby arrives and my crafting time gets more limited, which could be any day now!

Rejuvenating my old chairs

I have had these chairs for a while now and before they were mine they belonged to my Grandparents who used them as kitchen chairs.

I should have taken a 'before and after' photo but like with most projects i tend to jump straight in.....I have no patience when it comes to craft and have to start a project as soon as an idea comes to mind. So, in the absence of a 'before' photo you will have to believe me that the chair frames were an unpainted light wood and the seat covers a rather dated sandy cream vinyl fabric. Overall they looked a bit boring and miserable.

I used the left over paint (yes the paint left-over’s keep on going…) from the dresser project (see below) to paint the chairs. I then covered the seat bases in some lovely 1950s style fabric; the fabric features a dense pattern of stylised flowers and seed heads. The fabric was on the end of a roll in John Lewis and because they only had 90cm left and I had asked for 100cm they gave it to me for half price. Good Customer service and a bargain – great!

Upgraded tray

I recently purchased this wooden tray in a charity shop for 99p. At the time it was a vulgar green colour and looked pretty tatty. Using a sample wallpaper scrap of Sanderson's 'Finches' design I covered the base of the tray. I then painted the rest of the tray in some left over Farrow and Ball 'Old White' paint. In total because I used left over paint and a free paper sample the whole project cost just 99p - Bargain!

Pin cushion

simple pincushion made with left-over scraps of felt.

Painted dresser project

Before

&

After

I recently ordered a welsh dresser online from a company called Wye Pine. I asked for the dresser to be left 'in the white' so not varnished or waxed etc so that i could have a go at painting it myself........perhaps a bit too ambitious for my first wood painting project whilst 8months pregnant but i like a challenge, particulary a creative challenge!!!
Firstly i sanded down the dresser and got rid of any dust/dirt. I then gave the dresser a coat of white wood primer on the parts i wanted to eventually paint. I decided i wanted to use Farrow and Ball estate eggshell paint as it is supposed to be really good quality and ideal for furniture. After much deliberation i went for No. 4 Old white. It is a white paint with a slight blue/grey tone. I then used an antique pine wax for the top and door knobs. I really like the fact that you can still see wood on some parts of the dresser and it makes the whole dresser look a bit more 'country' inspired than if i had painted the whole dresser in a single shade. I have now displayed our collection of Sophie Conran china in the dresser and the grey tone of the paint works well with the bright white china as it really stands out.