Paris in my dining room.

Paloma & Silver Leaf Sideboard

It is a beautiful day in the Vale of Belvoir.  So I'm told.  We live in a beautiful village which according to some, is 'in the Vale' and according to others, is not.  Me. I'm going with 'in the Vale' just because I like saying Belvoir.

To the uninitiated you might think this is pronounced Bel-vo-i-r.  It's not.  In fact if you pronounce it Bel-vo-i-r around these parts you are likely to be mightily mocked and removed from whichever premises you uttered said word upon.  Quite why I'm not sure, since the actual pronunciation is 'Beever'.  yes Really.  The Vale of 'Beever'.

Anyway, as I said its a beautiful day in what may or mat not be The Vale of Belvoir.  So I have taken some picture of the long awaited Paloma Sideboard.  I have to admit its is love on my part.

Before: Brown Wood Sideboard

This little beauty was the most gorgeous shape as you can see from the 'before' picture here.  I knew she could be a real stunner.  I also knew I wanted to investigate my love of French Interiors, so I went back to basics and got out my Annie Sloan 'Creating the French Look' book.

I knew ASCP in Paloma was my go to colour on this one, and I had a feeling that silver leaf would look stunning.  So a quick scan of Annie's marvelous tips and I was decided.

Now, using Silver leaf is not a quick or necessarily easy process - I may even do a tutorial on it in due course, but it was worth it I think.  Here is the result.  I hope you like her.

Ooo la la. What a transformation.

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Paloma

 

Mirror Painted to match

That's me for today.  Hopefully I can show you the matching table and chairs shortly!

Marie xx

IS MINE NORMAL?

It's been a busy old week here at Chateau Debell.  On Thursday and Friday I finally go around to some painting.  It was love at first sight for me with this pine blanket box once I finished her in Old Violet and Paloma from Annie Sloan.  Paloma is my most favorite colour right now.

Part Painted with Paloma from Annie Sloan

And in her full glory - Old Violet with Paloma

Whilst I had the paint out I moved on to a mirror and the Sideboard I have been desperate to paint for weeks - sneaky peek as she is not quite finished yet.

Mirror and sconses in Paloma

Sneak Peek after one coat

After all that I got my paints out again last night to have a play with some Stag Head Silhouettes.  This is something I have had in mind for a while and this was my first effort - not brilliant but not bad either.  The plan is to paint these on to some chests of drawers and onto rough wood so they can be distressed.  Any feedback appreciated - this painting malarky is something I haven't really done since I was 18 (and I'm quite a bit older than that now).

Card with Rub'n'buff painted with Old Violet

So now I have to ask a very important question.  The Husband has many quirks. Some lovable  some not so much.  But my question is this.

Why can he never ever find things.  I say, 'It's in the drawer', he goes, look, shuts the drawer, opens it and looks again and announces 'No, It's not there'.  I go, open the drawer and said item is sitting in plain view.

Take Sunday morning.  Husband, 'I've lost my iPhone', me, 'Have you checked your pockets?', him, 'Yes, twice'.  

So we send out word  - we have half the village checking paths and bins.  Then I look in his pocket.  Actually I didn't even look, I just felt said pocket as I passed the trousers hanging on their hanger.  yes.  One iPhone found.

My very good friend Leonie, of Leonie Brown Garden Design has the measure of him.  'He needs to put his girl eyes in'.

I couldn't agree more!

M xx

Serendipity.

I have such wonderful friends.  Over the last couple of days I have been donated some lovely items of furniture in return for some painting advice.  Serendipity.

So eyes peeled for a Blanket Box I'm going to go colour mad with and a TV Cabinet I have BIG plans for.

So thank you my lovelies and lets see if I can make them look even half as lovely as these beauties!

Love the subtle highlighting - sorry I cant credit as I cant get the link to work

Perhaps a little on the bright side but the concept is perfect.
From Pinterest.

Now this would work a treat.  Again no link info - sorry.

M x

Brrr. Yum. Brrr. Yummy. In that order.

Its been a funny few days.  I have not been able to get close to my paint pots although the hoover has had a really good workout.  I'm having serious withdrawal, but tomorrow...oh tomorrow, my heart is singing at the thought of you.

Over the weekend we had the fire stoked up almost constantly - now I love a real fire as much as the next person, what I don't like is the occasional back-draw that puffs smoke into the room and leaves sooty tentacles all over the cobwebs.  How many spiders can one house hide in plain sight?  I really, really need a feather duster.

Icicles on the bathroom

The Husband loves any excuse to make fire, now can you please tell me, is it just mine or do they all beat their chest and shout 'Ug' when dealing with flames?
One major benefit of a cold snap?  Yummy hot chocolate after a spot of sledging with The Tweeps.  Painting is now a requirement to work off those annoying calories.

Yummy Hot Chocolate

Back to tomorrow.  Tomorrow will start with a dog walk with my lovely friends, (that's the second 'Brr') and then I get to crack open a new pot of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, break out a new brush and go to work on this...a lovely cabinet for display on the wall.  That's the 'Yummy'.  I'm so excited, if slightly torn. She's a beauty as she is with no damage, which is quite unheard of.

Wall Mounted Display Cabinet.

I will have to get cracking on the beautiful sideboard I posted last week whilst I consider.  Its going to be a great big paint pot of fun in this house.  If things pan out I will make a quick trip to the auction to view the lots for Thursday too - you never know what might turn up.

View from my window

Finally I wanted to say a massive 'Thank You' to all my new followers and to the lovely people who have shared links to my Blog.  I really, really appreciate it.  I have been asked by a couple of my American friends where I live in the UK - the answer is near the, ahem, original, Newark, (sorry guys it has been here a very long time).  I'm in a lovely little village with a primary school, (I think that's equivalent to elementary school), a village shop, a village green, a pub with a microbrewery, a church, a chapel (complete with 16th Century graffiti) and lots of very eccentric, very lovely residents.

My daily dog walk

It is every bit as quintessentially English as you could imagine but without the thatched cottages.  We are a pan-tile village centered around the village green.  These are a couple of pictures I took yesterday.

View from my landing.

Enjoy.

Until next time.

Marie xx

Lovely, lovely, lovely but decisions, decisions, decisions.

This week I will start work on this beautiful, elegant sideboard.  

Reproduction Sideboard on elegant legs

But what colour?  What technique?  Shabby chic? Chippy? French glamour? Trusty creamy tones or brave brights?  Help me here people.

This is a thought from European Paint Finishes

But I LOVE this from Miss Mustard Seed

How about a slightly more subtle version of this pink beauty?  No?  Well I think I'm going to go for Old Violet with a little wax based trickery. Unless one of you gets to me first.  Thinking caps on...Duck Egg? French Linen? Old Ochre? Henrietta?
  

Candy Floss Pink from Valy's Blog

Georgous Old Violet ASCP pic via
Purple Pear Shop

Want it to match your decor? Get in touch before Tuesday 10am - first to contact me gets a special price.

She could be yours!

Marie xx

Do you like it?

I had a mini-disaster on Friday with my blog.  Being in a hurry whilst adding widgets and playing with the layout I forgot to 'Save' and 'Download a Copy' of my blog BEFORE I started messing around.  Next thing I know it's 3pm and I need to go and collect the Tweeps from School.  No problem thinks I.  I hit save and then realised.  Oops.

New Look for the blog it is then!  A bit like when I paint something and decide later it needs a change.  I know I'm practically perfect in every way, but even we perfect people are allowed to change our minds once in a while.

A bit like changing this sideboard from Black, (it was one of my very first pieces and I only had one time of paint!!), to Country Grey was a great idea!  It sold instantly when I re-painted it.

Good, but no cigar!

Much better in gorgeous Country Grey

So whats the verdict?  Do you like my 'Accidental New Look' Blog or should I have stuck with the old one and actually deferred to the expert in the room? (Did I mention The husband is a Web Developer Extraordinaire?)

Let me have your comments please!!

Grrr. Arrgh and Gritted Teeth.

Now I love my husband very much.  He is a marvel of modern manhood, but when it comes to looking for things he drives me insane.  At this point can I just reiterate - I love him more than chocolate (and that is A LOT) but Aaaarrrrgh!!!

It's cold.  It's close to Baltic, but sitting here in my little cottage, fire roaring - (this is my view as I type),  I'm not worried.

I  have a box full of ski clothes sitting in one of the stables.  It is jammed full of thermals, gloves, salopettes, ski jackets and the like.  Just what we need in preparation for the mega snowball fights and sledging action we planned with the weekend.  So smug in the knowledge that we will be toasty warm and prepared I sent the aforementioned husband out to get the box of goodies.  The Tweeps need to be warm, (always good to go with a minor tug on the heart strings), so out he went, torch in hand.

Ten minutes later he had upended the entire stable, looked in every box and come back with - well  - with precisely nothing.  I sighed.  Grumped.  Explained, (obviously very calmly and with no hint of sarcasm or irritation), that I have a system, the box was plastic and definitely had a black lid, was in the middle, absolutely, certainly and without doubt had a black lid and clearly he had messed everything up when he got the Christmas decorations out.  Oh and it was the one with the black lid. So with a heavy heart and a very warm riding jacket, I removed myself from the sofa, pottered outside - IN MY SLIPPERS - and ventured into the stable.  100% certain that I was about to immediately put my hands on said box and therefore be able to mock my husband forevermore.

Yes he had turned my system on its head.  Grrrrr.  I stood berating the loss of my wonderfully tidy storage system, (admittedly the only person who knows the codes to the filing system is me and I'm not sharing), but how could he not see the box with the black lid?  It was right there.  Right in front of me aat the very top of the pile.  Triumphantly I pulled it out, opened it and showed him the contents.  Oh.  A stack of too small summer dresses belonging to tweep number 2.  Whoops.  Perhaps I should have reigned in my sarcasm until the box was open.

Humble pie time, (it's OK I'm doing the 5:2 Diet and today is a Feast Day), so I looked down at the box with the blue lid and, (oops), there it all was.  Neatly packed and ready for the snow.

Sorry Husband.  I admit I was wrong but remember - Tweep Number 1, (the 6 year old), once said, upon being told to look with his eyes not his hands, that he was a raccoon and could see with his fingers.  I think the husband ought to take a leaf out of his sons book.  Don't rely on me for accurate colour descriptions.  It's not like colour is just about the most important part of my job or anything!!

Clearly I was a little colourblind on this occasion,  probably because of the gorgeous brightness of the absolutely lovely 1960's G-Plan style bedroom furniture I have refurbished this week on behalf of a client.  My eyeballs have been dazzled and therefore I should be forgiven.

This was a set of furniture my client had already that she felt was tired and needed a 'lift'.  Well it certainly got that!  Finished in the wonderful 'Emperors Silk' with a contrasting frame in 'Old White' this was a brave and great choice.  I love it.

1960's Bedroom Furniture in Emperors Silk

Small Bedside Cabinet

Dressing table and Drawers

And here's the before.

 I suppose I ought to apologise, but I was seeing red so I think I should be excused - don't you?

Until next time.  

Marie xx

Ooooh, I say. I've only opened a shop!

Yes indeed.  I have gone all professional and got myself a actual shop.  You can actually buy my lovely goodies on-line.  And its super easy!

Take a little peek here.  It's very nice having a shop.  I feel very grown up.  Do I need a brown coat and a broom?

Want to see some of my stock?  here you go:

Gorgeous Bad Boy Chest of Drawers

Super, dooper Blanket Box

Slim Coffee Table or Bench or Shoe Store- you choose

Marie xx

A Bedtime Story, (well my 4 year old likes it!)

Once upon a time there was a Mummy who painted things, that's her there, see, in that picture, up a mountain with 2 items, (not for sale apparently), that she calls 'The Tweeps'.  

Now this Mummy liked to paint. She painted anything. She painted walls, she painted cupboards, she painted tiles, she painted chairs, she painted tables. She once even painted the Number 1 Tweep, (she claimed he was a smurf, but in the absence of any other smurf like activity it was deemed that he was merely asleep and she had painted him blue).  Like I said, she loved to paint.
One day the Mummy ran out of things to paint.  So determined was she that the dog took to hiding in the goat house and the goats disguised themselves as chickens.  The chickens took on a very duck-like attitude and the ducks...well lets just say they decided to chill out in the freezer for a while.   

So the Mummy took action.  The Mummy went to the auction.  All the sad looking, brown, not very shiny, a bit chewed and droopy looking lumps of wood looked at the Mummy when she walked round.
The Poor old sticks of furniture, were used to being prodded, poked and manhandled.  Men in pink corduroys wearing Panama Hats and Dickie Bows kept stroking their chipped veneers and opening their drawers.  Strange ladies with yellowing fingers and a penchant for glasses on string were nosing around their underbelly's and kicking their nether-regions.

They looked at the Mummy and wondered.  Why did this Mummy not gaze upon their scratched, scraped and bumped skin, utter a barely concealed 'Tut, Tut' and shake her head in disappointed disgust?  Why did this Mummy look upon their sad and neglected exteriors with glee and delight?  The furniture was very confused.  The furniture was of course thick as a plank.

The Mummy bought lots of tired old furniture that no one else wanted.

Despite her best efforts, all the furniture the Mummy bought was very sad. The furniture was sad because people though it was ugly. But the Mummy knew it wasn't ugly. The Mummy knew all the furniture needed was a new outfit.

So the Mummy called for her Fairy Godmother, whose name was Annie Sloan. The Fairy Godmother sent the Mummy lots of lovely Chalk Paint and the Mummy made new clothes for each sad old piece of furniture she found. 

The Tweeps

The Mummy painted, and painted, and painted, until the cold wind blew and the dark clouds gathered and winter forced the Mummy to retreat indoors.  

The Mummy looked upon her creations and she was pleased.

But the Mummy needed homes for her babies, (please note the image you see is not of items for sale but of the real, actually alive tweeps, absolutely NOT for sale).  So one day the Mummy decided to share her furniture and opened an Etsy Shop. 

From that day on all the furniture the Mummy dressed went to new homes all around the land. The Mummy was very pleased and the furniture was very beautiful.  

And they all lived happily ever after.

The End.

First Post. Reverse Ageing & Bedroom Re-do

Happy New Year lovers of Fantastic Furniture, Chalk Paint Addicts and Crafty Home Makeover Type Stuff.  Its been a long old holiday break here at Chateau Debell and today is the first day I have had the opportunity to pull out my lovely, if slightly dusty, laptop and get blogging.

Hoping you all had a wonderful Christmas - seems so long ago now - but I wish each and every one of you a wonderful 2013.  It's going to be a good one.  I know this to be fact, because on the way home from the pub on New Years Eve, having toasted everyone's health and wished one and all a prosperous new year I found a tenner.  Yippee.

That's the prosperous bit started nicely and as for health - well this morning I discovered my body is reversing the ageing process.  I am not, as I thought, knocking on 40 (yes really, gulp), but I have the ears of a 4 year old.  I am in fact incredibly young, ergo, healthy.

OK, slight exaggeration.  I went deaf in one ear in mid-November.  Not unusual for me.  I regularly have blocked ears and the Syringe at the quacks is my favorite way of spending 10 minutes.  But this was different.  Not that the doc believed me.  So after a double set of antibiotics and chest Xray (!) I finally got referred to the ENT and had my appointment this morning.

Ever had a massive camera stuck up your nose? No? That thing was scary - and long - and scary.  So very scary.  The Consultant did say it would make my eyes water.  He wasn't lying.   Take my advice boys and girls.  Waterproof Mascara is a must if anyone ever waves a long scary, very scary, nose camera at you.

So, the diagnosis.  "Ms Debell, you have Glue Ear.  You need a Gromit".  Marvellous.  I have the ears of a 4 year old.  See.  Reverse Ageing.

So that's my start to the new year.  It has been too cold to paint outside this week, so I have continued on my bedroom re-vamp.  The wallpaper was my priority as we have finally ordered our new bed.  Oh man I can't wait to snooze on that sucker.  I am closely related to the Princess from The Princess and the Pea, so this bed better live up to it's not insignificant price tag.  As my Mum said - "You can buy a new bed but you cant buy a new back".  So we doubled the budget and bought a dream (geddit?) mattress.

Beautiful black and white Hydranger & Roses wallpaper

Couple of pics so you can see how I got on with my Wallpapering - not too shabby if I do say so myself.  I even managed to line the walls and did the whole thing without a jot of assistance.  If the Furniture Restoration doesn't take off I can always wallpaper things instead.

A Close Up of the wallpaper.  Yummy.

Onwards and upwards, just need to find Wallace to add to my Gromit.  Jemima would like a puppy...hmmm.  Perhaps not.

Salut et à bientôt,

Marie x