Injecting a splash of colour to our home

10th April


It has been ten days since I last posted, that is quite a while for me, but now we are on holidays and the made rush of life is able to slow down a notch and for a couple of glorious weeks we are not ruled by the clock.  Bliss.  And as always, I have many makes planned for these two weeks.  Already I have begun with gusto and am having such fun. 

Crocheted granny stitch bottle cosy

Those of you who have been following, will know that I am slowly making items to bring a splash of colour to the garden for summer outdoor living, well I live in hope(!) and so I continued this theme for my first make.  A good friend of mine brought over some Innocent juices one night and instead of recycling them in the recycle bin, I decided to keep one for myself and 'pimp' it up so to speak...I am a little bit in love with this bottle cosy and suspect I may make more. 








A few weeks back I acquired some old school pigeon hole shelves and knew immediately on seeing them what I would like to do and use them for.  I had to wait for the holidays to put my plan into action and I think they turned out better than I expected.  I had intended on using Annie Sloan paint, but our local stockists were all shut on Monday and so I was forced to look elsewhere and I am so glad I did.  Do you know about Autentico paint?  It is brilliant, like the Sloan paint, it is chalk based, but not suitable for chalk board painting.  As long as your surface is clean and grease free, it sticks to most without preparations!! Brilliant!  It is thinner than the Sloan paint and so I feel it is easier to apply and the colour range is slightly better too.  Those of you who can make it to Marlow, should really visit the lovely little shop called Sarah Hughes, if you cannot make it there, pop over and see her website and her blog too, her enthusiasm is infectious and she is terribly helpful:  http://www.sarahughes.co.uk/

I ran a little guessing competition on my Face book page to see if anyone could guess what I would be using the shelves for and so a little woolly creation will be sent off to the winner, someone who has entered all my competitions to date and now has finally won something, am so pleased.  If you are on face book, why not follow me there too!  https://www.facebook.com/eclectichomelife

So what did I want the shelves for...



Chalk furniture painting!

Old school shelves, just needed a wipe over before painting could begin.

I decided on a pale grey for the shelves as the contents would be colourful enough.

 



But then I decided that was too dull, so added turquoise to the edges, the colour here is not true, it is very vibrant.

 



 

Storage for wool of course!

 



 

My intention was only to ever paint the shelves, but I was quickly addicted to the speed of this process and the great result.  Recently my colour palette has changed, but not enough to add huge colour through out the house, but perhaps the utility room...

 



 

So taking a bog standard pine table that so many of us have, I decided it needed colour too.

 



Sarah Hughes had warned me that the first coat would not look good but she told me to, 'Stick with it,' and she was right.

 



I felt to paint the whole table turquoise would be a step too far for me and so used the soft pale grey for the table top.  This way I could inject colour with table runners and vases etc.

 



Luckily the weather had turned for the better and I was able to paint outside.  This paint is amazing, touch dry in 30 minutes and a second coat can be applied about an hour later. The underside of the table was painted too, the same colour as the pedestal leg as you could see the table top supports, at this stage I just hoped it would all pull together.

 



Not satisfied with the table, I also had four chairs to match it and so set about painting the first two, one an old fashioned pink, 'gamle rosa' as we say in Norway and the other a crisp sharp lemon, again the colours in these photos do not really zing as they do in reality.

 



With just painting the shelves I had decided to get away with not waxing the painted item as it would not be knocked about so much.  But having now painted the table and chairs, waxing was necessary to protect the paint work.  Quick and very easy to apply, luckily!

 



I waxed everything and left it overnight and buffed it the following morning with a lint free cloth.

 



I am thrilled with the colour combination and am secretly proud of myself for being so brave in colour choices.  Mr H is away and has no idea what I have done, could be interesting on his return!

 



Without knowing it the paint choices match my current crochet theme too, look how the chair works so well with the Attic 24 inspired cushion!

 



Meanwhile inside in the utility room...now maybe to be a utility/craft room!

 

 



Even the juice bottle cosy matches!

 



I love this time of year, all the flowers are from the garden!

 



 

My only question now is,  what colour to paint the last two chairs?  Another pink and lemon one?  Or, do I incorporate the other two paint colours I have and paint one grey and one turquoise? Please let me know what you think.

 

 

 

I think I have managed to add a splash of colour to our home, don't you?  My daughter is now saying she thinks she will sit in here to complete her homework, as it is such a fun place to be!

 

Have a great week everyone!