No chairs but we have art!

Shhhh big secret here....Hull has the most amazing reclamation yards!! Total hidden gems across the city where you can still get a bargain! This is where I found this beauty! Its a 1950's science poster, possibly from a school lab or even a University. There was actually three other posters like this but     my sensible other half, my lack of spare change and the realist in me stopped me purchasing them all! So we have art but no seating in our front sitting room!!                                                                         

 

 

 

What do you think? Do nervous system cells look ok on the wall? I love it!

An old school table

So the new house has a HUGE kitchen which is great, we love entertaining and cooking for our guests and the house is perfect for this.

The kitchen is not exactly how we want it - I hope to modernise it in the long-term and spruce it up in the near future but in the mean time we wanted to make it useable.

The kitchen table form our previous house looked like it had been taken out of dolls house and made the room seem unbalanced. Looking at the table made me realise what a leap we have made house wise!

So the search for a kitchen table fit for such a large kitchen began. Not a fan of brand new furniture we started our search in local charity shops and second-hand furniture stores, but nothing was big or rustic enough.

We stepped up the search and started looking online and scoured eBay. After a week or so my wonderful other half came across an old school table and 6 chairs (Ercol no less) it looked perfect - but was the price? Well yes we paid £185 for the lot! A steal!

Vintage Chewing gum?!

I was very excited about the arrival of the table and chairs and when we unloaded it we were not disappointed - it was the perfect size.

Keep cleaning

The only thing that we hadn't bargained for was 20 year old chewing gum under the table! Operation clean table began and 3 hours later it looked fab!

Ercol Chair

The 6 Ercol chairs were an added bonus and were in great condition. All they needed was a polish.

The final picture below shows how well the table fits in the kitchen, all we need to do no is have a party!
Now where did I put those invites?

The final product

Oh Annie

My mission to do my next house up as cheaply as possible has lead me to upcycling furniture.

I've been a woman on a mission searching for pieces of furniture for as little of possible and I now have a growing collection of mismatched and unloved pieces all in need of some TLC!.

This is where the wonderful Annie Sloan comes in, she has produced the wonderful chalk paint that I am going to use to spruce up the furniture!

Chalk Paint is a unique decorative paint developed by Annie Sloan in 30 decorative and historical colours made specifically for painting furniture, painting floors, and for giving walls a completely matt, velvety finish.Chalk Paint  sticks to just about any surface... wood, concrete, metal, matt plastic, earthenware and much more, inside and outside the home. 

I'm looking forward to seeing what I can create and improve with this wonderful paint! 

The first colours I've invested in are English Yellow and Aubusson Blue. 

On the Annie Sloan website there is a little write up for each colour: 

Aubusson Blue

The colour is named and designed after the beautiful deep grey blue found on the classic 18th and 19th century Aubusson rugs from France. It is an elegant colour that works well with many colours as it is a dark neutral but in particular it works with Paris Grey . It is also a colour found in Scandinavian painted furniture 

So this is the stool just after I started painting, it's incredibly easy using this paint. It goes straight onto the wood, no sanding or primer!! Amazing!  

First stages ........

  

Here are a couple of photos from my current home. Most things were either free ( like the coffee table) or very cheap like the red sofa that was third hand bought for £50 from my little sister!

I really enjoyed doing the house up and have learnt so much on the way. The biggest lesson I've learnt is that money doesn't guarantee style and in fact lack of money often means that you're more creative!

Dining Area 

Photo credit: Oliver Hudson