Saturday 25 January 2014

Nutley Antiques - A 'Gem' of a Find


Whilst organising my office the other day I found a leaflet for 'Nutley Antiques'  - Nutley is a very small village about 30 minutes drive from where I live.  So I made a trip out there today with my dear friend Lin - WOWZER!! I love this place! - overflowing with everything I love, textiles, glass, ceramics, furniture and everything else in between!
This is the original paint on this garden bench - stunning...


 I love the way the paint on this gorgeous cupboard has aged - lovin' the colours and layers.
A classic linen cupboard...
 
Vintage cutlery & Lloyd Loom...
Love this glass canister...

Pretty metal rocking horse... 
 Look at this cute vintage lawn mower...
This bust is gorgeous...


 
 

Look at the layered paint effect on the shop front!

The shop is a collection of different sellers, Clare Askaroff was manning the shop today and she also sells her antiques in Lewes Antiques Centre (stall 30) - which is also another great place I love for browsing antiques.
Do you have a favorite place where you love to browse?
CJ

Monday 20 January 2014

Creating Chippy Vintage Doors - with 'Ironstone' Milk Paint

I found these pretty ornate wardrobe doors a couple of weeks ago at Ardingly Antiques Fair, as soon as I spotted  them I thought they would be perfect to hang on the wall, but first I would need to make them look chippy and old! What better way to create 'the look' than with Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint - I chose the colour Ironstone, which is a true white, although I would need to make them look like they were painted years ago.
When using the white shades it's always best to apply a coat of a medium shade of milk paint as a base coat, white paint always takes a lot of coats to cover a dark pre-finished wood like this, but if the white is applied on top of a darker colour coat of Milk Paint  it will only need one or two coats.  I wanted the effect to be chippy and old, so I used the colour 'Trophy' (no bonding) as my base coat as I wanted to have this peeping through the Ironstone in some places, this gorgeous steely grey colour is a perfect base coat for the look I wanted.
 
I applied two coats of 'Trophy' and then applied a little 'Hemp Oil' on a few random places to create a 'resist' for the 'Ironstone' milk paint which I applied straight away whilst the 'Hemp Oil' was still wet.
I applied 2 coats of 'Ironstone' 
After the 2nd coat of 'Ironstone' was dry I gently sanded with fine sandpaper and found all the places where I had applied the 'Hemp Oil' and rubbed any residue of the dried paint away - leaving the exposed coat of Trophy underneath.
If I get a build up of dried paint in the crevices I use a stiff bristle brush which smooths it out without leaving clumps of paint in these areas.

Just one quick coat of Antiquing Wax - which I always apply with a brush in small areas and then buff off after 5 minutes. 
I'm really pleased with the transformation the doors have turned out exactly how I had imagined them - I can use them single or double depending where I want to hang them - in fact there are quite a few places I can put them, so I will have some fun playing around with them.
I will definitely be on the look out for some more doors I really love them as a wall decoration.
CJ