The crafted pantry

Hi,

A friend of mine asked me to enlighten a specific place in her lounge by painting an old crafted pantry furniture. This corner is now bright and cozy. 

Rainbow dresser

Hi,

This lovely kitchen dresser has been repaired and painted a while ago but for some reason I hadn't published anything about it on the blog so here it is. 
What I love about it is to explain the whole process of fixing, repairing and painting furniture from beginning to end. 
It was love at first sight and in spite of the bad shape and dirt, I could see a treasure and that it could turn into something magnificent! 
The pictures were taken from my cell phone so it's not great but you can follow the steps. 

Casa Ella project

I come here today to tell you about a beautiful deco project I have been working over the summer; I have named it the "Casa Ella" project. Casa Ella is a beautiful Bead & Breakfast; the house is a 100 years old property located in the Benahavis village near my workshop. It has been refurbished several time since then but had to face a complete makeover in order to match modern B&B requirements. The owners came to see me while the property was being refurbished and were able to choose furniture and colors to paint with.

Painting beams

Last winter, friends of ours asked me to paint a few beams for their tailored-made coffee table. Every single beam had to fit perfectly in the metal structure. 
I thought it would be interesting to paint both side of the beams, just in case they would like to change and update their living room decor. 

My toys trunk

When I mentioned how many trunks we have at home I was not joking: the one for the books, the one I lined, the luggage one… I have plenty of them and they are all in use.

Customized headboards

Before taking any step in my guest bedroom makeover project, I had to think about new headboards. The one I used so far was an upholstered one rescued from our king size bed in our master bedroom. To fit the twin beds in it I couldn't split them so I put two nightstands on both sides and it worked that way! 
I wanted to create two headboards of my choice and customize them so I finally decided these two options: 

Headboard nº 1: from pallet planks

Waxing a trunk

BEFORE

Antique steamer trunks have always been around at home.  They are generally travel trunk luggages like the one I have lined last month; click here if you missed it. Since my wood floor project is done I checked out every single piece of furniture and realized a new look and attention are needed.  About 10 years ago it has been lined inside with a Provence fabric and with linen fabric on the outside as the existing material was too dark and damaged.  I decided to take everything off: fabric, original cover and cleaned all of it. There were two  travelling labels applied on top of each other! One of them is the luggage registration number (nº423) and on the other one the Paris-Lyon-Marseille route is barely legible. I took them off and left them in water until they got detached. They are now back on the trunk and look gorgeous! This has been an extreme makeover and huge work: woodworn prevention, woodfiller all over, stripped, sanded and cleaned. I used heat gun to apply clear wax all over the wood.  This wonderful antique piece is now in good health and back to its place in the lounge. 

AFTER

Waxed table show for boho chic store

This is a waxed table work on an antique farmhouse table.  Damage was not really severe but urgently needed a great clean, sand, wax and patina. It was due to be shown in a store as a counter top.

BEFORE

The whole place experienced an extreme and unique makeover in terms of deco.  Firstly the laminated floor was removed giving place to a wonderful polished cement. Walls were then whitewashed with lime; false ceiling went off too and steel grids were fixed instead to sustain natural fabric lamps. The aim was to re-use industrial elements for the decor. Rolling corrugated steel bars (used in construction) and wooden planks have been used for hanging shelves.  Adding a few white sprayed branches of olive trees the place now looks like a typical Andalusian penthouse surrounded by local nature. Coming back to the antique table: once cleaned, sanded and protected I waxed (les Antiquaires wax) with heat gun and obtained a great patina. It stands now in the shop and the mixture of industrial elements combine perfectly with boho chic style of the articles. 

AFTER

Check out BEFORE and AFTER as well as tutorial. 

Reuse wine crates

This is my "wooden boxes" section... 

I don't know if you remember when I mentioned I was given a few wooden wine boxes a while ago... I have plenty of them now so I took a few for decorating my living room and a few more for my bathroom storage. They all have their stamp from the winery they are from (Spain and France) so I definitely decide not to paint them in order to keep their character. However I used asphalt to distress and age them a bit.