A short while ago I set myself a little project after being inspired by some lovely lovely pictures. Today was the day that I decided to get on with it. I was supposed to be visiting my beloveds in my lovely former home town of Cheltenham. My poor housemate got a case of the lurgies and is too poorly to drive us down. So, I decided to be productive instead and get cracking on beautifying my old chest.
I am a rather impatient person and I was fully aware when starting this project that I would get bored and impatient about half way through. Well, it turns out that I couldn't even last five minutes before the complaining set in. It seems that wallpaper is in fact, the most hideous beast to work with when you're not pasting it on walls or using it in small quantities! Hideous! I got angry, I took it out on the wallpaper, the wallpaper didn't care. But thankfully I didn't give up. Damned if I was going to have a half finished chest even if I did have glue all over my hands and floorboards, paint in my hair and all down my arm.
A couple of hours later and I'm done. The only thing that kept me sane was the decision to paint some of the trickier fiddlier areas of the chest instead of papering them...
A few short hours ago the chest looked liked this on the inside..
Look at it all ugly, brown and grubby. I stripped as much of the old paper as I possibly could (tedious, tedious task)
It no longer looks like this! After fighting with some very pretty wallpaper for what felt like an eternity it now looks like this..
I am actually really really very pleased with my handywork! Don't get me wrong, if you look close enough you'll spot the imperfections...there are a few! But I am more proud that I followed it through and that it looks as lovely as I hoped. I think the white of the paper goes well with the clotted cream colour of the Annie Sloan paint and this little chest will definitely be coming to my bootsale with me in a couple of weeks...as a prop of course and definitely not to be sold.
What do you think? All I need now is an excuse to keep it open all.the.time!
If you're thinking of making over a similar piece, I used 3 metres of wallpaper with some watered down PVA glue and I got some beautiful lace crochet/lace trim for the lid edging. I peeled as much paper as I could and then vacuumed every inch to avoid getting gluey dusty, dirt everywhere.
Now I'm off to make some mini bunting, some not so mini bunting and other such beautiful things to sell at my stand.
Lots of love,
Lexie
x
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I am a rather impatient person and I was fully aware when starting this project that I would get bored and impatient about half way through. Well, it turns out that I couldn't even last five minutes before the complaining set in. It seems that wallpaper is in fact, the most hideous beast to work with when you're not pasting it on walls or using it in small quantities! Hideous! I got angry, I took it out on the wallpaper, the wallpaper didn't care. But thankfully I didn't give up. Damned if I was going to have a half finished chest even if I did have glue all over my hands and floorboards, paint in my hair and all down my arm.
A couple of hours later and I'm done. The only thing that kept me sane was the decision to paint some of the trickier fiddlier areas of the chest instead of papering them...
A few short hours ago the chest looked liked this on the inside..
Look at it all ugly, brown and grubby. I stripped as much of the old paper as I possibly could (tedious, tedious task)
It no longer looks like this! After fighting with some very pretty wallpaper for what felt like an eternity it now looks like this..
I am actually really really very pleased with my handywork! Don't get me wrong, if you look close enough you'll spot the imperfections...there are a few! But I am more proud that I followed it through and that it looks as lovely as I hoped. I think the white of the paper goes well with the clotted cream colour of the Annie Sloan paint and this little chest will definitely be coming to my bootsale with me in a couple of weeks...as a prop of course and definitely not to be sold.
What do you think? All I need now is an excuse to keep it open all.the.time!
If you're thinking of making over a similar piece, I used 3 metres of wallpaper with some watered down PVA glue and I got some beautiful lace crochet/lace trim for the lid edging. I peeled as much paper as I could and then vacuumed every inch to avoid getting gluey dusty, dirt everywhere.
Now I'm off to make some mini bunting, some not so mini bunting and other such beautiful things to sell at my stand.
Lots of love,
Lexie
x
♥ Twitter ♥ Pinterest ♥
ooh wow! This looks wonderful! Im not sure I have the patience for this, but it will be one of my projects soon! xx
ReplyDeletei love it sugar, plan on doing something simular to 3 trunks i have been using to store old dolls in. so you sell boots??? very interested inthe boots also
ReplyDeleterebeccasegars@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteM y first attempt at responding to any blog. so please bear with me!!
ReplyDeletePretty, pretty, pretty. I have a nasty old trunk, and am seeing it will be a challenge. I like the idea of keeping the trunk open. Just preparing myself to be a sticky hot mess, working on the trunk. Apparently, I won't be the first and I won't be the last.
ReplyDelete