Friday 5 March 2010

Can a Woman Have Too Many Drawers?

As any stash collector will understand, storage is always a problem and solving that problem is even more difficult.

I picked up this very charming chest at our local British Heart Foundation furniture shop. But I always have a ethical dilemma whilst shopping there - I think that they are too expensive! This particular chest was about £25 more than I really wanted to pay for it, as it was obvious it would need quite a bit of work. But buy it, I did.



The chest was obviously handmade, a typical piece of country furniture, somewhat crude, but very useful nevertheless.

Firstly, I had to chop a bit off the drawers so they fitted better, I then rubbed it down, primed it and painted it with 2 coats of eggshell. I decided this year that I would 'make do and mend' with the stuff that I (or Mr. P) already have. As mentioned in a previous post, Mr. P used to have his own painting and decorating business, so we have a garage full of paint, but not the cream eggshell that I wanted. I mixed some Farrow & Ball - Mouse's Ear (how lovely is that name?) - to some white eggshell until I got the right(ish) colour.


Then the fun bit, to decorate the drawer fronts. Unfortunately procrastination set in and I spent a week trying to decide how to go about this.

Should I cover the drawers with these lovely vintage style scrapbook papers by one of my favourite designers, Anna Griffin

The problem with these being that they are 12" square, and the drawers, rather annoyingly, were 12 1/4" wide.

I then sought inspiration from these


but as there are 10 drawers, I thought this might look over-fussy and perhaps a more uniform approach would be more pleasing.

Returning to my beloved Anna Griffin and one of my favourite stamps, I decided to stamp and emboss the design on some gorgeous mulberry tissue paper and just applied it with good old PVA (which I just love and buy it by the gallons).





A ta-dah moment



Sorry about the image quality (taking a photo of a tall, slim object proved impossible, probably why I don't take any photos of myself - who am I trying to kid, lol!).



In case you wondered what the 'E' stood for (as did Kim) - well I haven't completed the H, O or M yet, but have used another Anna Griffin stamp to do this also).


Really liking the red/pink scheme going on here. Half the pinky 'we are friends again' throw is all sewn up, but I probably need a few more squares.

Well all I need now is Mr. P's assistance in moving the drawers to my new craft area upstairs and to fill them with stashy delights. Although, I've got quite accustomed to the drawers sitting in the middle of my still uncompleted living-room.

Well, if you are still here, all I can do is wish you are wonderful, sunny weekend.

Jak x

9 comments:

  1. The drawers look amazing - well done!
    Parcel arrived this morning, thank you so much, the little wish lists notebooks are a delight!

    Vicky x

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  2. Lovely drawers! You can't have too many!
    Have a great weekend!
    ;-)

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  3. THe drawers look fabulous. Very pretty! Love the little gingham 'Lost Sock' bags too. Have a lovely weekend! Ros

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  4. Awwwww I think they look fabulous - you've done a wonderful make over.

    Nina x

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  5. ohhhhh ! this look is so good !

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  6. oh ! I left a comment on how beautiful the drawers are but it isn't here ! They are - beautiful !
    Thanks for your Limerick - Floosie is such a great word - I first heard it used by my sis in law

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  7. Oh Jak! How beautiful. Your chest of drawers is just wonderful. You've made a great job here. My favourite colours too. And the throw
    oh what a beauty!
    You've certainly put a great deal of work into this, and I'm pleased to say you've made an excellent job.
    Hugs and LOve Suex

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  8. Hi Jak - You've won the Giveaway! Take a look over on my blog. I will post it to you, I have your address (you sent me one of your cards with the etsy stuff) - so look out for postie!
    Well done!

    Vicky x

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