Chalk Paint Furniture

Sometimes I get the urge to paint furniture instead of working with textiles. Even tough in some cases I’m really against it. If you have a good condition, antique hard wood piece of furniture, please don’t ruin it with chalk paint! This piece however really needed a rescuing. It was scratched and somebody had already attempted to paint parts of it. (Forgot to take a before photo sadly)

I used two different tones of grey chalk paint. The darker tone underneath, and the lighter on top, plus finish with a generous rubbing of wax.

It only lasted 3 days in Shabitat before it got snapped up!

If you have a piece of furniture that you think is in need of a facelift, get in touch!

We also do painting classes.

Chequered Coffee Tables

My client had a nest of tables that she wanted painted in chequered black and white. I knew there was going to be a lot of layers of paint and masking tape involved but I took on the job as I like a challenge as well to learn new techniques.

This was a style of furniture painting I had never made before.  But I thought, “How hard can it be?” It wasn’t particularly hard, just very time consuming…

I chose water-based matt paint in black and white. I also needed an undercoat, plus a matt varnish to go on top. Ronseal Diamond Hard Varnish came recommended to me.

After two layers of undercoat and having to wait each layer to dry, I finally got the first layer of white paint on all the three tables. Then I had to watch more paint dry…

Now it was the task of measuring out the lines and using masking tape, followed by two coats of black paint. “This is going to well!” I thought, until i peeled off the masking tape and realised the black paint had bled under the tape. Aggghhhhhrr!!  I do some research and find a type of masking tape called Frog Tape. I head down to B&Q and grab a roll.

Masking all the lines take two.Paint with white, wait to dry… Peel tape off. Guess what? It does exactly what it says on the tin. No bleed!! Yes! Oh if had known this before it would have cut my workload by half! With all the waiting for paint to dry, correcting mistakes and 3 layers of varnish, it took a week to complete. Luckily Breeda loved them. Phew! And here they are in her home looking very Alice in Wonderlandish.

Would I take on another commission like it? Yes, now I know what I am doing, but with an increase in the price 😉

 

Cushion Cover Making Classes in Brighton

A great way to utilise smaller bits of fabrics is cushion making.

You could either sew a patchwork top with the smaller pieces you have, or if you have big enough pieces (half of a meter should be plenty)  create a simple cushion cover with a zip like these below. Not experienced in sewing?  We run cushion cover making classes at our Brighton based shop.  Check out our workshops page for dates.

Eco Gifts- Hot Water Bottles

That particular time of the year is approaching fast.  People are stressing out about what to buy for each other and end up getting something completely random and unwanted. One thing to take in to consideration is how much we buy around Christmas and how much of it goes pretty much straight to the bin -or the charity shop – best case scenario.

Consider getting something secondhand, remade, upcycled, organic or edible. I have been covering some hot water bottles with old woolen jumpers. You can make these pretty easily yourself or you can buy them in Shaboutique.

Lets consume a little less this Christmas shall we?

 

Chair Painting and Upholstery Workshops & Classes

Painting chairs is an easy way to give them a new look, but the real change happens when you replace the fabric on the seating. Even a non-painted battered old chair looks so much better with a newly upholstered seat. Here are a few samples of what we have made in the last few weeks.  Some were sets of four. Some sold as singles.

If you are Sussex based and  want your dining chairs recovered let us know! We will also be running workshops in the new year too where you can learn how to paint and recover your own chairs Please check our Shaboutique website or Shaboutique’s Facebook page for dates. Or subscribe to our blog and we will let you know.

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