Christmas Projects

Hope you're all enjoyed Christmas.  Did anyone get any vintage gifts from you friends and family?  I've had a bit of a break from updating this blog - I've been very busy over Christmas with various vintage inspired projects round my flat.

The first thing I did was make a string of festive hearts Christmas bunting out of last year's Christmas cards.  This was so easy and possibly the most effective Christmas decoration I've ever made.  I created a heart shaped template and used it to draw round the fronts of the cards, cut them out, put some holes in using a hole puncher and then stung them up with some garden twine.  It's a great way to recycle all your old Christmas cards - so if you want to do this for next year, save a few cards that you like best from this year.

I used the money I got for Christmas to buy myself a vintage cupboard for my kitchen.  I'm not too sure how old it is - it's either 1940s or very early 1950s, but when cleaning it out I found a George VI stamp in the bottom, so I'd date it from the 1940s.  I lined all the shelves with brown paper and I'm now using it to store my sheets and towels.  To make them smell nice I've hung up a few handmade lavender bags and now I get a lovely smell every time I open the door!

Also in the kitchen I spent part of Boxing Day removing the 1980s lino off the floor to get back to the original 1950s green floor tiles.  You can see the floor on the photo on the left with the cupboard.  It's in quite good condition after being covered up for thirty years!

By far my biggest Christmas project this year has been up-cycling my mantelpiece.  I'm not sure how old the fireplace is, but it was here when I bought the flat.  It's probably from the 1990s, but being pine, it didn't match any of the dark furniture I've got in the front room.  I didn't fancy stripping it back and re-varnishing it and was thinking about buying a new one.  Then at Harrogate Does Vintage in November we had the furniture up-cycling workshops given by Vintage Rose, who were selling some amazing chalked based paint that you could paint on to anything without stripping.

I liked a colour called Grand Cru and when I asked if it would look like the colour chart they said they weren't sure because no one had been brave enough to buy that colour yet!  Well I like a challenge so bought some.

I was a bit worried when the first coat went on and it was bright pink!  It took three coats (in some places four coats), until I got it dark enough and then I left it to dry over night.

After a couple of days I waxed it with beeswax to make it wipe proof and here's on the left is the final result!  It's now beautiful and it looks like it's made out of rosewood.  In fact the thing I like about it best is it's the exact colour I wanted and it goes so well in the room that it looks like it was always that colour.

If you want to have a go at up-cycling some of your furniture in the same way, then look out for Vintage Rose when they're at our fairs, or visit them at their shops in Selby and Leeds.

If you've been missing our vintage fairs (I know I'm having Britain Does Vintage withdrawal symptoms!), then don't forget we're back on 26th January at Ripon Cathedral for our first vintage wedding fair!  It's all very exciting!  More details soon.