The Owl and The Pussy Cat

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea In a beautiful 'red and white'(!) boat, They took some honey, and plenty of money, Wrapped up in a five pound note. The Owl looked up to the stars above, And sang to a small guitar, 'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love, What a beautiful Pussy you are, You are, You are!What a beautiful Pussy you are!'


Edward Lear











Monday 6 May 2013

Painting furniture

I've been building up to doing this for ages, months, possibly even years (well, a year maybe). I have an emotional block about painting stuff. A voice inside my head tells me I shouldn't do it because I'll make a mess of it and ruin a perfectly good piece of furniture/room/whatever. I watch people in blogland, and sometimes in real life bring about wonderful, beautiful transformations, but I've never been able to bring myself to do it. I think it revolves around perfectionism (that's other peoples, not mine), and me being too lazy to do things properly. I've been gathering, in the room that is my workspace, some of the worst furniture in existence so that I can feel ok about painting it. 
The table below for example. I'm actually very fond of it because it was given to me by someone I like, and it had been their kitchen table for many years. It may have been lovely once but the top, which is made from two big pieces of wood has a huge gap down the middle, the whole thing is riddled with woodworm holes, no longer alive I believe and the legs have been used by cats as scratching posts and are in various stated of shredded-ness. I am telling you this because I had to tell myself these things over and over while I painted it in order to not be completely traumatized by the process!

Table before painting
 I was really pleased with the result. The paint is some I bought several years ago from our local recycling centre, so it didn't even cost me much. I didn't bother with any sanding or stuff, just slapped it on!
Table after painting
 Fuelled by my success I set about this hideous and dreadfully bodged cupboard. Again, it may have been a nice piece of furniture once, but those panels in the doors for example are just held in with nails. It looks like someone like me bodged it!
Horrible cupboard before painting
 On with the paint...
Beautiful cupboard

There's no stopping me now. All the other wood coloured things you can see in these pictures are destined to be painted. There are some really awful shelves that I dragged out of our damp and dusty stables, much to Vince's horror, the big table that has to have a board on top of it because it is so incredibly warped, and also a chair (not the one in the photo) that I also dragged out of the damp and must stables. I'm so excited.
This isn't earning me any money of course, but my workspace will look fab when Country Living come round to photograph me. That's a bit of positive thinking by the way, they aren't actually on their way yet!

6 comments:

  1. Hey Nina you've made a GREAT job of those pieces - and I love the colour too. I'm afraid I am in the same boat when it comes to preparation; I didn't rub down the chair I painted , in fact I'm surprised I bothered with the undercoat! I've done a chair,and a magazine rack, and I have another chair, a tray/ladder kind of thing, and when my new Butler's Tray arrives I might have to knock the white back and make it soft green. Eeeeeeek! Deep joy!!

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    1. I might have been inspired by your recent pictures of painted chairs. Notice I posted small images of the furniture so you can't look too closely!?

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  2. What a stunning colour! I feel really drawn to pale blues and greens at the mo! So peaceful. Country Living phoned me for your address just this morning. Youve done a splendid job Nina, just one last thing... what colour are you painting Vince?

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    1. Oh my goodness, I hope you told them I'm not ready for them yet!
      Vince doesn't stand still long enough to be painted. .....perhaps while he's asleep. Blue would be very appropriate as he plays the blues!

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