Saturday, July 26, 2014

My Little Dream... Up-cycle

So after the discover of chalk paint for me, has come the obsession with up-cycling!

Vintage is new the new trend and shabby is the new chic! this is nothing new as i've always been in love with old! From historic buildings to traditional english villages.... LOVE LOVE LOVE.

We now have various tv shows and magazines telling us how to turn someones trash into our very own treasures!

I wanted to share with you a couple of my treasures so far... turning worn and torn bedside cabinets into    lovely clean new pieces, a gorgeous lamp table (but tired) lamp table into a funky new night stand and my latest venture my bargain ebay bedroom furniture set!

 This is my old bedside dresser from when i was a little girl, discovered in mums attic! I was so eager to get my hands on it... i forgot to take a picture of what it looked like before! so half way through sanding and taking off the awful rectangle handles i quickly snapped whilst i remembered. 

I managed to pick up the simple wooden knobs from B&Q a bag of 10 for just over £10. Other DIY shops so sell them, i did try homebase who only sold individually which made them quite expensive but sometimes you can pick these things up at boot sales, car boots, and trinket shops!



This beautiful solid pine bedside cabinet was my great hans! Its all completely solid, but had an awful varnish on that was pretty garish! I sanded the chest down, replaces the handles with slightly bigger ones (again from my B&Q stash!) and gave it a lick of Annie Sloan Old Ochre paint, and now it looks gorgeous in our second bedroom! 







Follow me on 
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or 
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I would love to see your photos of what you've done!


Wednesday, July 16, 2014

My Little Dream... Chalk paint discovery!


Its seems like I was massively late and behind the rest of the world on this one... but what a triumphant discovery chalk paint is!!

Rummaging through my mums attic I found my childhood bedside cabinet, which in a earlier life had been painted bright purple with shiny silver drawers to match my glittery curtains and silver radiator as a child! I went to work the next day and one of my friends suggested Chalk Paint! (Ill show you the finished article in a mixture of my chalk paint projects blog!)

So i googled... chalk paint...

What amazing, weird and wonderful things people have managed to achieve! Up-cycling old furniture and pre-loved items into homely, new treasures! I was immediately excited!! 

I found my nearest stockist of Annie Sloan paint right here in Sevenoaks at Dovetails Vintage  a gorgeous little shop which sells trinkets and up cycled furniture! They also do workshops on how to use chalk paint!  You can find your nearest stockist (European and  Ireland) here

Initially the paint seems quite expensive!! but i honestly cant tell you what value it is! Its easy to use! (your toddler could slop it on with you and not get it wrong!) and so far Ive only used one coat and then  got over with a few touch ups where needed!  Ive got half a tin left of my Annie Sloan and so far Ive achieved from that tin... 3 bedside cabinets and a lamp table and a chest of drawers!! 

The key is to buy the wax!  Wax is yes an additional cost! You'll get a tin and the wax for under £30 (but wont get much change!) The coat of wax when you've finished stops the paint from chipping when you smash it, bash it and crash it (like i am always doing!)  I've gone for the clear wax but there are variations? when you initially put the clear wax on, it does make the paint appear darker but it will not stay like that!



But, don't run off to the shops just yet! There are other brands of chalk paint!

I've used Rusto-leum which i found in both B&Q and Homebase! (Although a small tester pot is £5!) there is a great variety of bright colours!

Assortment of colours from Autentico
My favourite paint so far has to be Autentico! I discovered this in a gorgeous little shop called mylittlevintageattic in Sevenoaks. I got a tester pot to try it out in Winter Sky (gorgeous dark duck egg blue colour!)  It was just under £4 for the tester. This paint seems to glide on, and the selection of colours is amazing so much more choice than with Annie! So I'm a big fan! and funnily enough mylittlevintageattic isn't a relative of mylittledreamhome! :)





Follow me on 
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or 
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I would love to see your photos of what you've done!






Tuesday, July 8, 2014

My Little Dream... Boot sale addiction?

Ok, so i know what you are thinking! How is a boot sale addiction a dream? It sounds completely bizarre that an addiction could be a good thing! but i am totally in love with boot sales/fairs and really don't know what i am going to do when winter comes around.

The variety, the people, the early weekend mornings, the sunshine and most importantly the BARGAINS!!

Its true! there are bargains to be had a boot sales! Someones TAT is another persons TREASURE!
I have learnt a few things whilst trawling along the South coast at a variety of boot fairs.

As i had always thought, until now... its not always the nicer the area the better the booty! Ive got some of my favourite things from boot sales in not such great areas! and have been really disappointed by some of the areas seen to be more affluent!

But, the best tip i can give you is,  to either get  to the boot sale early or get there late...  If you can get there early the 6am wake up call can definitely be worth it! as  there is more of a selection, but if you can't scramble out of bed on your weekend off (and believe me i understand this feeling) the best thing to do is get there really late on! There's not as much of a selection but, people don't want to take things home with them  and knock things down to absurd prices!

West Malling Car Boot - Every Saturday (summer)
 During a previous post i declared my love for Johnson's Brothers Greydawn and Rosedawn china! Its not a particularly exclusive china, it has value to me as my friend Sammy brought me them as my first 4 plates in my first very own home but also i absolutely love them.

I already have far too much Greydawn china, more than could every possibly be used! but i was searching for bowls!
My gorgeous 24 pieces of Greydawn immaculately clean!


At a car boot sale in Bursledon, Hampshire recently, a lady had some Greydawn and i asked her how much for the bowls? she replied
"20p each, but you can have the lot for £1"
Oh my lordy, i would love to have seen my face in that moment, i could not have got that £1 coin out of my pocket any faster!

Obviously! I took the whole lot, and took HUGE pleasure in cleaning each piece one by one that evening at home... 24 pieces in total! bargain of the century!
Especially when you check out Ebay and they are selling for £7 per plate!


 Here are a couple of other boot sale bargains to date:

Love this Jamie Oliver Bottle!
West Malling Car Boot (near Brands Hatch)
Gorgeous Oak Framed Mirror.
Bursledon Car Boot, Hampshire

This lovely glass Jamie Oliver bottle! was 50p!
and...
this gorgeous Oak Framed mirror was just £1.

One of the best bargains i've seen was when i dragged my friend Emily out with me. She managed to bag a Villeroy & Boch Mug and Latte Cup for just 50p these are still retailing at £18 for the mug and £11 for the Latte Cup (what a steal) but most importantly she loves it! and i think thats really important!

Other bargains to date have included; 2 Poole Pottery milk jugs and 1 sugar bowl for £1 for all 3!  a Brass lamp stand, shade and bulb for £3! a small side/lamp table with leather hard wearing top for £3 (I actually upcycled this and sold on Ebay for £16!!- but ill tell you more about this later!)
A brand new pack of Sharpie and Stadler Pens in all different colours for £3, a beautiful embroidered cushion for £1! and Michael even got a dress for his brother to wear on his stag do for just 50p!

To find your nearest car boot visit: www.carbootssales.org  but if one isn't up to date or doesn't look familiar, its always advisable to call first! I learnt my lesson the hard way on that one!

Good Luck!





My Little Dream... Wedding

So it was two years ago now Michael proposed after a rumage in his sock drawer meant the discovery of my gorgeous engagement ring!

At the time we were in New Zealand but knew we wanted a small family wedding at Christmas over in the UK.

I thought that every wedding decision would be a nightmare and i would turn into a complete Bridezilla! but i think the hardest thing was cutting down the guest list and seating people! We were very lucky to have the people around us to make things fall into place. 

We went for a sage green wedding theme, i originally wanted duck egg blue but it didn't look right as a winter colour and the sage was warm and lovely.

So... rather than go through a step by step of our wedding i wanted to pick out a few simple things i adored! that may be of use!

Wood love hearts!
I ordered these plain, for £1.99 for 10 from Ebay but im sure you could pick them up in craft shops, hobbycraft etc... or even make your own if you are that clever! :)
Once these arrived the girls and I painted them with tester pots of sage green and they came up so nice. We ending up hanging them on the backs of the chairs at the ceremony and they looked gorgeous!






















Our table names where fun pub names, so we managed to make these awesome pub signs, by just googling images of pub signs and printing them off!

We ended up with:

          • The Happy Drinker
          • The Ugly Duckling
          • The Sherlock Holmes
          • The 18th Hole
          • Dirty Dicks
          • The George and the Dragon
We found ours on a pub memorabilia website! www.pubworldmemorabilia.com  but there are loads around online! 



Along with gorgeous homemade bunting and blackboards on free standing easels, a sweet table and 7 variations of cakes all on different stands. 

We had a real pub/country themed wedding and we were so lucky we had perfect weather and were fortunate to be surrounded by everyone we love. 

Pinterest was revolutionary for me when planning our wedding. Having a pin board where you can host all the pins and peoples different ideas! it was great! Definately recommend it! 

This is mine i created for our wedding, but stemmed from an aisle design from Pinterest.
It was simple just cheap hessian fabric and a permanant marker! 




My Little Dream...on hold

Sorry its been a while... the New Zealand rollercoaster is over and we moved back to the UK in August and since then we've been settling back in to English life, finding jobs, new living arrangements and even getting married!
Its been a complete whirlwind but now I am back and dreaming daily of my Little Dream Home...
The latest craze of upcycling and recycling old furniture has hit me hard and is literally a new addition. 
I spend much of my time scouring Ebay and preloved for items that need just a little bit of love.
My new husband is seriously wondering what he has let himself in for with our little 2 bed rented cottage utilised as a fun workshop for my imagination!!
I have so much to update you on over the next few posts from the discovery of chalk paint to my boot sale addition and the decor and theme of the wedding to the welsh dresser hunt and my new found instagram addiction!!
I promise I wont leave it so long next time! 
Sorry for the cheesy pic! But its my favourite ♥