Upcycling and Painting a Bedhead

Aug 2, 2011 by Emily

I want a bedhead to match the bedsides I’m taking to the market. I find an old one in storage with legs that suit. I take it to the shed and start work. I really only need the legs, as they have the same turning as my bedsides. So I start pulling it apart. I am going to upholster it, so the spindles and the board in the centre are superfluous. I could leave them where they are but that would be a total waste! I will find a use for them another day, everything gets upcycled in our shed.

I paint the legs with Porters Milk Paint in Oyster White to match the bedsides. Then I stand back and wonder what is missing. I crack open the Porters Venetian Glaze and stipple it over the legs and bedsides. It imparts a beautiful antique gloss that exactly matches the satin upholstery fabric.

While I’m waiting for paint to dry. I start thinking what I can make with the pieces I took off the bedhead. The bedhead is sentimental to my mother as she painted it with her friend Marie who is no longer with us. By keeping these pieces and repurposing them, a disused piece of furniture still in great (and now perfect) condition, doesn’t lay idle in storage and mum gets to hold onto something precious to her.

When I am upcycling I don’t use more than I need to. One piece can become many if you use a bit of creativity.

Come back to see me finish the head board and turn the repurposed bits and pieces into something new.

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Shedful Experience

Mar 14, 2011 by Emily

This weekend has been about the dozenth time my mother and I have cleaned up our shed and work area. Each time we do, something, or someone happens to it to make it look as if there has been a tornado run through the place.

The reason for the latest disaster was the inundation of rain we have had in the past months causing the water to rise too high on the outside of the shed and seep into it. Luckily, we managed to move all of the beautiful chair frames, other furniture, upholstering equipment and materials in time before damage was done to any of it. It did mean we were up to our knees in mud digging a bigger gutter on the outside, though. It also meant that all the hundred or so thoroughly organised and carefully stored furniture was now strewn over any dry place we could find.

A few weeks later, dry and clean, we move the stock back into it’s home and I am thanking myself for labelling each storage bay with the item number and style, so replacing was a reasonably straight forward procedure (apart from the impatience of my assisting husband who would have rather been watching soccer, luckily my persistence trumps his impatience). My mother’s studio gallery is also taking shape and her hand painted cushions are now being placed on Ebay (To Do: 1. List cushions on Ebay…).

Now I really should get back into the real work, but there is always something else to do, like making labels and reference sheets for the boxes and boxes of fabrics so that we can see at a glance which specific material is in which box so I don’t have to waste precious time looking for ‘those 3 pieces of coordinating material with the big roses, small roses and stripes’ (…so far found big and small roses, no stripes as yet).

Also preventing me from the ‘real work’ is the planning and all the Ideas. I have been thinking about other possible things we could create, like iPhone pouches and fabric covered magazine boxes and lever arch folders. I have been making these for myself after being inspired by shops like Kikki K and Typo, but not finding exactly what I was looking for. It has been so much fun, and instantly gratifying, unlike the chairs which tend to take at least 4 days wo to go rather than the hour to create some beautiful and practical office-ware.

But I digress, ‘Princess’, the rose detailed, champagne coloured bedroom carver chair, will be on the market by the end of the week, I will miss her, but I need to move on. The retro furniture that Ryan and I are doing is begging to be completed and sent out to find new homes. Orange, red and black tub chairs with graphic upholstery, very cool!

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Joyful Service Assistance

Jul 19, 2010 by Emily

I have been lucky to have had so many positive experiences lately with incredible customer service.

Today we were in Porter’s Paints at GS1 Centro On James in Newfarm. Joy, whom obviously has had years of experience with using the milk paints, was more helpful than I could have hoped. She was very kind and gave me a lot of information and insight into the various paints, methods of application and the most popular colours. I picked each of her words up like a juicy treat and stored them all in an air-locked jar for future use. After speaking with Joy, I am confident that we have definitely made the best decision by using the Porter’s Milk Paints on our chairs and other furniture. I am going to pull out the brushes as soon as I am done on this post and give the new colours a try as so far we have only used the Oyster White. I think today I will give Sableux a go because it looks good enough to eat! I think our French Oval Back Carver will be Sableux with some sumptuous velvet upholstery. When she is done I will post her photo.

I digress, I also wanted to mention that a few weeks back I was at Trade Tools in Coopers Plains and recieved so much helpful advise and honest feedback from Craig that I will remember it always and go back that shop anytime I need a new tool or even a box of staples. Craig was very informative and helped me pick out a compressor, spray gun and staple gun. He took the time to show me how to use them and to understand my needs. He didn’t try to sell me anything I did not need and even tested the compressor before putting it in my car.

Thanks Joy and Craig, there should be more people like you!

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Continued: The Porters Milk Paint is great…

Jun 2, 2010 by Emily

The Porters Milk Paint is great. Everything we were looking for. A beautiful velvety finish and the perfect shade of white. A lot of work in preperation, and quite expensive but worth every minute and penny. Milk Paint was first used in the 18th and 19th centuries on Shaker furniture. It instantly softens and ages the look of new furniture. It is made from milk by-products mixed with powdered oxide pigment to produce subtle, mellow colours and the perfect look for some of our vintage chairs. And as it is basically made from milk it is environmentally friendly.

It is certainly different to any other paint we have used in the past and what sent us down this path was the desire to find the perfect finish and also a more environmentally friendly solution. Paints contain petroleum based solvents or Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). You can get some paints without VOCs, at a premium cost of course. I just wish there was more emphasis put on the importance of the air that we breath than cost of production and profit margins. I’d like to see the paint and print industry take the issue of VOCs more seriously, there are other methods that provide the same, if not better, results but greed disillusions inovation and skews the way we see the cost of a product and the value of the result.

VOCs evaporate as paint dries, creating that familiar smell of ‘fresh’ paint – deep inhale, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. That is the smell of your new baby’s bedroom walls’ footprint joining the estimated 80,000 tonnes of VOCs annually released into Australia’s atmosphere. VOCs contribute to the pollution of the lower atmosphere and the degradation of our ozone layer. By CHOOSING not to use paints and printing methods with VOCs, you can send a message to the paint and print companies. You can reduce your greenhouse footprint and simultaneously benefit your family with advantages like decrease of asthma and allergic sensitisation. And the results can be beautiful too. DO IT!

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My Mum’s Online?

May 29, 2010 by Emily

Balance is disturbed; my mum is online. It only took us four and a half hours of domain name deliberation with name suggestions such as
janefongoodna.com.au (joke) and thebluehouse.com.au (serious), neither of which actually match what she does which is artwork. We felt we were onto a winner with insaneyjaney.com but we finally decided to go with janejohnson.com.au. This of course was the first name that we suggested, but the tempremental artist didn’t like that. At least now someone might actually be able to find her!

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Milk Paint Madness

May 23, 2010 by Emily

I may be making a milk paint masterpiece, but not if I can’t find the paint!

I can never do anything by halves and the trial and error of finding the perfect paint is perfectly painful. Porters Paints is possibly the pick of the pot - albeit a touch exxy. There is the Old Fashioned Milk Paint Co. - I wonder if they use old fashioned methods of delivery? It might take a while for the pigeon to get here from Massachusetts. And so the search continues…

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French Lavender

Jan 16, 2010 by Emily

‘French Lavender’. French-Carved High Back occasional chair / accent chair perfect in a modern of French Chic interior. Painted in ‘French Blue’ woodwash with incredible woodgrain shining through, a one of a kind. Please contact for pricing and information emily@furniturefashionista.com.au

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