Renovation project

I recently discovered a range of amazing chalk paint by Annie Sloan (a British company - yay!) in a lovely new shop called Rustiques at Milton of Crathes, Banchory.

You can give furniture a completely new lease of life with this paint, and the big bonus is that you don't have to spend messy hours preparing the furniture before slapping the paint on.

Once painted you can sand it down to give a distressed look - revealing small areas of either the wood or a layer of different coloured paint underneath.

I bought a tester pot to start with, and my first wee project was this unusual wooden musical box.  I had bought it a couple of years earlier at a charity fair for £1, unsure what I would actually do with it, but unable to NOT buy it - if you know what I mean!! 

Stupidly I didn't take a 'before' photo, but trust me, it was just tired-looking, plain, uninteresting wood.

Then a few weeks ago, at Johnshaven's annual RNLI sale, I bought this footstool with storage.  It had seen better days and only cost me a fiver.  As I usually have some kind of sewing project on the go I thought it'd be quite a practical thing to keep in the living room, but would need a complete revamp.

The storage pocket on the side will be perfect for notes, sketches, ideas etc.

It has two drawers - one with a handle missing.

It has obviously been well used as the fabric was torn and discoloured.  When I removed the fabric from the top I found the foam pad underneath was not only worn, but covered in mould.  YUK!

Here it is after a coat of paint and a quick rub down with sandpaper.

It was then waxed and rubbed down to give it a lovely sheen.  I also had a (very amateurish) go at reupholstering the top so I'll have somewhere comfy to rest my feet whilst sewing.  The fabric I've used is the same as our living room blinds, so it fits in to the room really nicely.

The finishing touch was these fab, spotty handles bought from the dotcomgiftshop.   With the paint, wax, foam, fabric and handles it probably cost around £20 to completely overhaul it.  Worth every penny!