Turning a dull TV cabinet into something acid green...

There are some real wonders in the depths of my mum's shed.

Not only did I pick up a crappy Ikea coffee table - which now features a map of the world on it (see previous post here) - but I also managed to get my hands on an old, dirty, manky TV cabinet.

Old, grotty and home to hundreds of spider corpses.

I remember this TV cabinet from when I was a kid. It sat proudly in our living room and housed the VCR player (remember them?! God, I feel old).

My mum bought it in the early 1980s... and it cost her about £300. Such were the days before flat-packs, eh?

In 2001, we moved house and my mum realised this old TV cabinet was a bit old-fashioned - so, like  everything else, it was dumped in the shed. (Despite the amount she paid for it 20 years earlier.)

And that's where it stayed... until I decided to wipe all the dead spiders from it and take it home.

First of all, I had to take the front panel off. Years of neglect had made it fall out of shape and as such it wouldn't shut. This wasn't an easy job because the screws had rusted and WD-40 didn't ease the pain.

Then I started sanding away, all the while dreaming of what exactly I was going to do with it.

I couldn't get "bright green" out of my head.

So off I went to Homebase, where the colour was specially mixed for me by the lovely staff there (I have to call them lovely because they've patiently mixed so many colours for me over time).

I decided to do this in eggshell instead of gloss because I didn't want it too shiny.

(TIP! I find eggshell paint less over-powering than gloss and therefore you're less likely to get a paint-induced headache.)

Eventually I got it looking like this...

I didn't want to paint it all green because I wanted to add another dimension to it, so I got out the masking tape - and meticulously painted black and white stripes. This took a very long time - I had to do it over three days because there was no way I was risking the black and white paint blending into one another.

I know it's a bit risky, but I used emulsion for this. I didn't want to buy a big tin of gloss or eggshell for the stripes so instead I bought two tester pots of emulsion paint.

To my surprise, it turned out fine. After the paint had completely dried, I covered it with extra-tough varnish (my new best friend).

And the final result was this...

Ta da!

It's a big, heavy thing but I managed to get it dragged into my front room, where I excitedly plonked the TV on it:

I love this TV cabinet - it's totally my sort of style and it grabs attention. When you walk into my house now, it's the first thing you see:

Would love to hear people's thoughts on it! I'm thinking of doing some more stripey furniture but it takes a very long time so it'd be worth knowing if it's worth it!

Trying to create a world-class coffee table

OK, forgive me for this but...

I'm going to blog about a table I upcycled - however, it was while painting it that I thought, damn it! I haven't taken a "before" photo.

That won't happen again. Promise.

Anyway, here's the "after" photo:

Ta-da!

Here's how the table came into my possession...

My mum was having one of her crazy days of, "I must sort out all the crap in the shed!" And I was called upon, because 70% of the crap in her shed is my stuff which I've left rotting in there since I moved out.

Now, within the remaining 30%, I was sure I'd find a gem in there.

And I did, in the form of a crappy Ikea coffee table bought circa 2001.

It's just your average pine Ikea table, nothing special. Since my mum bought it, it's been a coffee table, a table to house a computer printer, a table which lived a boring life in a damp cellar and then a table which lived an even more boring life in the shed.

Mum was ready to haul it into her car to take it to the tip... until I sprung on her and wailed, "Nooo! Wait! I'll have it!"

"What are you going to do with it?" she asked.

"Oh, you know... I'll find something..."

Feeling chuffed with myself, I started planning in my head the trip to Homebase where I would pick up some paint... then Mum pulled out a tray of old emulsions and gloss.

Spotting a three-year-old tin of white gloss paint, I declared it mine - then searched her cupboards for a paintbrush and sandpaper.

When I got back home, I started on it straightaway.

I was dubious about the old paint, but after digging my way through a thick layer of skin (with a coat hanger, I hasten to add - we're low on supplies of general household stuff in my house) I discovered the gloss paint was still pretty much perfect.

And so I happily painted away, as you can see here:

It looks all white...

The next day on my lunch break, I trundled into town with the aim of buying some pretty floral paper to paste onto it.

I went into a fantastic shop called Ink & Thread and my eyes immediately clicked on some amazing wrapping paper featuring a map of the world for just under £3.

Now, my boyfriend and I are a little bit geeky and both like maps so it seemed perfect.

A little careful pasting later and after coating with ultra-tough varnish, my new coffee table now has pride of place in our living room (and it's already being used for piling magazines on, naturally).

Only problem is, we have no coasters so there'll be no coffee mugs going on it at the moment...

I'd love to hear what you think of it!

Rachel x

Getting to know the blogosphere

Ooh two posts in one day, I'm spoiling you!

No, this isn't a long post. Just to say you can follow my blog with Bloglovin if you've got an account. That's all for now!

Car boot sale tales

I had a mission this morning - I was going to wake up early and go to a car boot sale to see if I could find any cheap furniture gems.

Now, to set the scene for you... I'm not a morning person at all. If my alarm is set any time before 8am, you may mistake me for a snapping turtle.

So I surprised myself when, at 7am as my alarm went off, I jumped out of bed, threw on jeans and a hoody and actually got in my car.

I like a good bargain (see evidence here) and I was of the mindset that if you get to a car boot early, you'll be the one picking up the bargains.

I went to Derby Cattle Market, which is the most well-known car boot in the area. Bleary-eyed, I jumped out of my car at 7.30am and found myself immediately spotting old furniture and running up to it.

Derby Cattle Market car boot sale on a glorious Sunday morning

Last year, my boyfriend and I did a car boot sale there when we moved house the first time, and I have a lot of bad memories of it. People surrounded you as soon as you got out of your car. Having had experience of being a seller there, I tried my best to not be one of those annoying buyers. I probably didn't succeed.

Anyway. I budgeted £20 for this trip - and I saw a lot of great stuff, including a Victorian foot stool (at least the seller said it was Victorian - but he didn't much look like the antiques type) and an Edwardian corner table.

But the sellers wanted around £30 for them. Which is fine, except no one at Derby Cattle Market would have paid that much for them. Including me, I'm sorry to say.

What I did come home with were two small tables, which I got for £8...

My two "new" tables

No idea what I'm going to do with them yet, but they're good solid oak and don't need sanding down so shouldn't be too tough a restoring project. I can only guess they've been in someone's shed for a very long time though because they are covered in cobwebs!

As soon as I got home, I put my pyjamas back on and finally had my first cup of tea of the day. Can't believe it's 9.30am on a Sunday morning and I've already been up for two-and-a-half hours, argh!

Here we go...

Hello and welcome to blog post number 1!

I might as well start off by telling you a bit about myself and why I decided to start this blog.

I'm Rachel (you will see me in the picture to your right - I'm the one with blonde hair, not the white fluffy one), I'm 25 and I live in Derby, UK.

By day I am a journalist (despite the stereotypes, I try to be a nice person). By night I am a vegetarian, animal-loving, yoga-doing weirdo.

That makes me sound like I'm away with the fairies. I'm not. Really.

Anyway...

Since the start of 2012, I've moved house four times. It's a crazy amount and, believe me, has nearly led to a breakdown on several occasions. (I'm not going to bore you with why I moved so many times. Honestly, you don't want to know!)

During this crazy nomad lifestyle, I had to get rid of a lot of furniture.

Then in March this year, I moved into a lovely little house with my boyfriend - and we made the decision to stay put.

Unfortunately we were left with very little furniture.

Now, you'd think we could just buy some more - but we're both journalists, a profession famously low-paid, so it wasn't quite that simple.

That's when I decided I would search high and low for free or very cheap furniture and put my mark on it.

I'll tell you now, I'm not an artist and I've never particularly considered myself creative - but the more I decorated furniture, I came to realise how much I bloody loved doing it!

I started scouring the internet for ideas and I loved coming across upcycling blogs.

Now I've decided to start my own little blog to showcase what I do and to hopefully give ideas to other upcyclers who want to give new life to grotty furniture on a budget.

I definitely do not see myself as an expert, and I'm still learning about the techniques behind upcycling. But hopefully I can share my upcycling journey with the world wide web and I'd love to hear other people's ideas and tips.

Before I go, here are some things you should know about my upcycling projects:

1) I LOVE bright colours. (So much that I had to capitalise and underline the word.) When I'm choosing paint, I'm always attracted to bold colours. That's not to say I will never try French-esque shabby chic one day, but I thought I should warn you. I hope this love for bright colours doesn't translate into "garish". Please tell me if it does.

2) Since I started restoring furniture, I have grown to detest pine. Paint over it, I say!

3) Generally, I am a tightwad (ask my friends and family, they will confirm this). For this reason, I try to do things as cheap as possible.

So, with that out of the way... enjoy!

Rachel x