Framing Vintage Wallpaper

Forget vintage, antique most probably....

So we are moving the fake beam covers from the real beams (crazy I know, but another quirk of the previous owners taste), and generally re-vamping the littlest bedroom, and suddenly, from some dark corner of the room, hidden behind a panel that had been in situ for perhaps one hundred years, we spy a little fragment of colour:

Above: The wallpaper in situ, as we found it behind an old panel.

The style, and the age of the wallpaper immediatey gets me in an excited tiz and so the boy carefully extracts the rest of the strip as carefully as possible.

With a hessian back I'm guessing this is pretty old, and I LOVE IT!

Funny how tastes turn full circle!

So I brought a large white frame to display the wallpaper, and it is currently the centre piece over the fireplace in the snug. 

Above: The wallpaper fragment has pride of place on the mantel in the snug.

I love the fact that it is from the house - it feels like a present, and we get to preserve a little moment of the property's history. :)

My little secrets:
Frame fragments of wallpaper from your house - the weirder the better! Create a collage and they will great, and represent your house's past style (no matter how unlikely you would be to choose them yourself!).
Frame: Approx £10 from The Range
Ickle Teddy bear - Steiff (a much treasured gift).

Simple Beef and Guinness Pie Recipe

Just had to share this recipe, it is the BEST meat pie recipe I have ever found - and so surprisingly easy to make, and if you have no pastry it works perfectly with some creamy mashed potato!

Ingredients:
Pack of frying steak
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
2 heaped teaspoons of plain flour
Olive oil
Pack of mixed stewing or soup vegetables for speed (or chop them yourself!)
Pinch of mixed herbs
1 (500ml) bottle of Guinness
1 carton of passata
Roll of ready made pastry - either puff or shortcrust or both depending on preference!
1 egg, beaten or milk (to brown top)

Preparation:
 1. Mix beef with olive oil, salt and pepper, and flour until coated and then fry meat in a casserole dish until brown.
 2. Add the vegetable pack fry for a minute or two and add herbs
 3. Pour in the Guinness
 4. Add the passata and bring to the boil. Stir well, then simmer for 2 hours or until the meat is tender.
 5. By now the sauce should be nice and thick with an intensely tasty flavour. Season if required.
 6. To make the pies, preheat the oven to about 200 degrees.
 7. Line a pie dish with short crust pastry and pour the mixture into the dish
 8. Cover the top with either shortcrust or puff pastry and pinch the top and bottom together.
 9. Slice lines into the top of the pie with a sharp knife, and brush the top with the egg or milk. Use leftover pastry to create a heart design on top if you are a fancy pants like me! ;)
10. Put in oven for about 30- 45 minutes until golden and bubbling.
11. Dig in! ;)

Alternatively, make Cornish pasty style pies with no pie dish using either puff or shortcrust - yum :)

Bedroom Blitz - (before and during) tbc...

So the Easter holidays were a-maz-ing, because we spent all four days together, covered in dust and paint and more dust, and at the end of it we have a pretty gorgeous bedroom (if I do say so myself!).

Firstly you need to see the before shot, and remember that the floor was all scuffed up and stained, and the yucky wallpaper was a flowery beige crime, and the walls an icky magnolia with loads of pit holes. Other that that it was in pretty good nick, and definitely the best room in the house when we moved in.

Above: icky wallpaper and scuffed up floor :(

Day 1: Firstly, we filled, sanded and prepared the 3 painted walls (there were a lot of cracks to fill), and painted over the manky wallpaper with F&B Downpipe No 26, then we painted over the 3 remaining, tear inducing, magnolia walls with a crisp brilliant white - what a breath of fresh air!

Day 2: We sanded the oak floors - they only needed a fine 120 grade sanding (as they weren't that bad really), we coated them with Danish oil, and left them to dry.

Above: During - bedroom floor - part way through - sanded but not oiled but  already looking great!

Above: After - the lovely oak flooring oiled with natural Danish oil :)

(It is worth pointing out that at this stage, all our bedroom belongings were outside in the courtyard exposed to the elements - fine when the sun was shining, not so great when the heavens decided to open - cue me running around with plastic decorators sheeting and masking tape desperately trying to protect the sofa, bed and wardrobes from the worst of it - not hilarious)

Day 3: (Easter Sunday): Spend the day painting the window frames (F&B Lamp Room Grey), and then moved on to the wooden furniture - (see my updating pine furniture post here).

You need to know at this stage that the bedroom furniture was a mixmatch of all colours of pine, from the untreated bare kind to the orangey shiny kind - not a great look for a restful, coordinated and fabulous bedroom see below:

Above: Before -yucky shiny orangey pine drawers - blurgh.

Now I know you probably want to see the 'after', the 'before' and 'during' is a bit of an anti-climax, but I am not quite ready yet, just a few more finishing touches and then I'll post them - promise! :)

Updating Pine Furniture

I remember when pine furniture was all the rage. I would look at my white melamine faced chipboard drawers in my childhood bedroom and only dream of something so extravagant as pine furniture. 

I think it is safe to say that times have changed, and after a massive influx of affordable pine furniture swamped the market, our tastes have evolved and quite frankly pine furniture is not what it was.

In our master bedroom we have some older good quality pine drawers and bedside tables, and some really quite flimsy and brand new pine wardrobes. They looked a mismatch together, and the orangey colour dominated the room - not great.

Above: Before - orangey pine drawers and boring handles - bleugh

(whoop for Ugly Betty though!)

The solution? Well, we decided to give them a new lease of life with a coat of F&B's Lamp Room Grey, which is a mid toned grey/blue colour, which also really compliments the strong grey blue of F&B's Downpipe which we used on our feature wall.

And, and, my favourite design feature of the whole master bedroom has to be the drawer handles I sourced. We needed 48 of them in the end, and I requested all different styles but all blue and white in colour - who knew we had so many knobs!

 

Above: I HEART THESE KNOBS!

And so I did cheat a little, I brought undercoat but thought I'd just see if I could get away without using it, and I only flipping did :)



Above: old pine drawers painted and with new 'mismatched' porcelain knobs!

And here it is up against the Downpipe, the colours really compliment each other, and the drawer knobs add a touch of femininity and originality in an otherwise masculine coloured room.

Above: After - the two colours working together

And the brand new flimsy wardrobes didn't come up too bad either, again no undercoat (don't tell my Dad), and they have come up lovely, and look much more expensive than they previously did.

Above and below: After - the painted wardrobe suddenly looks more expensive!

 Hurrah for wood paint :)

My little secrets:
Old pine drawers: ours were inherited, but try an auction house or a secondhand furniture shop such as a charity shop
New pine Wardrobes: Argos, cheap as chips really, a 4 door wardrobe with drawers underneath was £150 (Scandinavian range), but they are probably not best for high usage, as they are a bit flimsy
Paint: Furniture: Farrow and Ball, Estate Eggshell in Lamp Room Grey, Wall: Downpipe in Modern Emulsion
Knobs: from a lovely lady, worked out at about £70 for all 48 http://www.macandmehome.co.uk/
Knitted heart: christmas decoration that just stayed up!
Mirror: TK Maxx (chipped corner you can't really see - so £15)
Crystal based lamp: Home Sense about £29 (the lamp shade is going I have just decided!)

Painting the Chicken House - chick chick chick chick chicken...

Have to have chickens on a small holding (it is the law I believe ;).

So we cleared out the overgrown chicken run and chucked the old falling down chicken house, and picked up all the rubbish and dead chickens (yes really!) and we are left with a lovely large chicken run needing its chicken house!

I saw a wonderful one on ebay, all pretty colours and very cute but £300, and then I found this one, a very similar style and a reasonable price and just in need of a paint job!

Above: Before - The very reasonably priced chicken house sans paint

So I brought one, got some garden paint and one sunny afternoon it turned into this:

Above: the newly painted and quite lovely chicken house in situ in its run.

Really pleased with the result - just need the chickens now... tbc

My little secrets:

Chicken house: eBay £89 (inc free next day delivery!)

Paint: Cuprinol Garden Shades (Heritage), Country Cream and Wild Thyme