Simon's Cat

I was having a chat with a very good friend today about cats. We both have a cat and love them and, after a couple of minutes, the conversation turned to the YouTube cartoons Simon's Cat.

These little animations are so funny. I find it hard to watch them and not see a lot of my own cats characteristics in Simon's Cat.

I have chosen my favourite Simon's Cat animation for today's Happy Wednesday. This was the first Simon's Cat animation I saw and I still think it's the funniest. I've seen it many times but it still makes me laugh out loud when ever I watch it!

Stamp Decoupage Stool

I bought  an old stool from a secondhand furniture warehouse a couple of weeks ago. I really liked it and, although it was a bit tatty, I thought it was quite quirky. However, I had absolutly no idea what I was going to do with it! During the same week, I bought a bag of used Danish stamps off EBay for another project and, when the stamps arrived, I was completely taken aback by how amazingly colourful they were (the pictures on EBay didn't do them justice). They were far too good for my other project and, seeing as how I had this tatty old stool that needed some TLC, the stamps could only have one destination. I often find it funny how inspiration can come from the most unusual places!

I used the colours on the stamps to create a circular decoupage design. The whole surface has been sealed beneath 5 coats of clear lacquer which I find gives a durable finish and does not distort or yellow the original colour in the same way that varnish sometimes does.

The legs were sanded back and given a coat of primer before 3 coats of eggshell paint were added. They were also given a coat of lacquer for protection.

I got so into this project that I completely forgot to photograph my progress, hence the lack of before, during and after pictures that I usually add. Oh well, there's always next time!

Another Happy Wednesday Arrives!!

Happy Wednesday everyone!!

Can't believe another week's gone by so quickly! For today's Happy Wednesday I have chosen my favourite video from YouTube. It's a slide show of classic VW Beetles. Okay, so the music's not the best in the world, but this video never fails to put a smile on my face (I am a little beetle crazy sometimes). I love it and watch it regularly, dreaming of the day that I'll eventually be able to afford a Dub of my own!

Hope you enjoy the video.

Current Projects

Hello people and wow, what a busy week!

A quick scroll through this blog and it's probably quite obvious that Furniture Craft is not a full-time job for me, it's not even a part-time job. It is more of a hobby that absorbs a lot of my time! I am actually a fully qualified physiotherapist, but have sadly been unemployed for several months as there has been some major shake-ups in the NHS recently and jobs in Cumbria are becoming few and far between!

However, this week I had my first proper interview for a long time so, fingers crossed something will come my way soon. I will however, still want to devote as much time as possible to re-funking furniture and will hopefully have a little more money to spend on Furniture Craft.

So I'm afraid that this week I have no finished pieces of furniture to photograph and post. I am in the middle of a couple of projects, one being a bookcase that I'm making from reclaimed wood and another  being a decoupaged stool, using coloured Danish stamps for decoration. I will post photographs when they are finished, hopefully by next week, and may be putting the stool up for sale online.

This blog is updated very regularly so keep checking back, bookmark Furniture Craft or better yet, join this site. I have no members yet so be the first and don't forget to check back each Wednesday for Happy Wednesdays!!

Keep smiling!! :-)

Not inspirational, but very funny!!

Ok, so the clip I have chosen for today's Happy Wednesday is not inspirational. Nor will it make you think deep thoughts or compel you to create wonderful pieces of art or poetry. But it might make you laugh!

So enjoy Futurama's Cylon and Garfunkel!!!!

Welsh Dresser

I bought this neglected old Welsh dresser from a house clearance centre near to where I live. When I saw it, the doors were hung the wrong way round and were falling apart, the shelves had missing screws, the handles were covered in a thick layer of grease and the whole thing was biffed and scratched all over. But despite all this, I really loved it!

Below are a few pictures from the renovation and re-painting process. Because of the damaged/missing parts, the doors and display section had to be completely dismantled, repaired and were re-assembled.

The original Welsh Dresser after I brought it home

The display section after it was dismantled and repaired

Primed and ready for painting

It was painted using an eggshell, distressed it and finished it with a protective coat of natural beeswax

The handles were replaced and hooks added to hang cups. I left the original top un-painted as I like the beat-up, scratched and stained look of the wood. This is one of my favourite pieces of furniture!

There are more pictures of the Dresser in the Gallery.

The First Happy Wednesday!

Of all the days in the week, Wednesday has to be the worst! The good feeling from the weekend has long since departed and it's still 2 full days until the next one. In a job I once had, we always called Wednesdays 'Tax-Man Day' as it was the day we effectively worked for free, to pay our national insurance and income tax. To this day, I still call Wednesdays Tax-Man Day!

Ugh, I really don't like Wednesdays.

I know loads of other people who have the same feelings about Wednesdays and that's where the idea of 'Happy Wednesdays' has come from (I'm afraid I've nicked the name from a long extinct Indie night at a club that I used to go to)!

So here it is. Every week I will post a picture, a piece of art or poetry, or a video that I find inspiring. I know that it'll take more than a picture or video to change Wednesdays to anything other than the worst day of the week. But if it can brighten up this day a little bit, then it's definitely worth it.

For the very first Happy Wednesday I have used one of my own pictures and haiku poems. I took this picture whilst out kayaking last year. It is a picture of a mountain called Cat Bells, as seen from my kayak on Derwentwater, near Keswick in the Lake District. I am very lucky to live so close to such inspiring and beautiful countryside. I wrote the Haiku to describe my feelings about the joy of kayaking in the Lake District. It is the only poem I have ever written, not really one of my skills but I think it works alright on this picture.

Please remember to check back next week for Happy Wednesday, which I promise won't always be my attempts at photography or poetry!

My Narnia Wardrobe

I have loved the Narnia stories for as long as I can remember! When I was little, I used to imagine that one day I would find an old wardrobe and be magically transported to Narnia, where I would fight witches, meet talking animals and learn to ride a Pegasus. I suppose I have never really stopped looking for the land inside the wardrobe and, when I saw a wonderfully old and bashed up wardrobe in a second-hand furniture warehouse a few years ago, I knew I had to have it.

I have seen plenty of old wardrobes during the many wasted hours that I have spent in second-hand shops and house clearance centres, but this wardrobe really caught my eye. If any had the potential of hiding a magical kingdom inside, it had to be this one.

So I bought it. And for several years I used it daily, never quite having the guts to do anything with it (I was very worried that I might mess up my favourite piece of furniture)!

However, a couple of months ago I decided to redecorate my bedroom and, whilst I was clearing out my bits and bobs, I came across 2 old and extremely tatty copies of The Magicians Nephew and The Last Battle. I thought long and hard and decided that, if I didn't do something with my wardrobe whilst the room was empty, then I probably never would. So the decision was made and I have to say that it was one of the best decisions that I have ever made!

Below are a few pictures of the finished wardrobe.

 

I decoupaged (I'm not sure if that’s even a word) pages from the books and placed some of the illustrations over the text. The metal handles, hinges etc. were spray painted in matt black (as they were a horrible rusty colour) and the whole piece was painted in antique white and distressed.



I painted the interior of the wardrobe in blue and stuck on lots of gold and silver stars to remind me of the magical world that can be found within my Narnian wardrobe.

I love my wardrobe and it is still my favourite piece of furniture! I've put more pictures of the Narnia wardrobe up on the Gallery page

The Saga of the Bookcase Continues......

I may have finally solved my book storage problem! I was out and about last Friday when I saw a big pile of old pallets at the side of a local plumbing centre. I couldn’t resist and asked the manager of the store if I could take some of them. I don’t think he was too happy that I was not buying anything from his store (either that or he was just generally grumpy), but he did very kindly alow me to take as much wood as I wanted. I just wish that I had a bigger car with a large boot!

On my way home, with a car full of fantastic weathered wood, I began to wonder what I was going to make with it. I have always liked the old style wooden apple crates and so I thought that I could make some vintage style crates for storage.

I’ve now made a crate and it looks really cool (I promise to post some pictures soon) and I’ve probably got enough wood to make another 3 or 4. After some thought, I have decided to make the extra crates and see how they look stacked on their sides. If they look as I imagine them, they could make a really unusual bookcase, and if they don't, at least I’ll have some vintage crates for storage!

I’ll keep you all posted on my progress!

Asterix Decoupage Chair

My Sister turned 30 last June - sorry Jo, but everyone now knows how old you are (hehehe)! Unfortunately, last June was not the best time, financially speaking, for a milestone birthday in the family. As I had just finished a lengthy degree and had not yet found work, it would be fair to say that I was completely and utterly skint. However, I had just had a clear-out at home which resulted in me having a spare wooden dining chair. So I decided to decorate this chair as her 30th birthday present.

The chair was quite rickety (which is why it had become a spare chair), so before I did anything decorative, I took the chair apart so that any lose, broken or missing parts could be replaced or repaired. While it was disassembled, I sand papered all the old paint off and gave it a coat of primer, ready for painting.

My sister loves Asterix and I happened to have a tatty old copy of "Asterix and the Cauldron" in my bookshelf. It really was a no-brainer as to what would be the perfect theme for the chair so, whilst the primer was drying, I began to decoupage the base of the chair with pictures cut out of the comic. The whole base was finished with 3 coats of floor varnish (I find it doesn't yellow as much as furniture varnish) and the chair legs and backrest were painted in a pale green eggshell, which really went well with the pale colours of the cartoon pictures.

Finally the whole piece was reassembled and given to my Sister.

Below are a few photo's of the finished chair.

Thanks for looking, more furniture to be added soon!!