DIY shabby chic storage solutions.

This weekend I refurbished a thrifted little set of drawers that I picked up for $3. The drawers were sun damaged, marked with age and use, and well just gross….. Look at them, they really should be in the trash.

But I looked through the cloud of filth (and reality), and saw a hip little pastel, shabby chic combination just waiting to be created.

 

I also picked up this cushion for $3 (from the same place) it inspired me. It was lovingly handmade, every stitch was done by hand in wool. I also loved the colour palate.

If I’m totally honest, it wasn’t the subject that drew me in – horses scare the crap out me. Out of the many horses I have met, not one has refrained from biting me – I am really not a fan of horse bites….

The cushion is in the theme of the  boho romantic/shabby chic style I am building in my wardrobe room.  UUgghhh There are soooo many pillows in there now that I have to perch, teetering on the edge of the couch for fear that ‘I’ might fall off. The silly things we do for comfort sometimes have the opposite effect.

Apologies, I digress, being a creative means I am very easily distracted.

What I meant to say was the colours in the pillow inspired the palate I wanted to use for the drawers.
When I got home and assessed my available materials I found I couldn’t replicate the colour palate as I was a few colours short….. so I choose to compliment it instead. I retreated to my pinterest colour board to look at some vintage combinations and came back with the following images on my mood board.

 

 

• The first image with the feather is a colour palate put together by the creative people at design-seeds.com
• The second image of distressed paint and wallpaper on board is from society6.com
• The third quirky dolls and journals image is from timssally.com
• and the last image which is my favourite – comes from to-be-charmed.com

 

 

After deciding on the right colour and material combination and I decided try out a painting technique I had also seen on Pinterest. I call it the tape crazy method. I love the way the results echo the geometric shapes of the 1930’s deco era….. A modern deco age.

So I tried it for myself… with mixed results.

I taped up the piece and I painted it a variety of colours, however I didn’t like it because it was too much of a contrast to the materials I intended on using for the front…..

So I reduced the ‘variety’ of colours to 3 (primary, secondary and accent). But the result was still not right. LAST CHANCE – I painted the whole lot a warm tint white and removed the tape for the first time………….

Lets not mince words it was a DISASTER.

By this time I had spent so many hours on painting, repainting, sanding and painting again that I had to call it – enough was enough!!!! Pffffft – I think that ‘technique’ should come with a disclaimer that reads ‘use only on big scale to avoid looking daft’.

So I painted the whole thing it in cool minty green……… distressed it with sandpaper to highlight the edges of the triangular shapes hidden beneath – sighed –  and walked away.

I then cracked on with the drawers and that part thank goodness sped by. I chose to use some scraps of vintage wallpaper (some printed, some textured) that I had collected over the years.

I am really happy with the results. In hindsight it was the right decision to colour the casing all one colour, because it would have been visual chaos otherwise.