When I moved to the south of France I brought very little with me. A whole 9 cubic meters, everything I owned in the world. This included a king size bed, a wooden sofa (with sentimental value), a green chair and last but not least (my one guilty furniture pleasure), those white Ikea cubes that are ridiculously versatile. We had nothing else so I set about finding all the brocantes (second hand places) looking for furniture.
This was one of my very first Brocante finds here in France. It came from a fantastic charity called Emmaus. They support the homeless and their shops are run buy the people they're helping, as it gives them gain work experience. They always have some little beauts hiding away! Most of our crockery came from there and a good chunk of our furniture. I've never been a fan of flat pack furniture, it just doesn't seem to last. It's safe to say my love affair with Emmaus is here to stay.
This piece cost me a whole 5 euros. It was sad, rickety, hidden at the back of an old barn and most importantly I could fit in our well loved Twingo (which BTW has been around the Monaco race track, what can I say we know how to live). I'd seen this beautiful fabric and I had an idea! So I stripped off the top layer checked out the stuffing, which I decided was OK. I dismantled it and checked the frame over. Lots of furniture over here has wood worm, I think it's the heat which these little blighters love. As a result I almost always treat furniture for wood worm before starting, last thing you want is them moving in.
I've found this chemical stripper over here that is pretty vile but great for the fiddly bits on furniture. Once it's stripped I put a base coat on this frame and then painted it with a purple gloss. I promptly decided that gloss paint wasn't worth the drip and brush marks (there are reasons why chalk paint is so popular) and so started to sand it off.
I LOVED the result. I like that lived in look, it's also great with a toddler around, it's less obvious when they damage the furniture! So I waxed it and left it. Love it when a mistake turns out to be just what you were looking for. It now sit's in my daughters bedroom and is the perfect size for a mum bum and a wiggly little pickle bottom for story time.
It STILL needs a couple of extra screws to stop it wobbling, but I'll get round to that one day......that and world peace.
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