I've found Knob Heaven!

That's a terrible title, I know, but I just had to share what I'm sure will quickly become my new favourite go-to place for knobs.
I do love my regular Riverclay, but my problem is that you can never get the right number of knobs that you need there- I'm currently working on my cousin's bedside table and chest of drawers set (which looks amazing, just quietly, but needs the knobs to finish it off before I can share) and I need 12 knobs to complete the projects. Riverclay only had 6 of the type I want- they did offer to order more in for me but I thought I might look elsewhere first. So I also checked out Masters and Bunnings, both are a massive FAIL. Only the very ugliest knobs seem to make it to those shops!
But have a look at this: online store Anthropologie has the most AMAZING range of quirky cool knobs. Here's some samples that I love:

Gorgeous huh?! Now to decide on the best ones to choose!

Vintage Yellow Distressed Painted Bedside Tables

They're done, finally!

Yellow painted vintage bedside tables.

Sometimes a piece just seems to take a long time to complete. These are an example of that. I suppose because it's actually two pieces it just seems to take that much longer. To paint these gorgeous little tables I used a couple of coats of Zinnser Smart Primer followed by Taubmans Calabash which is somewhere between a bright and a pastel colour but not specifically in either of those categories! The colour has proven quite hard to photograph, however- you'll notice in some pictures it looks lighter and in some darker- it seems to change a little depending on the light.

I really felt as soon as I saw these that they would come up better in colour than they looked in their natural timber state or in white because they are a pretty bold piece of furniture on their own with a great shape and lots of natural personality!

Just so you can compare, here's a picture of them before...

The tables before- notice that our grass has been cut since?! Love freshly cut grass!

I kept the original hardware but painted the handles black which looks great against the yellow and complements the dark distressed wood exposed underneath. Here's what that looks like up close.

Detail of the vintage handles and distressed paintwork.

Finally, I don't often do this, but here is a 'blooper' pic- can you spot the fault?

whoops!

Yep, I took about 10 photos of the tables then noticed that one looked a bit funny- then realised I had put the handle on upside down!

What do you think? I would love your feedback- please leave a comment below. Want to buy them? Contact me via email or Facebook- you'll find me here! Don't forget to like my page and share this post!
Happy Painting!

French country provincial style white and timber coffee table- cute as a button!

French Provincial coffee table, cute, no?

I never intended this coffee table to be a French Provincial style table. I bought it off eBay intending to make a twin of my own coffee table this turquoise and whitewash one which I just love so much.
When I picked up the coffee table though, it was a bit smaller than I had anticipated- my fault, the dimensions were listed and I ignored them due to my very poor spatial awareness skills and lack of any ability to visualise an item when given dimensions! I'm not sure why, but white was just calling out to me for this one. So white it ended up, not blue. Don't be sad, though, just this morning I picked up a Queen Anne style coffee table that I fully intend to paint my favourite aqua colour!

This is a little coffee table, perfect for a two seater sofa or a smaller lounge room. I think it has come up really well. The stained timber top is beautifully smooth and the timber itself has lots of lovely knots.

I thought I might also include a shot of the leg detail- last post my dog was photo-bombing, this time it's the cat's turn!

For those of you who love a before shot, here it is!

Before photo.... and time to cut the grass!

Yes, it is for sale- check it out on my items of sale page, complete with dimensions!
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Vintage Record Player Cabinet Painted Pink!

Last time I wrote I promised that I would do a write up of the other piece of furniture that I picked up from my gorgeous friends' grandparent's home. It was this:

Before photo of this cute vintage cabinet. Yes that is my dog photo-bombing in the background!

A piece with lovely Queen Anne style legs, cute hardware and nice and solid but made in that funny streaky timber. I immediately loved it and wanted it all for myself. I have been on the hunt for somewhere to store our many DVDs without having to have them out in the open for all to see as they used to be. Also, I have a very adorable 7 month old son who is on the cusp of crawling. I could just envision him pulling down the whole tower and having them all fall on his little head! So the towers had to go.

I wanted colour for this piece. As I've mentioned many many times I love furniture painted bright colours. This is quite new for me. When I first started buying my own furniture I always went for the dark wood look, however when we bought our home I realised it was such a dark house with quite small rooms that the furniture was claustrophobic being so dark. That's where my hobby began- painting furniture for my own home to make it look brighter and more open. It has definitely helped- I am much happier in my home now!

But back to this piece... I undercoated the whole thing then mixed my own shade of paint using Dulux Orchid Orange as a base. I actually started painting in the straight colour but as I was looking at it it seemed too dark so I lightened it up with more white. Here is the 'After' photo.

My biggest problem was with the handles. They couldn't come off as they were not screwed on, but rather adheased with glue or something and I was scared I would do irreparable damage to the piece if I tried to get them off. So I tried to cover them off with masking tape and paint around them but due to the intricate nature of them this was just impossible. So I decided to go with the shabby chic look and sort of lightly paint them but do a really shoddy job of it so you could still see the black underneath! They actually look great in real life, but they haven't shown up all that well in photos. Here's a photo anyway...

I love it! It holds all of our DVDs (only just- we are going to have to stop buying new ones) and looks oh so cute with the photos from our wedding, my grandparents' wedding and our little keepsake box which has just the right shade of pink in it too!

Does anyone else have a great piece that hides all their DVDs?

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Queen Anne Vintage Bedside Tables Painted White White White!

Sometimes someone's trash really is another person's treasure. Like these. The story of these beautiful tables begins at Dumpling King and a conversation about cleaning out my friends' Grandparents' house, ready for sale. 'You should see how much we've thrown out, we've already filled a skip bin  the size of our driveway' my friends (sisters) told me. It turned out that these were in the skip bin, along with another secret treasure, which I will blog about next.

So they were saved. Here is the before picture.

The gorgeous little tables before

I think you can see that they weren't in perfect condition. One handle was missing (sadly I couldn't get a matching one so they all had to be replaced), there were some pretty bad stains on the tables, some stickers and chips. The chips I quite like, they add to the shabby chic feel. I could have filled them with some wood putty, as I usually do with chips but these ones I kept. I like the history of them. I did, however, fill the holes where the old handles were, then sanded the tops completely (where the marks and stickers were).

I didn't sand back the legs as I am using a new product called Zinsser Smart Primer. I'm told that if you use this primer you do not need to sand (it claims to stick to anything) and you only need one coat for stain blocking. We've been using it around our house as we are in the process of painting all of our wooden skirting boards. On the first section we painted around the house I did only use one coat of the primer. I should have stuck to what I normally do and painted two coats, as even with three top coats of white paint, you can still see the wood grain. But I digress. 

My advice? Always put two coats of primer on. Here is a quick pic I took of the tables to show the difference between one coat of primer and two.

Two coats of primer on the left, one coat on the right. Massive difference.

Painting furniture white is actually more tricky than painting it a colour because you really need more coats of paint. These guys got three coats of white enamel paint and in some parts where I wanted to touch up, four. But I think they look great!

After!

Want them? They're up for grabs for as long as you can see them on my 'Furniture for Sale' page.

Detail of the leg. These are really beautifully made.

 What other colours would you love to see these in?
 *Hint* I'm already planning my next project!

Can you tell that these are little crystal knobs? Cute.

                 

Detail of the top of the tables.

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French Grey Antique Vintage Style Chest of Drawers

A little while ago you might have noticed that I asked the question on my Facebook page (Retro Vintage Love- please 'Like' my page if you like my work!) whether I should paint this little chest a coral colour or grey. It was almost 50-50, but grey just won out.


Luckily for my fellow colour lovers, the coral is coming, I promise!

Here's what the chest of drawers looked like before. As you can see it was pretty poorly. The handles don't look too bad in pictures, but they were actually horrible plastic things, and one was missing, so they had to go, and the exterior was pretty chipped up and rough.

I sanded the whole thing back completely, which was a pretty horrible job due to the age of the varnish, then gave the whole thing a couple of coats of undercoat.

For the colour, I went with a Dulux colour called Moxa which is in the same range as the Ashville that I used to paint these chairs, however it is a bit darker, because I mixed the colour myself with some white enamel paint to make the finish more durable.

Here's a pic of the drawers after....

I bought new handles from Riverclay in Eltham. They have a lovely selection of handles and knobs. For the record, Bunnings do not. These were brass, I lightly sprayed them with black paint, there is still a little of the old brass visible, which I love.

Think you could give it a home? Contact me via Facebook or on my email- retrovintagelovefurniture@gmail.com

Pale Blue and Whitewashed Distressed Coffee Table

My new coffee table. Love!!

I am beyond in love with my new coffee table. It's an old pine number that in its previous life was stained stained stained! I spent HOURS sanding out the thickest, deepest, darkest stain and as I did, this gorgeous timber grain appeared. Here is a (terrible) pic of the table before its makeover.



The coffee table before. I cannot describe how thick this stain was.

This piece of furniture is for our own home, which I love doing because I can paint with COLOUR! When I'm doing pieces for sale I try to be a little mindful of the fact that not everyone loves colour as much as I do, but I really think that once you've got some coloured pieces in your life you'll never want to go back again. Try it and see!

 

I had initially planned the pale blue legs with an oil top, similar to my shabby chic white hall table, but I was just loving the bare timber. Then my brother in law (BIL) mentioned that he had seen some cool white wash furniture whilst he was out and about (he's a very talented sparky) and the seed was planted. If you're following me on Pinterest you'll have noticed that I pinned quite a few white wash pieces on my Furniture Inspiration page. If you're not following me on Pinterest what a great opportunity to check out my boards, lol- search for Retro Vintage Love Furniture and you'll find me!

I painted the base in a pale blue / aqua of my own making and distressed them- I think the distressed look goes perfectly with the whitewash top, even though my husband just doesn't 'get' distressed. He thinks I've missed spots even though I actually spend quite a bit of time planning where I will distress and exactly how much to distress!

I loved trying out the whitewash technique. The effect is very subtle. I used about 1:4 paint to water ratio and was working quickly to brush on/rub off within about 30 seconds for each section. If you're new to painting this would be a great technique to try. I honestly don't think you could stuff it up, it's fast and fun. If you would like to give it a try and have any questions, please just email me or leave a comment! I finished my top with a spray of British Paints Poly top coat. I'm going to give it a week and see if I want to give it another coat too, depending on how much wear I use.




And finally, the finishing touch, I found the CUTEST little knob in a little shop near Eltham train station (this is also where I got the knobs for the little chest on my cover picture). How much do you love this stag?! If you haven't noticed, deer are the new birds. They are suddenly popping up in all the decorating magazines. As are cow skulls, which I am yet to be sold on. I love how the colours on this knob match perfectly with the top of the table.



What coloured furniture do you have (or want) in your home?

Til next time, happy painting!