After months and months of not doing much at the studio (for difficult personal, family reasons), I think it is time to focus again on my work and what makes me who I am. This is what my dad would tell me.
Being busy painting, creating, making things has always been part of my life. It started as a hobby, over the years, it became a business.
2020 has been complicated for all of us. Life has stopped for months, and changed in a different ways. I stopped my art classes that I was running for so long. I had a new job opportunity and had to focus an all things new, not related with my crafts.
2021 has become the hardest.
Being in my art studio and continuing my craft and my work here, is becoming a huge help for my mental health.
I spent some days reorganizing the studioand I think it is time to be back.
Here is a picture of my own sideboard, that I upcycled again last year.
New style for this ex brown old piece of furniture that its last owner painted in white.
I managed to transport it for like 1h on top of the luggage rack of my ex stolen bike few months ago, and as each time I do something like that, I think never again, but….
So here it it, this little cabinet:
After
Before
When I got this cabinet, it was all painted in white and was dark brown on the inside. It used to have long legs that I immediately cut. I replaced them with these perfect little wooden ones. It gives it more lightness. I also cut out the door to have that huge space in the middle and chose cane webbing to cover. I loved this natural material.
About its colour: it is painted and distressed using different layers of paint colours for the door and drawer (there’s some light blue, light pink, some white…). The top and side are painted using white paint. I work mostly with Farrow & Ball paint colours and wax from Liberon. The all furniture has been sanded for a distressed finish and waxed for extra protection.
The inside is painted in light blue and it has one shelf painted in white. The door has been transformed using cane webbing. The knobs are brand new (lovely find from charity shops).
Dimensions: Depth: 40 cm Width: 45 cm Height: 69 cm
It is a unique cute little cane webbing – distressed cabinet. It can easily be placed in an entryway, leaving space, kitchen, living room, bedroom.
I am very happy about its new style. What do you think?
Here is a little bit for its story: I was walking to my studio, and someone got rid of this old white gorgeous little cabinet… There were so much potential on that one. With me it became a colourful, unique and great piece of furniture.
I love nature, I love wood colour, I love making something unique… Here is its new look:
Comparing to how it was…
Bedside table before
The top has been sended and wood stained. The whole table is painted with the beautiful Aquamarine colour from Little Green. The two drawers (and inside drawers) are covered with this colourful tropical leaves wallpaper. The inside paper has few layers of varnish for extra protection. Each drawer has a new colorful knob (probably found in a charity shop).
Height: 63.5 cm Width: 44 cm Length: 38.5 cm
Drawers: 27.5 cm x 29.5 cm
The customer wanted two, unfortunately I had only one. She still bought it and I am super glad.
**No longer available. This cutie has found a new home**
Cabinet has been delivered. Thank you, We love it!
Sometimes you find little treasures, and you see straight away their gorgeous side.
Here is how I found this unit, made of wood with no legs. It deserved better.
I painted it with different layers of colours, sanded it for some distressed finish, and waxed it for an entire protection. I also added some modern hairpin legs!
Details: Length: 59cm Width: 47cm Height: 69cm My material: Paints and wax from Liberon, hairpin legs from WickedHairpins
Et voilà, a new three shelves unit with a brand new life!
**No longer available. This cutie has found a new home**
Second life for this wooden little cabinet. It is painted and distressed using different paint colours from Farrow & Ball (main one is VARDO n288) and coloured wax from Liberon (I have been a huge fan for many years) The top has been sanded and oak varnished (loving to discover the wood colour). The all unit is waxed for extra protection.
It has two shelves on the inside. The knobs are brand new (probably found at Anthropologie. I have a massive collection of knobs). The hinges are are brand new too now.
Dimensions: Length: 65 cm Width: 44 cm Height: 76 cm
It is a great unique little distressed cabinet. It can easily be placed in an entryway, kitchen, living room..
**No longer available. This cutie has found a new home**
Fantastic cabinet! Paintwork is gorgeous and Julia was really helpful organizing quick delivery. Thank you!!
I thinks this one had many lives before it arrived at my studio. The ex owner told me that it travelled from France like 10ish years ago… and guess what, I love that! A furniture with stories to tell!
So when I got it it was all painted in white. Here is a picture of how it was after I started sanding the top.
Plain, no legs, different knobs
This unit has one wooden shelf on the inside and two large drawers. Dimensions: Length: 87 cm Width: 49 cm Height: 91.5 cm
I had a great blue colour from Farrow & Ball at the studio and most of all I like distressed affects by playing with layers of paints and coloured wax (see this gorgeous other cabinet that I sold last year https://julianieto.com/the-distressed-cabinet ). So I decided let’s give it a try one more time!
Details: I’ve used “Stiffkey Blue n281” from Farrow & Ball (huge fan of this brand). The doors and drawers are painted using different layers of colours and coloured wax from Liberon (I have also been a huge fan for many years), for a distressed effect. The top has been sanded, oak varnished and stained again for another grey effect. The all unit is waxed for extra protection as usual.
I’ve changed the knobs for brand new solid brass handles from another Etsy shop (they are perfect). I’ve also thought that it would have a better shape with small legs so here we are: I reused tiny hairpin legs that I spray painted in blue.
I really like its new style! It is a unique great distressed cabinet. It can easily be placed in an entryway, kitchen, living room.
I love having a furniture that had many lives before. I guess it is a way of life. At home all my furniture are upcycled and so are very unique. It is like having furniture that are full of many mysterious stories to tell. They may contained imperfections. It gives them charm and history and it is what I like.
This cutie has immediately found a new home, and I am pretty sure it will have another great life!
It is so beautiful! We found the right place for it in our home! It gives an original touch in our leaving room. We are very happy!
One day I was walking on the street with a friend and a man stopped us. He looked like he wanted to have a conversation with people. So we stopped for a chat. He was very nice. He explained that his beloved father died few weeks before and he was emptying his flat and he was happy to give away furniture and objects. He offered us to see what we could take away with us. The place was full of old memories. I choose this cute little footstool thinking that I’ll do something nice with it. It was very dusty at that time (and not grey, grey was a test). It was covered with an old very dusty fabric and was originally simply in wood.
I took it to my art studio and forgot about it for years until very recently when I finished to cover my own pallet table with cute little metro tiles. I thought it would be great to use the left over to this stool and make it unique. So I removed the fabric and cleaned the stool.
And I glued those tiles. I repainted the stool with another colour and waxed it.
So voila its story. A tiled footstool made from an old second hand wooden stool and recycled mini metro tiles .
A bit of details: the wooden footstool is painted using Aquamarine- Deep 198 from Little Green, and waxed using Libéron wax for a distressed finish. The top is covered with little white metro tiles.
Please note that tile is a shiny material, and can easily be cleaned using white vinegar.
Size: 47.5cm lengh x 37.5cm width x 34.5 cm height Size of the seat: 35cm x 45cm
This is a sideboard that I received one day. It was left behind after a moving. All green. Beautiful shape. But green. Green, green, green! I do not like this kind of green, and it was so badly painted. Sooooo I sanded it.
I wanted to re-discover the color of wood. It was a long way to finally make all this green paint disappeared.
I liked this blue paint that I had found a while ago, and in a shop I found this beautiful patterned blue and white wallpaper. It was time to use it! I also did not know what to do about the knobs. Keeping them or not keeping them, that was the question. As I am a big fan of charity shops (I love finding treasures), I found this great simple knobs just perfect for this sideboard! I simply applied the same wood stain as the top!
Et voilà, a second life given to this beautiful sideboard!
**No longer available. This cutie has found a new home**
It is perfect for the entrance hall in our new house!
Over the years, I have been upcycling a lot of funiture.
A material that I discovered many years ago was tiles. Tiles as we know it are used on bathroom walls or kitchen, but for me tiles can simply be broken and used on furniture and I love it.
My story with tiles started that day of 2009 with my grandma bistro table. The tray was broken, and grandma did not really know what to do with it, so I offered her to try something and this something made be transformed my mum’s coffee table, and soooo many other furniture since.
Here is a little gallery of those tiles broken or not and used within the years…
A friend of mind bought himself a cute tiny flat years ago, here in South London. He wanted my help to re-decorate the kitchen but most of all and what I really enjoyed giving, was my mosaic touch in there. He always liked my upcycled mosaic tables and wanted something unique for his flat.
I will not show you the all flat but only what I did with the window ledges.
There are two windows sharing the same ledge in the leaving room and the bedroom has two windows with two ledges.
We picked the colours and I broke the tiles…
This is what I did. Some very unique window ledges.
