One of my favourite places for second hand hunting is the Old Fire Station. It's run by two hilarious guys, full of fabulous stories about their house clearance adventures. The whole place is filled with gorgeous goodies, mostly older antiques that wouldn't look out of place in a country manor house, but they often have little bits and bobs and I reckon they enjoy me and my mum popping in. We generally buy all the old tat - garden rakes, old posters, broken chairs. More often than not they will give us things for free (one man's junk and all that) and we love the chatty banter.
One area where we disagree is mid century. They think it's all rubbish! It's my absolute favourite. I'm always nagging them about it and then what do I see one day in the front of the shop....these drawers! The guys have finally accepted that mid century is very popular here in the UK and it sells. Finally! And this set does not disappoint. Massive, tall and imposing with great simple lines. I fell in love with them straight away, barely squeezing them into the car and whisking them home.
A new British company had recently launched a truly exciting wallpaper range and this geometric shard one caught my eye straight away. I managed to bag a roll in their opening sale and could not believe how beautiful it is in real life. The quality is amazing and the print is so intricately detailed, the texture almost looks three dimensional. I had also recently come across a custom mixed green on Pinterest, created with lime green and coastal blue. I would never have bought lime green - not EVER - but before you could even blink, I had ordered some and it arrived the next day. Custom colour mixing is so exciting and this deep forest green emerged to squeals of delight. And I must give massive thanks to my husband for saving all his peanut butter jars for my paint mixing!
Using paper on drawer fronts doesn't mean you skip the prep (well, I don't anyway!) so after sanding and cleaning and priming I was all set. The green was simply fabulous and after 2/3 coats I sealed it with High Performance Top Coat in satin. The paper was tricky as you had to be careful not to get any glue on the front. So with my delicate hands (!) I worked on each drawer in turn, getting more and more excited as each one completed more of the pattern.
Fortunately, varnishing the paper was no problem and a few coats of top coat gave it a solid finish. I replaced the knobs with shiny gold handles for a bit of bling against the dark green. I think this paper is so unusual - it changes every time I look at it and has become a firm favourite. This piece went from boring brown to gorgeous geometric green and I love it. Plus, I have the added joy of being able to support a new British company and designer. Winners all round.
The next time I visited the Fire Station I showed the guys what I had done - they hated it even more! I guess you can't please everyone!
