Hello Turkey and China!

Just been checking the stats on my blog and noticed a large number of people from Turkey and China visiting lately!

Welcome! And thank you for stopping by ...

Raffy and Symi the furbabies, and me too of course, love it when you drop in....

We'd love to hear your comments on I Love My Home...

come again soon!

Fireplace transformation....

When we moved into our new home last Christmas one of the things that sold it to us was the fireplace - or rather the potential that I could see in it. I really didn't like it the way it was. 

As we've moved into an old dairy and barn, it obviously didn't have a fireplace originally, but the last owners had put in something using modern brick, quarry tiles and a shiny varnished beam - nice....You can also see the vibrant floral wallpaper (which had to go pretty quickly)

After some negotiation with MLH, we now have this...

and I loooove it! In a couple of months a company are coming to take all the beams back to their original light oak colour so that will be the final touch to my beautiful fireplace makeover!

Chair makeover and a dilemma...

I scored this old chair recently and it really had very little to recommend it: old fashioned, brown, horrible fabric, yeuch!

But, with my well-honed upcycler's eye, I could see that it had lovely proportions and was basically sound. So I spent a couple of days working on it and...

Voila!

Suddenly it's graceful lines and pretty details leap out

Here's a close up of the seat covering I used (linen, of course)...

and the finish I achieved...

I love a bit of crackle glazing and I've been working on my own method to get the best results. Also I've blended my own antiquing glaze which I'm finding a lot easier to use than dark wax. It gives a more controllable and subtler effect - hope you like it?

And the dilemma? The usual one: do I sell her or add her to my already overstuffed house?