make do and mend

make do and mend

I picked up this chair in a sorry state, broken and battered, unloved and unwanted, 

but so unusual. A corner seat perfect for my hall

Scroll down for the reveal!

and here she is in all her new finery,

mended and refinished and, above all, useful again

next up, two very similar chests of drawers, again bought for a snip 

but I could see lots of potential and no mending needed which is always a bonus

so, after many coats of paint, wax, distressing etc. here they are

once again, restored and useful - what more could anyone want?

I took a quick mental wander through my home the other day 

and realised there is virtually nothing that is new, everything was rescued, 

lovingly restored and unique

I love the fact that I created so much myself, 

exactly as I wanted it. What a privilege

Taking a break

I've decided to take a break from I Love My Home for a while. There are several other creative areas I want to concentrate on so I won't be posting or selling in the near future. Thank you for reading and following all these years x

Rustic signs

I often see lots of old tools for sale and love the age and wear on them. 

For a while I've been thinking about a way to use them and so I've been playing around with this idea for rustic signs...

What do you think?

More treasures!

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Latest treasure hunt...

Met a couple of contacts yesterday who source brocante from France and look what I came home with…

A gorgeous pair of hand carved sabots, they look child sized but may have been for a very petite woman I suppose...

They really are adorable…

And just so you know you're getting value for money from your reading… here's a little known fact to use at your next dinner party… did you know the words 'saboteur' and sabotage' come from the practice of French workers jamming factory machines by throwing their clogs into the mechanism to stop production?

Next up is this gorgeous and very heavy picture frame. So ornate, I can't decide whether to add a mirror or simply fill it with antique fabric or paper …ideas please?

Then this lovely bottle arrived, very large and heavy and such a beautiful colour

And then, this little key cupboard shaped like a terrace of houses, 

too cute!

All this and a pretty French coffee pot which I can see filled with wild flowers

 

A good morning's work x 

Can't stop quilting…..

I know it's easy to be wise after the event, but why didn't I realise quilting and patching would be so addictive?

Of course I can't be lugging around a whole quilt to work on all the time, but there are always scraps of fabric to use up and no piece is too small to be useful. That's why I'm addicted I think, it appeals to my hate of wasting resources and love of creating something out of nothing.

So here's a little beauty I just made. About 6 by 4 inches and embellished with a scrap of fabric on which I printed the first line of "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier. The quote is about dreaming because the pillow is filled with lavender which I picked and dried from last years garden. I keep it under my pillow to send me off to sleep...

and here's the reverse...

I went on to make a couple more of these for friends to use as sachets for their linen cupboards or as sleep inducing pillows.

For the sleep pillows I also mix dried hops into the filling for their soporific effect.

Hope you like x

Bigger and even better!

Well, things have changed yet again, I can hardly keep up!

I Love My Home is still available at Brackley Antique Centre in all its unique, ever-changing, vintage glory but now on an even bigger scale!

We have moved into a new unit (no 82) which is twice the size of our previous home

Loads more room for furniture and easier for customers to see and touch all the beautiful items on display 

Over the winter I've sourced and worked on a whole barn full of wonderful pieces and can't wait to show you more!

If you get a chance to visit I Love My Home at Brackley Antique Centre, you'd be so very welcome - and don't forget we are open 362 days a year (so great for a rainy day!), with plenty of parking and a tea room, not forgetting approximately 190 dealers with a huge variety of items for sale.

Check my SHOP page or the panel on the top right of the HOME page - see you soon !

Oh Christmas Tree!

Now, I'm going to say something that may shock you...

I'm not a big fan of Christmas

I know, people in my line of work are usually big on decorating and being festive but, for me, there's too much cynical emphasis on consumerism and spending money to create the 'perfect Christmas'.

I find it hard to square all that with the number of JAMs (people Just About Managing) out there and the amount of people without even a home or food.

However, before I cry "Bah, Humbug!" let me say I can't deny MLH his Christmas tree and this year I bypassed all the dusty crates and bags of decorations in the loft and went for a very simple design...

It's just candle lights and angels' wings... 

All aboard a vintage wooden sledge with hessian around the base of the tree...

and an antique French cherub on the top.

Simple, pretty, everyone's happy!

(especially the fur babies who are intrigued by all the little 'birds' they can just pick off the tree!)

Thought for the day...

I took this photo on a trip to my favourite National Trust property Snowshill Manor near Broadway in Gloucestershire.

The C16th house was bought by Charles Wade just after the first world war. He saw the property advertised in Country Life while he was at the front and promised himself that, if he survived, he would buy it.

But he never intended it to be his home, in fact he converted a tiny building in the grounds, the Priest's House, to live in. It's said to be haunted by a monk and a young woman who was forced to marry in one of the upstairs rooms in 1604.

Wade kept the beautiful country manor simply as a repository for his amazing collection of STUFF.

I can't describe it any better than that because the variety is staggering: Samurai armour (26 suits), a collection of scrimshaw, toys, musical instruments, Oriental carving and furniture, bicycles, looms…the list goes on and on. He was an inveterate collector and almost every item came from large houses in the UK at a time when many old family properties were selling treasures because they were struggling with death duties and the lack of labour after the war (very Downton Abbey).

Thank goodness he saved so many wonderful things for us to enjoy now. You can see why it's a place I enjoy so much, It speaks to my wish to save and care for old things and enjoy them today and in the future. His motto was "let nothing perish" and so his quote below is my Thought for the Day:

Have a wonderful day and keep saving and enjoying wonderful things x

Life in my new Home!

I Love My Home has settled in to its new home at Brackley Antique Cellar. The first couple of weeks have been really good for sales and I've already had to restock so I'm a happy little camper!

The staff are all lovely and so helpful, I worried that moving from a  lovely intimate place to a much larger one might mean it was a bit clinical but not at all. Of course, it may have helped that I took a large box of chocolate biscuits for them when I went in this weekend!!

Here are a couple of photos to give you a slight idea of how HUGE the place is:

Even these don't really do it justice as it's impossible to capture the whole building and there are other areas which are separate from the main one, it just goes on and on...

Here are a few items in my humble little unit (I can see I might be upgrading to a larger one sooner rather than later)

Some of my larger items have already been sent off to new homes so I added a few more this weekend...

I think my favourites were firstly this lovely vintage double desk and bench, can you imagine the kids doing their homework at this while you cook dinner? and secondly, the gorgeous vintage Imperial typewriter. Don't they look great together?

I showed this to the lovely Alison from Stylish Shutters of Tring who's helping me with some new window treatments at home, and we were off down memory lane with our experiences of manual typewriters, telex machines etc, God I feel old!! 

Just for the record, I don't remember machines as old as this one!

Pretty chair makeover

I found another pretty old chair recently, but in a very sorry state as you can see...

her bones were lovely but she'd seen better days and was exposing her foundation wear - not a good look for any lady … except maybe Madonna?

I couldn't resist bringing her home and treating her to a makeover…

and her true beauty was revealed, including some lovely gilded carving

she even looks good from the back, the mark of a true lady!

She'll be off to star at my new retail space in Brackley Antique Cellar very soon x

Moving Home!

Fanfare please!

Well, I Love My Home has grown even larger and has had to look for a new home - meaning more space and even more fabulous unique items.

Yesterday we moved into Brackley Antique Cellar in the beautiful and historic Northamptonshire town of Brackley.

The Antique Cellar has 30,000 square feet of space with over 180 dealers, it is VAST and if you can't find something to buy there, then you haven't looked properly!

Plenty of parking, good accessibility and a tea room - what else could you want?

As if this wasn't enough, in 2013 it was voted 'Homes and Antiques' magazine's Best Antique Centre in Great Britain and is frequently featured on TV in programmes such as Antiques Road Trip.

Come and visit I Love My Home at Unit 88

Search for Brackley Antique Cellar online and you'll see lots more information including reviews and how to get there.

See you soon I hope x