Now Stocking - Decor Furniture Transfers

We are pretty excited to be stocking Decor Furniture Transfers and have our first shipment of the smaller ones just arrived. Larger ones are due in November. Here is a video to show you how we use them. Transfer Tutorial

Contact us for more info or go to our online Online Shop

Aquamint - Current Favourite Colour

Don't you love it when you try a new colour and then seem to have a roll of wanting to do everything in it?
So true for vintage paint colour Aquamint, it is a soft neutral with just a hint of mint. I started off doing an old homemade rimu piece in it as a display cabinet for paint in the gallery. 

The starting place

All loaded up as our paint display

Aquamint Swatch

Then I came across another Hutch, this time pine and very battered and unloved at the Sallies. This also got the Aquamint treatment. Different woods and starting colours will always change the look of a piece. One was on raw wood and the other I painted over a horrible dark stain. Both now have their own unique hint of mint look.

Antique Market - a new favourite stencil too!

Check out that dark "before" stain

American Style Tallboy in Antique White

I won this piece in an auction as I could see it had really good bones. It was shabby and neglected but with some sealer, antique white vintage paint and semi gloss poly she is now transformed:

 This is how she started off, and check out those weird drawer runners! If anyone knows about these please let me know as I have not come across them before.

And back to some great refurb photos again...I love the the combo of blue and white always!

Milk Can Up-cycle Project

I knew this  painting and up-cycling lark was catching and now I have proof!
Above is the Before of one of two milk cans that we ( hubby and myself) found at a local garage sale. They had been sitting at someones farm for years filled with water. Totally rusted out and horrible, but still distinctive.

And here is the After... 

I had them at our front door and hubby thought they would not last much longer, so he had painted them with special rust stop liquid and then black enamel paint so it stops the rusting and they can continue to decorate the front of the Villa. This was all his idea and his project.  There's proof that painting is catching, his very own up-cycling project. I think he did a great job and you will see a lot  more of these featuring as props in upcoming photos.

Stenciling Tip No. 2

This is a simple one but will improve the look of your finished stencil project. 

• Remove your stencil before your paint dries

After you have painted two very light coats of paint one straight after the other, remove your stencil straight away. This will give a nice clean edge to your stencil and ensure no sneaky excess paint creeps under your stencil while it dries. It also has the added bonus of the stencil coming away from your piece easily and not getting accidentally glued onto your piece by paint.


This is the second in my mini series of stenciling tips, I hope these are helpful, see the first one here Stencil Tip No. 1

French Script Stencil AND Retro Blue Vintage Paint

First Time Use - French Script stencil

Always on the hunt for Queen Anne style furniture I picked this piece up a while ago but never re-furbed it. I must have had a plan! I finally kept a French script stencil for myself and wanted to do a retro but feminine look on this tallboy.

The stencil was tricky on the top, and I had a few mishaps, but nailed it in the end

Tricky to get this on the top, but worth the fiddly work

Retro Blue in Voodoo Molly Vintage paint is my favorite colour, so it had to be painted in this. I used a good quality synthetic flat edge brush, two coats with a quick sand in between coats to keep it a smooth finish. 

No distressing ( unheard of on my pieces) and finished in a light coat of poly. This completes the look, I hope you like it

Poor Sad Before

Best Furniture Stenciling Tip

Have you ever started a furniture stencil job which look like this?

Good furniture stenciling comes with practice as with most things. And we all make mistakes or aren't sure how to start things. I have had clients email me to say their stencil bleeds and is no good, but a stencil looks like this for one reason, too much paint on the brush or roller.

You can see further down the picture that the stencil looks slightly better and that's because the roller has used up some of it's paint. 

So my tip is:
Less is More. 

Put a very small amount of paint on a plastic plate, dip your brush or roller into it and then wipe the paint off on a rag or clean part of the plate. Then stencil. It will feel like you aren't making much impact but when you pull your stencil away you will see that you have a clean stencil image. Give it a go, it will work much better

Stencil improves as the paint is being used up on the brush