Blue and White's Alright!

I heart blue and white Chinoiserie vases. I'm not sure where my obsession  collection has really come from, but I scour garage sales and trade me for new pieces to add to my little collection. I think my mother in law loves it too as she turns up quite often with new pieces to add to my collection that she had found in the local charity shops!

Because everything I have is reclaimed and pre loved it is a unique collection. and it goes with everything, the perfect styling medium

Here are a few photos of how I use it around my home..

Valentines Day - use the vases as...Vases!

Photo Day - use blue & white to stage a furniture piece

Two beautiful miniature pieces given to me

And my other collection.....religious icons, jumps in and photos bombs too

Photo shoot props from inside the Villa

How the original collection started, only a few pieces

Blue & Whites alright for styling anytime!

Two giant vases flanking the summer fireplace

(part of) Chinoiserie collection in it's normal home 

Carla, pp villa design

Chalk Paint dry brush technique

I tried a new technique with my chalk paint today. I had an old wooden ladder which I painted in a charcoal colour, with the intention of distressing.

But I had heard of the dry brush technique and thought I would give it a go. I choose a much lighter colour, Annie Sloan Paris Grey, and literally with a small dry paintbrush I put only very little paint on my brush and started brushing in a haphazard way all over the piece. It starting transforming straight away, all of the knocks and imperfections on the old ladder starting showing up, giving it a really old vintage look. I brushed it all over and that's it! It was so quick and easy.

I think the trick was using a very contrasting colour as this really bought it to life, as when it was painted all one dark colour I was not really feeling it. Great technique I will definitely be using again,
I would love to know how you have achieved great looks with this technique too.
Here are some pics....

Close up of brush marks

Before  - all one colour and no life

Carla, pp villa design

Duck Egg Blue, my current favourite

I'm not sure about you but I seem to get into phases where I really like one colour and I have several projects that I swap around the order I was going to paint them in just because I like a certain colour at the time.

My current fav is Annie Sloan Duck Egg Blue, on some projects it comes out with a little green through it and on others it is a beautiful blue, depending on how you distress or sand back your pieces you can also get variations, which I think are appealing.

Here is a cute little sideboard I have just refurbished and completed.
This piece had really- really ugly sticky out handles on the cupboard doors which looked like gnarled up hands, not pretty at all, but they were attached to a metal face plate which I quite liked. So I managed to knock the handles off and decided to paint over the face plates for some extra detail. Then I added some plain little black knobs to open the cupboards with. As this piece had a lot of detail in it already I only distressed it slightly otherwise it may have ended up looking over done.

After - Duck egg Blue Sideboard

After - top detail

After - T&G back panels

After - front detailing

Before - Poor ugly thing

After - painted metal face plates under handles

Carla, pp villa design

Singer Sewing machine Ideas

Everyone knows someone or someones Grandma who had one of these machines and they are pretty collectible in NZ now. In the past I have come across them and they are beyond repair but I have come up with some handy ideas of that you can do with the parts which are usable. Early this year I posted about reusing the base and making a side table, see that here Revamped table . From that same table there was one side set of drawers that were in great condition. I have painted them in a really distressed look to show all of the vintage detail. So much work went into making these sewing machines attractive in the home, it's nice to enjoy them again in 2014. (colour used was Annie Sloan Pure White)

Carla, pp villa design

July Furniture Before and Afters

I have been pretty busy renovating the spare bedroom this month and will post about that once it is finished.
Here are some of the projects I have been working on for Pyes Pa Villa Design, I seem to have a bit of a Paris Grey theme for July

After - Paris Grey Hall Table

After - furniture jewellery

Before - ugly red table

After - Duck Egg Blue bedside table

After - crystal knob detail, my current favourites

After - T&G door detail

Before - hard to like yellow bedside

Thanks for visiting!

Carla, pp villa design

Alex's Sewing Table

Alex commented on one of my recent auctions that a little coffee table would be perfect for her sewing table. ...if only. Alex is a fantastic young mum to two darling children and a talented crafter herself, and her birthday was coming up later in the year,  so I suggested we could find a piece that would suit as a sewing table from my stash ( read hoard and ready to burst out of the double garage where the cars should actually be parked but has now been taken over and we call it my "studio") of projects. So I sent her a "please use your imagination before pic" of a funny desk / hall table I had and she picked the colour, Antoinette. I was really pleased she picked this colour as it is a gorgeous Annie Sloan pink and not a colour I have done many pieces in yet. Today I finished her sewing desk and sent her an iPhone shot:

After - sneak peek shot

Its always a bit nerve racking when you show someone a refinished piece if they have only seen the raw original piece as you never know what they are expecting it to end up like. Luckily she said she loved it, so now all we need to do is load it in the ute and take it down to her next time we visit.

Here are some more shots with some detail. I need to do some more pieces in this colour as it really is pretty without being super super girly, especially if you can highlight some nice hardware. This little desk had great bones and I used the original  hardware, painting it in hammered silver metal paint, only a light coat to make it look vintage and worn, it became a nice feature on the drawers instead of blending in with all that brown as I originally purchased it.

After - fab original hardware

After- refinished in AS Antoinette

After - love staging with this op-shopped brass bird cage

After - detailed hardware

After - final

 and a post is never complete with out the before shot...

Before - photo I purchased desk from

Carla, pp villa design