I have begun to restore and upcycle small pieces of furniture for Petite Bazaar in La Souterraine. I have always loved working on furniture, probably because my father loved carpentry and he was always pottering about with chisels in his garage.

I try to do minimal repairs and get very fed up with YouTube videos showing a beautiful paint layered chest being pulled apart, sanded within an inch of its inner growth rings and then stained in one dull mono-toned finish. Basically they killed any historic patina it had and it could just as well be IKEA!

But I digress.  I am lucky to live near three brocantes, Soli France, Dynamo and Emmause that I can find unloved furniture for around €5 to €15. This, after a light fixing, minimal sanding, wax, subtle paint finishes, and any decorative work like lining, decoupage or fabric, will be sold for between €35 and €60. So it’s a good margin.

My paints are a mix of acrylics, chalk paint, milk paints, oils  waxes, stains, limewax and either using very light, diluted paint, or drybrush techniques.  I have a set of very fine longhaired brushes to do linework to pick out carvings, and a selection of porcelain knobs to replace damaged ones.

This little project was for a seven year old. I cleaned up the metal legs and sprayed with matt black to match a chair I had found. The chair had been painted very evenly and this looks very one dimensional. So I usually give it a little wear in places to pick out mouldings.  This one originally had a reed seat but now just the holes. This was perfect for doing a paper cord sewn edge.

The top of the desk had lovely layers of varnish, so I simply sanded it till more appeared and then gave it an oak tinted wax. A little of the matt black where the ink well would have been and voila! Finished.

There will be more on furniture over the winter. I have about 12 pieces now to complete, including some nice wooden boxes that I may put some subtle Fleur-de-lis designs upon.

I am a stockist for Old Red Barn and Nordic Chic.  This enables me to obtain wholesale priced paints, decorative finishes, mouldings, decoupage and materials.