It All Started With a Fireplace Mantle ....................................

Greetings dear friends & readers

I used to have this old wooden fireplace mantle in my Craft Cottage - it was ideal for display purposes.

When I no longer needed it,  I moved it to a corner of my deck area - under cover, but still exposed to the elements.

It was time to do something with it before it got ruined.

I dragged it against a wall in my lounge - I had always had ideas of bringing it in here but wasn't sure where to put it as I seem to have cluttered my lounge up as there was rather limited space in my lounge!!!  😉

You can see from the pics above, the top was in a bad state of repair.

I always Loved the centre detailing,  so I added a couple of scrolls that I had in my stash - removed from an old Singer Sewing Machine Drawer.

I sanded the top & filled any gaps & then gave it 3 generous coats of Voodoo Molly Vintage Chalk Paint in the colour "Vintage White"

I waxed the whole thing with clear wax & then after watching This Video Here I applied a coat of dark wax, rubbed it off & then another coat of clear wax.

I love the slightly aged, antique patina it gave to the detailing.

Then I lightly scuffed the edges of the whole mantle with sandpaper.

I have positioned it against my feature wall as I love the effect of it against the wallpaper & when it was against the cream painted wall - it just looked lost.

I have been working on something to go in front of my mantle - I hope to share this with you in my next post.

When I stood back to admire my new/old fireplace mantle I decided I no longer liked the grey frame 

around this gorgeous Cross Stitch Picture

The frame had originally been gold & I had painted it with Grey Chalk Paint 3 years ago.

I had some leftover Resene Test Pot in the colour Pale Rose so I applied this over the grey & immediately loved it 💗

Incidently in case you may think all these painting projects are so simple & easy .... I took these snaps to show you just how tricky it can get around here at times ... especially when there's a paint pot out & a certain inquisitive 

4 legged ginger critter !!!

Invariably she ends up with the odd patch of colour on her !!!

These two stools were looking shabby  -   they had been painted/upcycled by me well over 4 years ago now.

The paper doilies that I had modpodged on the tops were lifting & discoloured - stained by cups of tea & the odd 

glass of red wine !!!

After a quick google search I found that you can remove old modpodge by soaking well in warm water - I tried this & found it worked fairly well. A good sand afterwards & the remainder of the doiley & glue had gone.

I gave both stools a fresh coat of paint & then decided to stencil onto them with my new bee stencil.

I wanted a dark grey colour but had none so I mixed up small amounts of white & black chalk paints until I was happy with the shade.

Ooohhhh how great they look !!! 💕

Two coats of wax to each stool & now they will be wipeable & much more hard wearing.

There has been quite a bit of painting/upcycling going on here at Threadbear HQ.

I hope to be back soon with another update post.

Wishing you all a wonderful week dear friends - thanks so much for your visits here

With much love & friendship to you all,

Julie & the furry ones x0x0x0