I’m still obsessed with shades of mint green. As if you didn’t notice… And the darker, greener green which appears on vintage pieces.

The little cabinet I just shared under the electric board door I shared months ago:

The green cupboard I just shared:

The chalkboard visible behind the sea rope basket which also lived in my kitchen in Tasmania:

Almost everything in my kitchen in Tasmania… The doors, the chalkboard…

The paper towel holder…

The drawer I upcycled into a charging station…

The roadside find trolley I fixed as my coffee cart…

Don’t get me wrong. I love old things and I love the antique colours they come in. I love other colours too – light blue, creamy white, pale yellow, dusty pink, light grey. But vintage greens never fail to catch my eye.

I think the first piece I ever had in green was a meat safe like this one.

Isn’t it just the perfect colour? Greeny blue with a nice dose of rust.

These days a paler version is in fashion: a softer, more pastel, more 50s colour. Since I mostly mix up my own colours I find something I like and try to match the colour. That means I get close but not identical each time I paint something. Suits me fine. I’ve never been hung up on perfection. Old things are not perfect… its that worn and used look that makes them perfect to me.

Here are a few examples of things I painted in variations of that minty greeny colour.

A small wall mounted bookshelf (sorry, no finished photo):

The bottom of an old wardrobe I converted into shoe storage for our porch in Tasmania. The drawer was broken so I kept the front in its original colour and hinged it from the bottom.

Not the best photo, but the most distressed look I ever attempted on a small men’s wardrobe I used for craft supply storage in my office. I painted this in pale yellow and pink then topped it off with minty green before sanding and scraping back.

A greener green colour for a small vintage meatsafe I upcycled for towel storage in my grooming room.

I have an old timber couch I plan to sand back and paint next but I think I should stick to antique white for that cause then I can pick any colours I want for the cushions. Painting it green will limit my choices…

z

Well whaddayaknow? Another green cupboard…

I found this gorgeous cupboard in an online store on Facebook and feel in love. So I bought it before even figuring out where I’d put it. Turns out it fit perfectly in my bedroom.

I didn’t take any good before photos, but the guys from the shop were kind enough to send me the one above from their listing. You can see it has a nice shape in the display area, no doors, no drawers and a dish rack inside the top part.

I basically let it sit there, wrapped in plastic, for a couple of months before I started working on it. The only thing I did was expose the hinges. I’ve never seen hinges placed on a piece of furniture like this before. I measured them and went looking to see if I could find hinges to fit so I wouldn’t have to mess with removing and replacing. I got lucky and found some in brass (which I painted naturally!). They’re great actually as I can easily remove the doors if I want to move it around, making it much lighter.

It needed a major overhaul obviously. I sanded it back to remove the old paint (and dirt. Lots of dirt). I removed the dish rack cause I wasn’t going to use it in the kitchen. I made doors out of plywood. I made drawers out of whatever I had on hand, with plywood fronts. I got some simple white ceramic knobs.

I mixed up paint to match the original colours cause I liked them. A more yellowish green than the minty green I usually like. You can’t see it in the wrapped pic but the inner part in the middle was blue and the insides unpainted. I painted the insides blue.

My plan was always to put it in the bedroom for linen up top and shoes down the bottom. Hence the holes in the doors: to allow air to circulate. Bonus that it looks cute.

The naked ladies, being mostly white, are ideal for display purposes. Mind you, its also a handy spot to store them till I decide what to do with them. And till I find what belongs in that spot.

So another project finished and shared!

z

Shared at:

Remember long ago I mentioned I’d bought a glass fronted cabinet and a cupboard? Well, I’m finally sharing one of those projects. About bloody time too. I’ve been letting myself get really lazy when it comes to working on the computer and blogging has suffered.

Anyhow… I found this cute little cabinet at a local antique shop a few months ago and had to have it. It was missing one side glass panel, both inner shelves and bascially needed a bit of TLC.

Ok. Maybe a lot of TLC. But that kind of thing never scares me.

My uncle had given me a couple of these old parian couch decorations which he’d salvaged from a burn pile. It came from some very old broken couches from an old hotel. He asked if I wanted them. Of course I wanted them!

I picked this one, deciding it would add that little something extra to my cabinet.

The entire remake took ages to complete. Mainly cause I just let the cabinet sit in my house for ages before I even began, then I only worked on it in spits and spurts.

First order of business was to remove the remaining glass on the side and replace it with flyscreen. The whole idea was to make this little cabinet into towel storage to fit right outside my bathroom. Boy I’m glad I have tools. The staple gun came in really handy for putting in the flyscreen.

Once that was done and it was all cleaned up I began painting it with a ready made chalk paint. I say that cause most of the time I mix up my own paint colours and make my own chalk paint.

I used clear wax to finish it off, tinting some of it to create the old look where necessary as I went.

So here it is. Finished, in its place in the tiny hallway to the bathroom. I made a shelf in the top to hold hand towels, the bottom holds my bath towels. I put an old lace pillow case I was given in the window. This is a very traditional look: in the old houses here on Paros there were window cabinets cut into the thick stone walls. The women would put lace curtains in them to decorate them and hide what was inside. They weren’t usually used as display cabinets but for every day storage. I love the way this turned out.

Till I can find a better place for them, my cowboy boots sit underneath it, sort of on display too. And the paint colour I chose almost matches the little door I made to hide the electricity panel.

z

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I don’t know if any of you remember I bought an Ikea Ivar bookcase for my home. I’m all about storage since I do so much art and craft in my one room. I needed some serious storage space. You can read about the bookcase project here and here.

I love it. Its pretty and holds so much of my stuff. Nothing like being surrounded by your creative mess to make you feel at home.

Only problem was the computer ‘desk’ area…Well there were two problems – first was the fact that I need the laptop screen to be up higher but the keyboard lower for a more ergonomic workspace. I have a wireless keyboard so I can have them at different heights. I looked on ebay for a retractable keyboard shelf but decided to make my own.

Cause you know I have that insidious crafter’s syndrome:

I had a bit of scrap pine perfect for the job. After sanding, liming and varnishing the pine to match the rest of the bookcase, I joined it to the shelf with hinges underneath to be able to drop it down when I wasn’t using it. Mind you, since I made I’ve never dropped it down… Hm… At least I can if I want to, and that’s what counts!

To hold it in place when it was out yet allow for folding down, I cut two pieces of wood to act as my brackets. When I want to fold it down they swivel under the shelf.

Then the other problem… my laptop has had an issue with the screen for a long time. Its not the screen itself that’s the problem – its the wire connections. Although my laptop is so big and heavy its never really been something I open and close and carry around often, still, there’s an issue with the wires that connect it to the keyboard. Basically I’ve have to jiggle, poke and beg for the image to be clear and not all weird coloured. The reason I know its not the screen but the wires going bonkers is that when I hit the sweet spot it works perfectly. For about 2 minutes.

So a new monitor was on the cards. No reason to spend money on a new laptop since this one is still more than good enough for the stuff I do, so I bought a new monitor while in Athens over Christmas.

Of course that created another problem…

Like where to put the new monitor. How to set it up to keep the top of the laptop open and access the power button. I tried it on the shelf to the side but the cables wouldn’t reach. Time to put on the creative genius cap again.

This time I used bits of cut off legs I’d also collected (it pays to collect stuff which might come in handy one day) and a piece of MDF I had. Cause, again, I collected it…

Firstly I had to find leg bits the same height as my drop saw keeps throwing the fuse, I simple screwed them in place – I was too impatient, no time for pretty or neat here. It had to be high enough to hold the laptop underneath and allow me to slide my hand in to turn on the power. I had to cut out a section at the back to allow the screen to be raised permanently. Once I had it all fitting properly I limed it white to match the bookcase and set it up.

It might not be perfect but it works.

z

PS. Sorry for the bad photos… I’ve been using my phone more than my camera these days.