Renovation projects

Fixing up furniture

Hello everyone and so sorry this post is rather late. Hopefully these beautiful sweet peas from my garden will make up for this.

We had our first Covid vaccinations on Thursday, and I have to say I didn’t feel great that evening nor the next day, so various things were put on hold including, I am sorry to say, this post!

Alongside work, I have been busy this week renovating a couple of bits of furniture, as well as cleaning up a very tarnished old brass lamp base and the front door bell. We also had a lovely evening with some friends, in their garden after a dog walk, staying out a little later as our curfew has been changed from 7pm to 9pm. I was also invited to be the guest host of @lovemyfrenchstyle on Instagram for the week, which was a complete surprise and very exciting for me. Such fun and a lovely community of people who love all things French. Have a look if you have time, there are loads of beautiful and inspiring posts.

On the subject of fixing up bits of furniture, Max found an old shelf in bits in the attic – abandoned by who knows who and who knows when. He put it back together and filled in bits as we need a shelf to put a Wi-Fi booster box on. The box had been sitting on a stepladder in the hall to try and ensure we had a signal everywhere – decoratively not that lovely, nor practical when we needed the stepladder. The walls of the house are very thick and with my son studying for his exams here, I am working from the kitchen and the poor 4G box just can’t cope with the distance it has to serve, so we had to get a signal booster. Whilst painting the shelf, we came up with the idea to make it a little more multi-purpose. Not that long ago, a coat rack we inherited with the house fell off the wall – probably too many coats! We have a lovely wrought iron small set of coat hooks and I wondered if we could attach it to the shelf to make a coat rack with shelf! A couple of coats of chalk paint, a few screws and Max expertly fixed it to the as yet undecorated wall. Et voilà – the box has a new home and the dog lead and coats have somewhere to hang. We are really quite pleased with the DIY result. Now we just need to decorate the hall!

A little while back, I was showing you some of the many projects that need to be attended too here, aside from all the rooms in the house (see post: Projects Galore). One of these projects was an old table of mine with pretty carvings, sadly lost in very dark varnish and in a very shabby state. Well it finally got a makeover too this week. One dark, battered table, now transformed into a pretty little table. The carvings stand out really well now, I added a slightly darker shade to highlight parts of them. What do you think? All that is left to do now is line the drawer with some colourful wallpaper and relocate it to the landing at the top of the wonky stairs – Max may need to adjust the legs of the table as the floor slopes too. It can make you feel quite unbalanced going up the stairs, like being on a pitching ship!

This week I also discovered a magical brass cleaner. I found an old lamp base for the séjour, heavily tarnished so thought I would give it a clean with some lemon and salt. Too tarnished – so I thought I would whip out the brass cleaner to finish the job. No brass cleaner to be found! I did a bit of research on brass cleaners as I had some recollection of vinegar and something being good for the job. Also I am keen to use things that are environmentally friendly, which said brass cleaner is not. I discovered an amazing brass cleaner made from 3 simple household ingredients – vinegar, salt and flour, so I decided to give it a go. It works like a dream and I now have a nice pot of homemade cleaner.

I also cleaned up the front door bell (not brass but very dirty), which is pretty impressive as front door bells go! It fell off whilst the roof was being done, I think the wood it was attached to was rotten. It weighs a tonne (not literally but it is very heavy). I can’t wait to get it back up by the courtyard.

Max has spent the week preparing the attics for the forthcoming insulation day. (He felt fine after the vaccination!) We had an entertaining trip to the DIY shop to collect some boards and a beam – pre-Covid vaccinations. The journey home with a 3m very heavy beam on the car roof was an experience. It reminded me of bringing the pergolas home before our wedding. Every bump in the road and these things move in spite of being tightly tied down. I was terrified the beam would come off the car – however we made it home safely. There were so many holes in floorboards to fix, sweeping to do, owl pellets to remove from the pigeonnier as well as the belvedere floor to replace – mostly done now and no thanks to me. In my defence I have been working and doing all the other things that need doing, as well as painting furniture.

The sun is trying to come out and stay out. Apparently the weather is going to warm up a bit soon. The cats and dog have been enjoying the sunny spots (apart from Louka who always seems to be too busy for photo opps) – it’s a tough life. I have managed to get a few things done in the garden now my hand is getting so much better (see post: Contretemps with the Cat). Anya (the grey kitten) and Nina (the black and white kitten) love helping out with extra digging and rolling in the freshly dug over beds. They also like to help with seedlings – not that great for the seedlings. I had a moment in the garden yesterday when I just looked at everything that needs doing after a few weeks of being out of action, plus rain, and had to make a real effort to focus back on one place at a time. Lots still to do and never enough time!

Time to stop for a coffee and chocolatine and then get back to work and the next project.

The next project might be the old parasol base we found in the cellar – very pretty but very rusty. I have an old male tailor’s dummy that has never had a stand – we are hoping to use this to solve that problem. It will be great for my sewing when I am making trousers for my younger son. I can see it now up in the studio at the top of the tower – one day!

Enjoy the week everyone and see you soon. Thank you as ever for reading this.

A bientôt

Ali xx

2 Comments

  • Brigitte

    There seems to be no end to the tasks and your and Max’s talents. I love the coat rack! I felt a bit ropey too after vaccine (had both now). All the best xx

  • Ali

    Thanks Brigitte. There is no end to the tasks! Not sure about our talents but it is fun salvaging bits. I am really pleased with the coat rack – it sets the hooks off nicely. You should see the stack of furniture that needs attention! Hope all well with you all? One day we will get to meet up. Ali xx

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