I love a bit of upcycling !

Taking an old unloved piece of furniture and turning it into something beautiful and useful again is another passion of mine. I like the fact an old piece of furniture has a story. I will always remember where I bought a piece and what I did to transform it. It had another life before it made it's way in to our house and will be unique to us. My other half groans when I pull up outside our house with a piece of furniture in the back, bought from the tip shop or charity furniture shop, sometimes a car boot or the local antiques/collectables barn, but he does end up liking most of my finds.
Being a sewer I just had to rescue this old sewing machine and give it a purpose.

Base looking a bit sad and unloved 

I found this at a little antique place near me at a bargain price of £35.00. Someone had  painted the wrought iron base with what looked like white gloss paint so it looked pretty sad and unloved. I bought it not sure where it was going to go in the house and stored it at my mum's til I decided what to do with it. She put up with it for about a year, bless her,  in her conservatory until we decorated the hall way and I would make a home for it in there as a hall table, Next issue was how do i get all that horrible paint off and take it back to the lovely black wrought iron. As you do I asked my dad and he told me he could sandblast it for me and powder coat it !! Wow !! He works on car's spray painting them etc and sand blasting was one of the things he does, Who knew ! ..The result is below with the original wooden top, minus the sewing machine which fitted underneath and popped up when you wanted to use it. I love colour and wanted to paint it a strong colour as the veneer had peeled away on the top and it needed some attention to the structure, screwing some of it back into place.

Base ready to go, wooden top ready for some attention

                                             Annie Sloan chalk paint in Florence

I love chalk paint because there is no prep work , no sanding, no primer and it washes out of your clothes !  It also washes out of your brushes and off your  surfaces really easily too. Win win ! I chose Annie Sloan's chalk paint in Florence, then clear waxed and added the darker wax on top to add texture to some areas. I had a gold coloured wax which is a shoe cream really, and highlighted the words on the two ends  and the beautiful Singer detail on the front, A knob was missing too so I had an old small tin which i glued onto the front of the drawer, love it !   Thanks Dad x