Antique Chest of Drawers, upcycled and ready for the next 100 years.In my mind I'm going to Carolina..Exciting news from our warehouse corner of Arundel

Good Morning

from Arundel on

a grey, early morning

in February.

That's the down side.

Now....

The half full glass approach is...

It's Sunday morning.

My lovely Nass has 

been on the golf

course since silly o'clock,

and I have my coffee,

the heating on,

our elderly, blind,black cat

 on my lap happy and settled after

her breakfast and  

gentle stroll down the garden,

and the laptop on the side of me.

The view out of our window is lovely,

with a field of horses opposite

 and the rolling English

 south downs in the distance.

It gives the illusion of being

 in the depths of the countryside,

rather than living in a small town.

  I DO however have a very large

Victorian Chest of drawers

waiting for me downstairs,

so I can't languish here all morning.

It's all painted and ready for decoupage.

I had a friend from France 

staying with me recently,

and for quite a chunk of

 the 12 days she was here,

she cut out.

She was completely hooked on it.

One morning I found her, still snipping

at the kitchen table at three in the morning.

So, I have a huge bag of cut out paper shells all ready.

on that note....

I thought you might be

 interested to see what we 

get up to with our 

19th century chests of drawers.

 

For many years, it seems to have 

 been  stripped pine, or brown,

that was all the rage, 

in antique and vintage,

 chests of drawers.

These are still 

immensely popular with some folk............. 

 These days, though, many people are looking 

for something a bit different,

lets say, a little quirky.

They still want antique,

but with a little more,

as the French say, 

" Je ne sais quoi "

 That's hopefully,
 what we add to our 

19th century chests.

We take antique, 
mostly 19th century chests,

that are looking a little

down at heel......

such as this pair of sad looking specimens,
 which came complete with fablon........

and we turned them into....

this

you look a lot happier..  hey guys?

 We paint them

before lovingly

 decorating them with,

mostly decoupage.

It's now, 
apparently,
 called
"Upcycling" 

 some of our chests of drawers have been gracing pages in very smart interiors magazines..

as well as some extremely, posh shops

 sometimes we paint them all over...

This was in red tartan

Occasionally, we gild them,

and then decorate 

with decoupage.....

I know,I know,

completely bonkers 

aren't they?

People love them..or not,

but they never ignore them... ha ha

gilt and decoupage

I once had a large stand

 in an antique centre in

Arundel High Street,

( now an Italian Restaurant)

when a woman in her early 20's, and her

 extremely well heeled mother, came in.

"Oh, look Mummy, isn't it gorgeous?"

"Dahling, I think its absolutely hideous,"
Mummy replied, in a very haughty, plummy, accent

They then proceeded to have a 
huge debate,
 right in front 
of me,
 as to the merits, (or not,)
of my chest of drawers.

Ha ha

Never ignored though.......

We mostly, (but not solely) 
work to supply trade,
and these have landed in some 

extremely smart stores,

in New York and other 

large US cities,

London,

and Paris. 

It takes us many hours of cutting out the

 Victorian, copy right free images.

We age them down,

 so they look as if they were decorated

 over 100 years ago.

Most of the chests would be circa 1860,

so, hopefully we send them 

off for another 100 years or more.

silver gilt swallows on a black chest of drawers

this chest has begun a new life and is now residing in the Laguna Hills in California ...ha ha

This lovely chest of drawers,

 I cannot take credit for,

my lovely, Aunty B hand painted it.

It's a Noah's Ark design

which of course,

the Victorians loved.

I love the butterflies and moths.

This chest came out of

Osborne House 

on the Isle of Wight.

You know, where

Queen Victoria used to 

escape to for her hols.

Although it has a 

Queen Victoria stamp on the back,

I can't guarantee she

 kept her cami-knickers in it.

LOL

The most popular of all  our 

19th century chests, are the black and fish.

I am not sure why they work so well, 

but they do always wind up looking extremely smart.

These have featured in a few magazines.

Vintage sheet music 

on a 

Victorian 
Chest of drawers

This was a vintage screen we found at auction.

We decorated it with music on one side,

and black and dragonflies on the other.

There really is no end to our eccentricity..ha ha 

This is another Fabulous, Aunty B 

painted chest of drawers.

I Sooooo wish I could paint like her.

This chest of drawers went off to a

 new life in the US, a few years ago.

It's now living by the ocean in Carolina.....
wish I was.......
no, not really,
just a holiday there for a
 few months would be great.

Actually, I AM going to digress just a tad...its what I do well,

more so the older I get, of course.

"In my mind I'm going to Carolina"

We really did have the most special

 holiday there a few years ago.

My son Jay's, in-laws, 

rented a house right on the beach 

and we were all invited to stay.

All Krista's close family and Nass & I.

There were 9 adults,

1 small child,

1 new baby

and 2 dogs.

All my photos were labelled

"Oceans 11",

although we didn't count the pooches in that.

Mind you, thanks to Mr. Clooney and co, 

I guess "Oceans 13" would work just as well.

This was our view ......

If you live in Carolina, 

you will be immune to it... maybe..

Nass and I just sat for hours

 looking out at the ocean and 

the dolphins.

happy days

One last thing before I start work on the chest of drawers,


We have a new neighbour moving in next door to our warehouse.

He is selling
ANTIQUES...yes its  wonderful news.

We are working together to make
 our corner of Arundel
 buzz.

He is absolutely gutting and transforming his warehouse,
which together with ours, formed much of the 
19th century Swallow Brewery. 

We will be having a joint
 open evening in the Spring,
 and if you would like an invitation,
just email me.

arundel.eccentrics@sky.com

Many apologies to our regulars ,
as we have only been open 
by appointment for several months.

We hope to change that very soon.

Have a great Day.

www.arundeleccentrics.com