English 19th century chests of drawers with "Je ne sais quoi" ? and "In my Mind I'm Going to Carolina"

Hello from Arundel

We seem to be back to 

our usual Summer, grey days.

I am at present working on 

Victorian Bamboo,

but 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 pine, or brown,

that was all the rage, 

in antique and vintage,

 chests of drawers.

These are still 

immensely popular. 

 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......

 We paint them

before lovingly

 decorating them with,

mostly decoupage.


It's now, 
apparently,
 called
"Upcycling" 

 sometimes we paint them...

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"

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 many hours of cutting out the

 Victorian, copy right free images.

We age them all 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 I cannot take credit for,

my lovely, Aunty B hand painted it.

It's a Noah's Ark design

which of course,

the Victorians were well in to.

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 smalls in it.

LOL

The most popular of all is the black and fish.

I am not sure why they work so well, 

bu they just end up looking so eye catching.

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, almost 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

Have a great Day.

www.arundeleccentrics.com