Arundel in the snow, English Victorian Chests of drawers & dreams of beaches in Carolina



Good Morning from Arundel

and a winter wonderland.

I need to find the time to go
 out with the camera in a minute.


Arundel looks magical in the snow..............















English Victorian Chests of Drawers

I am at present working mostly on 
Victorian Bamboo and chests of drawers.

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 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......

such as this....................





and with a lot of elbow grease...a bit of no how...a lot of patience..we turn them into 

this









 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 now resides in the Laguna Hills in California where it has made a new life for itself ...LOL


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, 
but they just end up looking so eye catching.
These have featured in a few magazines.

This one in the US publication Architectual Digest.




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 
 watching the dolphins.





happy days



Have a great Day.




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