French Style with a Modern Twist

French Style painted credenza

Happy Weekend everyone!

It is a gorgeous autumn day here in Umbria, cool in the morning and probably will get hot later.

We could call this Italian Style if we wanted to because it sure is an old piece of country Italian furniture. 

Here I took this old dark wood credenza or hutch and gave it a freshening up.  It is amazing to me how this helps to lighten up a room.  Now the piece glows!

I sanded the piece a bit, to clean it up.

here is the before shot

First I painted on some anti termite solution, because as you can see there are little pinholes in the wood.  It may not have been necessary because I did not see wood dust.  If you see wood dust in little piles then it means your furniture is being eaten by termites.  This can spread all through your house if you are unlucky.  The best idea is to then suffocate the piece of furniture in plastic for two weeks to be extra safe.  It is really easy to paint on but stinky, so do it outside if possible.

Then I painted two base coats of white.

painted with primer

Then two coats of this gorgeous light gray acrylic paint.

I painted the detailing an ice-gray-blue.

Then on the corners and edges of the detailing and moldings, I irregularly painted and rubbed on pearl acrylic paint.

painted furniture in pearl and ice blue

 What do you think?  Did it come out pretty?

Enjoy the fresh Autumn air because here we are in fall.

Cup of tea…anyone?  Makes me think I should host a little tea party with my girls.

With affection,

Natalie

I'm linking with these lovely ladies and their link parties:

Miss Mustard Seed

Between Naps on the Porch

French Country Cottage

Mod Vintage Life

Romantic Home

The Shabby Creek Cottage

Painting Baskets White

This is going to be a fun post because I’m “teaching” you to do something that has no technique and there is no talent involved.  It’s that just wonderful!  I love a quick change that makes a big impact. 

white baskets

So this week I got a new washing machine, oh man did we need one here for a long time, so I felt inspired to get things ship shape and I spent the weekend in my studio, and cooking and doing loads of laundry.  I still don’t have a dryer.  No one much has a dryer here (in Italy) and this pisses me off, but there are issues of energy costs, for me just costs, hook up connection, space bla bla bla.  When I die many, many years from now my sister who may out live me can write on my tombstone “she didn’t have a dryer”.  Anyway this new washing machine is such a dream that the clothes are almost dry when they are done.  It does sound a bit like an airplane is taking off.  The girls and I say, “take-off in 3 minutes”.

I want to say I’m just being silly and I realized that I have readers in for example Brazil and Tanzania and Serbia and you all might not have a dryer either, but you do have a computer and so here we all are together loving design and making things pretty.

before shot, I didn't ever like the shiny finish

I took my old big baskets and I painted them white (satin finish acylic) with a few drops of black universal tint mixed in to make it a tiny bit gray.  The basket that had a dark stain on it already, I left the darkness coming through a little, this gives it a nice Shabby Chic effect.  The basket that was natural I painted over completely white.

Here they are in our bathroom.

please note no dirty laundry an anomaly

How cool is our porthole window, with the glimpse of the arch of the bridge.

There you are, now go out and paint something that can make a big change fast.

Natalie

I'm Linking with:

French Country Cottage

Between Naps on the Porch

Romantic Home

Back to the Simple Life, no. 6

 I'm going to try to get back to the simple life.  It is always a cure for me.

I'm going to look for love everywhere and believe that love wins.

hope and blue sky

I'm going to find hope hanging down a wall bright pink against olive green.

my bedroom balcony at sunset

I'm going to let some doors stay open and open a few as I go along.

I'm going to enjoy the simple chores in my day.

I'm going to try to accept the big cracks and see some of the beauty in that acceptance.

I love this gray marble and waxed white dresser

"Doors don't slam open."
John M. Shanahan, 1939-

"Never mistake motion for action."
Ernest Hemingway 1899-1961

With affection,
Natalie

Holding on to Summer The Simple Life no. 5

eating outside

I don't want Summer to be over, not yet.

warm if not hot evenings

My girls are all excited for Fall, they want brown bread dunked in hot chocolate in the morning and minestra (broth with tiny pasta) for lunch, the teenager is dreaming of sweaters, the boyfriend big sweater look.

check out this patina

I’m holding on to Summer.  I’m not ready yet, it was just too long and rainy a Winter here.  I need more time.

sunflowers on our kitchen table

I love the droppings of yellow pollen

Autumn in Umbria, Italy is a vivid, splendid time of year.  It is when we get that famous golden light.  If you want to come to Italy this is the time of year to visit, it is sure to be beautiful.

overflowing flowers

 Plus I finally got my studio all organized and pretty I don’t want it to get cold and dark in there.  I’m thinking I might put up blue lead lights to make it cool and hip and cozy.  

In Summer the sea is warm.

Adriatic Sea

I can have a cappuccino outside before all the tables get dragged away.

With affection,

Natalie

How To Paint French Provincial Style

I love the French Provincial look because to me it is timeless and easy to do.  It is a bit time consuming but this is the game with painting furniture.  The key is to just bring it a long slowly and do other work or have fun in between.

french provincial style painted furniture 

I like this French Provincial style mixed with modern bright pieces, colorful upholstered furniture.  It also looks good with bare Swedish furniture and Shabby Chic American type furniture.  Mix it up, you can’t go wrong. 

I have also done this look with a very architectural armoire with finials and arches, in gray with black dry brush and it looked gorgeous.

admit it this was just GROSS before

Here I choose a really creamy vanilla color as the base color.

I sanded the piece some.

I painted it with a base coat of white 1 or 2 times, only because I didn’t have tons of the creamy color, you go straight to painting without the base coat if you want.

Then I painted the creamy white color another 2 times.

This piece actually has a glass cabinet that I painted too and left out of the photos because I like the piece better just a credenza.

here's what it looks like with just cream colored paint

Once all the coats had dried I went over the piece with a dry brush of raw umber oil color.  A tiny tube I bought at the art store.  I mixed this dark color with turpentine and brushed it on a separate piece of wood (or cardboard) anything to take off the excess of the oil paint to make the paint sparse.  You can also add a drying medium to this mixture to make the oil paint dry faster.  Oil paint usually takes about 4 days to dry.

oil color even over the key and hardware

I paint with the dry brush only on the moldings
and detailing and slightly over the top

If you want you can add a clear coat of polyurethane over  it all to protect it, but it does make the look a little less antique.  I would wait 4 or 5 days for the oil paint to dry.

If this was going to be mine and not going to a client I would love to save it for my future loft.  I could cut two holes in the top and turn it into a double basined bathroom sink.  Put some curved silver 

faucets.  It would be so pretty with all the fluffy towels stacked on the shelves below.

I just love what a drastic change this look can accomplish.

Cheers,

Natalie

I'm linking with:

Between Naps on the Porch

French Country Cottage

Miss Mustard Seed
The Shabby Creek Cottage

What Color To Paint Your House

just gorgeous terra-cotta orange
the top is sponged more evidently

There is still time to paint your house.  If you just can’t muster up the money or energy to paint your house, you could paint a room or how about a jewelry box!   I know, I'm intentionally encouraging you. Paint something- make a change you will feel better, summer is almost over, at least in Italy.  The antonyms for encourage are to discourage, dispirit, depress and dishearten.  Now will you paint a jewelry box? 

cool blue gray with darker blue gray
shutters and office white trim

closer view same house

Here are some great color combinations.  I like how the Italians pick soft neutral accent colors for the trim or they choose rich dark colors.

I like pink when it is dirtied up and made more manly
soft pink with chocolate brown shutters

I've shown you this photo before dark taupe and
 classic pink and vanilla trim Man! I love this combination

brighter pink with blue gray shutters, very seaside

here taupe and sea-foam green with creamy white trim
taupe absorbs color.  I love to use it in interiors with hot color close by

It is fun to imagine these colors over a little wooden clapboard house, or a painted brick or even shingle, Spanish style stucco, just splendid.

this orange-red with cream trim, dark gray-blue shutters
this looks amazing because the color is saturated and rich

pale mint green with dark green (almost black) shutters, sophisticated

white on white classic and feels like home

and here is the classic italian ochre, bright white trim,
the shutters are the dark green (almost black) color
I described above

another shot

apricot with natural brick, the balconies are gray concrete stucco

to end with a KICK
even richer more saturated orange-red,
here with green-blue shutters,
cool note: there is sheet music painted on the tower.

If you have no muster (it's hot out there) for the above then just dream and plan.

Have a good Weekend.

Natalie

French Country Cottage
The Shabby Creek Cottage