Shabby Chic?

On Saturday morning I got word about someone who lived a couple of streets away who had to move house soon and needed to get rid of a load of furniture quickly - We are not short of furniture, but not being one to feel I've missed out on a bargain I hot footed it straight round there with hubby's words of 'you better not come back with a load of crap' still ringing in my ears!

Then imagine the predicament I found myself in, when I saw this



'Its kind of distressed' said the lady who was selling it.
'My hubby will be, when I come home with this' I replied.

So 10am Sunday morning and I spy the nice lady's husband and son in law carting the huge dressing table down the street towards our house. All credit to Tim, he didn't say what he thought until the 2 blokes had left with their £20 (yes, just twenty quid!)

'Its shabby chic' I said
'More like shabby sh*t' said Tim

So I'm hoping you ladies out there will appreciate this fine piece of furniture, you have to look past the fact that it has been painted rather haphazardly without the handles being removed, and ignore the paint all round the mirror, because after some TLC I can see it looking very nice. And it really is huge with lovely big drawers to put all my girly stuff in - I must admit, Tim seemed won over when I told him this meant he could even reclaim his paltry shelf in the bathroom cabinet that I had begun to take over. Later on Sunday evening, I was flicking through my 'Shabby Chic' book by Rachel Ashwell and what should I see but an almost identical dressing table right there!

Please ignore the horrible combination of salmon walls, plum curtains and green woodwork in my bedroom, I told you the colour schemes we had inherited were hideous - which leads me on to our hall and stairs.

Here are a couple of pics, although its really difficult to get a good picture for some reason



All the tongue and groove on the left hand side of the picture was a real 'orangey' pine and the walls and cieling were a tangerine colour with the mustard spindles and red carpet that Im sure you'll never forget!



I bought loads of the IKEA white 'ribba' frames as I want to do a gallery up the stairs, but I am struggling to find little bits in duck egg blue and beige to sit on my shelves which were green (shown in an earlier post) but are now white. We covered up the ugly radiators with radiator covers and that is another place for me to accessorise, but I always find that bit the hardest!

Anyway enough from me, and let me know what you think of my dressing table! - Natalie x