Monday 18 January 2010

Beg Borrow and Steal

The weekend saw me and "The Other Half" head up to my Parents House in Cumbria.

We are doing the move to France on a tiny budget and all of our furniture has to stay in our current house, apart from two beds, a large wooden (and very uncomfortable) futon, an IKEA chair and a few bits and pieces.


My parents have lots of outbuildings full of old bits and bobs of furniture, toys, books, etc so in a bid to reduce the amount of things we have to buy we decided a barn raid was in order. We found lots of “treasures” from my childhood and suffice to say I got very distracted – lots!


I also took the opportunity to sort out all of my horse’s “things”. I find it very hard to part with things, both me and my dad are hoarders, much to my mums dismay, well you really never know when something might come in useful! I found rugs that he has had since I got him over 8 years ago that have massive holes in them, head collars that I suspect have been chewed (bloody mice!) and lots of other stuff that I said good bye too.


My parents have a lovely old pine chest in the living room that holds their TV. It really is a lovely piece of furniture. About 4pm on Saturday afternoon my dad announced that he had another one somewhere in a barn. Off he went and re-appeared some considerable time later proudly carrying this…


Now not to sound ungrateful, but I didn’t know whether he was joking, did he really expect me to put this in my living room?


Oh me of little faith.


After an hour of scraping, scrubbing, frantic sanding and washing, this is what we had.

Granted its only the front of the drawer but you get the general impression, don’t you? Obviously it needs waxing and a bit more work but I think its a bit special.

I think we might have discovered a little gem underneath the two layers of sticky back plastic and three layers of paint!


We also managed to fill the one barn that my mum and emptied with three tables, two stools, 4 dining chairs, three rugs, a TV cabinet, my first rocking chair (its so so small and cute), various curtain poles, a selection of lanterns and outdoor candles and a few other bits and bobs.

Now all I have to do is find a sofa?

Hmmm - Ebay calls me thinks!

x x x






4 comments:

  1. What great finds from your parents barn!! It's great to discover a lovely old piece of pine furniture that can be stripped & waxed! Soooo much character in those lovely old pieces, they're gorgeous!
    Great post!

    Sharon xx
    P.S. I found two Laura Ashley terracotta sofas in decent condition on Ebay for £10.50!! Hope you are lucky!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oooh thank you, I've found a couple of sofas but people seem to want silly prices for them
    =[

    I'm looking on Freecycle too so hopefully my determination will pay off!

    x x x

    ReplyDelete
  3. Something lovely will turn up, I'm sure!!

    Sharon xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi, I have just found your new blog! Can't wait to see how you get on in France, you must be really excited! Kate xx

    ReplyDelete