A Beach Cottage Ladder Re-Vamp with Hand Mixed Delights

G'day lovelies. 

Well, I didn't make it here over the weekend, sorry about that, wanted to show you a ride on a tinny I recently took too.  Never mind, I spent some lovely time with the Beach Cottage Kiddos *and I spent the whole morning finding treasures on Saturday (including old vintage typewriter, been after one for ages) and the whole afternoon in the garage painting things with my new Beachy White. 

There is something peculiarly relaxing to me about spending time painting, about opening the tin, stirring it all up, and smoothing the cool mixture over unloved things.  It makes for a gratifyingly simple way, for me, to forget about the stresses of stuff, a Saturday arvo doing-my-hobby kinda thing…

Now, what I neglected to tell you the other day, when showing you the Pie Safe, is that I not only mixed up a Beach Cottage White, I also took along with me to the Paint Shop, a pebble that little Mr BC had found on the beach in just the right grey

(… I have to say that at this stage of my Painting career, the Paint Shop Guy knows me by now and sorta grimaces nicely when he sees me coming…and he had already matched the piece of vintage linen when tada now I pulled out the pebble… he smiled to himself…I decided to ignore the thoughts clearly running through his brain (along the lines, I believe, of, thanks be I don't live with this woman) tried to engage him a little Paint Conversation and asked him what other people brought in for him to match.  He said most people stick to the colour cards.  Hmmm. It was then I decided to shut up.  )

So I left there, clutching my paint cans and wondered just what I would actually paint with this new pebble grey?  And my thoughts turned to an old ladder, propped up in the garage for a long time, needing a little help to get it looking good.

You see,  a while ago I'd seen in a Frenchy boutique a lovely old vintage ladder painted grey, very rustic and leaned up against the wall holding magazines, various ephemera and the odd shell or two, and it was for sale for $350.

  The trouble is though, I don't have a shop, I am not, as you know, a Boutique Owner and shop decor and home decor are not the same thing are they?  Yes, of course you can borrow and adapt the styling…but there is often a problem with this style-stealing though, it is plagued with the unreal… I mean it's all very well a vintage grey painted ladder displaying magazines in a shop, but a tatty old getting-very-packed cottage? 

But, I decided to go ahead for the love of my craft … from the very start of doing-up the Beach Cottage and logging it here, I've wanted to try things I loved looking at, have a go at adapting things to get the authentic Coastal Vintage Chic I wanted and slot these finds and this whole look into in a working home with three kids, a budget and all the things that go with that.  An anthology of things I've tried, a log of the journey, different looks and different phases..

So with all that in mind, I opened that tin of Pebble, pulled over the sad old ladder, and not worrying about where it would go, or rolling eyes from males, or private smiles from Paint Shop Guy's or getting-very-full-cottages and ploughed on, in the spirit of endeavour to see how my own Grey Vintage Beach Cottage Ladder would turn out. 

And here it is, the first layer painted white, the Beach Cottage Authentic Pebble Grey on top and heavily distressed by my fair hands. 

I've popped it by the old chair for now and I love how it turned out.  

I don't know how long it'll be staying though…

…it may well have to find a new Cottage to take it in…

blogged for Kimba's event at A Soft Place, thanks

find other ways I've used old laddders for that beach vintage look, here and here

*Coastal Living Giveaway Winners*

 Hedy, Cindy at Oakview Cottage and Katie (tulipgirl1979) 

please let me know your addresses

oh yeah and my Mini-Stylist stopped by with the starfish…and yeah he does that Aussie thing of Uggs and shorts in ++30C…

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