abeachcottage

Beach Cottage White Paint, DIY & Old Treasure Hunting Finds

 

So this is one of the finds I recently came across while treasure hunting.  

A find that I just couldn't leave alone and one I don't really need...but I mean how could I leave her? This, unfortunately, is, an Occupational Hazard in this game (and you can find other things I just *had to bring home, a roadside shabby old stool here and a wonderful one here!).

Does she not have Beach Cottage already written just about all over...??

I actually love the way the little drawer sits up above the legs with just enough room underneath for a nice rustic basket filled with rugs and blankets...she's in desperate need of some love..a lick of fresh beachy white paint...a good old clean...

edited to add:  I don't think I made this clear:  this is the before, found it like this in white, but pics make it look better than it is, it's quite dirty and paintwork is patchy..so it will get the BC Treatment!

 

Someone cut her open at some point, she's sporting quite a few knocks and bumps...showing age and wear, she is topped with a sweet-as little latch..and she wobbles just enough...

 

She speaks to me.  In Vintage Speak.  You speak Vintage too.  Right?

{ And talking about Vintage Speak, my daughter had a to do one of those, Hello My Name is things the other day, and she asked me what I would say... they then had to sit with a partner, find things out about each other and then give a quick intro on the other person...you know those scenarios, right?  

Can I just say, I find something extremely cringe-worthy about these ice-breaker exercises...and if I ever find myself in one of those situations...which, I'll have you know, I spend a lot of my life scheming to avoid, my heart sinks to my boots...}

So I thought we might have ourselves a little Beach Cottage Hello My Name is session

...'cos I could just about stomach it with you..

Hello, my name is Sarah.  I speak fluent Vintage. 

Vintage Beach.  With a French Accent.  

And my poor partner would elaborate like this...

Sarah likes to Treasure Hunt, twenty-four seven.

She is constantly on the lookout for vintage things. 

She loves old battered beauties, marked with love and time. 

The tattier the better. 

She has a strange need to bring unloved furniture into her cottage. 

You may find her, at any given time, doing the Vintage Treasure Hunting Dance.

Her cottage is old, unfinished, tatty, on the wrong side of town, but the right side of the world.

She's loves the pureness & simplicity of white.

If you are not simple enough or pure enough & stand still she may paint you white. 

Her Beach Tribe, know and feed her love.  Though they roll their eyes a lot.

They bring her Vintage Finds to avoid the Beach Cottage Witch

She loves the Beach vibe...but only mixed with a Vintage Hue. 

She makes friends with furniture and nurses it back to life.

 

 

So c'mon Beach Chicks, how about you?   Do you speak Vintage too?

See you all another time...and yep I'm taking those coffee comments on board

you'll find me Down Under, wearing a Witch's Hat, painting things white and possibly doing a raindance...

p.s ...don't forget the  Giveaway (*comments from today will be thrown in the hat)

 

Beach Cottage Bead Boarding & Old Vintage Finds

 

You see that beadboarding?  It's not Skye is it?  It's not even Castle Grey. 

You know what? 

Its right on Dulux White on White. 

Sorry if I wasted your time, especially all those who left Lurkdom to let me know what they thought.

You see, I blame it all on Tricia my lovely friend from Coastal Cushions who visited me here on the beaches and later sent me some inspiring shots of beading and then I settled down the other day with an old copy of Coastal Living (kindly sent to me courtesy of them, here, every month) and was taken in by a lovely old cottage in New York with beading and white everywhere.

And I lusted after those photos, and looked at my faux panels from the trip to Bunnings and our cock-eyed attempts at getting it on the wall.  

And then I looked back at the photos and back at the slices of grey on the walls.  

And I hastily opened that tin of White on White, breathed in its heavy aroma of pure, white indulgence, dived on in and started painting....

 

Here I am then, three coats later and it still is not finished.  It's been a long time since I've had to do more than two coats on anything.  You see it's always best to take one's own advice and use Zinsser Primer, one's tried and tested formula to get things done well and quickly.  But intoxicated by the white I really was too impatient to go out and get it (such a long walk down to the garage) 

After these three coats I wasn't sure again.  Perhaps yes the Silver Skye with a dollop of white...and so I decided to preview the look I love...old vintage furniture with a faded patina money certainly cannot buy, against a backdrop of white, a hint of coastal, a hint of an old wood clad Queenslander

As I grabbed the old chair and a vintage treasure, recently found, that was lying around, a small stylist happened to be passing by, "I think you need this there" he proclaimed and set the small candle beside that green bottle.  

,,,you know, it's a funny old life, 'cos this little guy is often the one that sets the table round here, and if you remember the day the Beach Cottage Witch had a hissy fit and flew off on her broomstick, he was the one in charge of tablescaping

...and he'll often make me a little vignette and say "whaddya think of that mummy?" and I have to swallow cos I think, he's the most unlikely character for this but, gawd, h e l l o, that matey is pretty sweet... yesterday I said you know what you've got the eye little man, he poohed poohed all such ideas dismissively, eyed me suspiciously and said

"Mum, don't be ridiculous, you won't find me wearing a handbag"  

and swiftly left the scene pretty much as quickly as he arrived...

and yes I know where he go the handbag comment from re styling and sugar I nearly peed my pants

 

...and I think I got it right...yeah I'm telling you I am loving that white...

I need another trip to Bunnings to think about what goes on top...first of all I wanted nothing thinking it would be better suited to my taste left plain and sorta flat, now seeing as I change my mind almost hourly I have decided I want a complete turnaround, more boat-deck-inspired wood around this place and will be searching out the chunkiest, but plainest thing I can find...that I'm sure will be an escapade not for the light of heart...

 
 

and so it's over and out from the Beaches...all is well, it's Sunday so we are having a roast, think I'll probably do it on the barbie, I'm just about to start on a list of jobs for that Beach Cottage Crew when they come back from the beach before I self-combust in this place...do you think I could get away with these Pink Jobs on the Boys' Blue List??

1.  clean oven   2. iron bedding (yep it's a strange English thing)  3. clean out fridge

Or shall I just put...trip to Bunnings for FLOOR to CEILING bead board for the Sitting Room??

heehee, my life is just SO out there...

catch ya later Beach Chicks 

and don't forget there's a new Beach Cottage Giveaway this week, I'm won't be telling you what it is yet, though it sure is Candy baby...start commenting now, all 'til close of play Friday will count...

find more Beach Cottage Dining Room musings here, and my tablescaping adventures here...

 

vintage chair :  garage sale 

old tool box : treasure hunting 

white rug :  IKEA

candles & pot: IKEA

white pillar candle :  Freedom

vintage bottle : Vinnies

scruffy old shorts with boy dirt : priceless

 

Old Beach Cottage Lanterns, Vintage Finds & Early Days

 

G'day chickadees, how you all doin' this fine Saturday? 

Well I had a very full morning, awoken very rudely by two middle-aged women, who at 5.45am, on their early morning hike, thought nothing of shouting to each other as they walked down the hill past our cottage.

If it hadn't been for the fact that I was wearing little bar the odd dab of Chanel, I may well have chased them down the street....rolling pin in hand. 

..not one to be bright eyed and up at this hour as a rule I thought I might as well make the most of it...and the benefit of getting out early?  Firstly normally it means I am alone, always a good thing 'round here.  And secondly means you're first to the treasure.  Usually.

But today I missed out on a vintage leather hatbox (which I must say was so absolutely Anthropologie Delightful I thought twice about accosting the old dealer who had swooped on it before me) and a *huge old vintage mixing bowl, which I spied from afar but missed in a split second and which I had already decided as soon as I saw if from afar that I would purchase & giveaway right here on this blog....best laid plans...

Soooo, anyhoo, after a round of disappointing places (and that happens in this treasure-hunting-game people) I decided to head home for coffee and a bagel...a little sit out the back under the Fig Tree in the cool...and on the way home came across a few of these old beauties...and couldn't pass 'em up. 

 

The lovely lady who I bought them from, proceeded to tell me at length, how they used to light her path before they could afford to put lights in....how wonderful they would look cleaned up...and kindly lectured me in just how I would go about this mammoth clean up of a few old vintage lanterns ;-) 

I thought for a quick second about letting her in on the secret.  

Sweetie I want them like that. 

Money cannot buy old, weathered, rusty and vintage.  With in-built embossing.  

But I saved my breath, for sure, she was never gonna get that. 

 

And so I came home to a house still quiet, Mr Beach Cottage still in the land of nod, Mr Teenage Beach Cottage certainly not even anywhere near emerging. 

And later went out for more, and came back with lots of little beautiful things, not big things which is what I prefer really, but that's why this Treasure Game is so much fun...

...and I have to tell you, I came across this old book, well really I suppose it is a collection of pages, with two huge staples, I picked it up firstly because I liked the fact that the paper was very aged and beautifully yellowed and also the old typography caught my eye...each page just typed at the top...I thought I might use it for wrapping...

Once I was browsing through later with some Afternoon Tea, I realised what a treasure I have in my possession, for this dear friends & Lurkers is a compilation documenting memories of the residents of a local Nursing Home...from what I can ascertain it was put together in the 60's so these old folks were remembering right back to the 1880's...all sorts of things about this area that we moved our family to from the other side of the world to all these years later...

To say that I feel honoured to have this in my possession is an understatement, it sent shivers down my spine.

And that is why I play this Game.  When one scores, the shivers are pretty darn good. 

See you around...

 

oh and yeah, the beading?? 

 it's kinda nearly done and I'm gonna show you the WIP...but yep I'm making you ladies wait until tomorrow...or perhaps the next day....

a new giveaway's coming next week..(it's nice!) winners from all comments from now 

those in Lurkdom welcome to apply for Beach Cottage entry...;-) 

 

{* Bella-Casa and Sheilagh from Ticking and Toile have a magazine subscription on the way!  congrats!}

(pls. let me know your addresses)

 you can read about my best Saturday find ever here, and how it looked all spruced up in the Beach Cottage here

 

 

A Beach Cottage and Country Living Giveaway

 
 G'day campers, how you going?  After all that waffling in the last post, this may end up short and sweet, it may not.  Glad you all liked the bus blind and thanks for all the emails, if I haven't got back to you I am working on it (still not got my computer yet so things are a tad behind 'round here - a Dell from Hell Update coming soon)

Today, sadly is the last day of the summer holidays for us at the Beach Cottage and after a lovely day spent celebrating Australia Day yesterday in true Aussie style with swim, barbie, boat, beer and sunshine we are all ready to start the New Year properly.

It's gonna be an interesting time for me too...I am starting on a few ventures of my own - more to come on this blog as I get those Beach Cottage Kiddos happy and settled and start to think about me...

Anyway, back to today, I wanted to talk about magazines.  Because mine are getting outta control. And my New Year Kids Back To School Resolution is to sort them out.

Please tell me you have the same problem with magazines and stashing them as I do?  Or am I some sad old bird filling some void with eye candy and then furtively stuffing them in any open and available orifice, to return to at a later date for more lusting?

 And it's not even really that I buy bundles of magazines, because I don't.  I have two or three faves that I love and one or two that I buy religiously...the trouble is, and that is how this post started, I cannot bring myself to send the ones I have off to the nearest St Vincent's De Paul.

I always, always buy Country Living, both UK and USA - this is one of the first magazines I came across when I started  stalking, I mean, liking vintage things...but the best thing was it wasn't a general magazine about the 'country' look, it really was a magazine about the country, with interesting articles and features on people living the kinda life I secretly dream about...one where pigs and chickens roam around somewhere outside, where I have a swinging old field gate and all manner of fruit trees in the orchard.

 

OK, that's all a pipe dream, though I've really really tried to get Mr BC to let me get a few chicks (no, Favours, did not work in this case)...he told me I would hate the mess, that I would whinge and whine and moan for England, I scolded him and told him I would love them and wander out there with a basket on my arm, a faded flowery skirt flowing and would talk to them as I happily collected the eggs...he told me that is very much a { insert blue word } joke...and flatly refused to go anywhere near a chicken-buying farm...

But that is what I like about Country Living, pipe dreams, yet just about attainable all the way... 

This is comfort reading on so many levels...a good magazine, a cup of tea, a slab of chocolate and an hour tucked away on the deck, in the hammock, or my favourite, mid-evening but early-to-bed and tucked up in bed. 

It has to be one of the most comforting things to do...without the brain-power for reading a book or the concentration levels to keep up with a tv plot.  

Just a simple page flick here and there and oh-so-much inspiration.

  

 

And one knows when one might have hit a problem when one decides to decorate with the piles of them that seem to be growing uninhibitedly around the cottage

...when one begins to de-clutter and finds, instead of releasing them to other needy-magazine-lovers, one  instead sorts them into new and different categories

...Like, Really Like, Really Really Like...Archive...Frame... 

And so to try and pass-on my obsession to one of you and with my latest penchant to offer you goodies on this here blog, I am suggesting we have ourselves another Beach Cottage giveaway.   

Just in case you are in need of a little comfort, a little magazine bolstering.  If I'm still feeling generous, and I'm not in the bad books with Mr Beach Cottage, I'll be signing up more than one of you to a lovely subscription...

 

see ya later beach chicks, you'll find me Down Under, somewhere under a pile of mags...

and if you're interested in the ladder, I found it out treasure hunting, it was in a bad way but was complete with beautiful old rusted hardware, mmmmmm...I did my usual simple paint treatment on it (video tutorial here)

 

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

 

{ *simply leave a comment to enter & I'll get a neato little subscription swiftly to your door* }

{ *Tweet or blog it and I'll double up* }

{ all comments, all week will enter draw } 

{ giveaway closes 29.01.10 ]

 

 
 

Beach Cottage Vintage Mixing Bowls + Dell From Hell Update

Are you interested in the Dell from Hell update?  

Lemme tell you, the plot thickens (it involves, dare I say it, a nice man from DELL from HELL & what I was gonna post on the nightmare scenario from yesterday (you can read the Tweets on it here) 
I've cut til I see what happens today.

At the moment though I am still amongst teenagers in the Family Room with BMX Tricks and Scooter Specials on the TV as the background 

I will update you tomorrow, or tonight the goings-on of today.

But, less of that boring techno stuff and my whining and onto much nicer things, delicious, chunky old vintage things...



 

Before I start to tell you about the Hungarian vintage mixing bowl, which is actually Romanian *smile, I scored the other day on my treasure hunting trip with the bad timing, I have to just blog this little 14 yr old/7 yr old conversation over the dinner table. 

I was in the bedroom busily minding my own business, while they were getting on with an early supper, when I heard this question...

7 yr old:  "If you had a girlfriend, what would her name be?"

(how quickly did my ears prick up as Mr Teenage BC pretends not to care about this stuff)

14 yr old: "dunno"  (said in true teenage-boy style)

7 yr old: "You have one don't you?"  (me straining ear around door to listen to answer)

14 yr old: "NO!!!!!"

7 yr old:  "nonchalantly "nah, nor do I" 

hahaha, I laughed to myself, rooted to the spot as I listened to this, firstly so very very male...a handful of words, little interaction on the surface but actually bundles of male bonding going on...secondly so very funny that the younger one was so totally in control...

 

 

 

So, lets get onto old mixing bowls then.  Do you know anything about these?   And are you as obsessed with them as I am?  Even when your baking is limited to a handful of recipes?

I now have a small collection.  A growing collection for sure.  I love them on the side on the open shelves in the kitchen.  They are kinda decorative and useful, shame I don't personally use them much, though really I have to say that the last few years of teaching the kiddos the basis of what amounts to 5 baking recipes, has now meant that they are beginning to explore baking on their own.  

Thanks be.  Cos I am not in any shape or form a baker.  And nor do I ever want to be.  Way too much preciseness going on in this department for me to be any good at it ;-)

So, it is with unbridled enthusiasm that I see those two younger Beach Cottage kiddos filling, mixing and stirring in these chunky old beauties.  

 

...the other day, for breakfast, they informed me they were going to try their hands at pancakes...

Sheesh.  Visions of batter splattered all over the kitchen and me not only clearing it up but moaning while doing so, literally swam in front of my eyes.  

The Beach Cottage Witch got her broomstick all tuned up to fly in at clear up time. 

 

But, a while later, I pass-by the kitchen.  All is calm.  Two old vintage mixing bowls are on the side and more importanly, two perfect pancakes are on the hob.   

And that is why, you see, I hunt out vintage mixing bowls.  

To project an image of domestic bliss... ;-) 

 While in fact, they are working and I am reading the paper...
 

 

I will however, be using this tomorrow night, just to perpetrate the domestic bliss scenario further...

I will probably go for roast pork and roast potatoes, on the barbie, courgette bake & big salad and a few bits to pick at from the deli (friends of course bring the desert part)


I'm after a kinda impressive salad though, do you have any up your sleeve?  


note to lurkers:  interaction at this point required... comments, opinion and recipes very much appreciated at this Beach Cottage *wink *wink  

But not an impressive salad that means work.  

Oh no, no, no.  


I mean a salad that looks very much like you've spent hours pouring over cooking books (or would that be cookbooks lol), ages chopping up oh-so-unusual ingredients with a mezzaluna when really you've shoved ingredients on a platter, drizzled on a bit of oil and hoped for the best (a bit like this cottage really)...are they not the best recipes?  ...the secret ones we women share, or sometimes, really WILL NOT share...c'mon...give it to me..

it's gonna be a warm weekend...like a stinking hot one....we are hoping to go to a new-to-us beach that we 'found' that we've been driving past for the last 4 years almost daily...it's nice and rustic, mmm


see ya 

be good (oh and Monday I have a fabulous Makeover to show you...hint, see that frame up on the wall...it's good...it's *really really good *wink)

oh and if you comment you'll be in for the Anthropolgie Giveaway from yesterday


*I'll announce the Anthropologie Giftcard winner tomorrow*  thanks*

 

 

 
you can read about my baking escapades where I tried to be nice to the cake-loving Mr Beach Cottage here, a recipe to rival Origins, if you like standing in your kitchen mixing potions on old bowls here, and more pics of the kitchen here