For the love of french furniture

As promised, and better late than never I wanted to do a post on the French furniture I photographed when I visited France in the spring time.  As the owner of Vintique Tree and because I have a serious thing about furniture, especially upholstery the interiors of the French Chateaus' we visited were of huge interest.  I thought that the furniture and upholstery in the French houses was much more accessible than in the country houses of Britain, here everything is roped off at a distance, whereas you can really get up close and feel the age of the French pieces! Or at least I could. I love seeing a warn chair or the patina on wood, I really wish I could get the history of what the furniture has seen by just touching it!

I like the simplicity of English furniture, the majority being carved clean straight lines, but I can't compare it to the curves and flamboyancy of the French furniture. From the stunning carved sideboards that take up a whole wall  to the crazy amount of braid they put on their upholstery, it just wins hands down in my eyes!

Anyway enough gushing, here are just some of the few favourites I took whilst visiting:

Blood, sweat, tears and upholstery...

So in early January I began my very first lesson in traditional upholstery.  It is always something I have dreamed of doing, especially when I see an unloved chair crying out for love, so I took the plunge and booked a 10 month course. So far I have learnt that there is A LOT more to it than just stapling fabric on, and the traditional method is wonderfully crafty and technical and folding corners of fabric on to the frame almost had me in tears...but I did it, next week is...stitch and stuff chair omg!!!

tadarrrrrh!!!!

Pennies spent well at the antiques fair

Well I got a good haul of lovely things to add to my Christmas stock from Stoneleigh Antiques fair.  I had never visited this fair before and is a good size if you just fancy a few hours browsing unlike the other larger fairs where you could stay all day!

I found a lovely vintage sewing basket, some 1970's fabric samplers, vintage tins, a fab royal winton tea set, a hand painted tea pot, a gorgeous Liberty of London purse and wallet set and my personal favourite, a retro cat egg cup!!!

Cushions for autumn

So as the autumn is looming I start to think of how to make the house feel more homely and snug for the chilly darker nights. I recently picked up a beautiful vintage welsh tapestry blanket in a teal duck egg blue colour. I am obsessed with cushions and I am constantly rotating them round my house. But our sofa ones are looking a bit flat now so I am thinking of making some out of liberty and vintage fabrics with a few pieces of blue french monogrammed linens in for good measure.  This is a pretty big project for me as I am good with a paintbrush but not so much with a sewing machine so I think I with enlist mum's help! I have a stock of fabrics but none in the colours I need so I am going to source some from ebay and vintage markets. These images below are of liberty fabric from pinterest, a bit of inspiration on patterns and colours. Cant wait to get started! Will give a update as I find the perfect fabrics hehe! In particular I love the liberty peacock fabric, I picked up a silk tie in this fabric many moons ago, I wonder if it could be incorporated??

Patchwork pretty, funking knitting, cute crochet, god save the queen!!

I am updating my website at the moment to a new layout to make it easier to use and look a lot more sleeker.  It is a constant evolution as I learn new things and pick up on things that need updating and changing, I think I have come on leaps and bounds really, being as I didn't have a clue on how to even start building a website at the start of this year!

So in preparation for the new website going live this week, I have some new stock I am going to be adding to the site, so I thought I would share some of my new blankets with you! All handmade lovelies!! Oh and a GIANT 9FT vintage Union Jack!