A wallpaper wonderwall

I wrote here about my problem front sitting room and here about the chair I reupholstered for it.
Although I thought I had a completed corner I felt it still looked a bit naked. This is probably because of the high ceilings, which create lots of creamy blank space. Usually I like creamy blank space but the more I looked at, the more it offended me.
For the purposes of another project for this room I had obtained quite a few A4 sized wallpaper samples. I thought - why not frame them?
So that is what I did.
Ikea sells A4 unvarnished wooden frames. I bought 9 of these and then gilded them (in 'Antique Gold') with an amazing, super poisonous gilding paste I bought from a craft shop (an American product - have you noticed how all those clever products are always from the US?).
This is it. As you can see it is so easy to use that you can do your gilding with your hair done in a 1980's style wearing a white tunic top. (I didn't wear gloves so actually I found on completion that my hands were completely golden. I looked like a James Bond girl. Then I started to panic about whether I might die because my skin couldn't breathe. Then I remembered that that is only if your whole body is painted gold).
I then framed the samples I liked, and very inexpertly hung them on the wall. I could have triangulated the grid and got my protractor out and Pythagorused it but I just couldn't be bothered. Hanging is dangerous in our house because the walls are plaster and they tend to crack and crumble so I usually just do it really quickly and hope for the best.
This is how they look.

The wallpaper samples are from Florence Broadhurst, Zoffany, GP & J Baker, Graham & Brown and Little Greene Paint Co.



Given that I was going crazy with the gilding (in fact maybe the Rub'n'Buff had made my brain go weird) I then found this wooden frame I bought in Singaraja (northern Bali) and had never used and also gilded it. What I would really like to do is put a little round mirror in there but so far I can't find one. Where does one find little mirrors? I am having no luck.


All of this is really quite unlike my usual style. I don't like gold, I don't like flowery bibs and bobs, I only like minimalist lines. However, this is a room we don't use all the time, so I thought it would be a bit of a contrast. One can't be white, grey and straight-lined all the time.
And that is the moral of my story.

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A circular chair for the drawing room

I have a little chair in our front room (also known as the Green Room, also known as the Problem Room, also probably known as the Drawing Room by the elderly lady ghost who still seems to reside there) which I have 'inherited' from my mother. By which I mean she gave it to me when I was a university student living in penury and I have never returned it.

I love its circular shape. I have never seen another chair like it. Except of course, its twin, which I was not given and which still lives with my mother in a much much cleaner condition.







But as you can see it is supremely grotty. So I turned it upside down last week and what do you know, instead of being a glued together Made in China chair, it is a screwed together Made in Italy chair, which comes apart like a jigsaw. I also saw that the little padded parts had the fabric stapled to them, quite neatly. After thinking a little bit about the Italian craftsmen who put this chair into its shape, I pulled myself together to rise to the challenge.


So, although I am not a professional upholsterer By Any Means, I thought, why not have a go.


The fabric I bought is above (from Signature Prints - check out their website). It is by Florence Broadhurst and called Japanese Floral.


This may not be to everyone's taste but it does go with the look (Chinoiserie\Japanesque 1930s, light and green) I am trying to achieve in the front room. (No other photos yet, it's too depressing).


Here is the chair stripped down and naked.




And here is the result. I used a staple gun. I must say I am rather pleased, and I suspect it is a chair my grandmother would have liked. Whether that is a good thing or not I cannot say. If only all interior redecorating could be accomplished with a staple gun.

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