Demonstrating with the Hampton WI

It's been a busy week because along with a lovely commission to turn around someone's dining room I had a long standing engagement with Hampton WI on Tuesday evening.

What a great evening. I had been invited to talk at the monthly meeting of the Hampton WI  Not knowing how many members might attend, I decided that a general presentation might be the answer. So we set about preparing a presentation of the way to transform an old piece of furniture into something gorgeous and all in virtually no time at all!

We found a delightful but dark little bedside table in a  Brighton junk shop. After a little research into ideas we settled on Annie's signature two tone effect using her Oxfam creation, LemLem over Old White.

Crying out for help!

Lots of potential there. It has such cute little bandy legs, and those knobs, well they gotta go! (we have chosen luscious crackled green ceramic ones to replace them.

The venue was what turned out to be the YMCA White House centre on The Avenue Hampton. It is an amazing place offering a huge variety of creative and social activities for the area. In fact it is home to loads of stuff. From wellbeing classes like Tai Chi, Zumba and Yoga to band practice rooms, There's a fully registered pre school for littlies and a drop in cafe to grab a bit of time out and relax.There is even a Food Bank operating from there two days a week. You can hire conference rooms for private events and business functions too. There is the added bonus of unlimited parking right next door too. I was well impressed by all this centre offers. 

Anyway back to me!  Car loaded and off I go to set up my work table ready for the evening.

I had two and a half hours to get all I wanted to show in. But that was fine. Chalk Paint™ is so quick and easy to work with what with virtually no prep necessary - I could almost hear the sighs of relief at that idea , what no prep hurrah!

I have a sweet little lamp I want to put on the top but somehow it will need to tie in with the bedside table. I hit on the idea of introducing a bit of Emperor's Silk to both the lamp base and the table somewhere. That way they connected with the white lamp and red and white gingham lampshade. Well I will add a dash of LemLem to the lamp base too I think.

And so it begins

A little Emperor's Silk with LemLem dry brushed over it along the edge there, to make it a more subtle blend with already painted side.

Then it was back to my studio to finish the bedside table off ....... or so I thought!

It was just too tempting to see those gorgeous colours in the new Charleston set, just begging me to use them! So a complete rethink as i worked out how to introduce them into the scheme of things

Gently changing the colour scheme from LemLem to Charleston

And here it is all finished - ready to go to it’s new home

Many thanks to everyone who attended my demonstration, I do hope it has inspired you to explore your creative side now. Maybe you are working on some cool ideas for your furniture as we speak!

If you would like to know more about the Hampton WI group then here is THEIR WEBSITE  If you would like to discover more activities at the YMCA have a look here on THEIR WEBSITE too

Thinking of painting your own bedside table? Click here to go to the online shop

X Jane