Afternoon at the Newark Antique Fair

Spent last Friday driving up to Nottinghamshire, UK for the Newark Antique Fair.
This is an event that is held every two months and attracts 2,500 (!) vendors.  
It is a Thursday / Friday agenda - but be warned - many vendors only stick around for the first day, so if you are looking for something in particular, you may want to brave the hordes early.

Kelsea and I were just there to look as she has decided that I am a hoarder.
Here are some pictures to whet your appetite...

Wagon wheels, an army of bentwood dining chairs and a platoon of garden gnomes.

Every booth had treasures.  I am lucky that I have no room.

Fantastic industrial light fixtures.

My Halloween addiction kicked into overdrive when I saw this pram...

Ready made collection.

Going back in October for one of these.

Literally everything.

Compass from a whaling ship.

This was one table out of about 10 for this vendor.  Times that by 2500.

*EVERYTHING*.

Lots of fantastic boxes and bins and baskets...

And not a single tacky item on display.

Kelsea checking out a vintage gown.

Love.

This mannequin was the perfect combination of fantastically detailed and completely creepy.

BUT...  I did cave and pick up a couple of items.
I was expecting everything to be very expensive, but that was not the case.  

Lovely pottery handled vessel - £4

Uranium glass pitcher - £14

Handpainted nesting dolls... the detail is fantastic! - £15

Can't wait to go back in October!
Click here to plan a trip.  You won't be disappointed!

Dragon Hinge Wardrobe Makeover 3 - Milk Paint Application

After some research on the net, I decided to try Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint.

It is all natural, water-based and has very low odour.

It is ideal for creating a Shabby Chic, chippy paint look - exactly what I am going for!

I purchased my supplies from the lovely Carole at Juniper and Roses.

The paint comes in powder form in resealable bags.  The colour of the powder does not indicate the colour of the paint.  That is only revealed when you add water (like the actual size of a cat.)

For this project, I decided to mix three shades - 

Flow Blue, Kitchen Scale and Luckett's Green.

I mixed just a little at a time to ensure that the pigments didn't settle out of the solution.

Flow Blue

I found the Flow Blue to be much thicker than the other two shades.  

Kitchen Scale

Luckett's Green

I used one tablespoon of each Milk Paint colour and 4 tablespoons of water.

This gave me enough to do a fairly large area without mixing too much at once.

I used the Miss Mustard Seed paint mixer - which is essentially a tiny immersion blender.

This was very effective.  I blended the mixture periodically to keep the pigments from settling to the bottom of the container.  

Immersion Blender

Then I spent 5 hours painting...

Colour Test

First Coat

First Coat

Second Coat

Second Coat

Third Coat

Starting to chip!

 Once the third coat was dry, there were lots of areas of the surface that were beginning to peel.  I was a little worried it would either all peel off or none of it would...

I had read what others had done to peel the paint off - using paint scrapers, sticky tape or sand paper.  I decided to give the whole piece a vigourous brushing with a firm plastic-bristled floor scrubber.

Worked like a charm!

Hooray!

After chipification

Last step for today!  

I used the Miss Mustard Seed Furniture Wax to give it a nice healthy coat.  

It is lovely stuff - smells great and has the consistency of Vaseline.

I applied it with a small paintbrush.  The colour deepened slightly upon application.

Ignatius surveys his domain.

The next stage is the final buffing and the application of some dark wax to give it a bit more depth...

Dragon Hinge Wardrobe Makeover 2 - Clean-up

First post for this makeover can be found here...

Before Scrub

I had *no idea* how filthy this wardrobe was.
I used sugar soap spray, sponges and approximately 47 buckets of clean water.

I was under the impression that there was a shiny finish on the exterior.
Turns out it was a miasma of nicotine, grease and ancient sludge.

After scrub

I had to remove some very elderly wallpaper from the rear of the wardrobe, as well as some black fabric webbing that had been glued to the back.

Grotty panels after wallpaper removal.

The British adore wallpaper.  I do not.

Very glad I picked up that bug spray, as there was more infestation in the top panels.  

They literally disintegrated when I hit them with the scraper.  

Luckily, not in a visible spot - but it shows you just how much damage can be done.

About a quarter inch of the upper panel was completely riddled with holes.

Just in case you are thinking that the clean-up phase is a waste of effort, take a look at these before and after pictures...

Lex was not impressed with the disturbances.

1 Hour from Gruesome to Gorgeous.

Now for the paint!  

Jump to the Paint Post...