Last summer I stopped by one of my favorite local antique shops, Goodland Antiques in Bayview.  As I entered from across the room, I spotted THIS beauty.  I couldn’t rip the price tag off fast enough in order to stake my claim.  I have done many settee makeovers in my day, but the shape of this, the tone of the wood and the perfect caning made me realize this was a special piece.

I brought it home with a happy pickers glow on my face. I was going to try really hard to find a spot for it.  The thing about my home is it is on the smaller side,  there really is not any space to add pieces that aren’t actually utilitarian.  I have come to realize that even if pieces are extra special, if I try to squeeze them into my house just to own them, I find the clutter isn’t worth it. It doesn’t bring me joy.  Settees can most definitely be useful, but they can also just be a fancy space filler if you have space.

When I got home I realized that it might be a good option to use at my dining room table.  I did need two more seats at the table.  It unfortunately was a bit too short.  So I had the idea of adding casters.

This was a bit of hope and prayer situation, but I was ready for the challenge since I was desperate to make it work in my home.  The legs are solid wood, but they are on the thinner side, and time would only tell if they were strong enough to manage casters.  I ordered these casters off of amazon and carefully drilled holes in the bottom of the feet to to insert them.  If you try this, take your time drilling, with solid wood I found it easy to get the angle wrong.  I did get the angle wrong on one  leg, but I was able to correct it by adding wood glue and small wood dowel, then starting over again after the glue dried.   They seemed to hold fine.  But these wheels only rolled front to back, it was not user friendly for as much as this thing was going to get rolled.  Then I changed them out for this set. The set I purchased had brakes, but this manufacture seems to not be offering those right now.  We actually never use the brakes, so I don’t believe it makes much difference. They totally work!!! We are in nearly 9 months of using this at our only eating table with a family of 6.  I am so happy.  My kids love sitting in it and eating.

 

We have since added layered rugs to our dining room and the casters still work great

The height is ideal for a spot at the table.  In a perfect world the settee would slide right under my table.  It doesn’t.  But my world is surely not perfect, and it doesn’t bother me.

I had plans to give this a fabric overhaul.  The first step in doing that is removing the tacks and trim on the bottom.  I have a confession…I have been doing upholstery for at least 7 years and I have always removed tacks and staples with a flat head screwdriver and pliers.  It works, you have to be careful not to damage wood though.  Anyway, I thought I would try this little tool that I found for around $25 on amazon.  HOLY MOLY!! This was so much easier!! I know that starting out DIY projects its a pain to invest in all the tools not knowing if you would ever need them for another project.  But this was worth it for me, even if I just used it for this project, it likely saved me a couple hours of work.  And those couple of hours of removing tacks from furniture is not the most pleasant couple of hours.  That is definitely not the fun part of reupholstering a piece.

The other change I made, was that even though I loved the tone of the natural wood I wanted to soften it up a bit.  This wood did not have a high gloss finish on it so I knew it would take to a layer of white wax really well.  I used Miss Mustard Seed White wax to cover all the wood.  I used a wax brush to make sure that all the caning got a somewhat even coverage.  A trick that I have learned is that if you apply the wax, let it dry, and you happen to find areas where there are clumps you can apply some clear wax over those areas to work out the white wax to more even coverage.  The change was very subtle, but it meant a lot to me.

If you look closely you can see on the left its bare and the right has the white wax applied

This is the complete white wax look

During the next part of this project (which actually turned into PROJECTS).  I will go over the process of making the cushion.  It got really messing, but 1000 % worth it.

 

 

 

The magical French Larkspur tour of Provence included a lot of shopping.  Antique shopping.  Which it is no secret that I think this is one of the very best things in the world. And this is the part of the world to do it in.  Tracey has gone to great lengths to create a tour in which we stopped  by some of the most charming brocantes and flea markets.  In the hilltop towns we found stunning little shops like this one owned by Corrine Massat:

In this picture the shop owner held open the sheets for me to inspect.  I brought a couple sheets home. The texture, condition, and quality of the linen sheets that I purchased in this shop was exceptional.  I still have a bit of fabric left from these pieces and its nice to know they are there to play a role in future projects.

 

One day we wandered through the town of Menerbes.  I really enjoyed this spot, there were several shops that were owned and run by creatives.  One was a distributor of Annie Sloan paint and furniture artist, Atelier de Couleurs. Taking a peek at her studio was definitely worth the stop.

We also popped into a store, Petits Points de Provence, that was filled with handmade sewn items and in the corner was a sewing machine.  I spoke to the owner and explained that I too sewed items for work.  She was a lovely vibrant person. She proudly gave me a little tour of her shop.  She explained her favorite kind of work to do is cross stitch.

She had some incredible pieces, one caught my eye of teacups, as I ooooed and awed at it she explained that it was done by her mother who had Parkinson’s disease, and the action of handstiching calmed her.

I really wanted to bring a treasure of from her shop home and to support the hard work that she does, so I purchased this sweet cross stitch of a little girl.  I may frame it or turn it into a coin purse.  But right now its nice to just come upon it occasionally in my stash and to be reminded of the visit.

We also spent some time in Loumarin, that is filled with all sorts of charming shops.  One of the highlights was a shop, La Boutique de L’Antiquaire,  owned by a very talented woman named, Nathalie.   Her shop is tucked into a storefront off a small cobblestone street and is in a very old building.  I will let the pictures of it do the talking.

She too is a seamstress and had her sewing machine in the back corner.  Her thing is my thing, vintage linen.  She does inspiring work with the fabrics.  It was as if I caught a glimpse of the tres chic French version of who I want to be.  To have a shop like that and to be able to create in that space would be my ultimate dream.   It was a pleasure just to get a taste of it and to bring home some treasures from it.

Tracey knowing that I was on the hunt for textiles brought us to La Boutique de Francine in L’Isle-our-la-Sorgue.  We actually stopped in twice on one day because the visit was interrupted by a lunch reservation.  As you can see this place need dedicated time.

Then the following day we had two flea markets scheduled that got rained out, so we ended up shopping there again.  It would take several more than 3 visits to unearth all the special fabrics in this place.  I was so happy with each piece I got and I bought a lot.  The shop owner Laurence (which is such a beautiful name, don’t you think?) was such a pleasure to shop from, she kept throwing in little pieces of fabrics I picked as “presents” in my haul.  It has brought me a lot of joy working with these fabrics.  I hope one day to return.

We made it to one flea market, and I am so glad we did.  We went to the  flea market in Villeneuve-les-Avignon.

I love my finds from this market.  I got some beautiful linens, the highlights being some remnants of old quilts.  I used some red and pink quilt fabrics for Holiday pillows. I have been saving some purple colored quilts for a winter/spring pillows, these will be for sale at this weekend’s sale.

 

I also found the French Soldier fabric here that I used for tiny stockings, the fabric was in the form of two small pillows, I am pleased that they ended up as stockings after being in my care.

There was a lot of art at this market, I found several paintings, and I have sold some but I haven’t been able to part with a couple.

Here are a couple of the paintings I purchased and I thought I needed to photograph them in our stunning Air B and B.

There was a large selection of dishes to be admired

       Even though I was nervous about getting dishes home, I couldn’t resist this set of red and white vintage plates:

Lastly you should know if you travel with Tracey and Steve you will have first class service.  Steve spends the entire time circling the market taking your purchases back to the van.  Lugging around my purchases is a sacrifice I am surely willing to take for some good finds, but to NOT have to do it is nothing short of incredible. It is an immensely better flea market experience. I didn’t know flea market shopping could get better, because I love it so much, but it does with Steve managing your bags.

During the trip we visited outdoor markets here and there.  These greeted us with fresh foods, beautiful flowers, sometimes clothing, sometimes fabric, sometimes vintage fabric and antiques.  There was always something to be discovered.

I treasure the  sweet memories that it has gifted me with.  Also to be able to work with the fabric that is coupled with memories of this magical place has added special element to my creativity, this is hard to out into words. I indeed feel incredibly grateful for this enriching experience.

-Emily