Wardrobes and dressers!!

Well, its been a very busy few weeks and I have lots of pictures i want to put on here once things are finished but for now just wanted to share a couple of renovated items! When we took the house we had no wardrobes for our room and the previous owner had left 3 battered wardrobes behind that my husband was ready to skip... but as we are on a non existant budget and ugly furniture is like a challenge to me i have refused to get rid of them and with a coat of paint and new handles i think they are looking rather better!! Maybe not the antique henri II armoire i would have in an ideal world but quite reasonable to be getting on with!
The shop is coming along nicely though still a lot to do, one of the other items i renovated this week was this old dark stag dresser. They
look so dark with the style of varnish put on them but i really like the character when they are renovated. The drawers and inside i lined with laura ashley josette wallpaper offcuts left over from the shop and put bags of dried lavender in the drawers to make sure they smell fabulous as well as looking good!
Well, work to do so bye for now
FiFix

FiFiChic the showroom!!

Well, have finally got internet so will start blogging again!! I have been getting the new showroom set up as well as renovating the house and moving and all sorts of other mayhem but things are slowly taking shape! I hope! I have at least one corner organised to use as a backdrop for my pictures! I will post some before and after pics over the weekend of the shop and house but still so much to do! For now,its about time i went to bed as the kids will be up early... a much longer commute to school now!
x FiFi   fifichic.co.uk

laura ashley cherubs and ellies bedroom

fifichic.co.uk copied from my original blog
Well, its new years day and i have taken a moment out to put some pictures on of my daughters room, we are moving in 2 weeks and she is adamant she wants her next room to be very similar!! Except we are moving from a grand victorian manor house to a little 1930s 3 bed!!! But, it can be done and i will blog with pictures of the new room soon! In her current room she has laura ashley cherub toile and i`m determined to do this room on a much tighter budget so am swapping this £35 a roll wallpaper for a fabulous provencale pink toile from Direct wallpapers at £7.99 a roll!!
 I got them to send a free sample and its really lovely! Her french bed was an ebay find some years ago with original pink fabric in great condition! My advice with vintage and antique fabric covered beds is try and find one with fabric and upholstery that are in good condition because you can end up spending twice as much getting it recovered!
 The canopy of the bed was literally `knocked up` by me and my husband when the kids where at school, the curtains are from local charity shops and the panels where something made of a type of foam we had pulled off an old bookcase! Its amazing what you can do if you ignore the finish on items and just start looking at things in terms of shapes and what you can do if you paint etc! A bed fit for a princess..in fact my daughter has realised she has the closest bedroom out of her friends to the one in the disney `frog princess`!

















I always love ellies bedroom when its done up for christmas its like girl heaven!! Do excuse my children squeezing themselves into all the pictures...they like to be involved!

When we needed a `big girl` wardrobe for ellie recently i picked up this wardrobe for £15 at a charity shop, it was tired and unloved and had a brown door and lots of marks, i used some of the leftover wallpaper we had in the basement and lined the inside and panelled the door with more of the wallpaper and then painted the rest, it took around 2 hours at the most and she loves it!!


 The dressing table was from a london auction which makes it sound very posh and if you have never been to auctions i appreciate it can seem daunting but there is a reason that antique shop owners can make a living and the simple answer is they are getting it cheaper and then selling it on to you, i have been to loads now, its fun, frugal and despite reservations i have never scratched my nose and accidentally bought a van gogh!!!! Try it out, on quiet days if there are no reserves who knows what you could get...just remember there will generally be an add on fee at the end around 20%!!
Anyway i need to go and entertain my children!!! So bye for now, happy bargain hunting...xxxfifi

fifichic.co.uk
Well, here it is...its half an hour away from 2012 and i`m finally getting started on my blog...yes its about time!
Its been an amazing and sometimes stressful year but i am excited about the opening of my first shop/showroom...so grown up!!
I have had some lovely moments in 2011 probably the most important being my beautiful niece Krystals wedding which was such a fabulous day and we designed a vintage tea party theme for her that was stylish, laid back and very her! Pimms,cream roses in white jugs,vintage mismatched china (it took us ages to collect!)and shabby chic retro stacking chairs!



     We had a marquee in the back garden and a fabulous menu with an eclectic fusion of different foods! I got to do the photos and cake and i think we all agreed that the wedding cake took on a life of its own...i think we were aiming for understated.. i think it came out more Elton john!!
Well krystal..heres the blog and dedicating the first one to youxxx
I`m spending the evening drawing out plans for the new shop and have decided on anaglypta(google it!) oriental panel effect on the bottomhalf of the walls in annie sloan `paris grey` with laura ashley `dove grey josette`wallpaper above..i also had some left from doing my last house!! I will put some pictures on!
Anyway its now 12:06 in 2012 so Happy new year!!!xxfifi