Home Time

Hope the New Year has been kind to you so far. I've been enjoying a particularly long break away from my shop - I have found it very useful to just have some time to think about home, rather than the pressures of running the business all of the time.

I've spent a leisurely day taking down the Christmas decorations for another year...

Whilst storms raged outside.

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I've been creative too...

A friend of mine decorated my Christmas present with dried hydrangea heads...So I saved them and used them to make this simple wreath. I used silver birch twigs to make the base again and a hot glue gun to fix the flowers to it.

A larger project was to make a slip-cover for a second-hand arm chair that I bought recently. I wasn't keen on the tapestry effect upholstery, but the chair itself was a good size and was comfortable.

I decided to use an antique French linen sheet to make the cover as it is good hard-wearing fabric and there's plenty of it for the whole project. Some careful pinning and cutting, then it was all stitched together. I didn't worry about piping the seams or adding too many darts etc - It just fits where it touches.

I've had another arm chair at home, covered in a linen sheet, for about 5 years - They wash brilliantly, on a high temperature, so the fact that its white, isn't a great problem.

The beautifully hand embroidered monogram on the sheet, decorates the front of the chair, just beneath the seat pad.

I happened to have this smaller monogram saved from another sheet, so I used it on one of the arms.

The slip-cover ties closed at the back of the chair - Easy for removal on wash-day. And I added a pretty floral eiderdown cotton frill to the bottom hemline.

I've been making a lot of changes in the room I'm using the chair (the fact that most of the walls in our home are painted various shades of white, means that its easy to move furniture around from one room to another without having to worry about a whole new decorating scheme.)

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The seat pad on the chair is very firm (I don't think the chair has been used very much in the past.) - Yesterday I hit on the idea of using a very large feather filled cushion (it is probably one of the traditional French pillows) that I bought at an antiques fair once. It has a gorgeous patchwork of early C18th French fabrics as its cover and is lovely and squishy!

It fits perfectly on the chair and makes it even more comfy and cosy.

I'll be back at my shop tomorrow, so need to push myself into the routine again, but I have enjoyed the time away. There will be some changes at the shop over the next few weeks, but first I have to build a new display system that I have been working on.

Enjoy the rest of your week,

Niki x