Basic Distressing Technique

I've been trying to think of another fun video since the great response from the "Mom Makeup Tutorial"  and then I remembered my unpainted door...

Hubby runs a kitchen cabinet makeover business and he does beautiful work...

But since we are renting this little farm didn't want to spend the time doing his über professional/factory quality look so I went with a basic distressing. 

I get a lot of questions about my kitchen cabinets when I post photos of my kitchen so here's how I did it.

You can see my kitchen (though it's changed a bit) here.

And you can see our porch here.



Both have example of this technique. 

 The color I used in Minwax's Charcoal Grey (over a Benjamin Moore white) and I used a must-have Wooster brush to apply.  Found here.

Of course, if you are in the Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan you can just have hubby come and do yours!  

If you try this - send me photos and I'll post them on the Parisienne Farmgirl Facebook Page!

Bonne Semaine!
Angela,
Parisienne Farmgirl

Settee Crazy!

I am a sucker for settees.
This house has four... and counting.
I think that if you are going for a Parisienne Farmhouse kind of look you just about have to have a settee.  There are few pieces that look as cool when paired with rustic, farmy accents and settees have that authentic "Paris Apartment" look that few other pieces of furniture can give a Francophile.

I've only been in a handful of Parisian flats.  Most seem to be decked out in a truly European combo of antiques-meets Ikea-meets flea market.  You'll often see the influences of the French colonies too like a bit of Morocan flair.  I was lucky enough to be invited for lunch to the home of a rather affluent Parisienne once.  Right on the Blvd. St. Germain.  This building was the real deal.  Red carpeting, an old iron clad lift, large spiraling staircase.
I was giddy.  And rather nervous to meet this friend of a friend.
She of course like a true Parisienne entertained me with lively conversation, graciously assisting me with my French when needed.  I calmly tried to eat only as much as she was even lest I look like a hog though she had made my favorite salad (endive with walnuts and blue cheese).  Everytime she left the room I tried to take in all that I could from the GORGEOUS elaborate plaster moldings that trimmed the ceiling to the ancient painting of a family member placed above the buffet and of course the settee.  It was all I could do not to stand on the table, rip the chandelier out of the ceiling and run for la Butte!*  Showing restraint I found myself instead fascinated by this lovely, interesting woman who in the last year had learned how to bind old books and reupholster antique chairs.
Yes, she was that cool.

After lunch we walked to the Jardin du Luxembourg and I hung on for dear life as she prattled away as only the French can do.  Finally a particular word lost me and I had to interrupt. She had been ranting about the hideous Montparnasse tower and had lost me with this word I had never heard.  Today, years later I don't remember the word (It was a word that meant something like "grievous error") but I do remember the way she defined it by equating the Tour Montparnasse to Martin Luther and his 95 Theses.   She had been such splendid hostess that I did not have the heart to tell her that I was rather intrigued with Luther.  She was after all, the first person of Faith I had met in the city which seems to be rather Faithless so I kept my mouth shut not caring about small or even large theological differences.  We continued our walk to the garden, stopped for an Orangina, found two chairs along the pond talked a bit longer and then went our separate ways.
What does that have to with settee's?  Nothing much.  But it's a fond Parisian memory for me.

If you wait patiently you will find the perfect settee but you might need to be ready to paint or whip up a slip cover.  Plan to spend anywhere from nothing to $1500 or so depending on the level of your patience and your resourcefulness.
Here are mine, where I found them, what I did to them and how much I paid...

This one lives at the edge of my bed.  It is covered in green silk but the wood was icky, speckled 1970's so I painted it.  It desperately needs to be recovered.  That blue throw covers a whole mess of duct tape.  For real.  I paid $90.00 for this lovely around the corner at a re-sale shop.  I have never seen anything like it and hope to be able to afford to have it reupholstered some day.  It features a Louis VXI leg which is my favorite.

This one is green too...

I am admittedly horrible with fabrics.  I believe this is green velour and it has seen everything from almost black nail polish to a dark chocolate disaster one New Years Eve.  I paid $250.00 for it at an "Antiques in the Park" day across the street from the house.  It too was 70's and speckled so I painted it gaining inspiration from Annie of Eurotrash fame's sofa.  It really needs to be repainted.  It's been about eight years.  I'll cry when the material finally gives out.  I just love it.

And now the garbage pick...

Well sort of.  Let me see if I get this straight...  I think my Mom bought it from a dealer friend who had garbage picked it and then charged Mom $80 for it.  Then Mom got sick of it and I adopted it as my own.  I am assuming I paid Mom for it, but maybe I owed her money for something and we wrapped it up with this sofa.  Nonetheless - look at those legs.  Once again it's that 1970's French Revival looking speckled wood.  This settee made books and magazines last year but now that it has a new home in my sun room it's getting a paint makeover ASAP.  Oh, and I can't WAIT to show you the rest of the room.

And now, the piece de resistance...

Craigslist baby.
$175.00
That's right.  $175.00.
Peachy, paprika velvet.  Down filled.  From an antique store in San Fransisco.  We went to pick it up a couple years ago - the day Chicagoland flooded.  We arrived at the lady's house on the swanky North Shore a half hour before she did.  It was a total deluge.  She called us, told us how to get in so we went in and waited.  Glancing down her open basement stairs we could see her basement was flooding.  She got home just then and we proceeded to help her frantically save all her family photos which were on the basement floor.  ...Opening boxes of them and spreading them all over her house to dry.  It was so weird and so sad.  Then we wrapped our new sofa in YARDS of plastic drops cloths that we had brought with us, duct taped them and loaded the kids in the truck praying the whole way home (one hour) as we drove thru the streets-turned-rivers that our sofa would make it OK.

Now since I have never slip covered my own (yet) I wanted to show you this charming little number I found over at my new friends "Dear Lillie" - this is your typical, ugly, thrift shop settee and I was just so impressed with this simple makeover I had to show you!  (Promise me you won't get lost on their blog and never come back to mine!  It is SOOOOOOO wonderful!)

Isn't that FABULOUS!??

And, now, if you find yourself licking your chops for a settee of your own I want to show you how easily you can find one.  Below I have five settees/sofas from major cities across the country.  Click the link to see the actual Craigslist page.

http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/fud/2800737479.html
$1,000

http://houston.craigslist.org/fuo/2812644898.html
$500 -OMG.

http://detroit.craigslist.org/mcb/fud/2813585441.html

No price listed and yes, it's more of a SOFA - but you should SEE what else this store carries!

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/fuo/2764614837.html

$450

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ank/fuo/2759253967.html

$499

Hope you enjoyed~!

Oh, and "la Butte" - well if you got that then you are marveling at how funny I am!  HAHAHA!

If you didn't, you're not alone I am sure of it... that was my lame attempt at humor and to say "run for the hills" as I was referring to la Butte de Montemartre - Paris' little city on the hill.

All photos not labeled as mine:  Google Images.

Music played during original post:
Compainte de la Butte from Moulin Rouge

Design on a Centime - Powder Room Makeover Part I

Three years ago I did a QUICK fix little makeover to our hideous powder room.

It was fun, it was Moulin Rouge, I cost NO MONEY ...

Not even a "Centime"

And I got to pull out all my old Moulin Rouge stuff that I used to love and enjoy it again...

But...

It was, as most quick fixes I do...

A little "campy"

And I am done with it.

I still love the red door.

Can't quite decide if I still love the red trim.

I still love the ceiling

...Full of all my old Paris maps and leftover tickets.

I still hate the sink and that HIDEOUS toile...

So here is what I have to work with.

A few Centimes...

An old washpan that I keep my root veggies in...

A darling little cabinet that I restyled...

Are you thinking what I am thinking?

Stay tuned.

Christmas Cookie Shopping List

U.P.S. says the Miracle Mixer will be here tomorrow... so lets bake cookies later this week - 

Oui?

In the meantime, I am camera happy but thought you might like a shopping list!

Butter

Sugar

Baking Soda

Creme of Tartar

Flour

Shortening

Milk

Vanilla

Powdered Sugar

For more photos of The Parisienne Farmhouse at Christmas check out this month's Porch Magazine.  And... Me-n-Mom's Shop the Shed sale at her super charming little shed is featured in Romantic Country on the stands now!
A bientôt!

Christmas Chandeliers - Out of the Potager into the Farmhouse

We pulled the tubs down from the rafters in the garage, wiped off the dust, cobwebs and thin layer of sawdust left over from a summertime of projects.  Tub after tub, opened once a year, revealing ornaments, candles, wound strands of lights...

I have hope that we will find time to cut our tree tomorrow and I always like to get everything but the tree displayed beforehand.  It makes the Christmas decorating process a little less overwhelming.  

For many years opening those tubs was... like... Christmas!  But the last couple years it's felt a little S.S.D.Y.  if you K.W.I.M.

Perhaps it's because my style has changed... perhaps it is because aside from the occasional box of Shiny Brite's at an "old lady garage sale" I haven't purchased Christmas décor in years.  Each Christmas Season I do enjoy decorating my chandeliers but I found myself in a bit of a predicament... I had no interest in doing them in the same style as the years before (as seen in this month's Porch Magazine...I think!), and the year before that... and this is the first year that my dining room is my old living room and visa versa... the colors, beads, faux flowers and sparkles that I usually use in my dining room are red and green and I found myself less than inspired to use them in the same room as my light paprika sofa... and I just loved my peacock drenched Eiffel Tower last year... which I used to do to my "old" living room chandie...

Living, Dining, Old, New, Peacocks... What???
Is your head spinning?  

Mine was.

So my thoughts turned to the look I love at Christmas:

Real Greens.

If I could afford it, this entire house from the doorways to the fence would be swaged in fresh, real, greens.  I would order yards of those gorgeous bay leaf swags from Williams Sonoma...  I would just go nuts!!!

Each year I do what I can with greens from our gardens but this year with the big Potager project we cut down three big Junipers and so now we are down to our giant evergreen and a 15 foot tall Cyprus and two everygreens in the front.  I don't have near the variety that I used to but I ran outside in my jammies the other day anyways, with scissors in hand and began to cut away at the Cyprus... then I had the epiphany to use all the dried flowers that I had laying around the house and leftover from my arrangements that are for sale.  I had a vision for something chic and lush... a completely different look for our home this Christmas...

This I what I came up with. 

 There are many different evergreen types you could use, but I loved the droopiness of the Cyprus.  

These will really compliment our tree in that we have a very colorful Christmas in the Parisienne Farmhouse due to my obscene Shiny Brite collection.  

 This chandie is over our coffee table and the next is over our harvest table... they are like floating centerpieces!

 I love the drama of the Cyprus and the dried Ladies Mantle shooting out of the top!

 Distressed mirrors, florals and chandeliers... need I say more???

 I am working on some creative ideas for those ugly red stockings....

Christmas décor can be done on a Centime!  Of course it can - that's the mantra of the Parisienne Farmhouse style - Design on a Centime.  

Thanks for your emails about "Teach your Kid's to Eat" - it will be my next post... and then later this week I will show you some pretty and simple things you can do with everyday containers and leftover ornaments-n-stuff as you make your home a cozy, Christmas environment.

Here are three other posts you may enjoy on the livingroom/dining room area of the Parisienne Farmhouse.  

1.

2.

3.

A bientôt!

D.I.Y. Thanksgiving Centerpiece

Another crappy photograph disclaimer... I ordered a CHEAP flash to hold me over til I can replace my broken one.  
I got what I paid for.  Boo-hoo.

So, hopefully it's not too late in the day for you to make this if you want... but, nonetheless, I've done a couple projects around the Parisienne Farmhouse that I am pretty pleased with this past week and this in one of them... I just had to share!!!

You will need:

A basket - hit the thrift store or your favorite resale shoppe - I got mine for $4.00!!!

Paper grocery bag

Florist foam

Skewers

Toothpicks

Burlap (optional)

Various Vegetables

Herbs from your Garden (You could use Evergreen sprigs too if your herbs are completely  dead!  I used Thyme cause it's still holding it's color and sprigs of my Rosemary that I am actually going to try to over-winter.)

Place your fabric if you choose to use it, like a liner in the bottom of the basket and place a layer of foam on top of that.  Stuff the paper around making everything nice and firm.

Consider what vegetables you would like to use as your foundation.  I chose Gourds because I got an entire shopping bag of them for FREE at Trader Joe's the other day!  For a heavier vegetable like the Gourd I used a small drill bit to make a hole for the skewer.  It really helped...hold it tight, those Gourds are tough, my bit slipped and I have a nice little hole in my hand! 

Put the skewer in the Veggie and then into the foam; laying the edge of the veg on the edge of the basket.  

From there, you can layer your vegetables as you choose.   I chose Autumnal colors.. beets would be pretty, as would purple onions but I did not want to take any chances of a pungent odor so I used red potatoes.

For the root veggies like carrots and radish, I like to pick the ones that have not been cut.  I think the curlicue of the root end is charming.

For the top, you could use a bunch of carrots with those curlicues at the very top.  I chose asparagus... but, word to the wise, leave the rubber band on until you are finished with your project.  They will be easier to put into place.

I also cut a small indentation into the foam to make my topper a bit more secure.

To fill in the gaps (which are more noticeable in the photographs than in real life) you could use Evergreens... especially if your home is already decorated for Christmas... that might tie it together nicely.  However, I chose herbs that were still thriving in my Potager.  I placed Rosemary throughout and used the Thyme at the bottom.  

  I didn't want it hanging out too far so I pushed the bottom edges in, every other gourd and then took the far edges and pushed them into the openings... making a sort of wreath feel around the base of the arrangement.

Many of these things you will find around your home, especially if you are crafty!  

I will be taking this with me to my Aunt's tomorrow. All in all it took about 30 minutes... and I had "help" if you know what I mean.   I think I will make some form of it every year from now on.  It was inspired by a fun project in the book Homemade Soirées.

I do want to say Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers.

I am thankful for your input, compliments, comments and friendship.

Go love on your family.  

I know I am beyond Thankful for mine and we are going to have a riot tomorrow!

Many Blessings.