Better To Be Born Lucky Than Rich

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Lucky me,Blessed me! that a 1952 Ethan Allen Furniture Company china chest dark nutmeg in color, solid mahogany wood French chest found me, and this is what a little paint patina I gave it, did for it.

There is a wise saying that it is "Better to be born lucky than rich" I am glad I am the lucky part. Having a passion for junk shops and flea markets with a strong appreciation for objets d'art at a very young age of teens I would find junk to decorate with creating a room to love. This passion led me to a design career with a true love for all things salvaged with French roots.


In my hunt for the next salvage piece to recycle I glance over at all the cast offs and let the piece call to me listening to what it wants to become. A piece that as the French refer to as "dans so jus"- it hadn't been repaired, painted, or polished in years taking it from what was once a beautiful piece that dated itself, to now giving it the rustic French feel it so longed for. The big shocker was a tag price of $42.00 dollars making this an easy and excited yes piece. It measures 35"1/2 in height 35" in length 19" in depth this is a piece I could talk myself into keeping but it will be going to my shop over the weekend finding its way into a home that will feel that same excitement of a great find, and where it will tell them it wants to be placed.

If I talk myself into keeping it, I think it will become my guest bathroom vanity buy adding the wash bowl and faucet to it. As for all dealers and designers our homes tend to reflect our finds or what is in our design stock with objects and pieces that get replaced time to time purely for the soul and history in the piece up-grading with regularity, this is the nature of what goes along with the hunt and the business of the next sell.


This piece called for a patina paint finish of age-layers washed with subtlety with rustic French that seems to have been around for years.

Another French laundered find is the French hand towels so euro flea market I added to my home and I have bundled up extras in rag ties on their way to my shop.

Inspiring rustic, the formality of its rustic beauty.

The Driving Force In My Home

The driving force in my home is the inspiration of old. Whether I am remodeling or decorating a home in my interior design business or just transforming an out-dated piece into a piece inspired from a Paris flea market. I create with what beauty I see around me, then inspiring the piece with brush in hand soulfully.

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The work-force behind my art is looking towards a famous region renowned for their French furniture designs that reflect their rich history. Reducing and reusing old cast offs is a rich part of who I am, even as a designer. This 1980's country thrift find in much need of some new beauty came to be with an idea of adding "Joie De Vivre" (Joy of Living) with a relaxed elegance that creates romance like none other.

I will be showing the before and after, and the brave move to rid the out-dated lead glass lighted doors to creating aged mirroring in place of them.

Before...


After...
This piece was a happy accident in a thrift shop finds waiting for me to give it a facelift, and now transformed with a new beauty for sale in my design shop. Take notice along with the removing of the out-dated to the buffet, and hutch I also changed the hardware to simple wood knobs, and metal drawer pulls along with adding a strip of wood that I had dinged, and dented with perfect distressing to the tops of all three doors. I felt this would add some body to the otherwise flat surface to each of the door faces, and it worked out nicely.





I wanted to capture a patina that felt as if the piece had been passed down for generations, one that tells its own history by taking out the dated and adding an aging technique of a lime wax process without wax, yet with my own twist to process giving it a white finish leaning towards a whitish-grey patina speaking pefect French. By adding the mirrors to the doors that I aged to look hauntingly beautiful this added useful storage cleverly hidden away.

From the inspiration of France I hand-painted and detailed this piece adding my own touch of history to it.
Une vision de toutes choses françaises (Having a vision of all things French)

You Can Have One Too...

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You can have one too...Just read on. A solid wood lamp salvaged in appearance with a look that it has acquired a patina from years of function and use, one giving this French chest individuality in a rural French country house. This lamp adds rural rustic elegance of ornamentation with a definite shape that one would enjoy looking at.


Treasured objects are arranged around it with a glow of light calming the design of the soulful depths of the room. A rustic lamp at home in my French rural style country sitting area.

I consider each piece that goes into a room separately, and then bringing them all together making them blend in with a less then forced way. Thank you Target for making this lamp an easy and natural blend in my French rustic country house for only $54.99 Shade not included. The bridge and harp I added to the lamp myself to better suit future lamp shades.

Inspiring Rustic French from unexpected places.