Category: Uncategorized
Latest link up with Romo fabrics – our v
Latest link up with Romo fabrics – our vintage French bed covered in simple patterns. Lovely room setting c/o Romo http://ow.ly/anGH5
How distressed do you want it? Examples of distressing antique French furniture
Lots of people love the aged, old, battered, shabby chic look on French furniture, something that gives the piece a used feeling to it.
For those antique furniture items that do not already have this with it, either because they are too new or they are too pristine, the look can be created in lots of different ways. The term used for making something look older or more worn, is one I absolutely adore, it is called ‘distressing’. Hence, I often end up asking the intriguing question to a customer, “how distressed would you like your French armoire/buffet/bed?”.
This is not a new phenomenon, items that were old in the late 1800′s were made to look even older by bashing coal into them, smacking them with bags of stone and artistically abusing them with a range of different stains.
Rubbing painted furniture down to give nicks and wear is one of Frenchfinds specialities and something that is very popular. However, distressing antiques and vintage furniture is a really subjective activity. Having distressed many items over the last 8 years and to varying specifications we have come up with what we reckon as a standardised scale of distress!
See below for examples and photos of distressed French furniture…
Antiques sustainable way to have a low carbon footprint
Antiques green alternative to buying new
Antiques are no longer brown, white or any other colour! They’re green!
Buying an antique or vintage piece rather than a new reproduction can save as much as 537kg of carbon dioxide emissions (the equivalent weight of 6 fully grown men).
Antiques 10 times better than new
Figures to indicate how much better for the environment antique & vintage furniture is compared to new furniture has been hard to come by but several articles have popped up recently to highlight this.
Nigel Worboys, a Beaconsfield Antique Dealer quoted in the Antiques Trade Gazette and This is Bristol.co.uk on the launch of a new green initiative says,
“The carbon footprint from antiques’ original production expired a long time ago, and their continued existence has been testament to a life cycle of at least 10 times an equivalent modern item,”
Need your French furniture wish to come true?
Yes, the French furniture fairies are departing to France next week to make more people’s wishes come true. We have a large number of wishes from people for French furniture that we help fulfil.
One joy of French antique furniture is that is unique. The one infuriating thing about French antique furniture is that is unique! It is almost impossible to find an identical piece but we find many pieces that match a particular popular styles.
Frenchfinds is very happy to try and find pieces for whatever you may be craving for, direct from France (if it isn’t already on the Frenchfinds website). We cover some big areas of France with lots of contacts and friends we have built up over the last 15 years of getting to love the country and its beautiful styles.
Let us know the size, style, colour(s), and any other key information and we will do our utmost best to make your wishes come true.
You can contact us direct on 01538 370058 (UK) or frenchfinds@yahoo.co.uk
Sumptuous Upholstery Fabrics for French Furniture Pt 2
Part 2 of frenchfinds.co.uk blog post on sourcing bright and different fabric ideas for upholstering fantastic French furniture pieces like beds, chairs and accessories (you can find part 1 here).
Rapture & White - Birds & Butterflies -
Sumptuous and bright fabrics for antique and vintage French furniture upholstery Pt1
At Frenchfinds.co.uk We get asked a lot about reupholstery for our original antique and vintage French furniture especially our French Capitone and Corbeille beds. Having come direct from France, some of these French beds need some a loving change of fabric to revitalise them. Once done they look stunning and can become either a centre-piece to a bedroom or a fantastic accompanying piece to the rest of the room.
Most of the antique or vintage French beds we find are quite often in a damask or jacquard fabric which looks beautiful in its original condition but can sometimes be hard to find.
Having seen some of the blow away results of a reupholstered bed finished in a contemporary Designer’s Guild fabric (for a client’s teenage daughter), we were tempted to find out what other bold fabrics are available for upholstering French furniture. This is part 1 of a 2 part post (mainly due to the number of thumbnails). Continue reading
