Upscaling furniture

rebel rebel

rebel rebel

rebel rebel

Soldato
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30 Mar 2010
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Evening,

I've been looking for some living room furniture for ages. Sideboards, cupboard and new TV unit. But can never find anything I like, or if I do it's normally way too expensive £600+ Which I find unacceptable.
So have now decided to buy something and paint it (upscale) myself. I'm leaning more towards spraying or painting something in a blue eggshell or teal, and then put a pattern on it.

Does anyone else here do this? I would like to see some examples.

Would also like to know of any places that sell cheap second hand furniture, I obviously know there's Gumtree, eBay Preloved..
 
Don't know where you are, but local shops. There's a place down the road from us that we'll be buying loads of stuff from once we move. It's your typical hipster upcycled shop, but actually the furniture is really good value; solid wood, large side units with sliding glass for £150 etc. Some of them are a bit retro but if that's your thing, or with decor then...
 
I'm in Southend. We have a few charity shops that sell furniture, but it's like the good stuff has been sold already.

Retro or mid-century stuff is what i'm after. I guess hipster shops are gonna be where it's at, although i'd like to get to it before its been painted, as I'd like to do that myself.

Etsy has loads of good stuff, but it's been painted and then trebled in price.
 
Yeah you need to find the right shop. The place 100m from our house is right up your street. Like you say, charity shops are crap (nobody gets rid of anything decent for free, really). They don't have a website or anything because they've just opened, and they focus on clothing, but you can see some of their stuff in the background of some of their photos at https://www.instagram.com/patinaclothingandfurniture.

That kinda place anyway.
 
Yeah that place looks good, I'd need to grow a beard and purchase a scooter before going in there though. :D

I just found a sideboard for £85 on gumtree, same town as me as well. So I've sent him a message regarding delivery. Could be the blank canvas I need.
 
Charlie Bravo said:
I recall a couple of places I remember from when I lived in Southend.
Just looked them up... Les & Gary's and Des & Barry's, both on London Road, Westcliff.

May be worth a look?
Click to expand...

Yeah Les and Gary's is hilarious, they have the Only Fools & Horses 3 wheeler on their roof. Last time I went in the stuff was expensive for what it was.

Des And Barrys is near that apparently, I've never noticed it before.

I'll check them both out.
 
We (well the wife) has done a few bits herself, that chalk paint is fantastic stuff, you don't need to get the Annie Sloan stuff though as that's mega expensive, eBay has stuff just as good a lot cheaper. It gives a really brilliant finish when its waxed and seems nice and hard wearing and not slightly tacky like a lot of paints and varnishes tend to end up.

For the furniture we inherited some bits, otherwise i find the local facebook marketplaces are the best bet, join a good section of local ones and just keep an eye out. you have to be quick with them but you can get some really good stuff on there if you can put up with dealing with the mouth breathing sort that use facebook. I still need to get a nice dresser for our kitchen and do the same.
 
I've been looking at the chalk paint. It's good for creating that shabby chic look. I would maybe do white chalk with some blue flecks in.

I take it your wife enjoyed the process?
 
Yeah she really did, our bedside cabinets were done in an ivory colour but she did the whole thing so it looks quite smart, we didn't distress any of it as the shabby chic didn't really fit with the rest of the bedroom.

They were done 5 maybe 6 years ago and still look great today.
 
It's something I've done on my coffee table - just because I didnt fancy paying a bunch for one. I picked one up from a charity shop for £15,sanded it down and put some new paint on it.

Before:
ODr3iKW.jpg
After:
GrRrTwf.jpg
 
sovietspybob said:
Yeah she really did, our bedside cabinets were done in an ivory colour but she did the whole thing so it looks quite smart, we didn't distress any of it as the shabby chic didn't really fit with the rest of the bedroom.

They were done 5 maybe 6 years ago and still look great today.
Click to expand...

Excellent! My mother bought a shabby display cabinet about 10 years ago, then paid to have it restored, totally not understanding the whole point of it.

Marvt74 said:
Wayfair isn't too bad if you don't mind a big hunt through thousands of items, this is our tv stand. Although sure we only paid £250

https://www.wayfair.co.uk/furniture/pdp/world-menagerie-tejas-tv-stand-for-tvs-up-to-70-bmh1645.html
Click to expand...

Yeah I browse on Wayfair all the time, I want to avoid those prices though. Much rather buy something half the price and paint it myself.

dan958 said:
It's something I've done on my coffee table - just because I didnt fancy paying a bunch for one. I picked one up from a charity shop for £15,sanded it down and put some new paint on it.

Before:
ODr3iKW.jpg
After:
GrRrTwf.jpg
Click to expand...

That's very nice, I have a dark wood console table that I will sand and paint white.
 
I was thinking your goal was to make furniture larger...

It’s up-cycling isn’t it?

Enough pedantry, hope you have a good result. Its great to be able to reuse and customise furniture.
 
tom_nieto said:
I was thinking your goal was to make furniture larger...

It’s up-cycling isn’t it?

Enough pedantry, hope you have a good result. Its great to be able to reuse and customise furniture.
Click to expand...

Yeah I should have said up cycling. But if you Google upscaling you get the same stuff come up. And the definition says.. the action of increasing the size or improving the quality of something. So technically not a massive **** up.
 
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