Occasional chair, Annie Sloan & Genevieve

The next of the chairs we've recently finished we decided to paint with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® in Chateau Grey, one of my favourite colours.  Sometimes this beautiful shade looks green, sometimes it appears grey but either way, it's stunning.

As you can see, we really are a kitchen table enterprise at the moment!  We're looking for either a workshop or retail premises locally so we can stock more pieces at any one time as we're unfortunately restricted on space for the time being.

Another new fabric I'd chosen when on my mammoth fabric sourcing trip was this vintage, shabby chic design from Clarke & Clarke.  It's called Genevieve in the raspberry shade & works perfectly with Chateau Grey.  Another match made in heaven!

I've included a close-up of the newly upholstered seat pad so you get a better view of the fabric & as you can, we use good old-fashioned tacks, not staples, on our pieces!

The height is 84cm, width 46cm at the widest part & is finished with Annie Sloan Clear Wax.  Our pieces are designed to have that shabby, lived-in look so paintwork will intentionally not be perfect so please bear this in mind!

£40

Shipping can now be arranged at customer cost & will be very well wrapped to protect it in transit.  See you soon!

Sarah & Jo

Occasional chair, Annie Sloan & Vanessa Arbuthnott

Jo & I recently finished a couple of beautiful occasional chairs - or dining chairs if you wish!  I prefer to call them occasional chairs as many people now use them as one-off pieces in bedrooms, living rooms, hallways even offices so to pigeon-hole them solely as dining chairs seems a little unfair!

 I've recently visited a huge fabric warehouse in Leicestershire & had chosen some beautiful fabrics, specifically for reupholstering these types of chairs so was itching to get started.

I'd forgotten to photograph them before we started painting - as usual! - so I grabbed my camera mid-way through before they were completely first coated.

We chose Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® in French Linen, a stunning neutral greige colour as we knew it'd work perfectly with the new Vanessa Arbuthnott fabric I'd bought.  We love the final piece & think the colour combination works fabulously! 

The height of this chair is 93cm, the width is 46cm at the widest point & is, as always, waxed using Annie Sloan Clear Wax for a durable finish.

£45

Shipping can be arranged at customer cost, please email for details.

thistlevintage@gmail.com

Sarah & Jo

Fretwork door cabinet

One of our pieces we've recently finished is this beautiful cabinet with a full-width drawer & fretwork doors.  Although the wood was beautiful, straight away I envisaged it painted in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® Chateau Grey, one of my favourite colours, deciding as we painted to do with the inside of the drawer in a wash of Paris Grey & the cupboard interior in Pure.  We also lightly distressed the finish & finished it with Annie Sloan clear wax for a more durable finish.

We used the original drawer & door pulls as they matched the unusual metal trims on the curved top of the cabinet & although the fretwork doors took some seriously fiddly work, we both love the end result!

The details of this cabinet are as follows;

H - 65cm

W - 72cm

D - 45.5cm

£75

You can email us on thistlevintage@gmail.com if you'd like any other information on this piece.

Sarah & Jo

Thistle Vintage

As this is our first post here on Thistle Vintage, we thought we'd do a little introduction & tell you a bit about ourselves!

Thistle Vintage is based in a pretty village in rural Angus (hence using a thistle in the name!) & is ran by myself (Sarah) & my friend Jo.  Whilst sitting in a coffee shop one morning, we were discussing what jobs we did before the kiddlies came along & realised that we'd both been involved in furniture restoration & upcycling before.  I took up this hobby whilst living in France & took great joy scouring the local brocantes & vide greniers looking for pieces to renovate & consequently revived many an armoire & lit corbeille!  In fact, French beds became my 'thing' & I absolutely loved taking something that looked fit only for the bonfire & transforming it into a piece of beauty.  I sold my pieces locally & on eBay - most going to shop owners specialising in the sale of French furniture in the UK!

Jo also used to restore furniture, her speciality being large pieces such as dressers & sideboards & she has transformed some beautiful dining suites too.  She also loves using the technique of decoupage too, something which I have yet to get the hang of!  She does the most stunning decorated clothes hangers too, just perfect for the vintage home.

After many discussions, we decided to join forces & form Thistle Vintage, secure in the knowledge that we have enough experience between us to create some fantastic pieces of furniture.

Although in the past, we both used the usual technique of sanding, priming & painting with eggshell, we now use the fabulous Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® & both love the finish it leaves on furniture.  It's truly wonderful paint & if you want to know a little more about it, hop on over to Annie's website.

At the moment, we sell our pieces on eBay & on our Facebook page but we're looking for a small workshop or retail unit as we already have ideas for a sideline business, however we'll keep schtum about that for now!

If we have any pieces that require reupholstering, we only use good quality, complimentary fabrics, some of our favourites being from Voyage, Laura Ashley, Vanessa Arbuthnott, Moon & Clarke & Clarke.  We also try to source specific pieces for customers should they have anything in mind & paint to order.

So please bear with me as I set up all of our social media pages - I'll add links as soon as they're all ready!  We're also waiting on our graphic designer to finalise our logo design so we can order up new business cards & add it to our blog etc.  I hope you'll keep popping back to see what we've been up to & in the meantime, if you spot any pieces on here that take your fancy, please email us on thistlevintage@gmail.com & we'll get back to you!

Sarah & Jo