Shabby chic market at Beacon Hill Estate

Today another great Shabby Chic market at Beacon Hill in Richmond.

The forecast was not great, but the weather stayed nice till the end of the day and then the rain clouds came, but enough time to pack up the stall.

The gold coin donations paid at the entrance gate goes to a good course, helping young women in Asia to find new life out of prostitution, often caused by poverty.

A nice collection.

Roger,my friend helped me with setting up the gazebo and the stall.
Roger makes vintage coat racks and he uses old door handles and wardrobe knobs for the racks.
My grapevine wreaths all sold and I could have sold my tea trolley 3 times over and have commissions to paint chairs.

Rogers vintage coat racks with old door knobs

The shabby chic market is very popular and busy and has the same atmosphere as the Brocante markets in France.
Two lovely girls played the violin and the food is also divine.
I had a beautiful beetroot/carrot cake decorated with sugar pansies and great coffee.

Customers around my stall

A beautiful flower display

There is so much to see and buy, but because its very busy, I didn't have enough time to look around,but just enough to buy a little cardigan.

Another lovely stall

The next market will be the end of November and this is a Christmas market, so as soon as I am in our new house and boxes unpacked I better start making Christmas gifts in Shabby chic style.

Little French table

This little table was bought in a second hand shop and after cleaning and sanding I painted the table white.

Next I used blue paint and mixed it with a little grey for the second colour.

When dry I sanded the table back to reveal the white colour underneath.

Most of the furniture I distress and decorate have three different layers of paint, so my last layer was grey, but I painted crackle medium on first and finished with the grey paint on top.

After the paint was dry I sanded the table and used a waterbase varnish to protect the crackled paint. The image used for the center of the table is from the Graphics Fairy website and I used the modpodge method to transfer the image onto the table.
Full instructions how to transfer images onto furniture are on the Graphics Fairy website,you will find a link to the website on my blog.
 I hand painted the flowers on the sides of the table.

The table is protected with a satin water base varnish.

I took the table to the Shabby Chic market at Beacon Hill and sold it on the market.

Beautiful finished work from the shabby chic course at Waimea college.

A gilded astronaut,cool!

 All the pieces are from the ladies who came to my Shabby Chic course at Waimea College in Richmond near Nelson.
I am always amazed by the creativity and original ideas the ladies bring to the course and we learn from each other.
The astronaut is now not just a plastic toy anymore,but a funky little piece to be admired!
Also the chair before and after, what a difference!
It was a great course again and I hope the ladies will continue to "Shabby Chic".

Lovely gilded frame and Christmas decorations

I love thisdecoupaged box

The image is printed on with ink, image is from the Graphic Fairies website.

The chair before

The chair after!

Gilding or applying gold leaf

Crackled heart

Wooden candle stick gilded

Gilding in progress

Partly gilded frame

Finished candle sticks

Furniture in progress

All photographs are projects done in the Shabby Chic class at Waimea College,Nelson.
Last week we tried gilding or using imitation gold leaf, by mistake I bought copper gold leaf instead of the gold. The ladies liked the copper and I must say I love the finished work.
Also the crackled wooden heart as part of a Christmas decoration looks great..