A RIGHT AND LEFT; A SHOT IN THE ARM (OIRE).

  Re-furnishing my old textile showroom as a guest bedroom has been fun and I have tried to be very economical and use all spare bits in my house to furnish it.  Luckily I seem to have quite a lot of odd bits of red fabric (French always went for red as it was the earliest and cheapest effective dye for fabric and it did not run when washed carefully).  So, with a cushion in the window recess covered in red/cream ticking, pinky red toile curtains and a toile bed, all shades of pink and red seemed an obvious choice.  I found out long ago that a number of different shades of one colour mix and match very well in one room - if you have just two they often jar!  I discovered this for myself when I visited USA and saw the small piles of indigo dyed quilts  in many shades of blue, in Connecticut,  that were rescued from the early settlers and were neatly folded in pretty piles on sideboards, chests and shelves, to be treasured and admired by visitors!    

   The tall Edwardian wardrobe (purchased cheap via an Ebay auction) needs to be brightened up, so I am lining the inside with some crisp pin stripe red/white cotton ( a free gift at our recent Rag market) which I will first cut to size for the inner panels and door, fixed on with my handy staple gun and I will then trim all raw edges with a little braid kept from old soft furnishing covers which will cover the staples, and which I can fix with my little glue gun - two easy targets, not as dangerous as it sounds, and I hope the effect will be a nice surprise when you open the door!  Final touch will be some mixed stripey coat hangers (see Blog Hang it All) made with ticking remnants, and a red tassel on the key if I can find a good one in my key collection box!  You might think all this a bit of a waste of time, but I enjoy doing it and it reminds me of the spotless cupboards and wardrobes where my grandmother kept all her lovely evening gowns of pre-war years when ladies dressed for dinner. Wait for it!  Aiming to have it done before my next birthday in Sept.
    The chair is covered in strong toile furnishing cotton with a print of flowers and branches in soft purplish pink shades, a little faded, formerly a frilly-edged curtain, 1890s or so.  The cushions are smart white cotton pique in a diagonal weave ( rescued from old metal baby cots where they served as linings)and the trims are also washable in red and white cotton, once available by the card at Brocante sales.   The side chair is covered in some old ticking and the wallpaper which has been up for 12 years is a Zoffany design, now out of print sadly, as lots of people have seen it and wanted it!
A postscript  thank you to all my Post friends who are kind enough to make good comments on my house decorating efforts - all are welcome to call here and see, and there is still one wine-vault full of surplus stuff(s) waiting for bargain hunters.  Dealing in textiles is not all about buying and selling - much of the pleasure is in planning and inventing and sharing ideas with other keen home-makers.!