Take a seat...

I’ve been obsessed since I was about fourteen about getting a telephone seat. A small table to rest your phone and a cup of tea on and a little seat so you can sit down and chat. I’ve come close to buying a few over the years but then on 16th January at 3.23pm I found this in my local second hand furniture place. Horrible looking but so practical. You can lift up the seat and there’s a load of storage in the base of it. The basic shape of it is cute, its sturdy and it has loads of potential. My golden rule with all bargain hunting is: Show no emotion. Act as if you are doing the seller a favour by taking this piece of junk off their hands. After a bit of coy haggling I payed €30 for it.
Also I dated it, I pulled out the drawer and found a stamp saying 13th February 1978. A little trick I learnt on The Antiques Roadshow.

So the first job is to wipe any cobwebs and debris off of the piece. I actually hoovered it to get the dust from all of the panelling. Then I sanded it. I don’t like sanding. I started off using the sander then just ended up sanding it by hand. I know it looks disastrous. All I wanted was something for the paint to grip onto.
Next I painted it. Two coats in a matte biscuity colour.

The cushion that came on the seat was really comfortable, The fabric was manky but it was a feather cushion and someone had lovingly made it back in the 70’s. I had to take off all of the cushion covers, there were three in total, all hand sewn in different fabrics. Then I made a loose irremovable cushion cover in pink. I made another gorgeous removable cushion cover to go over that. So I can take it off and wash it incase I get dramatic news on the phone and spill my tea all over it. I used Anna Maria Horner’s fancy garden fabric. It’s so beautiful. I love it so much and it’s so soft and really looks gorgeous.
I splashed out on a fancy door knob in Laura Ashley, 2 for €24. It looks pretty and really finishes the piece. It took about 4 hours and €50. Kerrching!
Lilly x