Wednesday 9 February 2011

Love Is Blue [For This Mrs Moppe]

Back in the 90’s, this family acquired lots of inexpensive “Moppe” boxes from IKEA. Like this set of drawers

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They proved very useful for storing little bits and pieces. It was also great fun personalising them. Steph had a six-drawer set which she covered with magazine pictures [at least, I think this belonged to Steph, not Liz…] It’s beginning to look a little tatty now.

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And I had a set which I kept on my desk at school [I taught a Year 6 SATS class full-time for 2 terms back in 2001 – it nearly killed me!] to hold sharpeners, stapler, tape etc. I covered this with pictures of angels from ‘fine art’ type Christmas cards.

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My set needs a bit of restoration- it has been on a window sill in the sun and the top pictures are fading and lifting.

I decided on Monday that I would first recover Steph’s drawers and also paste something on the ‘bare’ set of drawers, so that I can use them for craft materials. First I stripped off the old pictures – to discover the box had once been painted blue, and then Steph had painted the edges in gold. I decided to go for a blue and white theme for both sets, and so dug out a magazine for inspiration.

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The photos in MCI are so good, and I happened, for bizarre reasons, to have two copies of this issue so didn’t mind sacrificing one of them. I cut out lots of blue and white pictures, and set to work.

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I thought that adding some French words would look particularly chic! I stuck the paper down with a mixture of 50/50 PVA glue and warm water, stirred well with a cocktail stick. I used my fingers to apply and smooth it all down. Messy but effective – and I gave everything a top coat of the solution as a sealant. [Untidy edges were trimmed with a craft knife]

Then I left everything to dry on the kitchen table and went to bed early [do not insert drawers whilst glue is still drying!!]

When re-assembled next day, I ended up with these…

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I am very pleased with the finished results. There are a couple of places where the paper has wrinkled a bit, but you have to look hard to see them [that’s one advantage of such a ‘busy’ collage]

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It was a quick and easy project, with little effort for great effect.

The gilded edging is good. On the other set, I wrapped blue and white paper right round the edges rather than leaving bare wood.

Now to decide what to put in them!

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There’s another ‘uncovered’ set in the spare room. Should I do them in blue and white too, or go for another colour scheme?

7 comments:

  1. Tres chic Angela. Marie Claire is full of pretty photos, isnt it.

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  2. Thanks for your comment on my blog - I will indeed let you have the pattern for the hearts later. I popped over to see your blog and was pleased to see yu are another Marie Claire Idees fan! I used to buy them when I lived in France and have quite a few - I might take a leaf out of your book and use the French words and pics from other magazines (can't bear to destroy my MCIs!) to do something similar. Great idea.

    Jane

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  3. I have a similar, very small six drawer unit - although i can't remember where I got it! Have often thought about covering it...thanks for reminding me of my intentions!

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  4. Fabulous result. I could never do anything so fiddly; me and 13 cats covered in sticky bits of paper would never do!
    Jane x

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  5. That looks great, and is now giving me ideas for presents for family.

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  6. Well done, tres tres chic femme! I'm torn between seeing what your creativity could do with another scheme, and thinking you should go for a trick chapeau bleu!

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