Rethinking Old Soft Furnishings

Hi everyone, happy Thursday! It's kinda gloomy out there today, so we thought we'd show off some of our cheerful and fun re-upholstered pieces.

All of the soft furnishings that we have in the shop are vintage pieces that have been completely re-done. We love the style and quality craftsmanship that can be found in older soft furnishings.

Vintage footstools re-done in bright geometric Kravet fabrics.

Treasure hunting is one of our most favourite things to do, and we seek out old soft furnishings with good bones that can be given a second life! With some creativity, and a lot of skill from our upholsterer, we create these beautiful and unique pieces. The pieces have all new innards and are covered with new fabric. This ensures that they will look and feel like new while maintaining their original character and sturdy structure.

Small vintage sofa in a beautiful Kravet ikat, we're smitten!

Rustic chic- we love this bench with its new burlap-covered seat.

Kravet is one of our top picks for fabric suppliers. They offer such a variety of styles from many top designers. They have something for everyone, and the quality of their fabric is fantastic! If you're ever in need of fabric for your own projects, come and talk to us about it. We can help you choose a fabric and order it for you at 15% off the regular price!

Come by and have a seat in some of our soft furnishings, we'd love to see you soon!!

Inspired! Antique Furniture of Quebec

I'm starting a new category for the blog called "Inspired!". I'll post regularly with images and info about things that are inspiring us hens at the moment.

Yesterday I found myself taking a look in some of the books that we have hanging around the shop. These books are a great inspiration for anyone looking to create custom pieces with that rustic old-world vibe. The images below are from the book Antique Furniture of Quebec by Michel Lessard. Here are some of the pretty things I've found, and some of the facts that I learned.

This pine carved armoire is framed with moulding, and has a sweet cutout base with a shell carving in the centre. According to the book this piece dates back to the late 18th Century. I think it it's the perfect blend of masculine shapes with more feminine details.

This piece is a stunner! Another pine armoire from late 18th Century Quebec, but this time the hand-carvings are much more detailed. The mix of geometric shapes and organic forms is beautiful. This piece has been stripped of its original paint.

Before the 70's in Quebec it was common for people to "revitalize" furniture by stripping it down to the wood and waxing and polishing it. Unfortunately the stripping methods were very hash and would destroy the wood surface and grain.



This armoire has hand-carved doors, and has been stripped on the outside. Even though the book says that stripping is bad, I kind of like the contrast between the bright red paint and the natural wood colour. What do you think?

Have you felt inspired by a special piece of furniture lately? Share your story with us in the comments, we'd love to hear from you!

DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH PART 2

We love how this red table turned out. The colour is original, we added the fun new castors and sanded and stained the top. This would be great for a desk or an island, you could even add a marble top for your kitchen, priced at $595.

The next photo shows a hall or sofa table with a beautiful one board top, all original paint as well as the glass cupboard above. This piece would be perfect hanging on the wall in a bathroom, table priced at $595 and glass hutch $$545.

The black coffee table is a hall table that we cut down and over painted the base. The top we just gave a good cleaning and left some of the funky paint on it for a weathered relaxed look. The two paintings below are so fun. Both are vintage, the abstract one is priced at $195 with the frame and the floral $165.

We hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed finding them and bringing them back to life!

MORE...

Thanks for tuning back in to see these diamonds shining. All repaired, cleaned and waxed, they are ready to find their homes into your nest. From top to bottom; tall antique dish cupboard $1590, small early gray table $195, Nova Scotia dresser $575, antique hall or sofa table with original paint $$495.

DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH

One of our favorite things to do here at Henhouse is hunt for unique finds. We got just that chance last week when we hit the road and traveled down to the South Shore and picked up quite a few diamonds in the rough. We especially love finding dilapidated and neglected pieces, fixing them up, discovering hidden patina and letting them shine again. Pair these unique pieces with something contemporary and you really will have the design "tension" that is in all the magazines. We've spent all week sanding, hammering, nailing, stripping, and waxing these diamonds to sparkling perfection. Stay tuned for the finished results.

RECYCLING AT ITS BEST

This is the latest refinishing project to come out of the henhouse nest. A local designer had his client's family piece refinished to use as a vanity in their fabulous new bathroom. The drawers were completely rebuilt to accommodate the plumbing, with nice new compartments for storage. We stripped off the original paint right down to the wood and then layered on some new colour and stain to make the finish really juicy. We then did a crackle finish to make this antique dresser look as though this was the original finish. Pretty nifty huh?! Hardware outfitted by Lee Valley.

A PANEL FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

This amazing antique wall panel comes from Eastern Europe and is oh so pretty! It is in amazing condition, with the original paint, nice patina and preserved under a beeswax finish. This panel would work in a variety of spaces around the home but we think it would work particularly yummy as headboard for a king or queen size bed. It would also work swell as a divider for a room or converted into a sliding door on a track.

82" long x 43.5" wide, $1100

THE SOUTH SHORE SERIES (part 4)

After designing, building and finishing the spectacular South Shore kitchen, we were eager to get to work on more exciting and creative projects in this dazzling home. Besides creating brand new pieces of furniture from scratch we also specialize in finding and refinishing antique pieces. We were more than pleased to share with the home owners our zeal for previously used furniture. This antique baking table from Eastern Europe is one of our favorite finds and ended up being the perfect height for a sofa table! The vanity is also a great example of furniture re-conceptualized for new use. Originally the homeowner's antique bureau, we breathed new life into the piece by finishing it in our signature 'henhouse' red and outfitting it with clean white porcelain features, transforming it into a truly unique and functional bathroom vanity.