I’m a firm believer that the most stylish homes are ones that evolve.  Slowly surrounding yourself with things you love, carry memories, or you’ve crafted yourself, makes a house a home.  But what do you do when your treasured finds become tired or just don’t fit with your current style?

A little style contrast is no bad thing.  Some of the most beautiful interiors have contemporary furniture cosying up with heirloom pieces.  Mixing things up a little creates an eclectic, relaxed and individual feel that I love.  But that’s no reason not to take a fresh look at the furniture around you and see what could benefit from a revamp. Paint is an obvious way to transform a piece of furniture and, with ever-improving chalk paint selections on the market, it’s never been easier or more rewarding to take up the paint brush!

A chair makes a great starter project.  If you don’t already have some tired chairs lurking around at home, they’re super-easy to find in antique markets or second hand shops.  Just choose a chair with a nice shape and pick your paint colour.  I love the idea of creating an ombre group of chairs, each painted in a slightly different tone of the same colour. Or you could swap that idea around and paint a group of  different chairs  in the same statement hue; take a look at the fab yellow dining chairs picture on our website (http://bit.ly/1IhDpYb).

The idea of repainting a whole table may seem daunting.  So how lucky that a partly painted table looks so much better!  If you have a traditional farmhouse style table, painting the base is easy and attractive.  I also love the casually dip-painted style of the chunky console table above.  How low-stress is that?  And it’s a great look for garden furniture.

If you’re not quite ready for your painting to be the main event, try painting the inside of a cupboard to showcase a favourite collection.  The display of white crockery in the picture above would be lost without a strong backdrop but looks amazing against the dark grey. The same colour is used to great effect in this smart shoe cupboard.

See our previous blog post for detailed instructions on furniture painting.  Or join one of new one day workshops (details: http://bit.ly/1IhDpYb).  The Vintage Paint range on our website is tried, tested and gives great results  (http://bit.ly/1QpZRNB)

The images above were all found on pinterest.  You can see our selection with original links here: http://bit.ly/1dMm6BG)