Vintage record cabinet

Around a month before I was due to give birth, I stopped work, and immediately panicked about getting bored. A chap I'd met through a mutual friend had opened a cafe inside a vintage store in Crystal Palace, and was after some coffee brewers, so I offered to add some onto my order, and drop them into him sometime soon after. It was to be the last work related thing I did for a while! I took advantage to look around the store and promptly spent all the money he gave me for the brewers on this cute record cabinet.

We needed a side table to go next to our 70s-esque woollen felt sofa, and this would double up well to hide all the trail of paperwork I seem to leave everywhere I go. It was a bit scuffed, but in great condition otherwise, and someone had clearly loved storing their records in it at some point in its lifetime; it didn't really go with any of our furniture, but I had four weeks to figure out how to make it fit.

Or so I thought. Our daughter was born a few days later.

Fast forward 11 months, and I've finally found the time to do it up. I wasn't really too sure where to start, but I felt it needed an injection of colour, so I went to my local DIY store and browsed the spray paints.

A (really) quick rub down with some sandpaper, after removing the legs and the doors, followed by a quick blast of primer (sheesh! spray paint gets EVERYWHERE on a windy day) and it was ready for some colour.


The cabinet has this non-slip vinyl sheet glued to the top of it, and I wasn't feeling up to scraping that off, so that stayed black; the inside became bright orange, the outside a gunmetal grey and the doors and legs became taupe. (which everyone seems to call 'warm grey' at the moment....)

It looks awesome, and the little bit of orange that is still visible when the doors are shut is just the right amount of colour pop to brighten up the cabinet.

Once it was in place, I gave the handles a little polish with some brass cleaner, and it's better than new.

Not bad for a 2 day turnaround.

Dining chair

I was in Paris for work, very briefly, a few days ago, and fell across an awesome vintage furniture and bric-a-brac store. Because I was working, I had the van with me, so I could fit bulky bits in with me and bring them home. It's always a bit daunting, because I like to get Dear Husband's approval when adding furniture to our home. But lack of wifi, and zero phone signal meant I was left to make the decision on whether or not to buy the 15 euro dining chair. A little negotiating got it down to 8, which is about a fiver in gbp, making it too much of a bargain to resist, and so off I went to figure out where I'd parked the van....


It looks super cute back home, and doubles up as a great support for Dear Daughter to practice standing up and balancing on two legs with. Practical and a learning aid for the little one. Double bargain.