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Chintz & Companies Fabulous French Reproduction Furniture

Platinum Blue Lyonne Chest of Drawers Side From Chintz & Company

Platinum Blue Lyonne Chest of Drawers Side From Chintz & Company

One look at Chintz & Company’s furniture and you will be surprised at what you find.  Their furniture line features the best reproductions of desirable antiques which takes the most avid shoppers hard to find.

Their stores also have a selection of  unique high-quality home furnishings which include tableware selections, home accessories, linens, florals, and patio furniture.  Granted even Winners, Ross Dress for Less, and Home Goods carry fantastic home decor items, but they don’t carry french reproductions such as Bombe chests, Balloon chairs and Louis XVI Chairs.

Chintz features one thing you cannot find at your local furniture gallery even here in the US, which are their hand picked selection of great repro furniture, which they shop the entire world to find.

They have classic English traditional looks, along side french styles, and a mixture of modern furnishings.  What I found most impressive about their collection when I stumbled across their site, was their Directoire furniture which is only being produced by a very small few companies.

Their classic furniture can be compared to Restoration Hardware’s but with a nicer selection.  Virtually everything is beautiful in their store, it is hard to pick just a handful of furniture to feature in this post because so many pieces are outstanding, so we just featured some of their french selections.  They have 4 main locations in western Canada: Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria and Vancouver.

Directoir Chest From Chintz & Company

French Black Solid Mahogany Buffet Chest From Chintz & Company

Annabelle Sedona Chair

Regence Chest From Chintz & Company

Fushia Gold Cirque Striped Chest of Drawers From Chintz & Company

 

Indigo Cirque Chest & Platinum Cirque Chest of Drawers From Chintz & Company

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My French Provincial Dixie Union Flag Dresser Makeover

French Provincial Dressers are one of the most perfect designed dressers to paint abstract designs. They work so perfectly because painted furniture  was common on Antique Louis XV and XVI furniture, so the look transfers easily to french provincial pieces.

The Union Jack Flag has caught attention of the design crowd, and the geometrical flag has been featured in a number of interior design blogs and magazines and it has even made its way into fashion.

Upholstered furniture is the new trend with these geometrical flags, but can be very tricky because flags are often not sold by the yard or meter at your local fabric store.  Painting a piece of furniture on the other hand can be very easy with any flag pattern.

With my flag dresser, being that I was working with the Union Jack Flag, I painted my piece in white to begin with.  Then I taped the lines of flag, and once the paint was dried, I removed the tape, and added a brown glaze to antique the dresser.

(If I were to do it all over again, I would certainly use a flat paint instead of an oil based color.  The reason for this, is oil paint can be very thick, and working with tape, you want your paint to COVER in one coat (or 2), not making it so heavy that when you pull off your tape there is an obvious ridge where the paint built up against the tape.

Flat paint usually is the best to use when you are working with bright colors.  Learning from experience, it took me about 8 coats of semi gloss paint to paint a wall orange.  In the end, the walls were not perfectly finished because each layer of paint makes your walls imperfect.  You always want that sanded finish that fresh drywall provides.  The lesson I learned that I can pass on, is to make your first coat flat, and if you want a gloss, then paint it after your walls are covered with the flat paint.

So my recommendation after doing this flag dresser is to always sand first, and paint in flat paint for all your colors, and then go over the dresser with a WATER BASED polycrylic clear finish when you are completed. Never use oil based polyurethane on white.  In a year it will turn a ugly yellow, if not in a day.

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French Provincial Buffets

Bassett French Provincial Buffet Painted Black

Bassett French Provincial Buffet

The French provincial style has stood the test-of-time. Today, like in the past, the French Provincial look is essential to competing the classic french country interiors, Swedish styles, and shabby chic styles.

Buffets have always been a must in every dining room but also have been re-purposed as entry way cabinets, tv cabinets and also re purposed bathroom sink vanities.

The classic buffet furniture consists of buffet tables, buffet cabinets, buffet hutches, buffet sets, and sideboards. Depending on what you may need for functionality each piece offers something different.

A hutch which comes with a buffet is perfect for china display and presentation. If you are a avid collector, hutches are the perfect solution, as you still have the extra cabinet storage in the buffet.

A buffet cabinet provides the storage space you may need to store glasses and extra dishes, while the top is a tabletop you could use for display or extra space to hold food when family comes over and the dining table is crowded. It is great providing extra food space, allowing you to feature your food instead of cramming it all on the table or ushering your company into the kitchen.

Buffet tables usually do not provide any storage, but are attractive in that it is an extra working table top similar to the buffet cabinet but without the storage. The table serves as an extra tabletop for entertaining, and also allows for decorative display in your dining room, living room, and kitchen.

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HOW To Upholster Your Provincial Headboard

French Headboard Featured on Bob Vila

French Headboard Featured on Bob Vila

Buying a French bed is a timeless furniture choice.  Classic French beds have been around for centuries, and are still as much popular as the French style is featured and popularized in the higher end interior design magazines.

French antique beds are normally made from sturdy wooden frames and are often delicately carved which makes them both interesting and elegant.  The workmanship that goes into a carved bed takes patience and skill in order to get the precision and detail which can make them quite a bit more expensive.

Many antique French beds are made from a variety of woods, depending on their particular country and location.  Some of the most common woods found are mahogany, walnut or Black wood.

Often seen in the rococo beds, the footboards are also delicately carved, which makes them highly coveted.  A common signature to French furniture is the curvature of the legs of the furniture.  You will see the circular feet on many footboards, chairs, and chests.

There are a number of great styles when it comes to antique French beds, but if you are on a tight budget and you really want the look of a French home, why not go for the reproduction French provincial beds of the 50’s and 60’s? Many of the beds were made to mimic the antique Louis styles but on lower end scale. The 1960’s French provincial furniture is pretty easy to find, and relatively inexpensive in price.

1. Painting- One way of recreating the antique looks is to paint the frame of the bed. There are three main French styles you can paint.

A) Classic Gold is a very traditional French look. Gold works with every single upholstery as it acts like a neutral, so you are free to choose a variety of fabrics, as gold goes with everything. One very simple way of painting your piece gold is to spray it gold, letting it dry and gold leafing it for a realistic sheen of actual gold. Tips on leafing can be found here. Once the leaf has dried, you can rub on gray and with a damp cloth wipe the excess paint off which will stick in the cracks.

B) Classic cream is always a beautiful French choice. Be sure to get a creamy white with a green undertone. Once your paint has dried, add a brown glaze to add to the antique feel of aged furniture. You can buy glaze at your local home hardware store, or home depot, or Here – Wm Zinsser 04201 Blend & Glaze Decorative Painting Liquid

C) Swedish Grays are always an upscale French look. It is often a grown up style because it is not found on new furniture, but classic antiques. You can get that antique feel with gray and finish it off with a yellow wash. I have tried most of all colors with French furniture, and a cornflower yellow works the best over gray. Like the steps above, (after your gray has dried) paint on the yellow, (doing small sections) and wipe it off using a damp cloth. The muted yellow should give your piece the feel of a white wash but leaving the gray color intact.

2. Upholstery – You can create the rich looks of higher end antique French beds by simply buying the curvy headboard that was popular in the 60’s and upholster them with rich French fabrics. Classic antique French patterns were floral and landscape scenes. It is a relatively easy process to upholster a bed frame, so don’t feel overwhelmed.

You will need 4 major things to complete the task. 1. Batting 2. Fabric 3. A Stapler 4. Nail head trim.

The batting can be found at your local sewing fabric store. Ideally you want to find a flat foam padding, or cotton felt. You can always stuff inside the flat felt if it isn’t fluffy enough, but you will always have a smooth surface when it comes time to upholster. You do not need an industrial upholstery stapler, but they cost just as much as your basic stapler, (check below for links)  . A t-150 will work just fine, which can be purchased at your local hardware store for 20 dollars.   (I have been using a T-150 for years, and haven’t bought a electrical upholtery gun, but after seeing how cheap they are, I might order one!)

When it comes to finishing off your project, I would highly suggest getting nail head trim which you apply with a real nail every 3rd nail head. It gives you a nicer and cleaner appearance, and saves a lot of energy of lining up each nail so it is perfectly straight and in line with the rest. You can buy 30 feet for around the 7-15 dollar mark from Nails to You on ebay.  With that said, you can have your stunning French bed with fractions of the cost of an antique.

Hitachi N3804AB3 1 1/2-Inch 18-Gauge Narrow Crown Finish Stapler

Surebonder 9600 Pneumatic Fine Wire Staple Gun with Carrying Case

Arrow Fastener T25P Wire Staple Gun


Cotton Batting Medium Grade Roll Natural
Hillman Fasteners 122682 Upholstery Nail (Pack of 6)

Today with the convenience of ebay, you can shop around for antiques from all across the nation (and world) from the comfort of your home. Many antique dealers are now listing their inventory online which has made it easier to locate the antique you are after. With all the antiques in one location and the option of comparison shopping, it has made the prices honest, in addition to healthy competition to get the consumers business. Always go with a seller with a strong reputation of positive feedback. Be sure to get shipping quotes before committing to the bid to buy.

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French Provincial Nursery Furniture

This server from Laurel Auctions in Maryland would be the perfect baby changing table.

French Provincial Furniture has been a popular choice for baby and children’s furniture because it has delicate looks which suit children well. In fact, many dining room servers are being used as changing tables such as the above from Laurel Auction. Painted in a clean white, or gray-green for a french regal look, it would be the nicest changing table on the market.

Innovative moms are now thinking outside of the box for their needs and wants and are looking for alternative solutions for their growing children’s bedrooms. Vintage servers are getting custom cushions, and vintage french chairs are being upholstered and being used in various rooms of the house as baby outgrows them, instead of throw-away pressed board furniture that most department stores sell. Who has $12,000 to spend on a tall dresser?

Many of the upscale baby sites are asking thousands for their cribs, changing tables, dressers and armors, that are french provincial, why not paint your own vintage high quality furniture for less?

Buying second hand IS buying quality.  Today’s furniture has slowly declined in quality.  They often say, older is better, and that is very true when it comes to furniture.  Even the upscale furniture stores are cutting corners when it comes to quality which is disappointing.

Mass production has made many companies profitable sparing the customer the quality of furniture that lasts.  Today, dovetailing is a common quality find, but drawer slides once in wood, now are plastic or even metal.  Solid wood furniture is being undercut  inexpensive, mass-produced composites such as plywood, pressed wood, and particle board.  Solid wood shrinks and expands with temperature changes, where as the composites don’t.  Great looking, quality furniture doesn’t have to cost a fortune.

Do your shopping and consider something vintage or antique that will last you a lifetime.  Buy something you really love and could be used in multiple rooms through the years.  A good chair, table, desk, dresser can go a long way if you love and adore it~

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