Tales from the Villa

Although we were away on holiday, it was also a bit of a maintenance trip. Mr Dunnit decided that there were some loose patio tiles to be re-bedded and the low front garden wall was looking very un-white, so the list of chores began.
One of the bedrooms has twin beds, with a small drawer unit between them. I believe in the USA they are called 'night stands'. We call them 'bedside tables' whether or not they are tables. When we bought the furniture, the twin beds came with a twin set of these bedside tables. And they're very nice. But there was only space for one in the bedroom and so we've used the other one in the lounge section of the living space. I know my stories are thrilling, aren't they. It occurred to me for the first time that really, if it was to be a permanent piece of furniture, it ought at least to match or blend. It looked a bit temporary. It's been ten years, so you should probably not consider hiring me as your home decor advisor.

 So we bought a small can of paint and a brush and off I set.  Mr Dunnit, who knows everything about wood, said to just paint on top of the blue and sand down between coats of the new paint. So I did. The light sanding removed the paint. That which did not sand off I peeled off. Firstly because it was like peeling mushrooms and I couldn't help myself, and secondly because even I knew that it would look awful if I just painted it again.
Suddenly this quick make over was looking like a job. And getting boring.

I had to work inside because the paint dried on the brush and went all claggy in the sunshine. It wasn't much better on the lounge floor, but at least I was in the shade. It too k 3 coats. It was the right paint, we double checked, and even google translated the words on the label, just in case.

 Then we had to buy new drawer handles because I didn't want to buy a 100ft roll of masking tape so that I could use about 3 inches of it to mask the little drop handles. And of course, it very quickly became evident that I didn't have the finesse of brush work to avoid painting them. And naturally, the paint wouldn't and didn't peel or sand off metal handles, oh no. 

Ah well. Choosing the handles wasn't too difficult. I refused to go back to the huge DIY store because I couldn't be bothered. So we went to the teeny Ferreteria (ironmongers) that was within walking distance. Well, walking distance via a coffee and then an ice cream shop...). The Ferreteria was enormously helpful and had these. So we chose these. They look just fine too. And, considering I chose the paint colour from memory, I'm quite pleased with the near match to the table. Only now the table needs doing. And please excuse the mess...it would seem that because I was on holiday, I was incapable of putting shoes and towels in the proper places.