posted by Lily on family, homely, thrifted

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When Abby was little, we were utterly enchanted by everything she made or drew.  I regularly had drawings laminated and every room had a rotating selection on display.  Some made their way into thrifted frames … one of my favourites was her eight year old coloured pencil interpretation of the Mona Lisa which still hangs in a wonderfully ornate gilt frame in the hallway.  Other drawings were decoupaged onto furniture and trays, painted onto t-shirts and tablecloths, turned into needlepoints … our home reflected our Abby, her love for drawing, and our love of her passion for art.

In the last few years, her artwork has become increasingly digital (apart from the almost hundreds of felties she shares her bed with!) and with the demise of our printer, our opportunities for sticking up our favourites has shrunk.  But lately, she’s putting more effort into her original drawings (as opposed to fan art) and has created a truly lovely and very cheerful palette and I wanted a way to embrace this … to show her how much I love her attention to detail, how much I admire the hours she pours into her work, how much I want to share in what she values.

This was made a whole lot easier with Abby’s recent discovery of the British Paint coloured paint chips.  No longer do I trek to the hardware store by myself – Abby jumps at the chance to ponder new colour schemes for her characters and their clothes.  She was delighted to realise – after fourteen years of hardware store visiting – that she could take some paint chips home with WITHOUT having to buy the corresponding paint and her bookshelf is now stuck with different colour stories.

With the arrival of some newly thrifted kitchen chairs (our nicely upholstered ones were looking very vulnerable so close to the stove and food prep benches) … I had Abby choose a selection of those of her colours she loved best, we took these chips back to the hardware store, had them turned into sample pots of paint and we’ve been busy painting since.

Yes, our kitchen chairs are colour coordinated with Abby’s latest drawings :-)  She’s so delighted and the colours are painting up so very pretty!  Our kitchen chairs are conjuring up dreams of italian ice cream on the beach at Byron Bay.  Or limoge tea cups.  Or Abby’s sweet, quirkily dressed people and big, happy smiles.

Mmhm!  I realise it might seem like such a little thing but it really isn’t.  Just as it made her feel warm and cosy and loved when she saw her art hanging on the wall when she was younger, our embracing of “her colours” reminds her of how marvellous we think she and what she creates are.

And in years to come (many, many years!) when our dear girlie is setting off to create her own home, I have visions of these chairs making their way with her.  Reminding her of her fourteen year old self, the hours she spent drawing … and her biggest fans and how much they love her.

p.s. consensus in bootville declares that the wooden cottagey style chairs are better than the cane ones – and since hard rubbish thrifting is fairly random in what it throws our way, there’s been some bay of evil exploring – and we’ve found 6 more to match the cottagey ones.  They’re an almost identical match and a very humble price.  The down side is they’ve been painted BLACK – old and battered but BLACK nonetheless.  Oh well, if we do indeed “win” them, they’ll just have to have two coats of sealer before we apply Abby’s colours … I shall be painty for longer still.