So I have been BINGE watching "Kirsties fill your house for free" and I am getting so frustrated by what I feel, is the lack of these sort of Freecycle sites in my area! I know they are out there but I just don't think they are fun enough or easily found! (btw if anyone knows any that relate to waterford or Ireland PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me know!)

So I want to do something about it! I can't do too much at the moment but I will try to do my little bit! As you may or may not know I'm trying to start my own little furniture business and free is not only welcome it's needed! My family have been great and I live for adverts.ie and I am really good for finding things cheapy cheap but I know there are people out there who are just dumping wonderful treasures that someone like me or the hundreds and thousands of other upcyclers would like!

I know my blog is little and not very well read but if you see this post and you like the idea please please please I can't say please enough share it!! Lets get people excited! And leave posts on this or tag me on twitter with #wastenotwantnot if you've got some stuff you want to shift! And I mean anything!You never know what someone would want! Rope, fabric, car parts, glass, heck bottles! The upcycling community are endlessly imaginative and anything could be magic for someone out there! Half cans of paint? Someone might want it! I know I would!

My mind is just racing with ideas and I know that half of then wont happen but I want this to go somewhere!! If theres any other like minded soul out there who would like to help me with this project please please contact me! Comment and I can email you or what not!

I'm going to go through the free stuff on adverts and post a few links to some wonderful free stuff thats on there! Now some of it might be gone already but I just want to show what's there!!

So there's this wonderful sink http://www.adverts.ie/bathroom-fittings/armitage-shanks-sinks-with-taps/5371036



I do think this has been snatched up! You've got to be quick off the mark but there are other things that have been there for months that no one is seeing the beauty in! For example this green sink/bathroom set http://www.adverts.ie/furniture/avocado-green-colour-sinks-1stand-1toilet-bowl/1867401 has been up for quite a while! It is possibly gone now but if you have room and an imagination you could pick these up just cause! You could have fun smashing it to pieces and make a lovely mosaic out of it! I'm sure theres plenty of people out there who could do something incredible with this!!

Someone in dublin is giving away this positively incredible  Wardrobe!http://www.adverts.ie/other-furniture/wooden-wardrobe-free/6169079


If I had my own van I would travel the whole way!Throw a lick of tasteful paint on that and you've got a fabulous statement piece the like of which no one else will have!!

This person want rid of doors http://www.adverts.ie/door-windows/internal-doors-6-in-total-must-go-together/6168980

I see tables and benches and outer housing for those spare drawers I have lying around in my workshed waiting to be made into an interesting dresser!!

The possibilities are endless!

And I think that we need a site, specifically for these kinds of things!I'm not talking about adverts or buy and sell I'm talking about our own forum! Post what you have to give up there and sure throw up a few wanted adds! Maybe someone want s 10 metres of rope and you want a coffee table..meet half way and swap!

Or just pick up stuff you really need for free and let that be that! I suppose what I'm saying is that in an economy such as our we really should waste not, want not!

A few little projects..

So I haven't really gotten into blogging here yet and I really mean to!I'm trying to create on "online presence" for us and all that other jargon...gotta do it these days apparently!

So update!!!! WE SOLD OUR FIRST PIECE!!!!

I am so happy!!

Something we made  is sitting in someones house hopefully being admired!

So the piece we sold was our beautiful dropleaf!

I actually loved it so much...I know I should because....well...I made it...but still...I just think it's pretty!

Also in the picture you can see our little minion a.k.a my little brother who often comes out and helps us paint seeing as how our studio is actually a stable out the back of the house where I grew up!

Enough gushing..anyway someone else saw how pretty it was and bought it!I have to say...seriously incredible feeling getting paid for our work! I know it might take us a while to get on our feet but at least we're started! We've been crazy busy (and on holidays for a few days) in the last few weeks so we actually haven't added anything to our etsy shop! however we've been commissioned by a few people (including a family member) to do a few specific pieces for them so we're working on them predominantly!

Heres a few shots of my boys hard at work! The little white table is a commissioned piece for Pauls brother! We're also keeping an eye out for some matching chairs for him to put with the little table! We're just after putting an undercoat on it here but as it stands at the moment the legs have a coat or two of "Cloudburst Grey" paint on the legs and we're going to paint the top "Pure Brilliant White".

It's almost done at this point and we will be dropping it in to him then! It's all little steps eh? Even if it's just family supporting us now every piece we sell is an advertisement in itself right? Thats what I'm telling myself! Plus money is money! We won't be turning down the stuff that will help us buy more furniture!

We also don't usually work outside it's just that it was beautfiul weather and it was seriously hot in our little stable...it was so warm in there I actually nearly passed out..so theres a small problem with our studio! But in the winter it's warm too so thats good!

We've also taken on a really big project which we've yet to start! We've been given a beautiful old oak coffee table that used to have a wooden top but it's rotted through (the top itself wasn't oak and it rotted away in storage) and have been tasked with repairing a few bits and then tiling the top of it! I am so so so excited! Of course the problem with commissioned pieces is that we have to do what the client asks and this table could be incredible! It is going to look beautiful regardless but I now really want one like it to go mad on myself! I'm looking forward to the whole tiling process if I'm honest and I will post pictures of the process as we go!

So I'm hoping to get at least another piece on etsy this weekend and then get some of our commissioned pieces finished!

We've also sold another piece, or rather two but we won't be actually giving it to the customer till july so it kind of doesn't feel real yet!

So we have a lovely mirror up online and we are currently painting a lovely chair the same colour and have decided to sell the two as a little set upon request of the customer. So I guess thats technically two pieces!

The chair is well on it's way and hopefully will be finished on saturday! I think it's fun! I know when I eventually have my own house it's going to be filled with colourful furniture like this! I think that this is the epitome of what we are about at Happy House! Colour and uniqueness! 

And a bonus snap of our little shop...I'm hoping to have that blue hallway table up this weekend! I just have to varnish it and stick on a new handle! I wish I'd taken a before photo of that one because it's really come on a lot!

You can also see another drop leaf in the frame a bit! I have some cool plans for that one and I am also hoping to start that this weekend!

So many plans eh? All that's left now is to see if I actually get anything done this weekend! So much to do, so little time!

Until next time!

I've been pretty silent since my last post!

Tomorrow I'm hoping to go out and get a good amount of painting done but I have a particularly busy saturday so I'm not sure how much I'll get done!

On the plus side we got lights back in our little stable so I go night time now! We had to stop painting up till now when we lost the light so it'll be nice to be able to keep going till I want to stop!

So tomorrow we're planning on working on a nice kitchen chair that we're turning into a swing chair, a beautiful writing desk we have mostly painted, and a garden table we've been commissioned to do!

So I'll charge up the ould picturamo maker and I'll stick up a few snaps of our works in progress!

Until tomorrow!

Our little stable buisness is up and running, now just a first sale and we'll be of!

Hi!

My name is Caoimhe and I have always, always as long as i remember been into arts, crafts, painting and messing around with glitter and covering my house in colour and so it seemed like a natural thing for me to start painting a few bits of furniture I'd bought when I moved into my first house. Soon after people started commenting on my stuff and how much they loved it and I wondered if maybe I could do what I'd seen others all over the internet do. Could I make a little business out of taking unwated, unloved furniture and doing it up?

I still don't know if I can but I know I'm going to try!

I mentioned it to my boyfriend and he was 500 per cent behind me and we started to put some plans into motion.

We scoured the internet for pieces of furniture that were in good condition and that were going cheap and we started to gather a little collection of "stock" as we love to call it as we play business.

Firstly I should tell you a bit about us I suppose!

We live in waterford, Ireland. I am 23 and Paul is 22 and we've been together almost a year now. We live in Waterford city but I'm originally from the country. I grew up on a farm with a father who didn't differentiate between boys and girls and put a screwdriver in my hand as soon as I could hold one without stabbing myself in the eye. I grew up chopping wood, laying floors, building what we didn't buy on the farm and generally learning about being handy with power tools. Paul on the other hand grew up in the city and I'm fairly certain the first time I put a paintbrush in his hand was the first time he'd ever held one!

So we decided to set up shop in a little stable that my dad has out the back of our house and by now we have filled it with bits and bobs of household furniture in varying states of paintedness.

So I suppose before i start showing some of our ware I should introduce us!



We don't normally dress so dapper, we were at a 1920s themed party last weekend!

I assume you can tell which is me and which is Paul!

So we've been at this thing for the last few months, and we just put our first three pieces up in the last two weeks!

And...we opened our Etsy shop! Woop! I'm really optimistic and I hope I'm not being niave but if nothing sells then we'll have some damn nice furniture for our first house!

So the first piece we completed was a little set of nest tables that I picked up from an older lady in Wexford. We painted them with a sky blue paint and I found a lovely wall paper with floral pattern with colours that complimented the tables lovely. We cut and measured the paper and we glued and sealed it. We followed that with 2 coats of varnish, snapped a few (shoddy enough pics) and put them up online!



And Voila!Our first little piece!

The second item we got up was a lovely drop leaf table we picked up in waterford and we sanded down the original finish, which was in excellent condition and we decided on a lovely dove grey colour and also to make the piece a bit unique we decided to paint the crease along the drop leaf part pure white and i have to say I was super pleased with how it turned out!



Our last piece was a project that Paul started himself from start to finish. It started off as an ugly old white mirror and paul spent ages painstakingly painting it. It turned out lovely!He also took the old hinges off and added a wire so that the mirror is now a wall hanging mirror!



And there you get a little snip of our stable there and some of the other projects we have on the go!


So thats all for the moment! I'm hoping to have one or two more up this weekend and I will post them here!

I'm going to use this blog to track our progree, and hopefully our sucess!

If you like what you see pop over to our etsy shop! https://www.etsy.com/ie/listing/189910866/greywhite-drop-leaf-table?