Our house has a lot of hard-to-reach spaces, one of which is in Charlie's room. He has a little loft where he likes to hang out sometimes, actually I think his friends like it up there more than Charlie does.
That's why I've had ladders on my mental list of "things to look for at garage sales." (That list, by the way, is way too long.)
This past summer I found a beauty. It was beat up and old, for sale in this beautiful 150-year-old stone house, actually it was in the backyard stable I found it. The man at the garage sale said I could "fix the ladder up real nice" if I cleaned it first and then painted it with a mixture of linseed oil and paint thinner.
I paid $30 (after a bit of haggling) and I took the ladder home (thanks to Emma whose car we used to transport it). I immediately went to the hardware store and bought what I needed, cleaned it up and .... ta da!!! .... such a beautiful ladder.
I went crazy with the linseed/paint thinner mixture and starting polishing everything, all my old tools (I also like to pick up old tools, I think they're lovely) and a basket I picked up somewhere. The mixture is a miracle, it brings the best out in everything!
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2 comments:
Vackra bilder Susan.
Kram Hedvig
such a coincidence that we have also really loved this recipe. we've been using it to bring some of the old features of the house back to life. erik's used it on some old windows we bought (for the bathroom) and they have just been drinking it in by the bucketfulls - thirsty windows! one thing we learned - the hard way - is if you are going to paint the wood after applying this mixture, you need to paint with oil-based paint (linseed oil based is what we 've been successful with) - otherwise water based paint just sits on the wood and forms a sort of skin which is VERY FRUSTRATING.
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