Jigsaw Pieces

I think of a jigsaw every time I do a little bit more on the shop. Or the Chez Penny Apartment as it now is :-)

You know how the puzzle somehow becomes a fabulous picture when that last piece is slotted in? Well, I think the shop is going to be like that - well, I hope so, anyway!

I am working on several things at once, as usual, and today I finished undercoating the second pair of shutters for the front of the building. They used to look like this...



...but now they look like this...



...and when they have had two coats of cream gloss they can go back up at the window and the front of the building will look cared-for again. At the moment, although the top shutters are done, the building looks a little bare without the lower ones...



In between, waiting for the undercoat to dry, I have been doing a couple of other things - I polished part of the bedroom floor, and I think it's going to look really lovely when it's all done.



The boards are chestnut or oak, and pretty old.  They are a bit worm-eaten in places, but so lovely it would be sacrilege to replace them.

I've also painted the risers on the stairs leading to the bedroom from the first floor, but I didn't take any pictures of that as they need a second coat.  I used the cream Annie Sloan paint again, and it certainly lifts a dark staircase!  I'll take pictures when they're finished.

So what else have I done today?  Well, I undercoated the front door and its shutter...



...although it really needs a thorough renovation. Still, it looks tidier now.

The whole outside could do with a coat of paint, but that is beyond my capabilities and my budget!

On my way to the shop this morning, I popped into a friend's Depot Vente in Bussiere-Poitivine - it was her first day in new premises - and bought a rather pretty mirror which, like everything else I have, has seen better days and needs freshening up. I have plans to paint the frame pale cream and apply just a smidgen of gold wax to the relief pattern of flowers and leaves. I think it will look rather lovely and it will then hang in the living room, not the kitchen which is its current temporary resting-place!