Rattan Chairs: The Height of Effortless Style

   Once the haunt of cheap students digs everywhere, a new style of wicker has emerged and revealed itself as so much more than a passing trend. This breed of wicker uses rattan, a climbing palm reknowned for its long stems, to enable pieces, such as the chairs we're focussing on today, to be produced that are thicker, greyer and infinitely more stylish.

Rattan is strong, durable and fits perfectly into a whole host of different interior and exterior schemes. Gone are the dated flimsy strandings, the cumbersome shapes and the orange tint usually associated with wicker. These chairs are sensuously curvy, endlessly elegant and utterly sturdy.

The new-breed wicker manages to create a look that is both a firm nod to the dizzying heights of interior fashion, yet also to create a timeless style that is classic and homely.

Wicker has been a popular material for literally centuries.Archaeologists have uncovered wicker items from the time of ancient Egypt, from where it spread, in various guises, throughout Europe, where wicker baskets were found at Pompeii, and beyond.

We believe our beautiful rattan chairs would have had the Pharoahs smiling:

As always, we looked long and hard to source the very best design for our customers. So what is it that makes these particular ones so special?

The rattan chairs are thoroughly comfortable, with strong arm supports and a deep seat. They look perfect with or without seat cushions. Equally at home inside or out, our wicker chairs are relaxing to lounge in, with perhaps a cup of tea in the garden...

 ...or lingering around the dining table over a meal with friends.

We love these chairs when paired with natural materials. Nubby silk, cool stone and soft woollen throws and cushions all bring out the gentle hues of the rattan, as well as enhancing its beautfiul texture.

As you can see, its shapely curves look fantastic against a backdrop of limed, bare or painted wooden furniture.

As well as seeking out tremendous quality in any product that we stock at Relics, we also want to find the best value for our customers so were thrilled with these rattan chairs, which combine beautiful craftsmanship with a reasonable price.

Drop by to see for yourselves, or browse online, where we have our standard p and p of £8 for UK delivery.

Images via Room Envy, Relics, Tumblr, Relics, Relics,

Relics, Relics, Roses and Rust, Relics, Nest Egg, Relics

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The Jubilee Spirit

With the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Celebrations coming up, we're feeling all nostalgic. Many of us are longing for a time when things seemed better somehow; more personal, more community-minded and less soulless but yet still making the most of all that modern life has to offer.

We're here to help.

This is exactly what we have in mind at Relics.

We want to be the antithesis of huge, dull DIY chains, to return to a time when personal and friendly communication was expected. We've created Relics to be a place where our customers want to browse endlessly amongst the best paints, practical purchases and beautiful accessories; to enjoy the process of taking time to search for the perfect light pull, or the door knocker that you'll still love in 20 years time, rather than rushing in and out, and on to the next mindless chore.

Our focus is on outstanding customer service.

Our staff's knowledge, combined with a carefully hand-picked range of products and a relaxed atmosphere has ensured that this is something that is regularly commented upon.

We've been particularly careful, when choosing how to showcase our goodies, to use fixtures and fittings that give a nostalgic charm to Relics.

Take our handles' cabinet, for example.

The carefully distressed frontage....

topped by beautiful wooden moulding.....

and enhanced by the iron-monger-style display...

...all add to that feeling of times-gone-by when the highest quality came as standard.

Of course, much of our stock is available online but to gain real insight into all that we stand for, we'd love to see you in store.

In the meantime, have a lovely, old-fashioned Jubilee weekend.

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Swedish Country Paint Colours

Welcome back to Part 2 of our new series, running through January,

helping you put together colour schemes for your home,

with some of the very best paint shades available. 

This week, we're taking a closer look at Swedish Country,

focussing on those mysterious grey-green-blues.

If you are looking for a calmly serene space, then these are for you.

Any of these colours would help to create a gorgeously welcoming Country-style entrance to your house. This front door is painted in Celestial Blue by Little Greene.

Earthborn's Gregory's Den allows the reds of this cushion to stand out:

If you want more depth to your interiors but to still keep the Swedish feel, then have you thought of using a range of shades of the same colour? Dulux, Sanderson and Little Greene make this simple by doing the hard work for you. In the image below, Little Greene's Pearl has been used in its different strengths: the darkest on the walls, the palest on the table and then a middle shade on the woodwork, helping to pull the whole room together.

If you prefer more choice, Sanderson have a vast range of high-quality paints in carefully chosen shades, which coordinate with their fabrics. This particular colour is called Sanderson Rain Mist.

The point of these Swedish Country colours is that they should be right on the cusp of green and blue and grey. Cusp colours can't be stored by human memory, meaning that you have to keep looking at them for reference, adding to their intrigue.

This is in an area in which Farrow and Ball perfom extremely well. Farrow and Ball's Blue Gray is a wonderful example of a really rich cusp colour.

And, if you'd like to go a little darker with your paint, then Farrow and Ball's Pigeon would be a fantastic choice, providing soft intensity.

Paint and Paper Library's Eucalyptus performs beautifully under strong light, making it the perfect choice for south facing rooms.

If you missed last weeks post, featuring our favourite dark and moody shades, and learning how they can be manipulated to achieve a variety of looks, then click on the link.

Images via: Little Greene, Modern Country Style, Little Greene,
Cheverellwood, Urban Grace, Paint and Paper Library

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Dark and Moody Paint Colours

   We find January to be a month that is beautifully suited to collating new ideas and confirming old ones. So with that in mind, we thought we'd take you through a series looking at what we consider to be some of the very best paint colours available for four very different looks:

Brights

Country

Moody

Neutrals

This week, let's start with Moody.

Although they won't be right to daub over every wall in your house, dark paints can work incredibly well under certain circumstances: for example, rooms that receive a good deal of natural light.....



Little Green's Juniper Ash

....or in spaces that are passed through quickly, rather than used for any kind of activity, such as a hallway....

Farrow and Ball's Downpipe

If you'd like to start experimenting on a smaller scale, consider painting a piece of furniture in a darker shade for an eye-catching statement.



Farrow and Ball's Dauphin has been used on the dresser in this kitchen.



 Moody darks also create drama when painted on kitchen cabinets. In the image below, Little Greene's Lead Colour has been used - perfect for hiding sticky finger marks.

Have you thought of trying out a rich, moody paint colour for your front door? Sanderson's Thundercloud looks gorgeous here:

You could also try picking out a feature wall in a deeper hue - perfect for less well-lit rooms, where you still want to create a wow-factor.

Both these images, above and below, have used Little Greene's Adventurer. Look how different the colour appears under different light conditions. On a feature wall with no internal corners, there is no space for the rich colour to build up its intensity, as there is if used in a whole room.

We're very happy to advise further...contact us here...

In our next post, we'll be showing you how a quick lick of paint can completely transform a tired and dated room into a  Swedish-style retreat.

Images via: Little Greene, Elle Decor, Goodchild, Little Greene,

The Guardina, Little Greene, Little Greene

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Crackers and Christmas

Have you seen our fabulous Concerto Crackers?

Each comes with a small whistle

so that you can form a carol-playing orchestra

(very easy instructions included).

Wishing you a very happy Christmas,

and a wonderful New Year.

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How To Gild: Gilded Paint Can Tutorial

This is the last in our festive How To Gild series, leading up to Christmas. We thought we'd end with an easy but incredibly effective tutorial.

Having used the walnuts to demonstrate using loose and transfer leaf, we wanted to take you a little further down the gilding route to create your very own project.

We hope that this will show you how very easy it is to create something really fabulous from something very ordinary, using the techniques we've demonstrated in our How To Gild series.

To make your own gilded container 

you will need:

An empty, clean paint tin

Emulsion

Size

Leaf (loose or transfer)

A large paintbrush

A fine brush

Finishing Oil

Step 1

Paint the tin using emulsion.

{We've used Earthborn's Just White Claypaint.}

Step 2

Carefully paint on size using the smaller brush. The size needs to be applied only where you want the leaf to stick so bear in mind the eventual pattern that you'd like, whether that be swirls...or thick waves....or finer curves.

Step 3 

When the size has dried, apply the leaf over all the sized sections. It is possible (and straightforward) to interchange the colour of leaf you use.  Here we have used both gold and variegated leaf to gorgeous effect:

Step 4

To ensure durability, apply Liberon Finishing Oil, or wax (which will need buffing). However, we've had these pots for several years now, left unfinished, and they

have lasted beautifully.

  

Step 5

Stand back and admire your gilding handiwork...

To make these projects as easy as possible, we have put together a Gilding Kit full of the essentials to get you going with your gilding.

When you open your Gilding Kit, you will find:

a wooden-handled bristle brush

a packet of steel wool

a pot of size

a pot of base coat

a pot of antiquing wax

a pack of loose gilding leaf

two walnuts

Our Gilding Kit is £14.99 (plus £4 carriage, if you'd like one sent to you), which is a huge saving on the sum total.

Most of the items included are usually only available in large quantites, when bought separately, so if storage is an issue for you then this is the way to go.

We hope you love it as much as we do.

Happy Gilding.

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