a day of rest.

Published on by Quandie

I don’t know how things are going where you are, but here in Minnesota our governor recently announced a ‘four-week dial back’ in response to sky-rocketing COVID cases.  As part of that plan, ‘in-person social gatherings with individuals outside your household’ are prohibited.

That meant it was time to re-evaluate the plans for my birthday yesterday.  We were initially planning to have a wild party with 50 of my closest friends.  OK, not really.  But we were thinking about having a few people over for Chinese takeout.  Instead, we canceled those plans and I decided to treat myself to a day of rest.

Do I know how to have a good time or what?

Actually, not only do I not know how to have a good time, I also don’t know how to have a day of rest.  The previous Sunday I had also planned to have a day of rest but instead I painted the inside of my Welsh cupboard.

Quite honestly, this is something that I have been putting off since I first painted this cupboard back in 2015.

I originally painted the outside in Miss Mustard Seed’s Linen, and the inside in Fusion’s Linen.  And I never really liked the Fusion Linen (and this color has been discontinued, so maybe I’m not alone in that).  I always felt like it had a sickly greenish cast to it.

So finally, five years later, I’ve gotten around to painting over it.  This time I went with Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road, a gorgeous, deep, charcoal grey.

I’ve used this color on the insides of a couple of cabinets lately and I loved the way it made my ironstone pieces pop when I used them to stage the photos of those cabinets.

So I emptied all of the ironstone out of my cupboard and gave just the inside two quick coats of Gravel Road (I left the outside as is), followed by a coat of flat clear sealer.  While waiting between coats for the paint to dry, I washed up my non-collection of ironstone.

At least I chose the appropriate dish towel for my day of rest 😉

I’m fairly sure that it took me longer to wash all of the ironstone than it did to do the painting.

I broke all kinds of rules by putting my ironstone back in the cupboard without giving the paint enough time to cure.  In this case, do as I say, not as I do.  You really should give your paint a week or so to cure before loading it down with lots of heavy china.  But hey, it’s just my own cupboard, I don’t care if it’s not perfect.  I probably won’t move any of these ironstone pieces for another five years (or more).

I re-styled the contents a bit as I put them back in.  I chose not to put everything back, this time I wanted to keep the look just a tad cleaner.

I recently pulled out my Cricut machine and added some holiday-ish words to plates to bring in to the shop.  I hadn’t planned on keeping any, but ‘joy’ and ‘peace’ looked so good in my newly painted cupboard that I had to keep them.

Since I was on a roll with the holiday decorating, I added some greenery to the top of the cupboard to snazz it up for Christmas.

I love the fresh new look of the cupboard, and I love the way that ironstone really pops now.

How about you, do you like the new look or did you prefer the old one?

59 thoughts on “a day of rest.”

    2. Wow…just shows what a difference the color of paint makes! Really showcases the collection. This is one of my favorite pieces in your house!❤👍

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  3. ooh I love the new look! I think you are right about the Fusion Linen having a greenish tint. Beautiful make over! Thanks for sharing.

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  7. I agree, the darker paint really helps accentuates your pottery. It looks beautiful! I have a small birthday gift for you the next time I see you. Miss you.

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  9. Happy birthday! We are birthday sisters! 🎈🎉🎂 Yesterday was a birthday dinner of my favorite Vietnamese food take out style. I really know how to party too. Great hutch and love your non-collection of ironstone!

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  12. I love ironstone and this color really made it stand out. I’m not a patient person either, when I have a vision, I can’t wait to see the finished product

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    1. Initially I had planned to be good and let the paint cure for a week or so before filling the cupboard back up, but that lasted about half a day and then I could resist no longer 😉

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  13. I definitely see the greenish tint to the Fusion linen. I still like it, but I like the gravel road better. It makes the ironstone stand out more. 🙂 Great job!

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  20. Love the new color choice. It’s perfect with your non-collection. Happy Birthday 🎂 and have a Happy Thanksgiving 🦃!

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  21. Huge difference and I love it! I have loved ironstone literally since I was a kid and this really shows it off to advantage. Hope you had a Happy Birthday and Happy Thanksgiving too!

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  23. I like the new color better.
    More importantly……
    Happy birthday to you!!!! I miss you and hope we can get together when all of this covid nonsense passes.
    Have a nice, quiet, lazy Thanksgiving!

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  28. This piece is one of my favorites in your home. Changing out to a deeper gray was a good call. Love your collection of ironstone it’s really gorgeous. I noticed the second shelf from the top in the middle are those covered vegetables dishes or are they soup tureens? I love the silhouette created with the stacking. I also noticed those books in the hutch which appear to me to be oversized. Did you paint and letter those? Such a great look.

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    1. Those are covered vegetable dishes, they are too small to be soup tureens. They do each have a lid, but I removed them from the bottom two so that I could stack them. The books are painted and stenciled. I shared them here eons ago (here), well, almost three years ago which feels like eons now!

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      1. So things to add to my list of non-collections covered vegetable dishes and I off to check out the post on the books. I remember you doing some black ones but just didn’t recall the white/ivory ones. They make wonderful lifts and props for staging accessories. Thanks Linda.

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