Tears and trantrums or the Billy bookcase debacle

A word of advice.  Never.  Ever.  Paint an IKEA Billy bookcase.

For non Ikea aficionados, a Billy bookcase is made of wood veneer and the one I wanted to paint was the birch veneer like so:

I decided I wanted it white.

There's a load of nonsense  info on the internet about how to paint laminated furniture and how easy it is.  Don't be fooled.

It was a complete nightmare.

I used a primer as advised (Crown cupboard primer).  The blurb said it was "ideal for melamine, MDF, wood, wood veneers and acrylic bath panels".  They lied to me.  It was completely useless and I stopped counting after 6 coats of white satinwood.  It was streaky, drippy (technical term) and horrid and the paint just rubbed off.  It really nearly pushed me over the edge....

Eventually, after days and days of tedious painting it looked OK.   From a distance.   I popped the shelves back in but what I failed to anticipate was that the layers of paint made the shelves too thick and as I struggled to manoeuvre them in, this is what happened:

Readers, I was desperate.  I raided a DIY store for a wallpaper sample and just had enough to stick on the insides like so:

I was so glad when at the end of this sad and sorry saga it looked halfway decent.  What a relief!

If only Emma Kate had posted her wise words on how to paint melamine and suchlike before I embarked on this ridiculous caper.  See here for how to do it properly.

What is it with me and diy/crafting disasters?  See here and here and here for more foolishness.  Mr J and P says that at least I'm trying...  Mmmmmm what can he mean?

xx

Mr J and P's household tips

Do your pans suffer from stubborn burnt-on stains that won't go away?

Heavy duty scourers just not cutting it?

Vinegar and baking soda:  more effort than they're worth?

Well, it's time to wave goodbye to endless scrubbing. 

Say adios to the vinegar and bah to the baking soda.

Instead, say hello to Mr J and P's good old fashioned method of cleaning those burnt-on stains after jam making.

The chisel.



He has the hands of a surgeon......

Yes!  Just pick up the chisel and gouge away to your heart's content. ......

Works a treat according to Mr J and P who says and I quote " Well, to be fair, I got most of the black stuff off, there's just the odd little scratch here and there."

Marvellous!  Who knew!

xx

Better late than never.....

Well, I've finally dragged myself away from the TV screen and Netflix (blimey, there's soooo much to watch!) and I'm here to bore you to death with a small selection of Canada photos.  Hoorah! 

Afterall, our trip was over a whole two months ago now......

We stayed near the shores of Lake Ontario.  Doesn't it look idyllic?

And we stayed here:



Fortunately, we didn't see this bear or any bears.

We also stayed here:

I know! 

This was their laundry room.  Blimey, we only wanted to wash our smalls......



Mr and Little Miss were not happy bunnies at this campsite.  Not surprising as 2 months of torrential rain fell in two days while we camped here (Awenda Provincial Park Ontario in case you want to know).  It had actually stopped raining in this photo.....for about a minute.

Here's Mr J and P looking a lot happier at the Montreal Gay Pride Parade.  And the sun came out.  Yahoo!



 

Such fun, dear readers.

 

Ermmmmm nice:

 

And we actually saw someone we recognised:

 

Peter Tatchell

 

Squeeeeeeeal!  We saw a moose:

 



The distances on these signs are mind boggling aren't they?

And we just liked the sentiments of this Equestrian Therapeutic Centre that we drove past:

 

 

I'll just prance off now, dear readers.  Have a great weekend. xx