Guest Post by Just Paint It White

Hi, my name is Fiona and I live very near the beach on the South Coast of England. Jen has invited me and my little blog Just Paint It White to do a guest post and I am sincerely flattered. I first found Jen's lovely blog sometime before Christmas, and followed along immediately.  She has such a beautiful home with great style. She's also an impressively organised person and absolutely charming. She always comments back and gives loads of encouragement. My own style is pretty eclectic and ranges from rustic and rusty to gold leaf. Today I am going to share with you some projects I have made with beach junk. I have been walking my dog on the beach for about 5 years but only picked up a few interesting pieces in the past. Since I started blogging last October, my collection has really grown. The wealth of talent in blogland is so inspiring that I'm always getting new ideas.

My favourite piece is probably this simple frame, made from a rusty piece of wire mesh that I stapled into the back of a £3 pine frame from a charity shop, which I then painted white (of course). I like switching it up for different occasions, and trying different looks.

I think the shells are so pretty when worn by time and the sea and the wind, and I just put some in a small box frame, on a fabric sample using a tiny piece of organza ribbon as embellishment.

I store some of my shell collection in apothecary jars and under cloches.

Probably the most successful piece I have made so far is the driftwood lamp, which started off life like this -

And became this -

with the only cost being a £10 shade and lots of hot glue - oh, and a large blister to my thumb !!

This is the latest piece I have been working on, with some of my favourite things. I couldn't find a rectangular box frame, so I stuck the pieces straight onto the glass, and put photocopies of underwater creatures behind. The frame was pine and I just painted it grey and distressed it a bit.

Although I have hung it on my yet unrevealed gallery wall, I am still pondering about it. In my studio I love it (where there is lots of light), but when I bring it into my house, it seems a bit dark. I realise it's also a bit busy, but I quite like that.

Actually, It doesn't look so bad in this picture, I might keep it there for now !

The next piece I have to show you really is junk. I found it just like it is.

I didn't really want to turn it into anything, I just love the patina on that metal.

The last piece is the bonsai tree I made. This was the only piece I thought about making years ago, when I found this piece of driftwood on the beach.

After three goes, which I posted about here, it finally ended up ok.

As you can see, my style is definitely eclectic, I suppose it's all about the textures for me. I have a couple of projects in the pipeline and would love to make a much larger driftwood lamp, but hopefully I'll continue creating with whatever I find. 

I hope that I have inspired you in some way and want to say a big thank you to Jen for inviting me to be her guest today.

I hope you all enjoyed Fionas lovely work, I'm so inspired by all her beach junk she finds! I hope you'll take the time to go and visit her blog too!