Beautiful Belle and The Cottage Garden – Part Two

Recently Mr M called me to say the wonderful decorators he works with had gifted me several pots of unwanted paint. They know of my many furniture up-cycles and hoped these tins would come in handy. I enquired as to colours and quantity and gushed with gratitude and looked forward to Mr M returning home that evening. He brought with him several tins in various shades carefully colour matched to the Farrow and Ball range. These will be put to good use in the future. I knew straight away however what the largest pot would cover. Farrow and Ball’s Strong White would be the perfect choice for a special little lady. “Oh my goodness” I exclaimed “Belle will look fabulous painted this colour!” A startled Mr M quickly explained this was in fact an internal paint not an external paint and asked what was wrong with Belle’s existing colour anyway. “Nothing” I said “she’s the perfect colour outside, wouldn’t change it for the world, I mean inside; inside she needs to be bright and breezy and this colour is just perfect!” Horrified is the only way to describe the look on his face…

The last time you saw Belle you will recall she looked like this. Finally insulated and with her walls covered in chip board, it appeared this was how she was to stay for a while. Now I am by no means a snob, surely though Belle is not about chip board, is she?

And so it was, as Mr M busied himself creating the Cottage Garden, lovely Lewis the carpenter returned and reclad Belle in wonderful pine tongue and groove and she was once again restored to her former glory. I was so very happy to see my shepherds hut looking internally, exactly as she had when she was originally built in Christmas 2016.

As Lewis tidied up and left, much faffing of Belle’s pretties should have been the order of my day. However, I had other ideas. One quiet Sunday way back in winter, I had surrounded myself with piles of my beautiful interior décor books and a bargain second hand copy of A Woman’s Shed by Gill Heriz. I had also taken to once again adding inspiration to my shepherd’s hut Pinterest board. Quietly I plotted a colour change for Belle’s interior. I knew she needed to be white and I knew too if I didn’t do it as soon as she was clad, it would be a very long time before I cleared her out again to paint.

“I am simply saying four walls, a ceiling, double doors, four windows and a floor is a lot of painting to do on your own” Mr M said when I told him of my plan. “And I won’t be able to help you because I will be working on your last idea if you remember, so if you start it, you will have to finish it and you have already committed yourself to painting 94 pickets don’t forget.” A quick peck on the cheek for him and I scooted off to make a start.

I was told to knot the pine first, so I used this and applied it too thinly apparently and had to do it all over again. There are a lot of pine knots in a pine clad shepherds hut. I re-knotted again with perhaps a little help from Mr M with the ceiling. Little Miss remarked that Belle looked rather like The Spotty One at this point.

I masked one of the smaller windows and made a lot of fuss about how difficult it was and when I checked, the other windows and the double doors had been mysteriously masked for me. And so I set to with the gifted paint and began painting the window surrounds and door frames and cutting in as instructed, singing along happily to radio tunes as I went. Day one wasn’t too difficult and we finished with Belle looking like this…

Mr M had spent the day digging over the original Wildflower Garden to create the base for the Cottage Garden, eventually removing 20 rubble sacks of stones and rocks and a vast amount of building material all previously dumped in this spot when the bungalow was originally built. It was not at all any easy process to do by hand. He also managed to finalise the flow of the path with our reclaimed vintage edgings although we are still on the hunt for a few more. The Cottage Garden was beginning to take shape…

Next day, repeat. Although maybe a little more slowly since we both ached considerably. I also set to gathering existing plants from pots and other parts of the garden and added these to the spoils of a recent garden centre shopping trip. More digging for Mr M as he placed each plant in its new home. Those hydrangeas had been in pots for three years. They were heavy and pot bound and needed deep holes for their roots. He will be pleased I noticed when he reads this.

And Belle herself looked like this at the end of the weekend…

Just one more week then for you to wait to see the finished project. Well I hope just one more week, since as I type this there is still an entire shepherds hut to be painted with a second coat of paint, a floor to be knotted and painted twice and plenty of gaps still to plug in the Cottage Garden.

The room makeover in the home I may have mentioned last week is also occupying a few of my hours each day. Putting right all that went wrong has been let’s say, eventful. And the sewing machine has reappeared and is helping me spruce up an old friend needed for that room makeover. Those are stories I shall save for another day.

Mr M and I have ever growing to-do lists and I am busy reminding us both, all worthwhile projects come with long to-do lists. And of course, let us not forget, it is the journey not the destination we should take enjoyment from. Now though, I am off to raid a friend’s gorgeous garden for some more plants and I am hoping she is also dishing out some much-needed coffee and cuddles too. See you next week, I hope… x