How to create an ambiance - (Part II) - Technical tips...

So.. the main elements were set, but I still needed a few extra things to complete it!

First, an elegant tablecloth to hide my round folding table's horrible plain legs!
This was realised using pale blue sateen cotton, and 3 old white crochet window curtains:)

Very quickly, how to make this simple tablecloth...
The first step is to measure the table's diameter and twice the height. This way, I needed a 2,50m wide round tablecloth. Of course, my piece of fabric came in a 1,40 width, so I cut in it a 1,40m side square, folded it in 4, and traced a quarter of a circle on the side that looked up to me.

I then sewed the three window crochet panels end to end together, and assembled them to the blue fabric, with little pleats every 5cm to make them hang nicely from the center of the tablecloth. And that's it, easy peasy ;o)

I also needed to fit my mirror in the frame I had... but the mirror-cutter did a wrong move and cut 20cm too many :-/
Hence I moved to plan B...









Making a frame from a wood beading, cut to the right dimensions, painted in brown, and glued to the front of the mirror panel.

Once everything was dry, I brushed gold paint irregularly on the frame with a tissue.


And this is how you get a wonderful vintage-looking frame ;o)



I also needed to fill all the old frames supposed to decorate the booth. I measured them all, and chose a set of pictures to print at the right size... after having given them an "old canvas" effect, such as the neckwarmer picture below.




I was taking part in another designer fair before the "castle" one, so I tested my decoration there... I had almost as many comments about the decoration as about my clothes ;o)

My dear helpers Yann and Hélène helping me set up the booth, and more exactly, trying to fix the folding screen ;)


Pictures of the booth taken by Yann

How to create an ambiance ... (Part I)

When I learnt I was going to take part in a fair in a castle, I thought...No way I was going to have plain white tent walls! I needed to have a castle-worthy decoration:-)

A few flea markets later, I had almost everything I needed:
- an old steamer trunk I fell in love with... The inside was all dirty so my mum and I made it like new again by gluing bluewallpaper inside, cleaning and varnishing the outside, sticking bits of old newspapers on the side...( and I glued back inside the old picture that was under the lid!)





- a second, smaller trunk because it was lovely too, and shone like new once revarnished
- a wicker folding screen my mum revarnished



- a round folding table
- a small chandelier to light up the scene.

I had the choice between two chandeliers, but I think I chose the best one :-) For what I needed at least! My mum made the second one on the right from an old lantern.

Oh, and I needed a better mirror than the plain one I had been using so far, and which would not have fit at all in the castle ambiance! So, from another flea market, came this easel. We made a mock up of a mirror with a frame that we had, and I planned to cut my plain mirror to the frame's dimension.


Rummaging in the attic, we found the rest of the necessary elements:
- satin curtains
- old frames
- a bronze vase
- a red carpet
- a candelabrum

I was told I would have a 9m2 tent to myself, so we did a mock up of the setting... I was quite happy with it! I had to refrain from preparing more decoration though, because... I had to fit the clothes racks somewhere :-)
This was a full week-end's work, but... It was worth it, wasn't it?