It is interesting to see people marvel at how Bobbie just seems to know exactly the spot to distress on the furniture she renews through her great painting techniques. I call her a Master Painter but she says she is not. I will let others make that judgement but from what I see she does some amazing work. It is, in any case, in Bobbie’s genes.

Bobbie’s family, her mother and father and oldest sister Ann, her two aunts Margaret and Edith, and her Uncle Alan and his family all emigrated to Canada in the time between World War I and World War II. They, as they did in Scotland, took up positions working for the wealthy of the area as domestics, gardeners etc. They took great pride in their work and knew how to take care of and run the large homes for the wealthy. Her aunt Margaret was the head housekeeper for the Morgan family who had a mansion on Grand Ave in London and is known as Waverly and is being used today as a Seniors Complex and her aunt Edith worked for the Smallmans who owned Windermere Manor and is now a hotel and the grounds are a research park for the University of Western Ontario.

Her uncle Alan was the chauffeur for the Labatts of the brewery fame. Bobbie’s father was the Head Houseman at the Hotel London which was an old art deco hotel that once stood at the south east corner of Wellington and Dundas Street. He took great pride in his work and in one particular aspect of his position had people marvelling at how he could balance with no support on the ledges of the hotel, stories above the ground while he cleaned the windows. This is just a little of the family history.

Now you may ask, how is this relevant, but it is. In dusting and washing and in general, caring for the household furniture etc., the MacBeans (Bobbie’s maiden name) knew exactly the areas on the furniture that would wear over time. Around hinges, knobs and locks are some common areas. Other areas less common is any edge whether it be a door, a frame, a panel along the decorative moulding of a piece of furniture. Now if you don’t believe me, here on the right hand side are two corner cabinets Bobbie just finished on the weekend. Pretty amazing, eh!

The cabinets have glass shelves and there is glass behind the mullions on the door. I left the glass out for the picture because then I don’t have a glare coming off the glass when I took the pictures. The matte finish of the chalk paint and then the finishing wax is really gorgeous and rich looking. Note particularily the colour Bobbie painted the back of the upper area of the cabinet. See if you can guess.

Bobbie has also just finished a china cabinet and again you can see the skill she has in distressing furniture. This is a particularily lovely piece and it has a rectanglar mirror at the top, bevelled glass on the sides and front. Notice the beautifully designed stretcher at the bottom of the piece. Again an artful application of Bobbie’s distressing technique. One thing that Bobbie did on this one was to paint the inside with “oops” paint.

We hunt far and wide for many of the pieces we have in our store in Port Stanley. These three items in particular are slated to go to our new London Store and will arrive there for our opening on January 4, 2013.

In future blogs I will try and show some before and after pictures for then you can truely see how grand the transformation can be when you use chalk paint from the van Gogh Chalk Paint Collection.

So until next time this is John Robinson – Master Craftsman and Proprietor for Stan Portley and Stan Portleys – Timeless and Unique.