The Fettling Fairies

Discover our Magic!

We Fettling Fairies use our magic to breathe new life into interesting vintage, antique and farmhouse furniture. We produce quality pieces with a first-class painted finish, destined to become beloved heirlooms. Our professional furniture painting service is our speciality. We can wave our magic wands over your own cherished furniture, or source items for that special treatment. Our ever-changing range is available to buy online and you can view at our workshops by appointment. 

Our Painted Furniture

We spend many hours searching for special pieces of furniture to work our magic on; when we see the right piece, we buy it and we always have a range of items in stock awaiting preparation. We are constantly collecting chairs so that we can always put the right set with the right table. The Artistic fairy will decide what finish would be most effective for each piece; the Practical fairy can make whatever lasting repairs the item needs. Our varied prepared stock always includes dressers, wardrobes, dressing tables, chests of drawers and of course tables and chairs.

Our Painted Finishes

While a good proportion of the furniture items that pass under our wands can be called antique or vintage, the wear and tear they have received during their lives often means they wouldn't have commanded high prices in the sale rooms in their 'brown' state. We treat each piece sympathetically; we don't feel its history should be obliterated - so we don't sand it to within an inch of its life!

We try hard to repair, hide or fill unsightly scars and damage while leaving the little bumps and knocks untouched. We don't follow the current fashion where little or no surface preparation takes place and one coat of (fashionable name) paint is applied - that approach lends itself to the heavily distressed look. It's also quick and easy. We don't do quick and easy! We aim to achieve the best possible painted finish using ecological water-based paints.

We'd like to shout our green credentials, but in honesty, we often use a premium Shellac-based primer sealer as our first coat. (See our FAQs for the reason!). Following this coat, we apply a coat of special water-based undercoat in the correct colour to match the following coats. We usually then apply two coats or more of acrylic water-based satin paint as a topcoat. We use hard-wearing industrial furniture grade acrylic enamel paints (rather than the cheaper retail name-brand paints) and we can match virtually any colour, most often from Farrow and Ball, Little Green or Fired Earth's charts.

We don't distress our furniture (although we will do so if a customer specifically requests). Most of our pieces are professionally spray painted; a few are hand painted; you should see the finish the Artistic Fairy gets with a tiny brush!