An avid garage saler, thirsty thrift store shopper, voracious vintage lover and long time silverware collector.
While transforming the family home with second-hand finds and castoffs for over twenty years, Debra also filled her time with owning a gardening maintenance and design business for ten years and has been a certified professional stager of homes for six. It is Debra's passion for scouring for treasures at thrift stores and garage sales and transforming everything from furniture to picture frames into beautiful and unique pieces that encouraged her to do custom work for friends and family, eventually leading her to where she is now. A French Touch has given Debra the opportunity to do what she loves on a full-time basis.
"My style doesn't have a particular term to pin it down to; I believe in perfect imperfection, I love the eclectic look, mixing old with the new, things that are as beautiful as they are useful, and I'm always on the pursuit for vintage anything."
How do you describe the French Look? (by Josephine Ryan)
How do you sum up an inimitable sense of style? And is French style, after all so inimitable? The Japanese phrase, WABI SABI, or 'Perfect Imperfection,' seems to capture the essence of the French approach to creating a home - the chemistry that happens when a look is pulled together with a certain nonchalance underscored by enormous confidence. It describes a tolerance, even reverence, for pieces that show their age; a feeling for things that are as beautiful as they are useful. It suggests the self-assurance that effortlessly combines old and new, that embraces personal quirks, indulges refined preferences, and rejects the sterility of soulless design. The idea that things, houses, or people should aspire to perfection is rendered redundant by the wisdom imparted in that one phrase - WABI SABI.
Revamping and repurposing vintage furniture …and a little bit more.
Add reduce, reuse and recycle and you get a glimpse into the world of Debra Boeyenga and A French Touch. Debra has been going “green” for a very long time and her company, A French Touch, takes vintage furniture and gives it new life.
A French Touch is the lower Vancouver Island’s local stockist of the famous Chalk Paint™ decorative paint by Annie Sloan. Paint designed for the Do-it-yourself furniture painters who are thrilled that Chalk Paint™ decorative paint is now available locally.
Annie Sloan, a trained painter and creator of Chalk Paint™, resides in Oxford, England and is well known and respected for her publication, 'The Complete Book of Decorative Paint Techniques’. Followed world-wide by industry professionals and DIYers alike, Annie Sloan introduced Chalk Paint™ in her Oxford shop back in 1991 and the product has taken off.
A French Touch started retailing the paint Oct 20, 2011 and the response was immediate. “We had a customer come down from Cobble Hill the day after the paint arrived who had taken a workshop in the UK led by Annie Sloan herself. She could not wait to work with the paint on her projects. In mid-October, Debra became a stockist and was trained to host workshops and teach others how to use the paints and waxes with their own projects. To learn more about Chalk Paint™, click on the tab for more reasons why this paint, for use on furniture, has no match.
Established in 2010 and started from a lifelong journey breathing new life into vintage pieces, Debra Boeyenga and A French Touch offer to her customers one of a kind quality hand painted vintage furniture …and a little bit more.
