Birds & Roses Buffet/Dresser

I'm really busy right now but wanted to stop and share pictures of the before and after of a buffet/dresser I just finished.  I'm really torn about selling this one I just love it!


Here's the before:

It is a solid, good quality piece of furniture but so not my style.  Here's the after:

The paint color just won't come through with this camera sorry but it is painted with ASCP "Versailles" and it is just divine! It's a soft lemony green and the birds are stencils I made from images I got at The Graphics Fairy. They are painted with burnt umber acrylic paint.


I'm updating this blog to give you the details on how I painted this piece.  

• First I stripped the top
• I then applied a wood conditioner & waited 30 minutes for it to dry
• Next I took a lace curtain I found at a thrift shop and by laying it on the top of the buffet decided what portion of the curtain I wanted to use. I cut that portion our and tapped it to the top of the buffet with painters tape barely catching the edges of the lace.

• Next I spray painted the top with a Rust-oleum satin paint in a burnt umber shade. I love this color and use it a lot.  Here is how it looked after I sprayed it.  You need to be sure you spray it in an even coat and your lace needs to be a sturdy weight a light weight lace won't work.

• After it had thoroughly dried I applied 2 coats of water-based satin poly to protect it but in doing so found that the Rust-oleum smeared a bit but not enough to hurt anything.  So you may want to chose another paint if you are going to poly afterwards.
• I then painted the entire buffet in "Versailles" as I mentioned above.
• I wanted to carry the bird theme onto the body of the piece so I went to "The Graphics Fairy" and chose a flying bird image and a canary standing on a limb.  After printing them on card stock I used an Exacto knife to cut them out making stencils.
• I applied the flying bird stencil to the door and the canary on one of the drawers.

• When the stencils were dry I applied a coat of ASCP clear soft wax allowing it to dry and then distressed in areas that would normally see wear then added another coat of wax.

Now here is another view of the finished piece. You can see the color better in this one.

My favorite part is the top.

Now I have to give credit to Rosemary @Villabarnes who shared the idea of spraying lace on her blog.  I had thought of using lace before but had tried doing it like a stencil with a brush & when it didn't work just gave up.  Thanks Rosemary. 


Okay get out your paint & give it a go. It's back to work for me.


I'm sharing this blog post at the following linky parties.  

9-11 Never Forget

I will never forget where I was and what I was doing on 9-11-2001.

I'll never forget the horror and fear I felt when I realized that wasn't debris falling from the towers but people jumping.

I'll never forget the fear I felt when the plane hit the Pentagon on the Army side where my nephew was stationed.  That fear lasted until he was finally able to call us late that night to say he was okay.  Luckily he had been sent on an errand to the other side of the Pentagon, but he says he will never forget helping the injured and dying men and women he had worked with everyday.

We should never forget that we are not inviolable, but we should never live in fear because doing so will give the enemy the victory they hoped to achieve.

We are Americans! 
Our flag still flies and in God we still trust and this is still the land of the free and the home of the brave! They can not take that away from us!

My thoughts and prayers go out to all of those who lost family members or were in some way affected on that day.  
May God Bless and keep you.

Bulky But Feminine

Remember this chest of drawers in my blog "Chest Trouble"?

Well after that post I still felt it just needed something I wanted it to be more feminine. Yes, that big bulky chest feminine.  So I got a great idea and after digging around in my craft room found a great paper doily with some lovely floral lace cutouts around the edges.  I took that and cut out a portion of it to make a stencil.  I then applied the stencil with "Old White" ASCP onto the outside edge of the drawers on each side and this was the result.

Waves of lace!  With the lace pattern and the "Old White" painted drawer pulls I think I achieved a more delicate look for this very large and bulky piece of furniture.  Let me show you how I achieved this look using pictures I took while painting the matching dresser. 

•  First, I painted the piece with "Old White" chalk paint.  
• I then applied a gray wash with "Paris Gray" using 1 part paint and 5 parts water.
• After the paint had dried I applied my lace stencil taping it down to keep it from moving and using a medium stencil brush pounced the "Old White" paint into the lace pattern.
• I started with the top of the mirror and applied the stencil under the curve across the top of the mirror and then on each outside edge of every drawer.
• I painted all the drawer pulls and metal accents with "Old White" chalk paint, as they were not in great shape with some of the finish having worn off, applying two coats. I was surprised at how much I liked them painted white instead of black it softened the entire piece.

• After all the paint was dry I applied two coats of ASCP clear soft wax
• The top I stripped down to the wood and applied a Dark Walnut stain and two coats of a satin polyurethane.

Here are pictures of the finished dresser.

The dresser is so big I couldn't move it by myself and I had it in a smaller room when I took the pictures so I don't have a full picture of the dresser just parts of it, sorry. Also, my good camera is out of commission so please overlook the bad shots.

LOL yes those are my arms in the right corner.  We live in a 1950's home on a small lake. The home wasn't what I would have chosen but the location was excellent.  Notice the low acoustical ceilings.  Sigh, we work with what we are given.
 :-)   

I also dry brushed some Old White onto the decorative elements of the mirror to bring them out more.

I hope you like how these two pieces turned out.  They were quite a challenge in that they were such large pieces for the shabby chic look I wanted to achieve.  Next a dining room set and a piece that could serve as a dresser or sideboard.


I entered this blog in the following linky parties:

What A Shame

I'm really dragging this evening as I have been working since early this morning on a couple of projects, but I wanted to stop and take a minute to share the before and afters of a buffet/sideboard I just finished.


Here's the before:

I almost forgot to take the before picture because I was so eager to get started as usual. As you can see there isn't much wrong with this piece.  Its a very solid, quality piece of furniture.  The only problem I could find with it was some scarring on the very thick, mirror-like top and a couple of stains in the drawers. 


Now all of you wood and stain lovers don't have a fit but yes, I painted it.  But wait! As I was looking at the top I could see in places that beneath that about an inch of polyurethane finish was what looked like beautiful inlay work!  


So I sanded and I sanded and I sanded...good thing I love to sand huh? And finally Viola! Behold!

Beautiful huh? I just can't imagine what that carpenter was thinking when he added all that stain and poly to his beautiful work. Geez! I just applied wood conditioner then three coats of clear soft wax and buffed. I also added the black line details around the edges.

I painted the rest of the buffet with ASCP in "Old White".  The brass drawer pulls I spray painted with a textured black matte paint. Since it was so pretty inside (looks almost new) I did not paint the interior nor did I distress it but I did line the drawers.


By the way, these are pics of just some of my new booth at King's Antique Mall. I just moved across the aisle to a little larger booth with a display case as I picked up some really nice glass items to sell. If you live in the Shreveport, LA area stop in and ask for Peggy's booth. Well, I'm hitting the sack for some much needed rest. Have a great long weekend. :-)

I've shared this blog with the following link parties:
 

Ohhh, la la

Here is a cute little Frenchie end table/chest I just finished.  The table was in good shape except for the top which had several water stains and the finish was peeling off. I almost forgot to take a before picture  but here it is with a drawer sitting on top.

Curvy little gal isn't she?  Just look at those legs! 


To start refurbishing her I sanded the top and since I would be using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint I just cleaned the rest no sanding needed.


I then applied Old White to the sides and legs and Louis Blue to the drawers.  When that was dry I made a wash of Louis Blue by mixing equal parts of paint and water and applied it to everything I had painted white and wiped off the excess.


Next I made a wash with the Old White of equal parts paint and water and applied it over the drawers and again wiped off the excess.


The drawer pulls I painted with two coats of Old White.  I really like the way it turned out the drawers almost look like they are suede!  Here are the after pictures.

After I took these pictures I added some white rubber feet to the legs and lined the drawers.


Hope you enjoyed this project until next time happy painting.

I've entered this table in the following lovely ladies parties:

Two Before & Afters

Today I've been so busy going to visit a cousin who is not well and stopping at a local flea market for some things for my booth. I found some great nick-knacks and a couple of mirrors.  I love to redo mirrors. :-)

My booth is nearly empty so I have been hard at work getting some more furniture ready to take next Tuesday. I thought I would take a minute out to share a couple of things I just finished with you.

First is an old mirror that probably went with a dresser at one time.  It is a very heavy solid wood mirror with a fan like design at the top. Here's the before.

...please ignore my terrible carport with half finished projects.

Here's the after.

...hmm mirror looks great.  Reflection? not so much

I also just finished a antique rocker. I am certainly not a professional upholsterer but like I have blogged about before  my Grandmother recovered her chairs so like her out of  necessity I taught myself the basics.  Upholstery is not my favorite thing to do so I don't recover a complete chair very often. Here's the before.

And here's the after.

Okay, I know you have an old mirror or an old chair just sitting around collecting dust.  Get out your material and a paint brush!  If I can do it anybody can.

Chest Deep In Trouble

As I mentioned on Facebook today I bet a lot of you were wondering why it was taking me so long to finish this chest of drawers.  Well I started the whole project in the wrong way as I had just bought a complete estate of furniture and was in a hurry to get started on it and didn't take time to consider how I wanted the chest to look when I finished.  


I always take time to sort of let a piece of furniture talk to me in a way, sometimes I'll even put a piece aside until a clear picture of the finished piece comes to me.  I didn't do that with this chest and it was a big mistake!


I ended up painting the chest twice! I first painted it plain "Paris Gray" which is a lovely color but it didn't have that soft look I like to achieve so next I applied a wash of "old white" and it ended up looking like a bad paint job. :-( 


Finally I wised up and just quit working on it and just debated  on what I wanted to do with it overnight.  Then inspiration hit and today I painted it again with a wash of "Paris Gray". Yeah, I love it!


The wash of gray let a little of the white come through giving it a softer appearance that I love and I hope you will also.  Here's the before picture.

It didn't look to bad but really was just ordinary and who wants ordinary in their homes? Not me!


I painted the handles twice also, the first time black, which my husband liked best, but they seemed too harsh for the piece  so I painted them with "Old White" chalk paint and he agreed they really looked good.

Here are the drawers painted first in a coat of "Paris Gray" chalk paint.

Then washed with "Old White".

The top I stripped and stained with "Dark Walnut" stain.

I then applied a wash of "Paris Gray" and the insides of the drawers I painted with three coats of a lovely buttery yellow. I love to paint the drawers or inside of a piece to give my customers a clean, lovely surprise when they open them.

I then applied two coats of a clear wax to protect and age the piece and here is the final product.

Notice the variation in depth of color with occasional touches of the white showing through.  

I hope you think it was worth the wait and would love to hear your thoughts on the finished product.  I will be painting the matching dresser next and hope to sell them as a set. Thanks for stopping by.

Restoration Linky Party

Here is your chance to enter one of your restoration projects for a chance to be featured on It's So Very Cheri's Blog! Enter below to join the Blog Hop.

Click on the project you like to vote.

By submitting your project you agree to let It's So Very Cheri to use your images and comments.

From Brass to Class

I'm still working on a matching dresser and chester of drawers but I thought I'd share a small project I just finished.

I went to a local resale shop and found a couple of brass candle holders that had seen better days. Here's a picture of the before.

Definitely needed something didn't they? Well I got out the chalk paint (love that stuff) and gave them three coats of "Old White" and I could have left them at that but you know me that was just too easy.  So I got out "Henrietta", another color of chalk paint in a lavender pink, mixed it with lots of water about a 10 to 1 ratio then applied the wash to the candle holders and blotted it with a paper towel to give a mottled look. After that I decided they were a little too pink lol and gave them a wash of the "Old White" mixed with about the same ratio of water as the pink, and here's how they turned out:

They are a little pinker than my pictures show and yes I know I need to refinish my antique dining table lol.  I also just realized I was concentrating so hard at getting pics of the finish I did not get a whole picture of the candle holder. 
:-0 Anyway I think they would look great in any home but especially in one with "shabby chic" decor.


Hope this inspired you to get out that paint brush.  Thanks for stopping by.