Let There Be Light!

I love lamps!  I picked up a pair at a yard sale a few weeks ago.  The finish was dated but the “bones” were good.  They are nice and heavy but the finish was dated.

Nothing a little paint can’t fix.

Sprayed with grey paint. 

Then for a little more interest, I did somewhat of a whitewash with gesso.  It toned down the paint and added a little depth.

The original shades were definitely not a match for the lamps so I bought shades and added a beaded trim.

Installed in the shop!

Updating a Curio

I picked up this curio cabinet last Saturday at an estate sale on Cape Cod. 

It was in excellent condition but the golden oak had to go! 

Nothing a little white paint (Chantilly Lace) and toile can’t cure.

The original applique was kind of blah…..so I changed that too.  Something more in keeping with the with toile.

Already installed in the shop.

   Gotta love a quick flip!

Pretty in Pink

I had this deco dresser sitting in my garage without it’s partner mirror.

It was missing handles and lots of peeling veneer. 

Why oh why did they ever used veneer escapes me.  More often than not the wood underneath is every bit as nice… with a little sanding of course.  Veneer is a bugger to repair!

The back was warped so it had to be replaced. The original mirror sat in a recessed part on the top but the mirror that I chose to use with it had to sit on the top so I had to use a piece of wood to fill in the recess.

I tried Rustoleum’s new “chalky” paint on this.  Love the color!

New pulls and it’s good to go!

P.S.  The color is true in the close up not this photo.

Linking up with Making Broken Beautiful

Am I Nuts?

ar·moire

ärmˈwär,ˈärmˌwär/

noun

noun: armoire; plural noun: armoires

1. a wardrobe or movable cabinet, typically one that is ornate or antique.

That’s the definition of armoire.  Sounds fancy right?

Antique = check!  Movable = check!  Fancy = possible!

With a toooooooooon of work!  Peeling veneer might just be the bane of my existance!  Sometimes I might just be my own worst enemy.

Ahoy Navy!

I love white but it can become booooooring to do one piece after another in white.  Granted I do have several ‘go to’ whites (Woohoo!  How wild am I?)  but sometimes I just need to change things up.  So I cracked open some ASCP in Napoleonic Blue.  Gorgeous color!

No “before”, only a “during”.  A golden oak commode.  And I do mean golden.  Nothing a little sanding and stain + paint can’t fix!

Dark Walnut Howard’s “Restore a Finish” for the top.   Clear and dark wax over the paint.  Gold acrylic for the pulls.  Et voila! 

Deco Love

 

I love the soft curves of Art Deco style furniture.  When I saw this piece, I had to have it!  For me!  I thought it would be perfect a sideboard in my kitchen/dining area.

 

It could have been used ‘as is’ but there were veneer issues so I decided to deal with them and then repaint it.

 

It turned out it was too big for my kitchen and so off to the shop it went.  Boohoo!  Such a beauty.

A Beastly Piece – The Toile Hutch

Sometimes I wonder what possess me to pick up pieces like this..

It was missing glass, full of worm holes, and lots of nooks and crannies to cover up that black paint.  Translation…a ton of work!

After many hours, this is the end result.

Itty Bitty Footstool

I haven’t posted in ions…not because I haven’t done any projects but more that life got in the way.  I find if I don’t keep up on the posts, backtracking can be a humongous task.  So I’ll start with the here and now and see if I can catch up.

This little icky’ish stool came into my life about 2 weeks ago.  I try to deal with small projects as quickly as I can.  So I did.

Popped the tacks and stripped the vinyl.  The foam underneath was pristine because the vinyl had protected it so I reused it and  painted the frame.

The corners were a little awkward so I used some Mother of Pearl buttons to fill in the blank spaces.

Not a work of art but better than it was!

Pretty in Toile

I’m not sure what this was originally meant to be.  It looked like it had been a dresser with the top drawers chopped off and then the dresser top was attached to the bottom drawer.  I’m not sure but I saw it as a coffee table.

A little love and a little paint works wonders!

Added a little toile wallpaper and protective glass top.

Now I just need to decide on the pulls…hmmmm…  It’s a keeper….for now!

What To Do When It’s Already White

 

I use white paint A LOT!  Not because it’s the only one that I like but because it can fit into so many color schemes.  That’s important when you sell furniture…mass appeal’ish.  I love doing Flow Blue and other gorgeous colors and I would like to do them more often but I always need white in my booth.   They’re just more likely to sell.

So why is it that when I finally get a piece that is white I feel inclined to paint it something other than white? 

Once I stripped the top,  I just wasn’t ‘feeling’ it.  So it sat in the garage over the winter until inspiration hit.

I thought Paris Grey & Louis Blue (ASCP) were in order.

Then Miss Mustard Seed’s White wax to tone it down.  I was loving the look and even decided to keep the original wood knobs.

A little German Silver wax and it was good to go!

Old Sugar Chest

While visiting a friend a few days ago she showed me some things she was working on and upcoming projects.   She showed me this wonderful old sugar chest and asked what I thought she should do to it?  Nothing!  Do NOT do a thing!

I offered to take it home and wash it up and put it in my shop.  “Really?” she said.  “Yes.  Let’s see what happens.” I said.  So I took it home and washed the sugar bin part.

The naturally worn patina is gorgeous!

It’s headed for the shop.

A French One

I love these curvy French Provincial pieces.   These were abundant in the 1970’s and still pop up in stores from time to time.

They are so easy to work on because they almost never need any repairs.    Just clean and paint.

They always have fancy pulls.

I decided to do two colors on this one.  White & blue.

I used to tape pieces when working with more than one color but now I prefer to take them apart, paint, then put them back together.  So I took the back off on this one.  I’m a messy painter so that works best for me.

Here it is ready for the shop.   Or so I thought.  My oldest daughter is getting a new place later this month and she has claimed it for her spare bedroom.  There certainly are advantages to having a mom who ‘collects’ furniture!

I May be Crazy!

I wasn’t even sure how to label this post.  It was a colossal amount of work.   I kinda, sorta knew what I was getting myself into when I bought it and if it hadn’t been so cheap I would run away in a heartbeat!  I thought at very least it would be an education in what NOT to do.

The appliques on the doors (which were my favorite part) had pretty much crumbled.  I glued the pieces that I had back on and then used Bondo (used for repairing auto bodies) to make the missing parts.  When that was dry (it dries very quickly) I used a blade to carve the parts to blend in.

(I don’t have any before pictures because I started working on it before Christmas last year and then it was put away for the holidays.  Then my computer died…pictures were lost….yada yada.  Plus, I needed to build my stamina to tackle this one!)

The top was a mess and rather than try to repair the veneer (been there, done that…not fun), I chose to take it all off revealing the most beautifully imperfect top.  A little dark stain called Kona (I think – it’s been a while) and the top was beautiful.

The veneer on the upper right recessed panel was bubbled so I sanded it as best I could and called it a day.  A couple of years ago I would have obsessed over it but not anymore….I‘ve learned that people embrace imperfection in beautiful old pieces.

Thankfully all of the old hardware was there and it just needed a bath. 

With that, it was off to the shop where it took up residence for a week and then sold!