Headboard / Footboard Bench

Hello My Blog Friends!!  I've been keeping busy, so I'm trying to squeeze in some time to share a project or two with you.  The weather here has been all over the place, so I'm trying to take advantage of each sunshine moment I can that I'm not at work to try to crank out some furniture.  I gave you a sneak peek of this bench a little while back, but never got a chance to share the details.

This piece was for a local Florida client.  She rescued this headboard and footboard from a family member who had destined it for the dump.  I know, GASP!  But, if you had seen a true before (which of course I don't have -- big surprise!), you would be more understanding.  There was VERY outdated engraving in the headboard...not the kind of engraving that you could sand out...I'm talking engraved into the wood about 1/2 an inch.  So, I took the headboard to a friend of mine to have it planed.  We shaved off a 1/2 inch of wood from the top of the headboard.  Goodbye funky outdated design!

Then, in the very end we were left with this, but I'll share how we got to this point:

 

The slats used for the original bed frame were what became the "seat" of the bench.  Building the bench will have to be another post, but I did have to solicit some assistance on this one.  Here's what it looked like when it was first transformed to a bench.

I did a lot of sanding with my orbital sander to smooth everything up.  I started with a 120 grit paper and worked up to a 220 grit before painting.  I used a dry brush technique to brush on "Alligator Green" from Benjamin Moore.  Dry brushing (this technique is explained here) uses just a little paint to give a very feathered look.

 The "Alligator Green" was followed with Graphite from Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  This was also applied with a dry brush technique.

After all of the painting, I sanded it some using 220 grit, just to help everything blend well.

Here's another before and after glimpse:

 This piece was going to be used on a patio by my client for an outdoor table, so I gave it three coats of polyurethane once the paint dried.

It's not shown in this picture, but we also added some vintage casters to this piece to it would be easy to move around on the patio.

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Dark Wax Video Tutorial

Hey Guys!  Yesterday, I shared a post with you about using dark wax to change the tone of furniture.  In that post, I mentioned that I would TRY to make a video tutorial.  Well, I did.  I look scary and sound like a country bumpkin in the video, but since both of those are my reality, we'll just roll with it.  Thanks to my neighbor who put her videoing skills to work in this very unedited, low-tech video tutorial!

Hopefully it will help you get an idea though.  I sorta liked doing a video.  Maybe there will be more to come!!??!!??

Just a reminder, here's the furniture we're working with.  These are two pieces out of a set of six that I'm doing for a client.  Here's the before pics:

Let's just get started with the how-to video and then I can show you some more pictures below:

Here's a "during" shot.  The drawers on the left are before any waxing and the drawers on the right are after the dark wax.  The client wanted to pull these pieces into more of the brown tones and move away slightly from the yellowish tone.

 Here's and after of the tall chest, but the lighting is bad...still looks yellow in these pics, but truly it's not.  Again, I will show pics of all of this once it's completed and set up in the clients home.

Here's a side-by-side of the yellow versus the brown:

I'll pin this video to my "completed furniture and projects" board on Pinterest in case you want to view it there.

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The Difference Dark Wax Makes

Hey Friends!  Hope your weekend was great. We had some cool weather here in Florida, but thankfully we had lots of sunshine to go with it.  My weekend was filled with lots of painting, more painting, and a bit more painting.  I did manage to squeeze in dinner with neighbors and friends.  Went to church this morning, and even snuck in a little nap this afternoon.  Gauge has been helping me hold down the fort.  I was able to finish up a couple of clients projects this weekend, and thought I'd share a little sneak peak.

I'm mainly showing you this to show you the difference that Annie Sloan dark wax can make on a piece.  This triple dresser is part of a 6-piece set that I'm redoing for a client.  They had originally decided to use ASCP in Provence (which is a beautiful turquoise-ish color), so we did that on two nightstands, as you'll see further in the post.  They loved that, but thought it might be a little too much on the entire set.  So, as you can see here, we kept the original color, but toned it down a bit to bring it more int the brown family instead of the yellow family.  The drawers on the left side are before I did anything, while the drawers on the right are after wax.

 Here's the entire yellow dresser before:

 I wished I had an entire after, but I sent this to my clients home before I snapped a pic, but they are going to send me one once it's all finished.  It's amazing the difference that the wax can make.  For this piece I simply brushed on Annie Sloan's dark wax.  To do this, I take a glob (yes, glob is a very professional word) of wax out of the can and put it in a paper bowl or on a paper plate.  I personally think that the wax brush is a must for this type of project.  But at $55/brush, it's a bit of investment.  Well worth it my opinion, but if you can't make the splurge, I would recommend chip brushes that you can pick up at Wal-Mart or your local hardware store.  I dip the brush in the wax glob and then use the clean portion of the plate or bowl to kinda rub it into the brush and help distribute the wax on all the bristles.  I grasp the brush with my fist and move it in strokes the direction of the grain onto the piece working it in as I go.  I work in circles where there is detailing to really get it into the crevices and highlight the details.  I use a dry clean rag/cloth to wipe off excess and blend it in.  For this particular piece I did not use clear wax before or after the dark wax, like I sometimes talk about doing.  Just a little wax goes a long way.  And as you can see in this picture makes a big difference.  I'm going to work on another piece out of this set this week and I'll try to make a video tutorial to explain what the heck I babbling on about in this post.

 Here's the nightstands that go with this set.  Done in Provence with clear and dark wax on as a sealer and for antiquing. 

 As usual, Provence never photographs for me true to color.

 This is a little closer to the real life color of these nightstands.

To be continued (with additional pieces, and hopefully a video tutorial)...

Old Buffet Becomes "Old"

Allergies are kicking my tail.  It poured rain here all day.  I'm exhausted and I don't have much productivity to show for my day.  So, here's a before and after I did a few weeks ago for a client.

After:

Before:

During:

 

 During:

 After:

After: