Florence Saves the Day

Hello!  I know you kids think I fell off the face of the earth. But I didn't.  Really.  I've been painting away.  No slacking on that part, just on the blogging part.  Aaaactually, I've got exciting news which is partly to blame for my lack of blogging.  I'll soon have a website.  I've had the domain name for a while, but did some work in the past few months for a talented web genius who in turn is working on my new website for me.  The new site should be up and running soon and the blog will then be hosted there.  There will be before and after galleries, tutorials, the blog, items for sale, and much more.  Be on the lookout for updates about that soon.  Hopefully very soon.

Until then, I guess you're due some new do's, right?  So, without further wait, here you go:

Look at this little beauty....NOT!  This was a two-piece set Craigslist find.  After going to the house, loading them in my car, and paying them their money, I started to doubt myself.  I starting thinking...I probably shouldn't have paid $2 a piece for these things, let alone the amount I actually paid, which is more than usual for me.  But they were sturdy and all the drawers worked good -- always a plus in my books.

They were painted a very nasty black paint that was super sticky to the touch.  It was peeling on the top...which was in fact an ever dreaded laminate top, not the "100% real wood" which was advertised.  Ugh, so here's what we had after a bit of sanding:

Since I was going to use ASCP, I didn't need to give this piece a major sanding, but I did sand it some just because I couldn't bear the thought of knowing the old, nasty, sticky paint would be underneath the pretty paint. I sanded the top down completely to the laminate and used a 60 grit paper to rough it up a bit.  And behind it there are the ears of my faithful partner in crime:

 I used Florence by Annie Sloan.  Too bad that this color never shows up very true to color in my blog posts.  The picture with the can is closer to the actual color and any of the others.  This is not a blue paint, but for some reason, my pics always come out blue.  It's a beautiful perfect shad of turquoise in real life.

 Here's a couple pics after one thin coat...you can see it looks kinda streaky:

 Oh, and here's a full shot of my faithful little assistant guarding the furniture.  I just love this little guy:

 Here's after two coats of paint and some distressing.  I used my sander with a 220 grit paper to go over the entire piece.  This is the trick to using chalk paint.  It obviously feels very "chalky" once it dries, but then once sanded, it becomes silky smooth.  I gave the edges a bit more sander love to obtain a distressed look.  You can see in the pics below a chalky or dull look in some areas.  You will get this as you sand, but once waxed it completely goes away.  I always stress that this is the scary part.  You will think you've messed your piece up once you start sanding, but wait until you apply the wax and you will be thoroughly pleased, I promise.

 For these pieces, I used Minwax Paste Wax in Natural as my finisher.  Neither of them started with all their knobs, so I combined what there was between the two in order to make enough for one.  Then I used some knobs I had on hand for the other.  I just metallic silver spray paint on all the knobs.

 Here's a close up of the distressing...again the color is off in these pics:

 And here they are ready for a new home!

Hopefully someone is actually reading this and you didn't all give up on me ever posting again!  By the way, Happy 2013!

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Busy Little Bee...

As the title would suggest, that's what I've been lately.  I'll just quickly share some before and afters I've been working on.  We can call that good, right?? :)

So, I don't have a true before of this headboard and foot-board but here's a "during" shot as they are becoming a bench.  This piece was for a local client.

 Here's the after using "Alligator Green" from Benjamin Moore and ASCP in Graphite.

 This bench was going to be used with a farm table, so we also added casters to make it more functional.  A close up of the after:

 Antique china hutch before:

 And after...using ASCP in Old White:

 An antique trunk I recently finished for another dealer friend of mine:

 A close up of the weathered look on the trunk.  Created this on by layering various paints and waxes.

 An old boring, blah mirror "before":

 And here's the after using reclaimed wood for a rustic barn-wood look:

 Dresser before...can't turn this one right...work with me people:

 Dresser "after" (she cleans up well):

 Desk "before":

 Desk "after":

 Ah, the power of paint and stain!

 Oh, and we did manage to squeeze in a weekend camping trip recently with our Sunday School class.  Good times!!  Didn't realize how much we needed a day or two of relaxing!

And that furniture my friends is just the tip of the iceberg the last couple weeks!  Hopefully, I will get you some detailed tutorials on these pieces soon!

Bed on the Wall

Maybe I'm a little delirious because it's waaaaay past my bedtime tonight, so that's as good of a title as I could come up with at this hour.  Since it's so late, I'll make this lil' post a quick one.  It's been a busy few days since my handsome hubby came home.  We've been busy trying to get things caught up around here before his deployment.  Basically, that's code for "we have way too many projects going on at once, the garage/shop walls are closing in on us, and we have GOT to get some c-rap completed".  The trees need trimmed, the vehicles need some maintenance, the house needs cleaning, and the list goes on....

So, in an effort to help clear the garage a little bit, I put together a little shelf today. 

I had a french style headboard a little while back that I had picked up off the side of the road. A great friend of mine had this little beauty.  It just so happens that said friend loves french style items, and this junker loves rustic items.  So, what to do?  Trade headboards, of course.  Ahh, isn't she a rustic beauty:

I had a couple of iron shelf brackets that I had picked up at a garage sale a while back.  So, I then pilfered through the wood pile in the garage to find my "shelf".

I settled on a piece of brown crackled shelf and cut it to size using the circular saw.  I used dark walnut to stain the bottom of the shelf and to touch up the sides and edges where the wood was fresh due to my cuts.  I wasn't loving it though.  The brown just wasn't meshing, so I dry brushed some white paint over the brown crackle paint.  Much better!

I put it all together, cleaned it up, and waxed it all using a clear wax.  The chippy paint on this piece makes my heart sing.

I love, love, love this one.  I must part with it though.  As the rule in the house goes: if I don't have a home for it; it must go.  So, this little baby is now for sale. 

Here's my two favorite guys hanging out while we took a break!  These two have my heart.

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Graphite to the Rescue

Okay, it's time to face the facts.  And the fact is that I'm a bad blogger.  Yep, there's no denying it.  I just can't seem to stay consistent with it.  I guess it's just one area where I'm not self disciplined.  I'm plenty self disciplined in many areas of my life.  Blogging, however, is just not one of them.  I have good intentions though...surely that's worth something, right?  I guess I just need to accept the fact that I'm probably going to be an inconsistent blogger.  So goes life!

While I may be an inconsistent blogger, I'm certainly not inconsistent in finishing furniture.  So, I always have plenty to share...it's just a matter of sharing it.  I suppose it's time I share a good lil' makeover.


Here's a couple pieces that I recently worked on for a client:

These were pieces that she wanted to keep because they had been in the family for years, but the golden color and finish were a bit lot outdated. Enter Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Graphite.  What a miracle a couple coats of this stuff can do:

After a light sanding (although it's not really needed with ASCP), 2 coats of Graphite, and a bit of distressing, here's what we had.  This was before waxing.

 This was the perfect color for these pieces.  It added the perfect amount of contrast with the golden base color once it was distressed.  I think it turned out a perfect shade of blackish, greyish, midnight blueish, perfectness.

 My client said this was her new favorite color.  It really gave these pieces new life.  She is painting the walls of the room these are going into a mustard yellow color.  I think it will be a great combination of vintage and modern.

 After sanding the pieces down and applying two coats of wax, there was a perfectly smooth finish with just the right amount of shine.  It's also worth mentioning a thing or two about sanding/waxing the ASCP, especially in regards to certain colors.  I know there are multiple ways of working with this paint.  But, for me, I like to sand prior to waxing.  The first few times you do this, it might be a bit scary.  What happens is that when you sand it COMPLETELY changes the color of the paint.  If you are just sanding a certain area to get a distressed look, you'll probably freak out thinking you've messed the piece up.  This is where the waxing comes in...the wax takes away the dull finish/color-change that the sanded created and revitalizes the paint color back to the intended color, but even sharper.  I'll try to post some pics of what I'm talking about in the near future, but just wanted to give anyone new to Annie Sloan Chalk Paint a heads up about this.

 And here's the crazy girl behind the paintbrush:

Word.

 

 

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Miss Mustard Seed