Shabby Chic Desk

My mom scored this beautiful desk at an estate sale. The drawers were full of papers from the 70's and the wood on top wasn't in the best condition. With alittle paint and some elbow grease to refinish the top...this curvy lady turned into a beauty! One of my favorites--unique and pretty. [and I'm not a "pretty" kind of person!]

More French Provincial

I picked up two French Provincial style buffets at an auction months ago. As you can see, they started off in the usual light-wood-ugly look. I decided to go to with a cream color with light distressing and dark wax. It's a great piece--solid with plenty of storage, but not huge and bulky. The neutral color would look great in any dining room, entry way, hallway or family room!

French Provincial Makeover

How about this for a facelift? I absolutely love the finished product! A solid piece with tons of storage, that could be used for a dresser, buffet or media console. Check out the details up-close.

 This piece is currently available in my booth at Kelly & Company Antiques in Fayetteville, GA for $550.

Girls Will Be Girls

A client wanted to update their girl's dresser. The plan for the new look was pink...girly pink! The inspiration for the color was this:

[Source]

The inspiration for the girl's bedroom in their new [farm] house was this:

[Source Unknown]

Upon further inspection, the blue dresser had a few previous lives--yellow, pink and white. And we wanted to keep the crystal knobs. The chosen color was Sherwin Williams Impatient Pink (SW6854).

Here's the sparkly outcome, while she waited on the front porch to get picked up and taken to her new home! I can't wait to see the whole room put together!

Custom Outdoor Furniture

I haven't blogged in awhile because I've been pretty busy with my other little project. I honestly haven't painted anything in probably 2 months! But I was busy during the Fall doing some custom pieces, so that's what I want to share with you.

I did a few pieces of outdoor furniture, which I really enjoyed refinishing. It was my first time using outdoor polyurethane, so just to be sure, I did 3-4 coats of poly. The great thing about the outdoor poly is that it protects from sun damage, and also expands and contracts with the temperature.

Every good Southern home has a front porch with a rocking chair or porch swing. This custom order included both! The inspiration for the 'look' was the client's bannister in their house.

The swing was crafted by the client, but was still raw wood. The rocking chair joined the family over 20 years ago in Guam, and was used to rock their babies way back in the day. By distressing the rocking chair, I discovered all of her previous colors--red, gray, white and natural wood-- but she's  black now! They both go perfectly on the porch, in front of the home's black shutters.

Top: Before     Bottom: After

Blue Buffet (aka The Blue Beast)

Before: Brown Beast

I have been dying to move out of the white paint zone and go back to color! For some reason, I've had the blue itch. I've done lots of the  Duck Egg Blue/Provence/Teal stuff...I'm over it. I went to the paint store in search for the perfect blue color...and walked away with a quart of Temple Star. A friend had given me a buffet to stick in my booth, and I kept eyeing it and thinking it was the perfect piece to paint blue! So, that's what I did! And I LOVE it! I lovingly call her "The Blue Beast."

After: Blue Beast

The buffet was in pretty good shape, but there were some places that were scratched and "crackly".

I decided to keep the original hardware, which works perfectly with the dark wax.

The buffet is very classic, but the blue color just makes it FUN! It would be a great addition to any dining room, but I think it'd also look pretty fantastic as a bathroom vanity or a display piece in an entryway or living/family room. It's just a cozy piece....not too fancy and relaxing.

I'm not sure if I've gotten the need for blue out of my system totally, but The Blue Beast was a pretty good start!

For Sale: $525
Measurements
Height: 35.5"
Width: 51.5"
Depth: 19.5"

Chippy Paint Experiment

I am a huge fan of the chippy paint look. Whether it's old, weathered and naturally chipping, or it's made to look that way, I love the rustic look. I have seen tutorials for making your own chippy look, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I didn't want to experiment on something with alot of surface area, so I decided that a mirror would be my laboratory. I had picked up a mahogany mirror at an auction and knew I wanted to make it a fun color. So began the turquoise chippy mirror experiment!

I should note that this experiment began after 10pm, so I was taking the quick and easy route. I decided to try the Elmer's glue technique. Because this was a late-night, first attempt, I did not adequately document with photos. I did another small experiment after the mirror, and that was fully documented, so I will post that one too!

I began by taping off the mirror.

Then I used craft paint (you know, the 59 cent kind) to paint the frame black. You can always leave the wood, or choose a different color. This base color will the what shows through the chippy-ness.

I wasn't really sure how much glue to use, so I just began squeezing out glue squiggles on the biggest flat surface of the frame. According to other tutorials, you squeeze the glue on, spread it with a foam brush and let it set for a minute or two, and then put your paint over that. Well, after I spread the glue and brushed on the color, I quickly realized that I had put on too much glue! It was a watery mess.

Watery.

I let it dry some more and then scraped it all off. I cleaned up the experiment area and then started again with less glue on the other side of the frame.

Scrape. 

Wiped clean.

This time went much better! And because I wanted to speed up the process, I grabbed my hair dryer to make the paint dry more quickly. As soon as the hair dryer hit it, the crackling began!

Paint applied gently. 

Chippy-ness begins!

After some playing around, I learned that when you apply the paint, if you only use one brushstroke to spread the paint in an area, the chippy effect turns out better. I guess there's less disturbance of the glue underneath? Also, use very light pressure and gentle strokes.

Once you get the hang of it, the process goes very quickly. The longest part is waiting for the glue and paint to dry, so that's why I recommend the hair dryer...or if you're fancy, a heat gun.

A close-up of the chippy look.

After the paint dried, I applied two coats of finishing paste and gave it a good buff. Then Miss Chippy took alittle ride and ended up in my booth! 

Custom Rustic Desk

I had the opportunity to do a custom paint job on a friend's desk awhile back. If I remember correctly, it was a Craigslist find. They were no longer happy with the dark wood and wanted to brighten up the space with a cream color.

[Before: didn't quite get the drawers in the right spots for the photo]

 The desk also was pretty scratched up, but that's the beauty of chalk paint--it covers everything right up and no prep is needed! [Because I was making my own chalk paint, I did fill one very deep scratch, but otherwise I didn't make any other repairs]

[scratches]

I set up shop in the garage and over a few days of "banker hours" [or so my mom said] the desk was transformed.

I applied two coats of homemade chalk paint and then lightly distressed everything. I really wanted to bring out the trim details with the distressing. After some dark wax and a few protective coats of clear wax, the original hardware was put back on.

The new color and look really lends itself to a study full of natural light and light earthy colors.

Antique Dresser Makeover

When a friend asked me to take a look at an old dresser, I didn't know what to expect. She told me it had been sitting in her basement for years and wondered if it had any potential. Upon entering the basement, I couldn't wait to get my hands [and paintbrush] on the dresser! There was so much potential!

If an antique piece is in great shape, I might feel guilty about painting on beautiful wood. The wood was beautiful, but there were some places that weren't in good shape...so I didn't feel so bad. Plus, it's what the customer wanted!

The dresser also needed some work--drawers weren't properly supported on the inside, trim was falling off and there was a missing trim piece on the bottom. Nothing alittle wood glue and a nail gun couldn't fix.

The customer wanted 'light distressing' and asked if there might be a way to make the carved flower detail stand out. She also wanted a light gray color and wanted new hardware, as the old hardware wasn't big enough for heavy drawers and pulls were missing.

The Result:

I absolutely LOVE the finished product! A light gray (Essential Gray from Sherwin Williams) was chosen and then I made my own chalk paint. I used some homemade white chalk paint to highlight the flower detail (under the mirror), as well as the notched carvings on the sides of the drawers, which is hard to see in the above photo.

All four sides of the drawers had notched carvings, but I chose to do the vertical ones in white so that it (a) wouldn't break up the dresser, and (b) it would tie into the vertical notches on both sides of the flower detail. Another favorite part....the spindles!

The before and after of the flower detail. 

Some of the distressing details.

After adding some new hardware, she was ready to leave the dark corner of the basement and take up residence in the guest bedroom!

*I love doing custom pieces, so if you've got something that's collecting dust or you don't think it has potential, I'd love to take a look at it! I can either bring new life to a piece in your home, or if you'd rather get rid of it, I'd be more than happy to take it off your hands!