I’ve been busy in my workshop lately with a lot of small projects that don’t really seem to merit their own blog post.  So I decided to throw them all together in one post.  So, here we go with some random makeovers!

Remember the bed I purchased in the Nokomis neighborhood?

I painted it in homemade chalk paint in one of my favorite colors, Aloe by Sherwin Williams.

The detail on this bed was just lovely.

It sold very quickly at Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater.

I have to say that working with the homemade chalk paint (made by mixing Plaster of Paris with water, then adding to regular latex paint) reminded me how much nicer real chalk paint is!  The homemade stuff works and it’s certainly cheaper, but it’s tricky to get the proportions right.  The paint thickens up if left too long.  Plus, I’ve read that breathing in the dust while sanding the Plaster of Paris isn’t really good for you.  I don’t have any authenticated info on that, but just to be on the safe side, I think my homemade chalk paint days are officially over.

Next up, remember the basket from lunch time garage sales?

That’s it down in front, kind of an ugly brick red color.  I used a favorite cheat of mine to paint it.  I started with grey spray paint to cover all of the nooks and crannies easily.  Then, I added a lightly brushed on coat of grey chalk paint.

It is so much easier to get good coverage first using the spray paint, and then the matte look of chalk paint by one quick brushed coat.

Next, I painted another toolbox.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a before picture.

It was sort of that ugly beige color that you often see these in.  Sue tried to sell it at our Carriage House sale, but there were no takers.  So I offered to take it off her hands and give it a makeover.

I painted it with Urban Rooster chalky paint in a color called Jaded Rooster.  Darrielle of D.D.’s Cottage and I recently swapped some paint.  I sent her some Fusion paint (and you can see what she did with it here, here and here), and she sent me some Urban Rooster paint.  I haven’t had much chance to use the Urban Rooster on a full piece of furniture yet, but I loved using it on metal.  It went on very smoothly.  I liked that it wasn’t as thick and texture-y as some chalk paints I have used.  I used two coats on this piece, then I sanded it and finished with wax.

Then I added a fabulous rub-on that has been in my stash for years.  Sometimes rub-on’s dry up over time and no longer work, so I was really happy that this one was still good.

This is a Rhonna Farrer Phrases Rub On, but sadly I don’t think these are available to purchase anymore which is too bad because they are fab.

My friend Terri and I were recently lamenting the fact that rub-on’s seem to have gone out of favor.  If any of you have a good source for them, I’d love to know about it!

And last but not least, I shared the ‘before’ of this little dresser way back in October.

I have painted this three times since then!  Well, parts of it anyway.  I started out painting the whole thing in Sweet Pickin’s Sweetie Jane.  And nearly every single bit of paint chipped right back off.  I wanted it to be really chippy, but not that chippy.

Next I just sanded down and painted the drawer fronts.  First in pink, then a layer of white.  The paint adhered better after the sanding, and I was very happy with how the drawer fronts looked.  You can see that change in this photo, bottom right.

But after living with it a while, I realized that I didn’t like how white and un-chippy the drawers were compared to the rest of the piece.

So recently when I had some extra Miss Mustard Seed French Enamel left over, I decided to add another coat of paint to the body.

Although I didn’t really plan it this way, having these different layers of color gives the piece the look of having been painted many times through the years.

Sometimes it takes me more than one do-over before I get it right, but as they say, if at first you don’t succeed …

So, which of these random projects is your favorite?  I’d love to know!