A while back my friend Terri mentioned that she’d picked up a couple of boxes and a little stool at a garage sale that she wanted to paint up for Christmas gifts. So last weekend I suggested she come over to my house for a painting day. I invited my sister to join us as well.
Terri has become a big fan of Fusion paint since painting her kitchen cabinets with it earlier this fall. I am planning to write a post about her kitchen, but I haven’t quite gotten around to that yet.
So anyway, she wanted no part of using milk paint, she just wanted to stick with the Fusion. She started with the little stool and some Limestone. Once it was painted, I suggested she add a stenciled number to it. I just happened to have some number stencils that I thought would fit perfectly. So I asked her what her lucky number is and guess what? She doesn’t have one! Of course mine is 22, or in a pinch just 2. When Terri asked my sister if she had one, she immediately answered “Five!”
Doesn’t everyone have a lucky number?
Well, Terri has one now! We officially chose the number ‘7’ for her (which, by the way, is the number of siblings in her family).
She chose Coal Black for painting the larger of her boxes, which will be a gift for her son (I’m pretty sure he doesn’t read my blog, so no spoiler alert necessary).
We went through my stash of stencils again for this box and Terri chose the Apothicaire stencil which I think has a more masculine vibe.
Although I only included one of the smaller boxes in my ‘before’ photo, Terri actually had two of them. The first is intended for her daughter and when I asked her what color she wanted to paint it she settled on yellow. Believe it or not, Terri carries around the lid to a can of yellow spray paint in her purse that exactly matches the yellow in her daughter’s living room. Talk about a dedicated mom, right?
It happened to be almost the exact shade of Fusion’s Prairie Sunset. I had to dig around in my paint stash, but I knew I had a little sample jar of that color somewhere.
I had just enough paint left in the jar to cover the box one time. Since we weren’t sure if one coat would do it, we started with a base coat of Fusion’s Little Star, which is a brighter yellow, and then we covered that with the Prairie Sunset.
And that’s your q-tip of the day: if you aren’t sure you have enough paint in your chosen color, but you know you’ll need more than one coat. Use a similar color as your base coat saving your final color for your last coat. I suppose you could also just buy more paint, but that’s not very frugal, now is it?
Terri’s second smaller box got painted in the Limestone. She’s keeping this one, along with the little stool, for her own craft room.
By the way, she chose the warmer Limestone white for these pieces because she also has this dresser in her craft room …
I painted it last spring in Miss Mustard Seed’s Linen which is also a warm white and is very similar to Fusion’s Limestone.
You might be getting the impression that we only worked on Terri’s projects on painting day, but that’s not the case. My sister brought over a little oil can to paint, but I neglected to get any photos of it. And I had my own stash of stuff to paint …
But, uh, I sort of didn’t manage to get any of my own pieces finished! So, you’ll just have stay tuned to see how they all turn out!
q is for quandie 
What a fun day that must have been! I love ‘craft days’ hanging out with friends and family and getting stuff done. And all the projects turned out fabulous. Looking forward to seeing your projects finished.
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It was a fun day! I’m a fan of ‘craft days’ too 😉
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I love the black box. Perfect for a gentleman. I am in the process of painting some mahogany side tables for a friend. I cleaned them really well and then put shellac on them for bleeding. I painted them with 3 coats of Fusion’s Raw Silk. They still bled through, but it wasn’t noticeable for a couple of days. I then added MMS tough coat and another 2 coats of Raw Silk. This seems to have solved the problem. I have a couple of questions. Why so much bleed through? Can I use milk paint over Fusion mineral paint and should I sand first, ultrabond? Any suggestions would help. Thanks Linda.
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I have heard stories of pieces that bleed even thru shellac, but I’ve never had it happen to me. In my experience, mahogany pieces are always dicey tho, especially if they have a really red tone and you are trying to paint them white. I have also heard that it can take up to 30 days for stain bleed to show up (so just a warning that your piece might still bleed). I also want to warn you that the MMS Tough Coat is not meant to seal a bleeding stain, and it often doesn’t work for that. Perhaps in your case since you already had shellac on the piece adding the Tough Coat was just enough extra to prevent more bleed-thru. I’m not sure. As for painting over Fusion with milk paint, I do that all the time! I love to add an undercoat of a pretty color in Fusion, then add a chippy layer of milk paint over it (see an example of that here, and another here). It’s a great way to transition from dark to light, adding a medium toned Fusion color first, then your lighter milk paint. Also a great way to cover up a pre-existing color that you really don’t want to see if your top coat of milk paint chips. You don’t need to sand first or add the bonding agent unless you want to absolutely prevent any chipping at all. But if that’s the case, why milk paint?
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Thanks Linda for replying and the good information.I pray that it doesn’t bleed more!!!
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Fingers crossed! It probably won’t, but you just never know.
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My favorite kind of day…crafting with a friend. We have lots of fun and still feel accomplished. The projects look great.
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I think that’s exactly what I love about it, combining a fun social day with getting stuff done!
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Each one of those items turned out great. My favorite is the fabulous black stenciled box! I can’t even imagine how much fun y’all had
working on these projects together.
Nice Q-tip too! You teaser!
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I really love how the black one turned out as well!
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Gorgeous as always! What a great idea having a painting day with a friends I must arrange one. I am going to paint my kitchen in spring so I am looking forward to your post( when you get time to do it ) on your friends painted kitchen. By the way where do you buy your beautiful stensils ? Xx
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Terri loves how her kitchen turned out, so I need to be sure and post about it! As for the stencils, I get them from a variety of sources. I usually find good ones on Etsy. The Farmers Market stencil is from Hobby Lobby.
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I love my little chair and the boxes! Cant wait to fill up the little boxes with little gifts too. Thanks so much for all your help and inspiration. AND for the yummy pumpkin dessert…yes, on top of painting, Linda laid out all the ingredients and the recipe, and her sister made pumpkin bars (great recipe Julie!) While we were painting. What a great family. Fun day with good friends.
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Yes, it was a blast. We’ll have to do it again soon!
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Whoa Quandie! Love that yellow you used.
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Isn’t that a pretty yellow?! It’s rich and deep without being too bright or garish.
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Is there a source for the stencils that you use?
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Hi Diane. The Farmers Market stencil was from Hobby Lobby. The Apothicaire stencil was from Maison de Stencils (here). The “1902” stencil was just a portion of another stencil from Maison de Stencils (here). Actually, the number on the little stool is also from them, and they have a few different sizes for that one (here).
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