aging british rockers.

Published on by Quandie

Before we get on with today’s regularly scheduled blog post, I promised to report back on how long it took the sell the ‘young at heart’ green dresser that I posted on Monday.  I was a little nervous about painting it in the vibrant green of Fusion’s Park Bench and wasn’t at all sure how easily the piece would sell in that color.  Well, I posted it on Craigslist on Tuesday morning.  By Tuesday evening I had two potential buyers expressing an interest in the dresser.  The first buyer in line showed up on Wednesday and bought it!  So if you’ve been hesitating about painting something in Park Bench (or perhaps some other more vibrant color) I say go for it.  I’m starting to think that I might just start painting everything green!

I also want to share the story of selling it.  The buyer was a young woman furnishing her new apartment.  She loved the dresser and promptly handed over the cash.  But when we went to load it into her vehicle it was just a hair too wide to fit.  Flipping it up on its side wouldn’t work either.  Mr. Q and I don’t usually deliver my pieces, but on a whim we offered to load it into our van and follow her home with it.  After all, we didn’t have plans for the rest of the evening and she had mentioned she lived in Minneapolis so I knew we wouldn’t be going all that far.  So we loaded it up and headed out.  Turned out that she lives in a huge old mansion just off Hennepin Ave that has been sectioned off into apartments.  The foyer had the most gorgeous original hex tile floor, beautiful oak wainscoting with a stunning arts and crafts style wallpaper above.  The apartment was full of old leaded glass windows, a built in china hutch in the dining room, gorgeous original wood floors.  Even the radiators were amazing.

It’s so fun to get to see where the dresser ended up and to know that it’s going to look amazing in that space.

But enough with the green dresser, let’s move on.  Today I thought we could talk about aging British rockers.

No, no, not that kind of rocker, this kind …

Although I will admit that I am a Rod Stewart fan, after all blondes do have more fun.  I especially like his more recent Great American Songbook recordings and I often listen to those while painting.

But seriously, this post is about that 2nd rocker.  You might be wondering what makes it British, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

I picked up this aging rocker at a garage sale last summer.  I have found that I really enjoy painting these little chairs.  They are perfect for an afternoon project, and also as a way to try out new paint colors, or conversely use up the little bit that’s left of some already well-loved colors.

In this case I pulled out my bin of milk paint.

Am I the only one with a bin of milk paint?  These are all of the opened and partially used bags of milk paint that I have.  Let’s face it, those zip lock tops are really hard to get sealed back up again properly and I store my milk paint in my somewhat damp basement so I need to make sure that it is kept dry.  I used to store each individual opened bag of milk paint inside another gallon sized Ziploc storage bag but that got to be cumbersome, so now I store them all in this plastic bin with a tightly fitted lid.

I pulled out a few colors, Eulalie’s Sky, Luckett’s Green and Flow Blue (all Miss Mustard Seed) to mix together and see what I could come up with for the rocker.  The first batch I mixed ended up far more blue than I wanted.  I think it was the Flow Blue that threw it off.  So I went back to the drawing board and mixed 3 T Eulalie’s Sky with 1 T of the Luckett’s, leaving out the Flow Blue altogether.  That combo was far too green.  So I simply added in some of the previously mixed ‘too blue’ paint one teaspoon at a time until I had the color I wanted.

I’m calling this one British Rocker Mint.  Isn’t it pretty?

I once posted a piece painted in a mix of milk paint colors like this and someone commented that it was a bit much to expect people to go out and buy three bags of milk paint to paint one piece of furniture.  Yes, I totally agree.  I don’t mean to imply that you need to do that.  What I am suggesting is that you can use up your left over milk paint in a similar way.

If you don’t have enough of any one color to paint an entire piece of furniture, mix a few of your leftovers together and see what you can come up with.

Now, back to that aging British rocker.

The only prep I did on this piece was to wipe it down with a damp rag.  I was feeling pretty flexible about any amount of chipping I might get.  There were spots of pre-existing shiny finish, but there were also lots of areas where the existing finish was completely dried out and I knew the milk paint would adhere well in those spots.

I got great coverage with British Rocker Mint.  I did use two coats, but I prefer a more opaque finish.  Once dry, I sanded lightly to remove any loose flakes of paint.  I followed that up with vacuuming away and dust and further flakes of paint.  Then I finished with a coat of Fusion clear wax (same as Miss Mustard Seed clear wax).

Oh, and I almost forgot … what is it that makes this an aging British rocker?

Well, it’s the portion of an IOD transfer that I added to the seat before I added the wax.

This section of transfer was left over from the IOD Gilded Gander transfer that I used on the handmade hutch last year.  This leftover bit fit perfectly on the seat of the rocker, and  gave it a little British style.

This was definitely a project that was good for using up some left overs!

And the end result is an aging British rocker even more adorable than Rod Stewart!

 

 

30 thoughts on “aging british rockers.”

  1. Thanks for sharing the back story on the green dresser. It was beautiful, and I’m glad to read it was a quick sale for you! And the little rocker is super sweet.

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  3. I just love reading your blog! And the title of this mornings blog in my email really got my attention. Nice chair! I would have loved seeing pictures of the place off Hennepin Ave with the green dresser!

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    1. LOL, I knew people would wonder why I suddenly wanted to talk about aging British rockers! And I would have loved to get photos of that place off Hennepin, but I thought it would be a little weird for me to whip out my phone and say ‘hey, do you mind?’ …

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  4. Oh my, so sweet. I love the color. It chipped perfectly too. And wow, so great that the green dresser sold so quickly, it just tells all of us that you are the master of painting. And please, next time take photos, just tell the people you have a blog and you readers love a happy ending. It’s not weird, just feeding your loyal followers their just rewards!

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  5. I think the buyer of the green dresser would have thought it was cool that you would want to take pictures of where she lives! Doesn’t hurt to ask! I love seeing old looking stuff,,,excluding myself of course…

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  6. Cute rocker (both types)! Lol Sounds like that young lady has a sweet place! Pictures would have been cool, but I agree, probably would have seemed a little creepy, like stocking! 😮

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    1. Yeah, it was such a spur of the moment thing. She wasn’t expecting to have strangers in her apartment that night, so I’m sure it would have seemed pretty creepy had I asked to take photos. Apparently not everyone wants to share their personal space on the world wide web for everyone to see 😉

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  9. Oh how I love your furniture ! Too bad I live 800 miles away. Perhaps I should schedule a vacation to MInnesota
    and bring along a U-Haul!

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  10. Now you are putting in a picture with the right kind of etching. It is absolutely fantastic. I have never seen anything in your blog to match this. Let’s just say I love Rod Stewart, extremely well etched. Have a nice weekend. Love to Mom and sis. (Oh yes this is Betty from Ontario, Canada).

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  11. Thanks Betty! Love back to you. The green dresser was pretty and that sure did sell fast. I like the British Mint color. The little chair came out cute. And I like Rod Stewart too.

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  14. This is gorgeous!!!. Please, please, please tell me you have a dry mix recipie we can use to create the same thing. I’m really hoping not to guess at it or have to mix up the “too blue” mix first.. Thanks bunches!!

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    1. I wish I could tell you that I have an exact recipe Debora, but I really don’t. If you want to try to recreate British Rocker Mint, I’d suggest mixing the 3 parts Eulalie’s Sky to 1 part Lucketts with your water. Once you have that well mixed start adding some Flow Blue just a small pinch at a time. If you’re familiar with the MMS colors, you’ll know that Flow Blue is one of the most vibrant of the blues, so a little goes a long way in this mix. Another tip about the Flow Blue, the blue pigments take a bit longer to dissolve so it will become increasing blue as it sits. So go slowly! Add a pinch, mix it in, let it sit. Check the color and add more if needed. Remember, you can always add more, but you can’t take it back away again (I have to repeat that to myself all the time!) Best of luck!

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  15. Pingback: milk paint advanced techniques. – q is for quandie

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