Month: July 2018

Several years ago … gosh, I’m not even sure how many … I went through a numbering phase.  I added numbers to everything and the stuff that got ‘numbered’ sold like hotcakes at my Carriage House occasional sales.

It must be the accountant in me, but I love things with numbers on them.  At the time it appeared that others did as well.

I painted a chair for myself back then and I gave it a no. 6.

Chair no. 6 was in my own kitchen for several years, but eventually I swapped it out for something else.  I recovered the seat and put it in my last occasional sale (fall of 2016), but no one bought it.  I guess the numbering phase is over.  So then it sat in my carriage house for almost two years, lost and forlorn.

I’ve been trying to go through everything that I have stored out there this summer and either revamp it to sell, donate it, or put it at the curb.

So I pulled it out and did a little re-gluing of the joints.  Then I sanded down the ‘6’, gave it a good cleaning and re-painted it with a fresh coat of creamy white using Fusion’s Limestone.

Then I pulled out the small version of Prima Marketing’s Seeds transfer.

I knew the entire thing wouldn’t fit, but it’s so easy to cut these up and just use parts of them.  I cut out a couple of sections of the transfer and played around with placement on the chair back.  Once I had them where I wanted them, I taped them in place.

Then I just used the applicator stick that comes with the transfer to rub it onto the chair.  It couldn’t have been easier and took all of about five minutes to do.

And thus chair no. 6 becomes a garden themed chair instead.

By the way, in case you were curious, I used a plain beige fabric that I painted with a grain sack stripe using black acrylic craft paint for the seat.

Then a couple of evenings ago I had some fun setting up a potting shed themed photo shoot with the chair.

First I pulled out a dresser that I just picked up last weekend.  One of my readers offered this dresser to me free of charge and you’ll read more about that next week.  But for today I thought it was the perfect stand in for a potting bench for some photos.

I love the crackle finish on those drawer fronts, but I don’t know that I’ll be able to save that.

But before I even get to that part, Ken is going to have to do a bit of work on this one so it may be a while before you see it again.

Anyway, I also grabbed some clay pots, a small hand held garden shovel, and yes I even yanked a geranium right out of one of my window boxes just for these photos.

It is possible that I have completely lost my mind.

But don’t worry.  No plants were harmed in the making of this blog post.  I simply tucked that geranium right back in place when I was done and gave it a good soaking.  It will be fine.

All of that, just to take a photo of a chair.

But it sure was fun.

This chair will likely make its way to Reclaiming Beautiful to be sold.  Unless of course one of you local readers wants to purchase it from me first.  Be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

I brought this Thomasville dresser home a couple of months ago.

This is how the drawers were arranged for the seller’s Craigslist ad photo, so I left them like this for my ‘before’ photo too.  I wonder, did they not realize they were in the wrong spots?  Or did they just think the dresser was supposed to look like this?  Or did they just not care?

Either way, this dresser was an amazing deal.  Probably for two reasons; because it’s laminate and because one drawer pull is missing.  I’m bummed about that missing pull because those original pulls were perfectly themed for the faux bamboo style of this piece.

This piece is made entirely out of laminate fiberboard rather than real wood.  Let’s talk veneer v. laminate for a minute.  I think these terms sometimes throw people off.  What is the difference?

Technically the term veneer refers to a thin layer of hardwood that is bonded, or glued with adhesive, to a cheaper sub-surface that is hidden below.  I sometimes call it ‘wood veneer’ to make it clear that it is still a wood surface, just not solid wood.  When working with a wood veneer you can finish it in much the same way as solid wood.  You can strip an existing finish from it and then wax, stain, oil, paint, etc.  The main thing to keep in mind is that the veneer is very thin so you need to be careful when sanding it so that you don’t sand right through it.

Laminate on the other hand is a man-made plastic product.  It can be manufactured to sort of look like wood or marble or granite, but it also can be just a solid color (like on this piece) … really, I think the sky is the limit with the look of laminate.

But laminate cannot be treated just like wood.  It is a slick, impervious surface that can’t be stained or waxed and gives paint absolutely nothing to hang on to.  However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t paint it.  With the proper prep and primer you are able to paint laminate and once the paint has cured (usually about 30 days) it will be just as durable as other painted surfaces.

You may remember that I tested out Dixie Belle’s Slick Stick on a laminate tabletop recently.  It worked really well, so I knew that I would have success using it on this piece too.

Once again I followed the directions carefully.  I started by cleaning my piece thoroughly using TSP Substitute.  Next I used a damp brush to apply one thin coat of Slick Stick and allowed that to dry for 3 hours.  Then I added a second coat of Slick Stick and left it to dry overnight.

I want to also remind you that the Slick Stick dries white.  I didn’t distress this piece, so the white worked fine for me.

As soon as I saw this dresser I knew I wanted to paint it in a vibrant color.  I had recently seen something painted in Dixie Belle’s gorgeous color called Peony.  So I reached out to them and asked if they’d like to sponsor this project.

They jumped on board and provided me with all of the products I needed for this piece including the paint, the Slick Stick and the Clear Coat.  Although they provided this stuff for free, all opinions are my own.

I went way outside my comfort zone with this color choice and I got quite the reaction from pretty much everyone who saw me working on this piece including Ken, nnK, Mr. Q and my sister.  I think they were all wondering if I’d lost my mind.

But I went for it with three coats of the Peony.  I used the Dixie Belle recommended technique of dipping my paint brush in a cup of water every 2nd or 3rd time before I dipped it in the paint.  This basically waters the paint down allowing it to go on more smoothly.  If you leave the paint thick you will see more texture, ie. brush strokes.  However, to get good coverage with the bright pink over the white Slick Stick I needed three thinned coats of paint.

Once the final coat of paint dried I added a coat of Dixie Belle’s Clear Coat in the satin finish.  I wanted just a hint of shine rather than a flat finish.

I have to admit, there is more than one reason why I generally prefer working with a flat finish.  The first reason is that I love the look, of course.  But the second reason is that a shinier finish highlights any flaws there may be in the paint job.  Working on this piece reminded me that I am good at flaws and it’s probably best if I stick to a flat finish in the future.

Part of the reason for my delay in working on this piece was that missing drawer pull.  I so very badly wanted to find an exact replacement.  That hardware would have looked amazing with some gold wax on it.  I searched for weeks.  I tried Etsy, any number of hardware suppliers, and some Facebook hardware exchange groups, all to no avail.  I found a few similar vintage pulls, but none that were an exact match.  I even would have purchased three that matched each other and replaced all three if I could have found them, but no luck on that either.

So I finally gave up on that idea and purchased these white rose knobs from Hobby Lobby.  Wait … are they roses or are they cabbages?  I’m really not sure.  No, they’re roses, right?

Anyway, I’d gone crazy wild with the color after all, so why not go a little over the top with the knobs too?  I filled the holes left by the original drawer pulls using Dixie Belle’s Mud in brown and then drilled new holes so that the knobs lined up all the way down.

In the end, I think the new knobs give it a slightly more updated look, although I still would have loved to have that original hardware!

I staged this piece very simply with just a couple of books and a pretty floral arrangement.

Let’s face it, nothing was going to be able to compete with that amazing color!

So, there you have it.  A gorgeously bright pink bamboo dresser.

What do you think?  Have I lost my mind going with this vibrant color?  Or do you think someone out there is going to love it?  Ken predicts that it will take no longer than two weeks to sell.  I hope he’s right.

I’m going to hang onto it for the full curing time before I list it for sale though, just to be on the safe side.  However, if you are local and interested in knowing when it’s ready to go be sure to let me know in a comment or via email (qisforquandie@gmail.com).

This past weekend I finished up the remaining piece from the trio of large pieces that I purchased at the Linden Hills garage sales back in May.

You’ve seen the dresser …

And the white bookcase …

Now for the bookcase with the glass door.

Much like the white bookcase, this piece was also once a built-in.  However with this piece someone had already done some work to allow it to be a stand-alone piece of furniture.  There had already been a finished side added to the side that was once up against a wall.

If you look at the top of the bookcase in the ‘before’ shot, you can see that at one time there also must have been some trim around the top that had been removed.

As luck would have it, I happened to have a spare length of old trim in the rafters of the carriage house that was plenty long enough to add some trim back to the top of the bookcase.

My handyman Ken made quick work of cutting the trim to fit and attaching it.

From there I simply sanded lightly, cleaned the piece with TSP Substitute and then I painted the outside with Sweet Pickins In a Pickle.

Except … wait a minute … hold the phone … did you notice the piece doesn’t look green at all in that photo of the trim?  Well, as it turned out I didn’t like the green on the bookcase.  I can’t really explain why, it just wasn’t working for me.

So I whipped up a custom mix of Homestead House milk paint instead.

This is about a 1/2 cup of Craftsman, which is a pale minty gray-green, with about 2 tablespoons of Loyalist, a medium blue, added.

This subdued blue-green-grey color seemed much better suited for this bookcase.  I added two coats of this color over the In a Pickle.  Once dry I sanded the piece and added a very light coat of Miss Mustard Seed’s clear furniture wax for protection.

I was initially planning to paint the inside as well, but ultimately I decided I wanted to leave it the dark wood instead.

Something like ironstone or milk glass will really pop against the dark wood.

I swapped out the original knob, which was rather boring, for this white enamel knob.

I’ve had that single knob in my stash of hardware for so many years that I can’t remember where I purchased it.  Possibly Anthropologie, but I’m not positive.

As you can see in those close up shots, the finish on this piece was very alligator-ed.  It had to have been stored somewhere hot (like an attic) for some length of time.  I love the textured look I get using milk paint over a damaged finish like this.  I didn’t get any chipping with my milk paint, but sanding over that bumpy finish created an aged look that I love.

Looking at these photos has made me realize that if I’m going to keep attempting to take furniture photos inside my photo cottage (like these), I really need to put a fresh coat of paint on the floor and walls.  It has not held up well at all.  It looked so fresh and clean when I initially painted it …

I guess four years of walking on it with dirty shoes, dragging furniture across it, and having it semi-open to the Minnesota weather has taken its toll.

I’ll just add that project to my to-do list … you know, the one that is longer than my arm.

But in the meantime, be sure to let me know what you think of my alligator’ed bookcase!

This piece is available for sale locally, so be sure to check out the details if interested.

Earlier this summer I picked up a simple pedestal style table at a garage sale.

I have to admit up front that I made a couple of poor buying decisions this summer at garage sales and there is an underlying theme to them.  I purchased things that had other things piled on top of them so that I couldn’t really see what I was getting.  One table I purchased has a huge burn mark on the top that I didn’t notice until I went to load it in the car.  And this table has a Formica (laminate) top.  That fact completely escaped my attention until I got it home.

Today’s q tip:  Do as I say, not as I do, and thoroughly inspect a piece of furniture before you agree to purchase it!

But look back at that ‘before’ picture, see how shiny that top is?  Yep, it’s Formica instead of wood.  I should have noticed that.

The problem with Formica is that paint doesn’t always like to stick to it.

But then I realized that this table provided me with the perfect opportunity to try a product that Dixie Belle sent to me recently, Slick Stick.

I plan to use this product on a dresser that is entirely laminate, but before I get to that I thought it might be a good idea to test it out on a smaller scale first.  Here is how the Dixie Belle website describes it:  Slick Stick is a water-base primer specifically made to bond to most any “tough to paint” surfaces. With Dixie Belle’s Slick Stick, surfaces like PVC, glass, Formica, metal, and more, are easily painted and stay painted.

It has some very specific instructions that I followed to the letter.  I started by cleaning my piece thoroughly using TSP Substitute.  Next I used a damp brush to apply one thin coat of Slick Stick and then I allowed that to dry for 3 hours.  Then I added a second coat of Slick Stick and left it to dry overnight.

I used the Slick Stick on the laminate top only, not on the wood pedestal.

The next step was to paint the piece using two coats Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road.

I want to point out here that the Slick Stick does dry white.  If you are a distress-er (and I definitely am), you will see that white when you sand the edges of your piece to distress it.

That is definitely something to keep in mind when choosing to use this product.

After I had the table painted I let it sit for a week or two.  Not for any real reason, just because it was really just rather blah.  While the paint job had definitely given it some more appeal, it needed something more but I wasn’t sure what.

Then while I was stenciling the back of the bookcase that I shared on Friday I decided to use the same Prima Marketing re.design stencil on the top of this table.

I used the same small foam roller and the same Dixie Belle paint in Driftwood to apply the stencil over the entire tabletop.

I think it’s interesting to note that when used over the darker grey of Gravel Road the Driftwood looks really light, while over the white of Fluff it looks really dark.

But I promise you, it doesn’t look it, but the stencil was painted with the exact same color on both of these pieces!

Once the paint was dry I sanded over the entire thing to give it a more faded appearance.

And that was enough to give this table plenty of personality!

It’s now a great little table for a reading nook or perhaps at bedside.

As I was taking the photos for this post, one of the books happened to flop open to this page.

That brought a smile to my face as an unexpected reminder of the trip Mr. Q and I are taking to Italy later this fall.

In fact, it made me realize that this table has a bit of an Italian flair, maybe Italian renaissance with that damask pattern?

OK, that might be a tiny bit of a stretch, but I’m going with it.

Remember the pile of furniture that I purchased at the Linden Hills neighborhood garage sale?

Well, today’s post is about that white bookcase in the back behind the other pieces.  As it turns out, I neglected to get a good ‘before’ photo of just the bookcase.  Argh.

My handyman/neighbor Ken would be so disappointed if he knew that I didn’t have a good ‘before’ photo of this one (he never reads my blog because he is 80 years old and he doesn’t even know what a blog is, so let’s not tell him about this, OK?).  He made some clever changes to it and I know he was proud of his work.  Although I can try to describe what he did, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Well, I’ll try and do my best.

The thing about this bookcase is that it was formerly a built-in.  One side of it wasn’t finished on the outside because it had been up against a wall and tied in to the baseboard trim along the wall.  The other side was trimmed out top and bottom.  And of course the side that was trimmed out is the side you can’t see in that photo because it’s behind the cabinet with the glass door.  Dang.

Suffice to say that Ken removed some trim, cut down some trim, added an outside to the one side, and basically gave the entire piece a more symmetrical look.  He did a brilliant job.

While he was doing all of that, I removed the back so that I could stencil it.

I’d recently received some beautiful stencils from Prima Marketing’s new re.design line including one called Imperial Damask.  This is a large stencil at 22″ x 28″.

I knew it would be perfect for adding something special to this bookcase.

If you’re ever thinking about stenciling (or wallpapering) the inside back of a bookcase, it is much, much easier if you can remove the back to work on it.  In this case the back was held on with a bunch of nails and it came off rather easily.

So I started by sanding it down and adding a coat of Dixie Belle’s Fluff, which is a lovely shade of white and almost perfectly matched the existing paint job (which badly needed to be refreshed).

Before I started stenciling, I needed to pick the right color for the stencil.  I narrowed it down to three Dixie Belle colors; Sand Bar, Savannah Mist and Driftwood.  I painted a scrap of wood in the Fluff and then pulled out a small stencil I happened to have that is very similar to the Imperial Damask, just on a much smaller scale.  I stenciled a section with each of the three colors (please excuse the sloppy stenciling, this was only a color test).

Once I saw all three, it was easy for me to pick the Driftwood (far right).

Next I used a small inexpensive foam roller to apply the paint using the Prima Marketing stencil.

I just poured a little of the paint onto a paper plate and then rolled the foam roller in it.  I didn’t water the paint down at all.  The original thickness of the Dixie Belle paint makes it perfect for stenciling.  Much like when stenciling with a brush, you want to use a somewhat dry roller to avoid a messy result.  Runny paint is not your friend when stenciling.

I wanted the design to be centered once the back was back in place, so I measured and placed the center of the stencil at the top center of the back and then worked out and down from there waiting for the paint to dry each time before re-positioning the stencil.

Today’s q tip:  always start in the center and work your way out when using an all-over stencil like this one.  Otherwise your end result may look very unbalanced.

Before putting the back of the bookcase back on, I gave it a coat of Dixie Belle’s Flat Clear Coat.

Next I sanded and added a fresh coat of Dixie Belle’s Fluff to the rest of the piece, followed by the Flat Clear Coat.  I added a second coat of Clear Coat on the shelves because they will likely take more of a beating than the rest of the piece.

Once everything was dry, Ken helped me put the back piece back on.  While we were working I was telling him that I really couldn’t have done this piece without his help, while he was claiming that he really couldn’t have made it pretty enough to sell without me.  We concluded that we are a great team.  He makes ’em functional, and I make ’em pretty.

And this one sure is pretty!

The stenciled back adds so much life to this bookcase!

What do you think?

The bookcase is for sale locally.  If interested, be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page.