First up, I drew a name at random to win the Dixie Belle Silkscreen stencil giveaway from last week.  Congrats to Laura Hopwood!  I’ll be sending those stencils out as soon as I get an address from her (I sent you an email Laura).  OK … well, I think by now we all know that I am really bad about getting things shipped promptly (which is why I don’t sell any of my items online), but I’ll try to get them mailed a.s.a.p.

Remember the washstand that I picked up off the curb at the White Bear Lake Trash to Treasure day?

Well, I’ve given it a makeover and it’s ready for its close up.

First up,  I needed Ken to do a really simple small repair.  He replaced the little pieces of wood that are acting as drawer stops (to keep the drawers from pushing in too far).

The original stops were totally worn down and as a result the drawers would get pushed in too far and then be impossible to pull back out again.

Next, I stripped the top using Citristrip.  Once I had the old finish off, I sanded the top smooth and added a couple of coats of white wax to give it a lime waxed look.

To really emphasize the look of the grain when using white wax, simply work the wax in going against the grain of the wood.  I think this piece is oak (I’m never that good at identifying wood species), and oak is one of the most popular types of wood for lime waxing due to its open grain.  Check out my how-to post on lime waxing for more tips on this technique.

I sanded the base of the washstand lightly and gave it a good cleaning.  I followed that with two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

I ended up painting the interior of this piece too.  The insides of the drawers were looking pretty shabby, and the inside of the little cupboard area had a wierd red colored bottom.  Giving it all a fresh coat of Dixie Belle’s Putty really cleaned everything up.  I also added a topcoat of Dixie Belle’s Flat clear coat for durability.

I really didn’t care for the copper drawer pulls that came with this piece.  I guess they could potentially be original to the piece, but somehow I doubt it.  They give off a strong 80’s vibe to me.

It’s probably the hearts.  In case you didn’t already realize, I’m fairly heartless when it comes to hearts.  Luckily I found the perfect replacement drawer pulls in my stash.

I purchased these a while back (probably more than two years ago) because I absolutely loved them and I hoped to find just the right project for them.  This is always a dicey proposition because I usually buy six of them and then tend to end up having either too many, or not enough, for the project I want to use them on.  That’s why I have a big container full of single knobs that don’t match!  But this time I had just the right amount, and they were exactly the look I wanted on this piece.

By the way, I purchased them at Hobby Lobby and I just tried to find them on their website and didn’t see them so perhaps they no longer carry them.  Bummer.

I then reviewed my full inventory of transfers and stencils to find just the right option for dressing up the little door on this piece and I ended up with my Farm Fresh Honey stencil from Wallcutz.  Not only is it totally adorable, but it’s the perfect accompaniment to the ‘honeycomb’ pattern on those drawer pulls.

In order for the stencil to lay flat I had to trim down the sides of it a bit.  It’s difficult to get crisp lines if your stencil isn’t laying completely flat (this is one of those instances where the flexibility of those Dixie Belle silkscreen stencils would have come in handy!).  But luckily I was able to trim down those sides without compromising the stencil design and then it fit perfectly on the door.

I used Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean first to stencil just the word ‘honey’ to create a shadow.  Then I moved the stencil slightly up and to the left and stenciled the entire design using DB’s Putty.

I really love the muted color scheme on this piece with its white waxed top, Drop Cloth base, Putty interior and Putty stencil.

What a vast improvement, don’t you think?

Well, unless you were a fan of that awful orange colored finish and the hearts on those original drawer pulls.  But then, in that case I can’t imagine you’d be following my blog 😉

This is where I would normally mention that this piece is for sale locally, but this one has already gone to its new home.  And as always, thanks to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint and sealer used for this makeover.