Author: Quandie

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.

Happy 4th of July to all of my readers in the U.S. and happy Wednesday to the rest of you 😉

I thought it would be fun to go a little patriotic with the color scheme today in honor of the holiday.

Remember the desk I purchased at the Kenny/Armitage sales?

We came across it at the end of our shopping that day and I have to say, my sister is always game to try and fit stuff into her SUV.  So what if it’s mostly full already?  She will help me pull everything back out and re-arrange until the amazingly-bargain-priced desk fits.  Even in the rain.  That quality alone makes her the ideal garage saling companion.

Anyway, I mainly fell in love with the knobs on this desk.  Aren’t they adorable?  They give an otherwise fairly plain piece a lot more personality.  I’m so glad they were all there and I could keep them on the desk.

It needed a bit of repair, and at some point someone stripped some existing paint off of it and they didn’t do a very good job.  But it was nothing that a little glue and some new paint couldn’t solve.

After some gluing and clamping (handled by my handyman/neighbor Ken), I sanded lightly and then cleaned the entire piece with TSP Substitute.

Next I added two coats of Dixie Belle paint in Drop Cloth.  I left that overnight to be sure it was good and dry before I taped off some grain sack style stripes and painted them in Dixie Belle’s Yankee Blue (note:  all Dixie Belle products used on this desk were provided to me free of charge from Dixie Belle, but all opinions are my own).

I sanded to distress and then finished with Dixie Belle’s Easy Peasy spray on wax.

I gotta say, I love that stuff.  It’s SO much easier than traditional waxing.  Just spray it on, lightly spread it with a cloth, then just let it dry and you’re done.  I will admit that it is not the cheapest topcoat option available though.  It costs $19.95 for 8 oz.  The same amount of Clear Coat is $12.95, and you can get a 10 oz. can of traditional wax for $18.95.  But sometimes it’s worth the splurge to go with the easiest option.

I did two coats of the spray wax on the desk top for added protection.

When I brought this desk home the drawers were all fully lined with some rather old and grungy contact paper.  I pulled all of that out only to find even older and more grungy drawer bottoms.  It’s always a gamble what you might find under drawer liners.  Most of the time I find pristine drawers that were always protected.  But sometimes I find yucky ones that were covered up instead.

So I cleaned them all with Krud Kutter, then painted them with the Yankee Blue.

That ended up working out great on all of the drawers except the middle one.

The middle drawer had a large black ink stain that bled through the paint.  So I pulled out the Dixie Belle BOSS (blocks odors, stains, stops bleed thru).

I followed what I thought were all of the instructions.  I painted one coat just over the stain (no need to coat the entire drawer bottom), let it dry, then painted a 2nd coat and let it dry.  Once the second coat was dry, I painted over it again with the Yankee Blue.  But once again, the ink bled through the paint.  Egads.

So as my dad used to tell me, when all else fails read the instructions.  It says right on the jar that if two coats doesn’t work then a longer drying time of the BOSS is needed.  So I put two more coats just over the stained spot and then let it dry overnight.

That did the trick.  The next day I added a coat of the Yankee Blue over the BOSS and voila, no bleed thru stain!

After I finished the desk I realized that it really needed a matching chair.  I just happened to have a spare chair out in the carriage house.  It also needed some gluing, but once it was shored up I simply painted it with just one coat of the Yankee Blue, sanded to distress and finished with the spray wax.

I especially love that Dixie Belle spray wax for chairs, it’s so much easier to apply than other waxes!

By the way, the back of the desk is painted as well as the front.  Whenever a desk has a ‘finished’ looking back I always paint it too just in case the future owner wants to float the desk in the middle of the room with the back facing out.

Since it’s the 4th of July, I couldn’t help but stage this piece up against the carriage house under my flag holder.  I purchased that flag holder years ago at an antique shop in New Jersey.  At the time my sister was still living there and I was visiting her over the 4th.  This style flag holder was everywhere out there and I’d never seen one before.  Just in general I would have to say that people in New Jersey do far more decorating for the 4th of July than people in Minnesota, does anyone disagree?

Anyway, I was determined to find one and bring it home with me.  I have since seen them for sale here too though.

Well, I’m off to enjoy the holiday with Mr. Q, my sister and my niece.

If any of you locals are in need of an adorable desk, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details!