Category: furniture.

Well, what do you know?  I have another piece of furniture to share today and it’s another piece that was gifted to me by Vanessa from Iowa.

If you’re keeping track, so far I’ve shared the drawers that she gave me …

and a toolbox that she sent up …

and of course that beautiful radio cabinet.

I’m so lucky to have such a generous reader.  Thank you so much Vanessa!

That’s brings me to today’s project.

Is it a small side table?  Is it a plant stand?  I guess it could be either.

The first step was to send this piece over to handyman Ken’s workshop to be tightened up.  It was a little wobbly.  He re-glued the joints and tightened up some screws and now it’s quite sturdy.

Next up I gave it a brief scuff sanding all over followed by cleaning away any dirt and dust.

Once again (much like with the sanctuary cabinet) I didn’t bother with Bonding Boss.  The existing finish was quite dry, so I wasn’t worried about adhesion.  In addition, I was planning on using a dark color so I wasn’t worried about any sort of bleed thru.

That brings me to my color choice.  I have to admit that I got it wrong the first time.  I initially painted it in Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean.

I wrote about this color being the ‘new black’ when I used it on this banker’s chair …

And indeed I have used it in place of black on several pieces since then.

So I painted the table in Coffee Bean, and then added a stencil in Dixie Belle’s Putty which they call a muted taupe.  This combination ended up reading too brown/beige for me.

It seems funny since I do really like both of these paint colors by themselves.  I just didn’t care for the combination I guess.

So I sanded down the stencil and painted back over everything with Dixie Belle’s Caviar.

I consider this to be the blackest of the black shades offered by Dixie Belle.

Once the paint was dry, I once again added a stencil to the lower shelf of the table, this time using Dixie Belle’s Ecru.

That stencil is one of the 8″ German Grain Sack stencils from Ellen J Goods.

Next up I taped off a Swiss cross on the top of the table and painted it in Ecru as well.  Did you know that approximately 62% of the population in Switzerland speaks German?  So I think it’s safe to call this a Swiss plant stand.

Once dry, I sanded over the entire piece using one of Dixie Belle’s sanding sponges.  I like using the sponges on curvy things like the legs of this table.

It’s easier to make them look as though they were worn over time.

To finish I mixed some of Dixie Belle’s brown wax into their Big Mama’s Butta and applied it with a large waxing brush.  I follow that up by buffing away any excess with an old t-shirt.

I like to mix the brown wax into the Big Mama’s Butta because it adds a little bit of extra depth when applied over dark colors.  It also tones down the look of lighter colors to give them more age.

My original plan was to sell this table, but then I realized that it might work really well for me as a winter plant stand.

I don’t have any houseplants that live inside all year ’round, but I do bring plants inside to over-winter them.  This year I’m planning to overwinter some more rex begonias, and of course that myrtle topiary that is currently in the fairy garden.  I also have a large Norfolk Island Pine that comes in for the winter.  It might help to have another surface to put plants on this year.

Then again, maybe I’ll list it for sale and see what happens.  If you’re interested, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

How many of you remember my humpty dumpty project from 2014?

Oh my gosh, that was 12 years ago!  How crazy is that?

In case you weren’t here back then, the humpty dumpty was a dresser that I purchased that promptly fell apart when my handyman Ken accidentally knocked it off some horses (the kind you support a piece of furniture on, not the kind you ride).

Ken put it back together again without any help from all of the King’s horses or men.

He also really enjoyed that project.  So, when my neighbor nnK’s parents offered me this random pile of bits that theoretically could be assembled into a small cabinet …

I thought, sure, let’s see what Ken can do with it.

And here’s what came back from his workshop.

A fully formed little antique cabinet that you could hang on the wall, or place on a flat surface.

I decided that the age and areas of pre-existing chippy paint on this one dictated a makeover using milk paint.  I was going for chippy and crackly.  I also wanted to keep it white.  I had just a small bit of two different milk paints in white on hand, so I mixed them together and hoped that I had enough paint (spoiler alert, I did, sort of).

Before I got started painting, I gave the cabinet a good wipe down with warm soapy water.  Once dry, I gave it a base coat using a satin clear spray sealer.  I’ve seen Yvonne from Ginger Chick Rehab do this before using milk paint and she always gets a fabulous crackly finish.

Once the sealer was dry, I brushed on two coats of my milk paint inside and out.  It was at that point that I realized it was going to take three coats to get good coverage, and I didn’t have enough paint left for that.  So I added a third coat to the outside of the cabinet and decided to paint the inside in Dixie Belle’s French Villa.

The nice thing about the French Villa is that it’s from the Silk line from Dixie Belle, and thus doesn’t require any additional topcoat.

As for the exterior of the cabinet, once the milk paint was dry I sanded it to distress the edges, but I didn’t really get any chipping.  I also only got some very slight crackling.  You can see it if you look closely, but only just.

That’s just the way it goes with milk paint, you never quite know what results you might get.  You have to be willing to go with the flow when using it.

Next up I decided to add just a little bit of text to the cabinet from the I.O.D. Label Ephemera transfer (sadly, long since retired, for those of you who don’t already know that).  I put some wording at the back of the top …

and just simply added the year 1858 at the bottom of the door.

Next up I needed to add a topcoat to protect both the milk paint and the transfers.  I usually prefer to use wax over milk paint since a brush-on water based sealer can sometimes reactivate milk paint causing it to streak or even to lift back off onto your brush.

However, I was feeling a bit lazy when I got to this step so I decided to use Dixie Belle’s Easy Peasy Spray Wax.

This is a water-based Carnauba spray wax and it’s super easy to use.  Simply spray it on and then wipe away any excess with a clean rag (I usually use an old t-shirt for this).

Now, you may have noticed that the door of this cabinet was missing its glass.  I had a couple of options for that.  Of course, I could get a piece of glass cut, but that would cost money and take time.  I also could have Ken cut a thin piece of wood to give the cabinet a solid door.  I definitely considered that approach.  But then I thought perhaps I could add screening like I did on a small cabinet back in 2016 …

I did just happen to have some old screen on hand.

It ended up being a little bit tricky to attach the screen.  I had simply used staples on that other cabinet, but it turned out that the door on this one wasn’t thick enough for staples.  They popped through to the other side.  So I decided to pull out my picture framing thingie a.k.a. my picture frame point driver.

This worked out pretty well.  It’s not the most subtle of looks on the inside of the door, but it does the trick.

And the cabinet looks great from the outside.

The final step was to come up with some sort of knob since the original one was long gone.  There also was a sizeable hole where the handle should be, so a knob with a screw wasn’t going to work.  So I dug through my stash of old hardware and found this …

It doesn’t actually latch, but I like the way it looks and I don’t think this little cabinet really requires a latch.

Personally, I love this sort of primitive looking cabinet with its screen door and non-functioning latch.  And this little cabinet has certainly come a long way.

What do you think?

If you agree, perhaps you’d also enjoy re-visiting some of the other small primitive cabinets that I’ve refurbished over the years.

The Roadkill Cupboard.

The French Country Rooster cupboard.

The Tangletown Cabinet.

The Lavender Cabinet.

The Vintage Medicine Cabinet.

The Reed & Fox Cabinet is for sale, be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

Finally, I’ve completed a piece of furniture!

I know it has been quite some time since I painted a piece of furniture.  I really intended to have this one finished a lot sooner.  I was slowed down by a few things.  First there was the really hot, humid weather that we had in July.  It was far too yucky to be out in my non-climate controlled workshop.

Then, when I finally got started on it in late July, I ran out of paint.  Turns out it takes more than one 16 oz. jar of paint to cover an old radio cabinet inside and out, front and back.  To be honest, I always forget that it takes twice as much paint to cover twice as much area.  Duh.

You also then have to factor in that I am a cheap skate.  So when I ran out of paint, I decided to wait and order more with my August order from Dixie Belle rather than running to a local shop to buy it in person.

Maybe I should take a moment here to explain that since I haven’t mentioned it in a while.  I am what is called a ‘content creator’ with Dixie Belle Paint Co.  They don’t pay me, but they do give me a certain amount of free product at the beginning of each month.  They don’t ever ask me to modify my opinions regarding their products or anything like that, in other words all opinions expressed are my own.  But, yeah, I waited until the beginning of August to order more paint rather than purchasing it from my local retailer.

Naturally, my order then arrived the day I left to go visit my mom.  So here we are, the tail end of August.  Where does the time go?

Anyway, let’s get on with it.  Here’s the piece in question.

Isn’t she a beauty?  And even better, she was given to me by my reader from Iowa, Vanessa (thanks so much Vanessa)!

I believe this is an old radio cabinet with its guts removed.  It didn’t have a back, and some work had already been done on it before I received it.  A shelf was added and some holes were patched up.  In addition, some damaged veneer was already removed from the top.

Vanessa also kindly provided some beadboard to use as the back.  So the first step in this makeover, after some sanding and cleaning, was to have my handyman Ken cut the beadboard to size and attach it to the back.  I should also note that I didn’t use any Bonding Boss on this piece for a few reasons.  First, the existing finish was not shiny at all so I knew that my chalk mineral style paint would adhere to it just fine.  Second, I was using a dark paint color so coverage over that dark-ish stain wouldn’t be a problem. I didn’t think I’d need to worry about bleed thru either.

So I pulled out that 16 oz jar of one of Dixie Belle’s more recent paint colors called Sanctuary and got to painting.

You guys, if you are in the market for a moody, dark academia-ish color in a green with blue undertones, Sanctuary is perfect for you.

It definitely was perfect on this cabinet.

As I mentioned, I also painted the inside in Sanctuary, as well as the back.

Speaking of the back, you may have noticed that the lower portion is open in the back, but the front does not open down there.  I’m guessing that there were originally radio parts in this lower section that didn’t need to be regularly accessed from the front.

I debated trying to figure out a way to add some sort of door to the front but in the end I decided I’d probably ruin the look of the cabinet if I messed around with it that much.  So instead, I just painted it and left it open on the back.  Ken suggested it would be a great place to hide your treasures since the cabinet would be up against a wall.  No one would ever know what you’ve stashed inside there.

As for the upper section, why not use it to store a bunch of craft supplies?

Or books, or whatever.

This lovely radio cabinet is for sale locally, so if you’re interested please check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page.

In the meantime, be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think of this gorgeous semi-new color!

Earlier this year I purchased another short industrial wheeled stool at a garage sale.

You may remember that I painted a very similar stool back in February 2025 …

That first one has a simple Swiss cross in black and white, and I actually kept it for myself (which tends to be a rare thing indeed).  It’s super handy for sitting on while cleaning out lower kitchen or q branch cupboards.

I painted a 2nd industrial stool back in July of last year.

For this second version, I took it up a notch by adding an I.O.D. paint inlay in the center of the cross.

I liked the result so much that I decided to just repeat it on this newest find.

First after a good cleaning, I painted the stool in Dixie Belle’s Caviar.  Then I taped off a cross and painted it in Drop Cloth.

Before the 2nd coat of Drop Cloth was dry, I applied the I.O.D. paint inlay.

These particular circular designs are from their Floriography set (and if you aren’t familiar with paint inlays, check out my how-to post).

Once again, I loved the result.

So when my neighbor, nnK, brought me a stool that she picked out of the trash I decided to do it again.

This one took a little more prep work.  I had to scrape some peeling paint, then give it a good sanding on the top to smooth the surface out a bit.  I also had to pry off some old metal ‘feet’ and replace them with new plastic feet (mainly because one of the original feet was missing and I couldn’t find a replacement to match).  Luckily my handyman Ken helped with that part.

After a thorough cleaning (it was totally filthy too), I decided to give this one a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear Bonding Boss before starting to paint.  There was a fair amount of rust and the Boss will prevent most of it from bleeding through my paint.

Next came two coats of Caviar and the Swiss cross in Drop Cloth.

At this point let me say that I.O.D. claims that you can get two or even three uses out of their paint inlays.  I have found that I am rarely happy with the image I get with a 2nd use.  I shared some of those results in this post.

Also, sadly, the Floriography paint inlay only comes with two versions of the round label (there is a 3rd round design, but with a crest of some kind rather than typography), and I had used both of them.

I did briefly consider just ordering a new Floriography set for this last stool, but at nearly $50 it didn’t seem like a wise choice.

So I decided to go ahead and try to get a 2nd use out of the paint inlay that I used on the shorter stool.

Truly, it’s not bad, just a bit more faded.  But I definitely prefer the more crisp and defined look from the first time around.

That’s just me being picky though.

Overall, I think both stools turned out pretty cool.

I had both of them at my recent sale, but unfortunately neither one sold.

But I’m sure they’ll go eventually.  I’ve listed them on my ‘available for local sale‘ page just in case any of my local readers are interested.

As for the rest of you, leave a comment and let me know what you think of my industrial stools!

You guys, it has been a while since I’ve worked on an actual piece of furniture!

And I have to admit, I kind of miss it.

You might remember that I brought this cabinet home from a garage sale back in early May.

It had lots of shelves inside, so I think it may have originally been meant for storing sheet music.

Step one of the makeover was to send the cabinet over to Ken’s workshop where he removed all but one of the shelves.  He also took it completely apart and put it back together with fresh glue in all of the joints.

What would I do without Ken?  I really don’t know.

Once the cabinet came back to me, I gave it a good cleaning (it was SO filthy dirty) followed by brushing on a coat of Dixie Belle’s Bonding Boss.

One look at the orange-ish color of the wood told me this would probably be a bleeder (the stain would bleed through my paint).  Sure enough, as I was applying the clear Bonding Boss the Boss itself started turning orange.  For that reason, I followed the Dixie Belle instructions and added a 2nd coat of Bonding Boss after the first was fully dry.  I find that 99% of the time I don’t need a 2nd coat, but since this one was bleeding heavily, and since I knew I was going to paint it off-white, it definitely needed one.

After allowing the Bonding Boss to dry until the next day, I then painted the inside of the cabinet in Dixie Belle’s Oxford Fog.

This is from their Silk paint line, so it has a built in topcoat.  I like that for the insides of things.

Next up I painted the outside in Dixie Belle’s Ecru.

As you can see, the Bonding Boss successfully eliminated any bleed thru issues.  Yay!

After sanding lightly with a 220 grit sandpaper, I wiped away any dust and then applied an old re.design with prima transfer to the front of the cabinet.

This is another transfer that my reader Monica sent to me ages ago.  I was actually a little worried that I’d have trouble applying it because I’d let it sit around for so long, but it went on quite easily.

I finished off the outside of the cabinet with a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax.

I felt a bit like I was going back to my roots with this piece.  There was a time when I did quite a few pieces with this sort of look, warm white with typography and no florals.

Here’s an example from June 2020 …

And another example from September 2017 …

Personally, I still love this look as evidenced by my own cupboard (just ignore those Christmas decorations) …

However, I really don’t know if this look appeals to any buyers out there.

I guess I will find out.  It will be available at my upcoming Carriage House Sale unless one of my local readers wants to snatch it up ahead of time.  Check out the details on my ‘available for local sale‘ page if interested.

Speaking of which, I’m waiting until tomorrow to officially commit to a rain date but so far the weather is looking good for this Thursday evening and Friday morning.  Fingers crossed. Stay tuned on that!

In the meantime, what do you think of this little cabinet?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Today I’m wrapping up my week of furniture re-runs by sharing my top five favorite furniture makeovers featuring transfers or paint inlays.

I have to admit, while I do think the simple paint job makeovers can be lovely and the mid mod makeovers are super easy and fun, the pieces with transfers or paint inlays are my personal favorites.  In fact, I really struggled to pick just five for this post.

The only problem is that these sort of makeovers are more expensive to do because the transfers and inlays are not cheap.  Secondly, they also take a bit more time.  And in my experience they take longer to sell, I suppose because they are possibly a bit more of a niche market.  So I don’t do many of them these days.

No. 5 on today’s list is the Summer Villa dresser from March 2023.

If you head over the my original post about this piece, I explained that when I picked up the dresser it had a bit more damage on the front legs than what was shown in the seller’s photo on Craigslist, but I bought it anyway.  Ken helped me make some alterations that helped disguise those issues including adding some air dry clay molds.

I followed that up with painting the entire thing using Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy.

Then I applied I.O.D.’s Summer Villa paint inlay.

I swapped out the original wooden knobs for some clear glass ones that would sort of disappear over the inlay.

Isn’t it just stunning?  I have to admit that this one was hard to let go of.

No. 4 is the Queen’s Glory Bench from November 2020.

This was one of several benches that my handyman/neighbor Ken built for me using old bed frames.

I initially painted this one in a pale blue color, but it didn’t sell so I gave it a new look using Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  I followed that up with re.design with prima’s Parisian Letter transfer.

It really was so much better this way.

It is definitely one of my favorite pieces!

No. 3 is the Restored Armoire from January 2011.

As the name implies, I purchased this piece at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

Handyman Ken did quite a lot of work on this piece too, which seems to be a running theme in this post.  He did a bunch of repairs, but also added some shelves to the right hand side of the interior to make it more functional.

Once he was done, I painted the interior in Dixie Belle’s Apricot.

I also added some of the Wondrous Floral II transfer from re.design with prima.

I painted the outside in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth and then added one of my all time favorite transfers from Prima called Seeds.

I have literally lost track of how many times I have used this transfer, both in the large size (which is on this piece), the small size, and even the white version.  Here is it on a dresser …

and another dresser …

and here it is on a pair of beds.

Gosh that was a good one, unfortunately it was retired years ago and is very hard to come by now.  It sure was perfect on the ReStored armoire.

No. 2 is the St. Paul Hotel Bed and was a Facebook Marketplace find from January 2021.

Isn’t it fabulous!  Such a unique shape, and I love the curved footboard.

This one is also painted in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, and then I added IOD’s Le Petit Rosier transfer.

Are you starting to sense a theme here with transfers over Drop Cloth?  It’s just such a fantastic combination.

And this Petit Rosier transfer is another of my all time favorites.  It also came in both a large and small size and I have used both multiple times.  Here it is on a dresser for instance …

Sadly, it too is retired and hard to come by now.

I decided to save one of the few pieces that I’ve kept for myself as No. 1 and it goes way, way back to March 2017.  I’m talking about the Specimens de la Decoration cupboard.

Here is where it started out …

I’d purchased a pair of these primitive cupboards a few years prior to this and I was just using this one as a display piece for my carriage house sales.

But when I heard about these new things called decor transfers that were large scale rub-on transfers that were meant for use on furniture, I decided to use this piece as a guinea pig to try one on.

But first I needed to repaint the cabinet, so after giving it a base coat of Rachel Ashwell’s Clear Primer (yes, back when she branched out into paint, which was very short lived) I gave it three coats of Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in Linen.

Then I applied my first ever furniture transfer …

and I was hooked!

The rest, as they say, is history.

I’ve since added some casters to the bottom of this cupboard, and it still sits in the same spot in my piano room and I still absolutely love it!

An honorable mention goes to my Gregory’s Catalogue sign.

I mean, technically it is a piece of furniture.  It just hangs on the wall and has stuff planted in it.

I also feel like there should be another entire segment to this trio of furniture re-run posts, one where I share some of the more colorful transfers I’ve used on furniture.  Like this one …

or this one …

or this one …

But I’m actually writing these posts on the day before leaving for my mom’s house, and I’ve run out of time.  I still have to pack!  So I’d better get going.

Be sure to leave a comment and let me know what your favorite furniture transfer is!

As promised, today I’m sharing my top five mid mod masterpieces.

OK, maybe masterpiece is a bit of an exaggeration!  And maybe mid mod is too, now that I think about it.  I’m not precisely sure what decades all five of these pieces date back to, but somewhere in the middle of the last century I think.

Let’s take a look and then you can tell me what you think.

No. 5 is the Millennial Pink dresser from May 2018.

Do you remember the Millennial Pink phase?  It seemed like everyone was talking about this color at the time.  Although in this case, I used Fusion’s English Rose, which I renamed Millennial Pink.

It was the perfect shade of pink for this mid mod dresser.

I gave the drawer pulls a refresh using Prima Marketing Metallique wax in Vintage Gold.

I absolutely love that combo of pink and gold.

No. 4 is this pair of Scandinavian style end tables that I got from my neighbor nnK’s parents in July 2022.

They had a bit of damage on their tops, but the rest of the wood veneer was in good shape, so I opted to just paint the boxes around the drawers using Dixie Belle’s Anchor.

Then I simply spruced up the rest of the veneer with Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta.

No. 3 is this literal trash to treasure dresser from August 2019.

Mr. Q and I picked this up off the side of the road, and it was in fairly rough shape.  But after some repairs by Ken the handyman and a little of Dixie Belle’s Bunker Hill Blue I thought it looked quite nice.

This time around I used RustOleum Mirror Finish gold spray paint on the hardware.

No. 2 is the Permanized Duo from August 2018.

Honestly, these were nothing to look at in their ‘before’ state, am I right?

But just look how great they looked painted.

They were both painted in Fusion’s Ash, and inside the little book cubbies on the headboard I used Fusion’s Mustard.

Once again I spruced up the existing hardware, this time with Prima Marketing’s Art Alchemy Metallique wax in Bronze Age.

That was such a fun makeover.

There was a third piece to this set of furniture, and that brings me to my No. 1 mid mod masterpiece … which isn’t really just one piece of furniture but rather many pieces that I painted using the same color … Fusion’s Park Bench.

I used this color on the third piece from the permanized set …

and I also used it when I took another mid mod credenza from this …

to this …

and another from this …

to this …

and yet even another from this …

to this …

This color didn’t just work on the low credenza style of dresser, but also on taller ones like this one from May 2019 …

and this one from January 2018.

I couldn’t pick just one of these Park Bench green pieces to share as my No. 1 mid mod masterpiece, could I?

I have to give an honorable mention to one of the first mid mod furniture sets that I painted, the Vintage Moxie set.

I painted this one way back in 2014 when my blog was just a baby.

The minty color was from Sherwin Williams and was called Aloe, and I didn’t even keep track of what shade of white I used.  I was definitely a pretty combo though.

Now it’s your turn, which one of the pieces in this post are your favorite?  Leave a comment and let me know!

OK, I know I said I wasn’t going to schedule any blog posts while I’m off visiting my mom this week, but then … well, I thought, how about some re-runs?

I was paging through my old furniture makeover posts a few days ago looking for a specific technique to share with someone and I was reminded of some of my favorite pieces, so I thought it would be fun to share some of them with you this week.

I’m going to break them down into three categories:  simple paint makeovers, makeovers using transfers, and mid-mod masterpieces.

Today let’s start with the simple paint makeovers.

I think of these pieces as having the best ability to fit into an already existing space.  They might still steal the show, but in a subtle way.  All of them were achieved with just some paint and some elbow grease.  So here we go.

No. 5 is the black bed from August 2018.

Here is the before …

To be honest, looking back at it now I remember that it was quite beautiful even in its ‘before’ state.  However, it did require a few repairs, and it also had some missing trim pieces.  The finish was rather worn too, but it certainly could have been sanded down and refinished.

But that’s not my thing.  I have never been a fan of stripping furniture.  So instead I gave it a simple paint job using Dixie Belle’s Caviar.

I distressed the paint job just slightly to make the details really pop.

I finished it off with some of Fusion’s Black Wax.

No. 4 is the Romantic Prairie Washstand from July 2019.

Here is where this one started out …

Your basic primitive-ish washstand.

I stripped the top (I know, I just said I wasn’t a fan of stripping furniture, but I am OK with stripping the occasional flat top), and then painted the body with Sweet Pickins In a Pickle milk paint.

The milk paint did what milk paint does best.  It chipped and crackled and ended up looking perfectly aged.

I finished this one off with Fusion’s clear wax.

No. 3 is the Soldier Blue dresser from July 2021.

I loved the details on this piece, but those white knobs were not doing it any favors.

After sending this one over to my neighbor Ken’s workshop for some much needed repairs, I once again stripped the top.  Then I painted the body in Homestead House milk paint in a color called Soldier Blue.

This is another of my favorite vibrant milk paint colors.

I replaced those white porcelain knobs with some round wooden knobs that I painted to match.

This piece was finished off with some of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta, which I consider to be the perfect blend of the qualities of wax and hemp oil.  It works beautifully over milk paint.

No. 2 is the Bunker Hill Blue Buffet from June 2018.

OK, in my opinion this piece was quite hideous in its ‘before’ state.  Something about that sort of ombre stain job just hits wrong for me.

This piece was actually a freebie, but we had to risk life and limb picking it up in the middle of January and carrying it up an icy hill to get it to the van.

Once again, this piece needed some repairs from handyman Ken before I could get around to painting it.  I also, once again, stripped the top and painted the body.

This time around I used Dixie Belle’s Bunker Hill Blue.  If you’re familiar with Dixie Belle colors, you’re probably thinking ‘wait a minute, Bunker Hill is a bit brighter than that.  In fact, if you aren’t a fan of using milk paint, Bunker Hill Blue is a good chalk paint substitute for the Soldier Blue milk paint.  But this time around I toned the brightness down with some of Dixie Belle’s Black Glaze.

I also swapped out the knobs for something a little more subtle than the originals.

I added a fun pop of color to the inside of this one with Fusion Mineral Paint in Coral.

No. 1 is the French Wheat Hutch from September 2016.

This was a gorgeous piece of furniture.

But back in 2016 this orange-ish wood stain was definitely not in style.  Everything was getting painted back then.

I ended up mixing two different brands of paint together for this piece (because I didn’t have enough of either one to paint the entire thing), Annie Sloan’s French Linen and Cece Caldwell’s Young Kansas Wheat.  Of course I called my new color French Wheat.  Also, FYI, both of these are chalk style paints and it was fine to mix them even though they are two different brands.

Back in 2016 I was still holding my occasional sales (I quit after this sale in 2016, and then resumed them again in 2024).  Anyway, I had already moved the hutch into the carriage house to prep for the sale before taking any ‘after’ photos, so the lighting was pretty poor for photos.  I wish I had taken more time to get better photos of this piece because it definitely was one of my favorites.

Instead of the chicken wire inserts that came with the hutch, I added some grain sack style cloth to line those two upper doors.

I just loved all of the details on this piece, those curved sides and that pretty detail at the top.

I hope those of you who have been following me since way back have enjoyed seeing these pieces again, and likewise, I hope some of my newer readers who are being introduced to them for the first time have found this post interesting.

If you have a moment, be sure to leave me a comment and let me know which of these five are your favorite.  Or, maybe head over to my ‘fab furniture (before & after)‘ tab and pick out a favorite that I didn’t share here today.

Then come back on Wednesday to see my top 5 mid mod masterpieces!

This summer I’ve been trying to make an effort to go through things that have been stored upstairs in the carriage house for too long.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t made much headway.  Somehow there’s always something more fun to do.

However, I did manage to drag this set of three bar stools down the stairs and into my workshop a few weeks back.

I don’t remember exactly when I purchased these, except that it was before I was retired.  So … yeah … at least 4 years ago.  I seriously considered putting them at the curb with a free sign on them.  But then I thought, no, just bite the bullet and paint them.

I originally planned to paint them black, and then add a Swiss cross to the seats like the stool I painted a few weeks back.  To that end, after cleaning them up, I gave them each a coat of Rust-Oleum’s spray black primer.  I even got so far as to paint the first chair in Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky.

But I just didn’t love how the stool looked in black.  Then a little voice in my head said ‘hey, why not try out one of the new Dixie Belle Silk All-In-One paint colors instead?’

I picked Truffle because it’s a lovely, rich neutral.

The Silk line of paint has a built in primer and top coat, so technically I didn’t need to prime these bar stools.  But it was already done, and I’m not mad about it.  These stools had that shiny factory finish look to them, so a little extra primer just made it that much easier for the Silk paint to stick.

Each chair got two coats of the Truffle.

Then, inspiration struck.  I saw a post on Iron Orchid Design’s Instagram showing a set of cutting boards that were painted by Jonathon Marc Mendes.  If you haven’t ever seen his work, you should check out his Instagram account,  I really admire his style.

You might be wondering how a trio of cutting boards could inspire a set of barstools.

But it was the way he used the I.O.D. Gregory’s Catalogue paint inlay that caught my eye.  He just used parts of it rather than using the entire design.  And I happened to have that particular paint inlay on hand, so I thought why not try this look on the barstool seats.

So that’s what I did.

FYI, the paint inlay worked perfectly with the Silk paint (which is an acrylic paint).  One tip I’ve read is to not wait too long to remove the inlay’s paper backing.  Unlike chalk paint, acrylic paint is not reactivated with water and may not release the paper backing of the paint inlay as easily if left too long.  After applying the inlay into wet paint, I let it dry for about 30 minutes before wetting the paper back down and peeling off the backing (for full paint inlay instructions, head to this post).

After spraying the seats of the chairs with Rust-Oleum matte spray sealer to keep the inlay from smearing, I then sanded the edges of the chairs to distress them.

Finally, I decided I wanted to add just a little more depth to the Truffle color with dark wax.  So I blended some of Dixie Belle’s Brown wax with some of their Big Mama’s Butta.  The addition of the Butta helps the wax go on more evenly, and makes it easier to blend.  It also mellows the look of the brown wax a bit.

Here’s a look at the difference between a stool with the wax (on left), and one without (on right).

So even though the Silk paint doesn’t require a top coat, you absolutely can add one for aesthetic reasons like I’ve done here.  That brown wax really added some depth to the Truffle paint.

I realize that the look of the partial typography on each stool is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I think it’s pretty fun.

What do you think?

This trio of bar stools is for sale locally, so check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more info if interested.

Thank you to Dixie Belle for providing their products used in today’s makeover.