Category: furniture.

Remember the dollhouse that I purchased for $5 at a garage sale last year?

I’m not sure I mentioned it at the time, but it came partially furnished.  LOL, well, it was mostly just tacky plastic stuff that I discarded, but I did hang on to these three pieces …

They were made out of wood, so I thought they might be fun to paint up.

But much like with full-size furniture, I had to send the larger cupboard over to Ken’s workshop for some repairs first.

It was missing what I presume was meant to be a pull-out cutting board, the opening for it has already been covered up by Ken in the photo below.

A couple of the drawers needed some glue, and like so many cast off pieces of furniture, it was missing just one knob.

After scuff sanding and cleaning it, I gave it a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Then after sanding the edges to create a worn look, I added a couple of transfers.

You’ll note that I painted over the knobs.  That was partially to make them blend a bit more, and partially to disguise the fact that the original 4 knobs are metal while Ken carved a wooden replacement for the fifth one.

The transfers I used are knob transfers from re.design with prima.

They tend to be the perfect size for miniatures.

I lined the drawers with some pretty scrapbook paper.

Can we just take a moment to admire my miniature fly swatter?

I saved a handful of things from the dollhouse that my dad made, including that and the other props I used in these photos.

The remaining two pieces were pretty simple makeovers with more paint and transfers.

The transfer on top of the bookcase is from the Classic Vintage Labels from re.design with prima.

As is the ‘cafe’ transfer on the trunk.

These mini’s were so fun to work on, and so much easier than working on full-sized furniture, LOL.

I think they are much improved with a little quandification.

What do you think?

As far as what I’m going to do with them, I do have a bit of an idea percolating in the back of my mind.  We’ll just have to wait and see if it comes to fruition or not!

I just love the graphics of a good clock face, I don’t need them to actually tell time.

How about you?

I have a whole non-collection of vintage wind-up alarm clocks that never actually tell the current time.

I recently added another clock face to my décor when I decided to repaint the Norwegian blue stool that I originally painted back in 2017.

I’d been inspired to paint the stool in Miss Mustard Seed’s Flow Blue after a trip to Norway that year.

I’ve been enjoying it in that color ever since (can it really have been six years ago?!), but lately I’ve been slowly eliminating a lot of the blue in our house.  Initially I was going to take it to the shop to sell, but then I realized that I could also just paint it.  A good stool comes in handy for so many things, so I may as well keep it, right?

So I gave it a couple of coats of my favorite white, Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  I want to point out that I was painting right over a surface that was waxed (using Miss Mustard Seed clear wax) six years ago.  The only prep I did was to wipe it down with a damp rag.  I found that the DB paint adhered just fine, but also distressed down to the blue quite easily.

If you are in the same situation, and don’t want your paint to wear quite so easily, I would recommend using a little steel wool and mineral spirits to remove the wax.  Just scrub the surface a bit, then let the mineral spirits evaporate before you start painting.

Once my paint was dry, I added the clock face transfer from I.O.D.’s Brocante transfer.

It just happened to be the perfect fit.

Once the transfer was in place, I gave the stool a top coat of clear wax.

I don’t have a permanent spot for it just yet, it will likely float around the house and go wherever needed.  With its new black and white look it can work in any room, but for the moment I’ve got it on the front porch where it fits in perfectly.

Not bad for a quick little makeover, is it?

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint used in this makeover.

You know, I find it just a tad mind-boggling that I have been retired from the day job for almost two years already.    I retired on November 30, 2021, so I’ve basically been through two winters without a day job.

I had planned to makeover my home office … a.k.a. the q branch … that first winter.  Theoretically winter is the season when I would have the most time available for a room makeover.  But I didn’t get to it then.  And I also didn’t get to it last winter.

How did that happen?  Where did the time go?

Well, this winter is going to be the winter I actually do it.  Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

Towards that end, I have completed the first couple of tasks on the ‘q branch makeover to-list’.  First up, I have emptied out the rooster cupboard and moved it out.

As much as I loved that cupboard, the room always felt a bit ‘cupboard heavy’ since I have my large English pine cupboard on the opposite wall.

In addition, that little bitty farmhouse table that I was using for a desk was really just too small.  In order to fit a larger desk in the room, the rooster had to go.

After spending a bit of time trying to find just the right desk on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist and coming up empty, I decided to shop my own house.

Mr. Q didn’t really need this library table desk in his office anymore (he had a total of three desks in that room!) …

So I decided it would be perfect for me!

The desk had a darkish finish with specks of black in it.  I believe this is called flyspeck.

When was that look popularized, do any of you know?  I feel like it makes things look rather dated now, but maybe that’s just me.

Also, FYI, the top of the desk is a herringbone patterned veneer which you can sort of see here …

My plan for this desk definitely involved stripping that top, and that needed to get done before it gets too cold to work outside.  Even though it was nearly 100° here on Monday, it was only 65° here yesterday.  Fall always seems to arrive practically overnight.

I didn’t mess with oven cleaner, or other Insta-popular stripping methods, I simply used some Citristrip which worked like a charm.

Once I had the top stripped, I sanded it smooth with some 220 grit paper and then sealed it with clear wax.  I wanted to keep the pale color of the bare wood, but also to protect it from moisture and dirt.  I think clear wax does the best job of that when you don’t want to darken up the color too much.

For my own personal furniture I prefer using wax rather than a water based poly type of sealer because it’s so much easier to ‘fix’ down the road.  If you get a ring from an errant water glass, just sand it down with some 220 grit sandpaper and re-apply  the wax.  I’ve done this with quite a few of my own pieces of furniture and it works like a charm.

Next I gave the base of the desk a coat of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S.  I wasn’t entirely sure that the pre-existing stain wouldn’t bleed thru my paint, so better safe than sorry, it’s easy to quickly paint on a coat of B.O.S.S.

I followed that up with two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  I also find that I get better coverage with my paint when I have a base coat of clear B.O.S.S.  Two coats of paint over that original dark stain covered perfectly.

I know the use of a warm white might seem a bit boring at the moment, but when I get around to it (hopefully this winter), I plan to put some color on those walls and then the desk will really pop.

After the paint was dry, I sanded the edges of the desk to distress them and then added more clear wax to the painted areas.

I had debated changing out the knobs on the drawers, but in the end I decided the scale of them was better than anything else I had on hand.  So after giving the original knobs a good cleaning with hot, soapy water, I brightened them up with a coat of Dixie Belle’s Gold gilding wax.

That gold pairs beautifully with my gold desk lamp too.

For now I’m just testing out this angled sort of floating placement of the desk in the room.  I may move it around a bit, but then again, so far I kind of like it like this.  I no longer have my back to the rest of the house while writing blog posts.

I’ll also be shopping for a different chair to pair with the desk, my old chair is a bit too low.

I filled in the empty corner behind the desk with a stack of vintage suitcases, and then I hung my fake Matisse, a.k.a. my Al Teeter, above it.

I plan to revisit decorating the walls once I get them painted.

But for now it’s good to have ‘refinish desk’ and ‘remove rooster cupboard and old desk’ checked off the to-do list.

Speaking of the rooster cupboard, it will be for sale.  I’m just trying to decide whether or not to re-finish it.  The milk paint that I put on it back in 2015 has continued to chip away over time and now it’s quite chippy.

I love it like this, but I don’t know if there is a huge market for chippy pieces these days.

What do you think?  And what do you think of my desk makeover?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for supply the B.O.S.S., paint and gilding wax used for this makeover.

A few weeks back one of my readers contacted me and asked if I wanted to purchase some pieces from her (she’s another one moving to Florida!).

Most of what she was selling was too big for me, I no longer take on full dining sets or large hutches.  But she did have this cedar chest …

I have to admit, the wood on this is pretty.  The finish on the top was a bit damaged, but could have been stripped and refinished and it would have been lovely.  But I wanted to go in a different direction.

I started by removing the carved medallion thingie in the middle on the front.

That wasn’t going to work with my plan.

After filling the tiny nail holes with some of Dixie Belle’s Mud, I cleaned the entire piece, and then scuff sanded it.  Next up I gave it a coat of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. to prevent stain or wood tannins from bleeding through my paint.

By the way, all of this is happening on the outside.  This is a cedar lined trunk, so naturally I left that lining alone.

Next up came two coats of Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy.

Then I pulled out a Gregory’s Catalogue paint inlay from I.O.D. that I had already used one time.  They say you can get up to three uses out of a paint inlay, but I’ve found that even a 2nd use can be a dicey proposition.  I have managed to use one of these a 2nd time on some smaller projects (here and here), but both times I mentioned that the inlay paper comes off in pieces after that 2nd use, eliminating any chance of a 3rd use.

But this time I was using full sheets rather than smaller sections of the inlay, and frankly, after about 30 minutes of trying to remove the paper in ever smaller bits and pieces I just gave up.

FYI, I took that photo after the paper had dried again.  But yes, I was getting it plenty wet when attempting to remove it.

This was a lot like trying to remove wallpaper that just won’t come off, except you really can’t use a scraper, and you can’t really rub too hard, because that will smear the paint inlay.

But you know what?  After giving it some thought, I decided this was a chance to start over.  I felt like the fresh paint job was looking far too … well … fresh, and I really wanted this trunk to look old.  So I got out my orbital sander and sanded that paint inlay backing paper off.

Then I pulled out some of Dixie Belle’s texture additive, Sea Spray.  I decided to give the trunk a textured undercoat in a color that could peek through the final color.  I ended up deciding on Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road for that.  I gave the entire piece one coat of straight Gravel Road first, then I mixed up some more of the paint with the Sea Spray.

I used a chip brush to stipple the mixture onto the piece here and there, wherever I wanted to have some texture.  Once that was dry, I added a coat of Sawmill Gravy over it.

Once the paint was dry, I sanded back the areas with the Sea Spray to create some faux chipping.

Then, I applied a brand new Gregory’s Catalogue paint inlay (for full instructions on applying a paint inlay, check out this post).

I’m not going to sugar coat it, it’s a bit of a bummer that this inlay costs nearly $50, and I will likely only get one full use out of it.

But, how else are you going to create this look?

You certainly can’t find any stencils with wording this large.  And there aren’t any transfers that look like this.  I suppose if you’re quite talented you could do this free-hand, but I don’t have that skill, or that kind of patience.

The paint inlay was an almost perfect fit for this trunk.  I say ‘almost’, because I did have to do a little re-arranging of the layout to get it to fit nicely.  I had to work around those carved details on either side of the front of the trunk, so I moved the ‘Vegetable, Flower and Grain’ line to the bottom.

As it was, the beginning and ending of the line overlapped that carving a bit, and the paint inlay did not lay flat on those ends.

But that was easy to fix later by filling in some blank spots using a small artist’s brush and some of Dixie Belle’s Caviar paint.

This trunk would be perfect for using at the foot of the bed filled with either extra bedding, or your bulky winter sweaters.  In fact, it’s probably big enough to hold both.

It would also work well in a foyer to hold shoes, and it’s certainly sturdy enough that you could sit on it while taking your boots off.

I suppose it would also make a reasonable toy box, but personally I wouldn’t let children with crayons to get too close.

I’m sure not everyone would have been in favor of painting this trunk, but I love the way it turned out.

How about you?

This trunk is for sale locally, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the Mud, B.O.S.S., Sea Spray, and paint used on this project.

Is that Barbie movie being marketed like crazy or what?  You’d have to be living in a cave not to have noticed.  I haven’t seen the movie, mainly because I don’t go to the theatre anymore.  I’ll wait until I can stream it (and drink wine while still wearing painting clothes when watching).

I was definitely a Barbie girl growing up though.  Malibu Barbie was a favorite, I loved her tan and her long, straight hair that was so much prettier than my frizzy curls.

But Live Action Barbie definitely had my favorite outfit.

How many of you remember that one?  That outfit was awesome.

I have actually hung onto one of my Barbie’s outfits.

My grandmother knitted that for me.  It’s far more classy than the psychedelic number on Live Action Barbie.  That’s probably why it’s still in such good shape, Malibu Barbie rarely actually wore it.

But today’s post isn’t actually about Barbie, it’s a furniture makeover post.

Hallelujah, I have completed another piece of furniture!  Four more to go before the snow flies.

I picked up that hutch at a garage sale earlier this summer.  I thought it looked a bit outdated in that wood tone, with those aged brass knobs.  I knew it would be fun to give it a new lease on life.

Well, I’m not sure ‘fun’ is the right word.  These sorts of pieces can be so much work.  Especially if you’re opting to paint both the inside and the outside.  I started with removing those knobs and the decorative metal back plates behind them.  I then used some of Dixie Belle’s Mud to fill some tiny nail holes left behind by the back plates.  Then I cleaned the piece, followed by a light sanding overall, followed by a coat of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. (again, an ounce of prevention for bleed-thru).

Then I got to work painting.  I painted the outside and the upper inside with Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Once dry I sanded lightly to distress.

I know that not everyone is a fan of distressing these days, but I still love the way it brings out the detail in something like this.  I also like that you’re not quite so worried about wear showing over time, because it’s meant to look a little worn.

And here’s where this hutch joins the Barbie world, I painted the inside of the lower portion in Dixie Belle’s Prickly Pear.

Wowza, now that is a pop of Barbie pink!

And why not have a vibrant pop of color inside?  No one will know it’s there unless they open the cabinet.

Sidebar note; our new fence is earning its keep in that photo (right side of above photo), it’s blocking the neighbor’s pickup truck from view.  It was worth every bit of blood, sweat and tears that went into putting it up.

I added re.design with prima’s Flower Collector transfer in gold inside the top portion of the cabinet.

I like that it’s very subtle in the gold on white (it also comes in black), and I know most of it will get covered up if the cabinet is full of stuff, but as I’ve learned from my own glass fronted cabinet, you can artfully arrange things to allow that background to peek through.  Especially if you’re a fan of the ‘less is more’ approach.

As you may have noticed in that photo, the shelves in this piece are adjustable.

Once the transfer was in place, I added a topcoat of Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat over all of the Drop Cloth and over the transfer.  The Prickly Pear interior didn’t need a topcoat since it’s the Dixie Belle Silk paint with a built in primer and top coat.

Finally, I added replacement pulls from Hobby Lobby.

I wanted something a little more updated, and a lot more gold.  Although these pulls came in ‘gold’, they weren’t quite gold enough for me.  So I added some of Dixie Belle’s Gold Gilding Wax to them to brighten them up even a bit more.

Although you could use this hutch in the traditional way, filled with china or knick knacks, I think there are so many other ways to put one of these to use.  You could use it as a linen closet, filling it with stacks of pretty towels.  You could use it as a small library, filled with books.  You could use it in the potting shed, filled with clay pots and other gardening items.  You could use it in your craft room, filled with all of your crafting supplies.  Or in the end, you could fill it up with one of your non-collections, like my matte white pottery!  The possibilities are endless.

What do you think of the transformation?

And I have to ask, do any of you have ‘I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world’ stuck in your head now?  Or it is just me?

This hutch is for sale locally, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing their products used in this makeover.

My neighbor nnK spotted this headboard at the curb with a ‘free’ sign on it sometime last summer.

She came and picked me up, and we went back for it (she couldn’t load it by herself).

I had initially hoped that my handyman Ken would be willing to turn it into a bench for me, but he wasn’t up for it this time around.  If there had been a matching footboard to cut in half and use to create the arms, he would have done it.  But without the footboard, he just didn’t want to tackle the project.

So, it sat in my carriage house all fall, and winter, and spring … and I finally pulled it out to get started on it the other day.

At first I was planning to just simply paint it black.  After all, I’ve done a couple of these spoon carved beds in the past in black …

and they were pretty quick sales.

But before I could get started painting it, I needed to sand it.  It had a lot of flaking varnish and I needed to get rid of that first.

As I was sanding it, I seriously considered doing a ‘raw wood’ sort of finish on it.  It really would have been pretty fab with the finish stripped and then a coat of clear wax.  But honestly, I just couldn’t make myself do it.  I’m not a fan of stripping, and after sanding on it for quite some time, I realized it would require the use of a stripper to get all of those spoon carved details clean.

In the end, what I really wanted to do was paint it in Drop Cloth and add I.O.D.’s The Botanist transfer to it.  I was hesitating because I just don’t know if it will sell this way.  But I decided to just go for it.

After cleaning up the dust from sanding it, I gave it a coat of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. first.  I have definitely learned over the years that it’s so much easier to be safe rather than sorry when it comes to bleed-thru.

Next up, two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

After that had dried for several days (while I painted the back of the house), I applied the transfer.

Isn’t that just pretty as a picture.  So sweet.

Maybe too sweet for some?  That’s what I’m worried about.

But I love it.

After the transfer was in place, I sanded lightly to distress this piece and then finished it with a coat of clear wax.

The transfer may seem like it’s placed too high on the headboard in my photos, but I think once you’ve got a box spring and mattress in front of it, with a nice stack of fluffy pillows, it will be just right.  And your pillows won’t hide the design.

Sidebar comment; just check out the tatting on that pillowcase.

Can you imagine how long it took to do that?

OK, back to the bed.  In case it’s not apparent in the photos so far, I should point out that this headboard is TALL at 6′.  It will definitely make a statement in any room.

As I’ve mentioned a few times before here on the blog, antique beds don’t come in sizes larger than a full.  They didn’t start making queens and kings until after WWII, and they didn’t become popular until the late 50’s to early 60’s.

So this headboard is technically for a full (or double) sized bed.  However, I’ve modified it to also fit a queen mattress.  We did this with our own bed, and it works out great.  You can find all of those details here.

But basically, with Ken’s help I’ve added a 60″ board along the bottom of the headboard.  It is pre-drilled so that one can bolt the metal frame to the board using the brackets on the metal frame.

The metal frame (that will be included with the bed) can be adjusted for a queen, full or twin sized box spring and mattress.

One could easily switch this back to a double sized bed by removing the board (it’s held on with screws) and bolting the metal frame right to the legs of the headboard.  You could also technically turn this into a twin bed by drilling new holes into that board, but I don’t think it would look quite right with so much ‘extra’ headboard.

When it comes to selling these antique beds, I’m always asked “is it sturdy?”  Well, in this case all of the weight of the box spring, mattress and sleeping people is carried by that modern metal frame.  The headboard is purely decorative.  Attaching it to the metal frame will allow it to stand up, but it won’t completely eliminate any wobble.  For example, if one were to be jumping on the bed (or, um, well, you know what I mean), it will make that headboard bounce.  But it shouldn’t come crashing down or anything, unless you’re some kind of a gymnast, and then all bets are off.

I always try to read the wording on transfers like this one, just to make sure they don’t say anything odd.

I had to laugh when I got to the part about descriptions that were ‘intended to convey both moral and intellectual gratification’.  I’m really wondering what the moral implications of ornamental plants might be.

I don’t know about moral or intellectual, but I definitely got a lot of some kind of gratification out of making over this curbside find.

Not bad for free at the curb, right?

This bed is for sale, so be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page if interested in the details.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for supplying the B.O.S.S. and the paint used for this makeover.

Remember the antique washstand that I brought home from the Nokomis neighborhood sale?

Well, I’ve been working on it for weeks!  Somehow it always seems like there is something else I need to focus on first.  But I’ve been chipping away at it, a little at a time, and it’s finally done.

I started with a few repairs that involved gluing some joints.  I also had to thoroughly scrub this one inside and out because it was filthy.  Next I stripped the top.  It took a couple of applications of CitriStrip to get that dark stain off.  Once it was gone, I sanded the top smooth and then stained it with Varathane’s Sunbleached wood stain.

I’ve used this stain a few times on various pieces and always love the way it turns out.

If you’re a fan of the sun-bleached look of raw wood, but you don’t like how adding back a topcoat darkens the wood back up again, then you may want to try this stain.

After letting the stain dry for 24 hours, I added two coats of Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat over it to protect the top.

As much as I know that people are loving the raw wood look these days, and that top looked fabulous, I just couldn’t bring myself to tackle stripping the entire piece.  There is just so much elbow grease involved no matter how you do it.

So instead I decided to ‘neutralize’ the base with some of Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage.

Step aside Drop Cloth, this color is slowly becoming my new favorite neutral.

Last year I used it on my potting shed floor (as I mentioned in Wednesday’s post), then I used it on Annie’s dresser …

and then I used it on the Farmers Market bookcase …

And of course I used it on the trunk on my front porch.

And now I’ve used it on this washstand.

I love that this color has a little more depth than the Drop Cloth (although, don’t worry, I do have another piece that I’m going to paint with Drop Cloth soon).

I opted to swap out the round knob that was on the door for a wooden one, which I also painted.  Then I also went ahead and painted the drawer pulls.

Since I was aiming for a more neutral sort of look, I wanted to blend those pulls in with the body a bit.

Next up I lined the two lower drawers, and the cupboard area, with some scrapbook paper.  Since scrapbook paper is 12″ x 12″, it works out great if your drawer/cupboard is that size or smaller.

I doesn’t work so well if your drawer is quite a bit wider, and also has a curvy front, though.  So instead of lining the top drawer, I freshened it up with a coat of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta.

Finally, I couldn’t just leave this piece totally plain.  So I added a small stencil to the cupboard door.

This is one of the small 8″ x 8″ German Grain Sack stencils from ellen j goods, and it fit the opening perfectly.

I have to tell you that I initially stenciled it using Drop Cloth, but found that was too much of a contrast.  I wanted a far more subtle look so I sanded that down, repainted the door, and then tried again using some more Dried Sage that I lighted up a tad with Drop Cloth.

Perfect!

I top-coated the painted areas of the washstand with Big Mama’s Butta from Dixie Belle.

I have to say, I definitely lightened this one up.

What do you think?  Do you prefer the lighter version?  Leave a comment and let me know.

This piece is for sale locally, so be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page if interested.