Category: furniture.

First, under the heading of ‘whatever happened to …’, here are some updates in case any of you are even remotely interested.

1. Princess officially canceled our European Capitals cruise this week.  Of course, I didn’t really think there was much chance of that still taking place, but it was a little disappointing to have it made official.  At this point I think we are all realizing that it’s going to take a lot longer than we thought before we can return to traveling the world.
2. My progressive bi-focals came back in and work much better than the first version.  I still can’t really wear them for computer work, but I think they’ll be great for garage saling … if we ever get to do that again.  I’m also pleasantly surprised to find that they work quite well for working on painting projects, as well as for gardening.  Again, thanks to all of you who left comments suggesting I should take them back in for adjusting.
3. After a couple more visits to the Endodontist, I think I might finally be recovering from my 2nd round of root canal problems.  Phew.  I’m glad to put that behind me (although I still have to get the crowns done, my regular dentist is not opening until June).

I know that compared to much of what’s going on in the world, these were all very minor things.  I feel a bit guilty even mentioning them here.  Everyone in the q is for quandie family is healthy including handyman Ken (who I do worry about with this COVID thing, since he is 80+), and I’m very grateful for that.  I hope all of you are staying safe and are also staying well.

Hopefully I can take your minds off world problems for just a few moments today by sharing a small project I worked on.

While I had the Dixie Belle Sea Glass paint out for the piece I shared on Monday, I decided to also use it on this little vintage rocker I purchased ages ago at a garage sale.

I’d been waiting for inspiration to strike before painting it.  I thought it might be fun to use another of the Vintage Seed transfers on it.

I started by painting and distressing the rocker.

Then I added a section of the Vintage Seed transfer to the seat.

But I felt like the chair back was crying out for a little something too, so I pulled out the Classic Vintage Labels transfer and found the perfect thing.

Once the transfers were applied, I waxed the entire thing with clear wax.

I feel like I could create an full back story on how this little rocker came from a seed store in Pella, Iowa.

Can’t you just picture it in the window of an old fashioned Main Street general store?  One that not only has basic goods, but also has a full section of gardening implements and seeds?

Maybe one like the old general store in Marine on the St. Croix that my husband’s ancestors owned in 1907.

I’m planning on taking this little chair in to Reclaiming Beautiful to sell once it re-opens.  In fact, I’m building up quite the pile of smalls waiting for the Stay at Home order to be lifted.  I feel a little bit like we’re going to totally miss the spring/garden season this year and I have all kinds of fun goodies waiting in the wings.  Fingers crossed that shops can open up again soon!

In the meantime, as always, thanks to Dixie Belle for providing the paint and to re.design with prima for providing the transfers for this project.

If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

If you’re looking for re.design with prima products you can find local retailers here, or online sources here.

Finally, I have a piece of furniture to share with you guys today!

I purchased this secretary desk/hutch last fall, as evidenced by the fall colors in the ‘before’ photo which I took right away when I brought it home …

I partially chose this piece because the price was right, but I also thought it would be a fun challenge to totally change it up.

I’ve been storing this one in the carriage house all winter, so it feels good to have it out of there now.  When I first started to work on it, I pulled out the little drawer inside the drop down desk section to find that the previous owners hadn’t emptied it out.

Once again, I was disappointed when I didn’t find a wad of cash or maybe a lost Van Gogh.  Instead I was gifted with Hannah Montana tattoos and some questionable film negatives.  But I did find it slightly magical that the owner of the handmade drivers license and I share the same birthday.  It feels meant to be.

Step one with this piece was to remove that header on the top.  I think this may end up being a controversial approach, but I feel like that colonial sort of look is pretty dated … and not in a good way.  I also removed the fretwork in front of the glass, the faux key hole escutcheons and the drawer pulls (also decidedly colonial in style).  Finally, I removed those very 80’s looking round ball wheels.  I’ll admit, they worked really well … but they looked totally out of place on this piece.

I painted the interior of the piece in Dixie Belle’s Sea Glass, and the exterior in their Drop Cloth.

This is such a pretty combination.

It was seriously putzy to paint the interior of the drop down desk portion using a brush.  But back when I started on this piece it was only in the 30’s outside, so I had to paint inside the house which meant I couldn’t spray it.  If only I had known that it was going to warm up to the 70’s within a week or so.  I may as well have waited just a bit longer to work on this one.

By the way, I’ve totally cheated on these photos by taking them before putting the glass back in those doors.  I always get so much glare from glass doors.  But I will be putting the glass back in before listing it for sale.

Once two coats of Sea Glass were dry, I added a small section from one of the newest re.design with prima transfers called Paris Valley to the little drawer.

The Paris Valley transfer is a collage style mix of various graphics …

Once again, this is one that you could use as is, but I’ll definitely be cutting it up to use various bits and pieces on lots of different projects.  I circled the little bit that I used on that drawer above.

Then I coated it all with Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat.  I chose to use the clear coat rather than my usual wax for more durability on both the writing surface of the drop down desk and the shelves.

Next I pulled out another of the new Spring 2020 re.design with prima transfers.  This one is called Flower Collector, and I’m fairly sure it’s going to end up being one of my favorites.

It’s another gold transfer, and for this piece I chose to put it over the Drop Cloth for a more subtle look.  These gold transfers also look amazing over dark colors (like this piece).

I’ll point out that I switched up the layout of this transfer, using the bottom section of it on the drop down desk and the rest on the drawers.

That was a much better fit for my piece.  Always keep in mind that you don’t have to use a transfer ‘as is’ out of the package.

Once the transfer was applied, I added a coat of clear wax to the exterior (all of the Drop Cloth parts).

I was planning to put clear glass knobs on the drawers, but then I discovered these knobs in my stash.  I had just the right amount, and they were the perfect color.  I’m pretty sure I bought these at Hobby Lobby, but it was at least a year ago or more.

One last little detail to share, I did put the brass key hole escutcheon back on the upper door.  But first I used Dixie Belle’s patina paint in Copper with their blue spray to give it a verdigris sort of finish which worked beautifully with the Sea Glass color.

It feels so good to have this piece finished at last!

I absolutely love how it turned out.  I’m tempted to keep it for my front porch.  If it doesn’t sell right away, I might just have to do that.

So, now I’m curious.  How many of you wish I had left those original colonial elements in place?  And how many of you prefer my slightly modernized version?

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint and to re.design with prima for providing the transfers for this project.

If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

If you’re looking for re.design with prima products you can find local retailers here, or online sources here.

And if you are local and in need of a flower collector’s secretary desk, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page.  Although our ‘Stay at Home’ order has now been extended another two weeks, I am willing to set up a physically distanced appointment if anyone local is interested in this or any other pieces I have for sale.

Oh no, you guys.  Although I’ve been trying to minimize the time I spend watching COVID-19 related bad news these days, I made a huge tactical error the other night and started watching some YouTube videos about its impact on the cruise industry.

In case you hadn’t heard (and maybe many of you don’t actually care), on April 9 the CDC extended its ban on cruise ships sailing in U.S. waters to 100 days.  In addition, the cruise lines are going to have to make some fairly significant changes to the way they operate before they can resume business.  At least in U.S. waters.  I don’t know if the E.U. or other areas will follow suit.  Nonetheless, it seems like the chances of Mr. Q and I actually going on our European Capitals cruise in September are looking slimmer and slimmer.  If you’re an avid cruiser and want to learn more about this, check out this guy on YouTube.

One of the many expected changes for cruise ships is an elimination of buffet style food and drink on board.  So no more self-serve ice cream, no more taco bars, and no more midnight buffets.

So, as a sort of fond farewell to the buffet, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite buffets starting with one I actually called ‘the midnight buffet.’

I painted this one back in October 2016.  It’s painted in Fusion’s Midnight Blue.  It only required one coat of paint (thanks to the dark color over a dark existing stain), plus Fusion doesn’t require a topcoat.  So this was a definite plus when working on such a large piece.

I had so much fun staging the midnight buffet outdoors using some funky whisk brooms in cages and taking advantage of the falling leaves.

I painted another buffet in dark blue, this time using Dixie Belle Paint Co’s Bunker Hill Blue.

This blue is a little bit brighter than Fusion’s Midnight Blue, but I toned it down by adding a black glaze over it (if you want to see this color without a black glaze, check out this piece).

Another option for achieving a similar color using Dixie Belle paint is to make a 50/50 mix of their Bunker Hill Blue and In the Navy.

This time around I stripped and refinished the wood top with Fusion’s furniture wax in Espresso (a dark brown wax).

Just for fun I added a bright pop of color to the interior using Fusion’s Coral.

Not all of my buffets have been dark blue.  When I first starting painting with Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint I went through a definite Kitchen Scale phase starting with painting my own buffet (at the time, I have since sold it) in this color.

I loved it so much that I painted two more buffets in Kitchen Scale.

This next piece was so pretty, but it was quite large and since I painted it in the winter I wasn’t able to do my photos outside.

Plus this was back when I first started blogging and my photo skills were in need of practice.  So, I don’t feel like my pictures did this one justice.

But the chippy finish of milk paint was perfect on this piece.  Just check out those chippy legs!

If you’re wondering why those three pieces all seem to be a slightly different color, there are a few factors at play.  First of all, as per Miss Mustard Seeds blog, there can be as much as a 15% variation in the color from one bag of milk paint to the next.  In addition, milk paint tends to be a little less opaque than some paints so the color you are covering up can make a difference in your final color.  Finally, the white balance in my photos isn’t perfect in any of those photos.

Not all of my buffets have been left as buffets either.  I turned this one into a wine bar with the help of my handyman, Ken.

I had finished it just prior to one of my Carriage House sales, so I was in a hurry to get photos taken before the sale.  The hemp oil topcoat was freshly applied when I took these, and that’s not really a good look for photos.

Another fun piece was this buffet re-styled as a TV stand.

Ken cut holes in the back behind each of those center shelves so that one could run the electrical cords for a DVD player or other components out the back.

I’ve done a few more buffets in varying shades of grey.

A few years back I decided to try the General Finishes Milk Paint.  I think this product did more to confuse people about milk paint than any other product out there.  That’s because it’s not really milk paint.  Here is what they say about that on their website:  We named our product Milk Paint with the intention of putting a clear, bright, contemporary spin on an old fashioned furniture paint tradition. With that said, GF’s Milk Paint is not a true Milk Paint as it does not contain any milk powder.

Instead, General Finishes is a mineral based acrylic paint.  I found it very similar to Fusion paint.  Much like Fusion, it does not require a topcoat, although you can add one if you want to.  If you like using Fusion, you’ll like General Finishes Milk Paint and vice versa.

Anyway, this next buffet is painted in their Queenstown Gray.

On this next piece I used a fun technique.

  I started out by painting it with Fusion’s Ash.  Then I used the Imperial Damask stencil and the Galaxy Decor Wax from re.design with prima to add a subtle design.

This one has a fun pop of color on the inside too, this time using Dixie Belle’s Peony.

This last grey piece is really more of a dresser, but I think it would work beautifully as a buffet so I decided to include it in this post.

That one was painted in Homestead House milk paint in a color called Bedford.

Although I usually call them credenzas, I always enjoy doing the mid-mod version of a buffet using a bit more color.

There’s my absolute favorite green, Fusion’s Park Bench.

And this next one was a fun combination of turquoise and warm white.

I did some color blocking on this next mid-mod piece in grey, yellow and white.

And although this next piece is meant to be a dresser, I think it would work really well as a buffet too.

In fact, I staged it that way for the photos.

That pretty shade of green is a Sherwin Williams color called Aloe from their Vintage Moxie collection.

I hope you enjoyed this ‘buffet of buffets’ with me.  On the plus side, it was calorie-free!

Let me know what you favorite buffet was.  And if you’re also fond of cruises, are you also going to miss the buffet?

I felt like I needed a bit of a break last weekend.  Although I had a number of projects I could have worked on, I just wasn’t in the mood.

I think the trip that Mr. Q and I took to Target on Saturday morning threw me off.  There was just something so disconcerting about people making an obvious effort to stay 6′ away.  Of course I know why people are doing it, but I still somehow feel rejected when someone takes a big detour around me as though I am giving off a bad odor.  And then there were the people with bandannas over their faces.  Are they about to rob the place, or are they just out hoping to find toilet paper like I was?

The world has turned completely upside down, and I needed some time to process it.  So Mr. Q and I played some board games, went for a walk in the park and then binge watched Travel Man on Hulu.

But I didn’t want to leave you guys hanging today, so I decided to do a compilation post.

Thus, I bring you the humble washstand.

I’ve painted quite a few of these over the years.  They are perfect for a quick makeover because they are smaller than a dresser or desk and you can easily whip one up in a day.  They are also fairly versatile pieces.  You can use them as a bedside table, an end table, in the foyer … I’ve even seen them with sinks added to the top and used as a bathroom vanity.

Another possibility is to use them as a coffee bar.

Looking back, it seems that my favorite color to use on washstands is white.  I’ve painted several of them, including this next one,  with Dixie Belle Paint Co’s Drop Cloth, which is a warm white.

Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Linen is also a lovely warm white, and it worked beautifully on this washstand …

Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Grain Sack is also a good choice if you want a cooler, grey undertone to your white (and if you aren’t a fan of milk paint, I recommend Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy as a substitute for this color) …

Grain Sack was the color I chose for the washstand that I inherited from my grandparents.  We use this as a nightstand on Mr. Q’s side of the bed.

If you want more of an almond color, Miss Mustard Seed’s Marzipan is a great choice.

I’ve done two in Marzipan, this next one being one of my favorites.

I didn’t even have to paint this next washstand, it was already white when I bought it.  But I did add the Out on the Farm transfer from re.design with prima.

Every once in a while, I break out some more vibrant colors.  This washstand is painted in Sweet Pickens In a Pickle and turned out perfectly chippy.

This next washstand is painted in a custom mix of Miss Mustard Seed milk paint, 1/3 Boxwood to 2/3 Kitchen Scale …

In general, I’m more of a neutral lover though.  Dixie Belle Paint Co’s Putty was perfect on this one along with re.design with prima’s Fine Horseman transfer.

So, there you have an even dozen of my favorite washstand makeovers.

Which one is your favorite?  Or have you painted some washstands yourself?  What is your favorite color to use on them?

As always, thanks to my blog sponsors Dixie Belle Paint Co and re.design with prima for providing many of the products used on these washstands. 

I hope that all of you are surviving the pandemic.  We had my sister and niece over for a game night on Saturday.  We did our best to practice safe socializing.  First off, I thoroughly cleaned the house including using sanitizing wipes on all of the door knobs and handles.  Next, I used individual plates and small bowls for the game night snacks so that no one was sharing from one bowl.  My niece refrained from tasting my Jose’ Cuervo Cherry Limeade Margarita (although normally she would have).  No hugs were exchanged, and my sister and niece stayed on their side of table and we stayed on ours.

Naturally we played Pandemic.

We’ve been playing this game since before it was trendy.  If you aren’t familiar, it’s a co-operative game, which means that everyone works together for a common goal.  In this case, saving the world from diseases.  Either we all win or we all lose.  Each player takes on a role such as Quarantine Specialist, Medic or Researcher and has specific skills to use in trying to defeat four diseases before they multiply uncontrollably.

Sadly, we aren’t that good at the game.  We lost every single time on Saturday.  I hope that’s not a sign.

Earlier on Saturday, I worked on a bed that I brought home from a garage sale last summer.

It was a freebie.  I had considered having Ken make it into another bench but the foot board is too short for that to work.  So, it stays a bed.

I started by sanding it down, cleaning it with TSP substitute and then painting it with two coats of Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy.

Once dry, I sanded to distress and then waxed the foot board with clear wax.  I held off on waxing the headboard so that I could add a transfer.

Always remember, don’t try to apply a transfer over freshly applied wax.  You’ll end up with a sticky mess as the friction from rubbing the transfer heats up the wax.  You can wait until the wax cures (about 30 days), but that’s not terribly practical.  I prefer waiting to wax over the entire piece after the transfer is added.

Next I pulled out re.design with prima’s Cosmic Roses transfer.

The full transfer was a bit too tall for the headboard, so I decided to just use the floral bunches in the two opposite corners.  I’ll save the middle cluster of flowers for another project.

I simply trimmed around them before removing the backing paper.

I also changed the placement of some additional segments, like the Spring Flowers above.

Always keep in mind that you don’t have to use these transfers exactly as they come out of the tube.  You can get creative with trimming and re-arranging them to customize them for your piece.

Unfortunately this bed did not come with its side rails.  I have two pair of spare side rails in my carriage house (left over from beds that became benches), and sadly neither one of them fit the existing slots on the bed.

I’m going to try and sell it without the rails first, but if that doesn’t fly I’ll order a set of bolt-on rails from Amazon (like this one which is only $34).  I know some people will only purchase an item that is ready to go, while others are OK with having to add the rails themselves.  I’ll just have to see how that goes.

By the way, remember the bookshelf I shared last week?  Wouldn’t it be a great companion piece for this bed?  The Antebellum Blue on the bookcase works beautifully with the blues in the Cosmic Roses.  Plus, both pieces have a touch of gold.

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint and to re.design with prima for providing the transfer for this project.

If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

If you’re looking for re.design with prima products you can find local retailers here, or online sources here.

And if you are local and in need of a twin sized bed, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page.

I’m continuing to pull old pieces out of the pile in the carriage house.  A friend of mine passed this bookcase on to me a while ago … dare I even say, it was probably a couple of years ago.

It was pretty in the existing white, but the paint that was used was a little too shiny for my taste.  Also, I snapped the ‘before’ photo above after I sanded it to prep it for painting.  So it wasn’t really distressed when I got it either.

Because this is a smaller piece, I decided to go big with color.  I’d recently ordered Antebellum Blue from Dixie Belle Paint Co and I was dying to try it out.

It took two coats of the Antebellum Blue to cover the white.

Once I had it painted I wanted to add just a little something extra inside the bookshelf.  I considered using a transfer, but I didn’t have one that was a good fit.  So instead I decided to add a stencil.  I had a feeling that a metallic gold would pair beautifully with the Antebellum Blue, and I had also recently ordered the Moonshine Metallics paint in Gold Digger (also from Dixie Belle).

By the way, I used that Mini brush shown above to paint the bookcase.  It’s so much easier painting inside a bookcase with a short brush like this that let’s you get in there without knocking the end of your brush into the underside of shelves.

But back to the stenciling.  I hadn’t used the Gold Digger before, and I wasn’t sure how it would work for stenciling so I decided to do a test board first.  I always recommend doing this when you’re trying out a new product or technique for the first time.

So I painted a piece of board in the Antebellum Blue, and then stenciled it using the Gold Digger.

So far, so good.  You’re going to see that test board again in a minute.  But first, I went ahead and added the stencil (the stencil is from Maison de Stencils) …

I then left everything to dry for about 24 hours.

The final decision I needed to make was what top coat to use.  I was debating between hemp oil or clear sealer when I remembered the Easy Peasy Spray Wax (also from Dixie Belle).  I’d forgotten I had that in my arsenal.  So I pulled out both the Spray Wax and the Dixie Belle flat sealer and once again grabbed my test board to try them out and decide which one I liked best for this project.

What I discovered was that the Easy Peasy Spray Wax smeared the Gold Digger just a bit, so I was glad I tried this on the test board first and not directly on my bookcase.

And remember, this was after 24 hours of dry time, so it was quite dry.  It’s just something to keep in mind if you are ever using these two products together.

Despite that, I still decided to use the spray wax because it really is easy peasy.  Simply spray it on, let it sit for 10 – 15 seconds and then wipe with a clean cloth.  I just avoided wiping across the gold stenciled area with my cloth so as not to smear the metallic paint.

I really love the pairing of the gold and the Antebellum Blue, don’t you?

This shade of blue also pairs beautifully with the Sawmill Gravy that I used on the chair I shared last week.

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint and the Easy Peasy spray wax, and thanks to Maison de Stencils for providing the stencil for this project.

If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

The stencil I used can be found here.

And if you are local and in need of a petite Parisian bookcase, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page to see if this one is still available.

You’ll remember that recently I mentioned how much I procrastinate when it comes to upholstered pieces.  Apparently that’s even true of pieces that just require simple upholstery, like this one.

 My friend/picker Sue found this bench quite some time ago.  And actually, she was going to give this one a makeover herself.  Her husband had already cut a sheet of plywood to make a new base for the seat.  But for whatever reason, she gave up on it and offered it to me.

As you can tell by the ‘before’ photo, that was some time ago.

I painted it in Miss Mustard Seed’s milk paint in Farmhouse White way back last summer.

I was hoping to get a little chipping out of it, but I really didn’t.  I did distress the edges though, and am very happy with the end result.

I top coated the paint with some clear wax, and then … well … I ignored it for the next 7 months.

I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to make it comfy enough to sit on without spending a fortune on upholstery foam (that stuff can be weirdly pricey).  I kept thinking I’d run across some sort of over-sized cushion while out garage saling that I could re-purpose for this bench, but I never did.

But then I got inspired by a piece I saw on Instagram and decided I could just use a king-sized pillow.  And while out shopping with Mr. Q one day, I found a cheap one at Target for just $10.

All I had to do was ask Sue to sew me a cover for it out of drop cloth fabric, and ta da!

Well, technically there were a few more steps in there.  First of all, I covered the plywood base with some batting followed by drop cloth fabric.  Then Sue sewed the drop cloth pillow cover.  Once I had that back, I added a stencil to it using Dixie Belle paint in Gravel Road.

Then I stuffed the pillow in and tried it out.  It was way too puffy.  So I pulled it back out, ripped open a seam and removed about half of the pillow stuffing.  That helped a lot.

It was about this point that I realized I didn’t like seeing the uncovered pillow inside the drop cloth cover.  So I sent it back over to Sue’s house and she sewed a ticking stripe cover for it.

Ahhh, much better.

This bench is quite petite at 36″ tall x 40″ wide x 24″ deep, so it wouldn’t work well at a table.  However, it would be adorable in a small foyer or maybe at the foot of a bed.

If you’re local and have the perfect spot for it, be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page to see if it’s still available.

 

You may notice a bit of a theme to my posts over the next couple of weeks … or at least I hope so.  I’m really working on clearing out that pile of stuff up in the carriage house and today’s piece also came from there.

I picked up this chair at a garage sale many, many moons ago.  I loved the shape of the front two legs, and that union jack design of the chair back.

Somehow it got stashed upstairs in the carriage house and I forgot all about it though.

So last week I pulled it out and took that quick ‘before’ photo on our deck.  FYI, since then all of that snow on the deck has melted, and you can even see patches of brown grass out in the yard.  I think spring is coming early this year.

Anyway, I cleaned the chair with some spray cleaner and then painted it with two coats of Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy.  I’m really loving this color.  So much so that I just ordered the large size jar.  It really is just a barely-there grey.

I generally tend to avoid buying things to paint that have already been painted, but you know my motto, ‘never say never’.  If I really like something and the price is right, I will make exceptions to that rule.

So, here are a couple of tips for painting over pre-existing paint (without stripping it, because that is a nasty, messy job).  First, keep in mind that the durability of your paint will be dependent upon the durability of that pre-existing paint.  If it’s peeling, your new paint will just stick to the peeling paint, not to the surface under it.  Also, if there are lots of drips, you need to sand those down before you paint or you will still see them.  I always prep pre-painted pieces a little more carefully before painting over them.  Sand it well, preferably using a mask just in case the old paint has lead in it.  Then clean it well before you begin painting using a product like TSP.

And finally, remember that if you are going to distress your piece, the old color is inevitably going to show in layers.  So if you’re not OK with that, either don’t distress at all or paint a base color first, then use a wet distress technique to allow only your base color to show through.

I ended up really liking the layering of colors on this chair.

To play off that union jack design on the back, I added just a snippet from the re.design with prima Everyday Farmhouse transfer just under the seat of the chair.

Perfect, right?

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co and re.design with prima for providing the supplies used in this project.

If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

If you’re looking for re.design with prima products you can find local retailers here, or online sources here.

And if you’re local, and you need a chair with some British flair, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page to see if this one is still available.

I sent Mr. Q to pick up a dresser from someone selling on Craigslist a few weeks ago, and while there he texted me to ask if I wanted a second dresser that the guy had for sale.  There was a bit of miscommunication and after some texting back and forth, he ended up buying the 2nd dresser without my having seen a photo of it.

On the plus side, he only paid an additional $15 or so for it because that was all the cash he had on hand.  On the minus side, it’s a fairly cheaply constructed piece of furniture.  It also needed a few repairs before I could paint it, and it’s fairly nondescript.  Definitely not my usual style.

But, what the heck, Mr. Q bought it, so I may as well do what I can with it, right?

First I called up my favorite handyman/neighbor, Ken.  He was busy counting his hockey pucks (no lie, he collects hockey pucks and has been working on rearranging them in his custom made display rack lately), but he was willing to take a break from the pucks and help me out with this dresser.  We worked together on shoring up the drawers that were falling apart, replacing missing drawer stops, grinding down stops that were rubbing on the drawer bottoms and adding some glides that were missing.

The rest was easy.  I sanded it lightly, vacuumed away the dust and wiped it down with a damp rag.  Then I painted it in two coats of Dixie Belle’s French Linen.

French Linen is one of those chameleon like colors that totally changes depending on the lighting and the colors around it.  It’s a muddy grey-brown with a tiny hint of a lavender undertone.  I didn’t see the lavender while painting the piece in the artificial lighting of my piano room after dark, but once I pulled the piece in front of my white wall on a bright, sunny day I could see it.

Once the paint dried, I added re.design with prima’s Carte Postale transfer.

It was the perfect fit for the front of this dresser, and I also love how it looks over the French Linen.

As for the knobs … well, I thought about replacing them with glass knobs.  That certainly would have been pretty.  But I would have needed to order them (I usually order them by the dozen from D Lawless Hardware).  Plus, there are 10 knobs on this dresser and I wasn’t sure I wanted to invest any more money in it.

So instead I cleaned up the original wood knobs using Dixie Belle’s No Pain Gel Stain in Walnut because that didn’t cost anything.

After I took that photo above, I made a small mistake.  I started to wax the knobs before they were fully dry.  The wax ending up taking off some of the stain giving me a lighter color as you’ll see in a minute.  I rather liked the result, so I went with it.  But this is something to keep in mind.  This is an oil based product and takes longer to dry than the typical products I work with (6 to 8 hours according to the label).

The wooden knobs give this piece a totally different look than glass knobs would have, don’t you think?

I suspect this decision will have a polarizing effect on you guys.  Some of you will love it, some of you will hate it, but there probably won’t be many in between.

So, here’s the thing about this dresser.  Although it has been repaired to make it as functional as possible, and I have done what I can to improve the look of it, in the end you know what they say, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

No matter what I do to it, it won’t become a high quality, well constructed piece of furniture.  I can’t charge top dollar for this piece no matter how pretty it is.

But it definitely is pretty.

So is it worthwhile to spend 6 or 7 hours on repairs and finishing, add a $30 transfer, plus another $15 or so worth of paint and wax on a piece like this?

Well, it can be.  In this case it will work out because I only paid $15 for the dresser.  My handyman Ken works for wine and some occasional profit sharing, and I have nothing more important to do with my time (although Ken could have been counting hockey pucks instead).  In addition, both Dixie Belle Paint Co and re.design with prima send me their product for free.  So yes, for me this piece was totally worthwhile.

But for you that might not be the case.  My advice is to always try to find higher quality pieces of furniture to work on.  They are out there, and you may pay a little more than $15 for them, but they will be more worthy of your time.  In the end you’ll have a beautiful piece of furniture that is also well constructed.

Then again, if you’re on a budget and just want something pretty for the kid’s room, or the laundry room, or the potting shed … this dresser might be perfect for you!

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co and re.design with prima for providing the supplies used in the attempt to turn this sow’s ear into a silk purse.

If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

If you’re looking for re.design with prima products you can find local retailers here, or online sources here.

When I was searching out pieces for my Chippy Barn collaboration, I found this empire piece.

In the end I decided to paint this one dark, and instead used the taller empire dresser that I shared last Friday for that project.

I paid top dollar for this piece at $100.  I don’t usually spend that much, but this one really appealed to me.  Plus, it’s a good sized dresser.  Plus, it was in relatively good condition.  Plus, it’s a solid, well constructed sturdy piece of furniture.  So I splurged.

I suspected right away that those drawer pulls were not original to the piece, they just aren’t the right style.  And did any of you notice that just one of them is on upside down?  Go back to the ‘before’ shot and see if you can find it.  Or maybe 7 of them are upside down and only one of them is right side up, I’m really not sure.

Anyway, when I removed them I found that there were original holes behind them for a knob.  Yep, they definitely weren’t original.

So I filled the two newer holes that had been drilled for the pulls before painting.

Here are my tips for filling holes like these.  First, place some painters tape behind the hole.  This keeps the fill you use from squeezing out the backside of the hole.  Next, fill the hole as full as you can with Dixie Belle’s Mud.  Let that set up overnight.  Once dry, add a layer of spackle over the Mud.  The spackle is not sturdy enough for the entire job, but will give a smoother result for the final coat.  Once dry, sand smooth and paint.

I challenge you to find those filled holes now!

Once the holes were filled in, I sanded the dresser lightly and then cleaned it with TSP Substitute.  I was planning on going with Dixie Belle’s Bunker Hill Blue on this one, but when I pulled it out I realized I didn’t have quite enough paint for this large piece.  So I decided to stretch my paint by adding some In the Navy.

Here’s a comparison of the two colors for you.

The Bunker Hill Blue is more cobalt, while the In the Navy is a very dark navy almost bordering on black (here is one of my fave pieces I painted with In the Navy).  The combination of the two is a gorgeous, rich navy blue.  It ended up being the perfect color for this piece.

Oh, hey, did you notice anything else about how I changed up this piece?

I removed the trim pieces that were on either side of the drawers.

That was totally just a personally preference kind of thing.  I didn’t like how ‘colonial-ish’ they looked.  I feel like the dresser has a much more current feel without them.  I know some of you are going to wish I’d left them on, but I’m making all of the decisions here so they came off along with those classic colonial drawer pulls.

By the way, I replaced those pulls with some simple wooden knobs that I had in my stash.

Also, I finished this dresser with a coat of clear wax.  You can see a couple of streaky spots on the top edge of the dresser in that photo above.  Those are spots that I missed with the wax and didn’t notice it until looking at the photo.  Ooops.  That’s an easy fix though, just go over it with more wax.

I got the idea for staging this piece from Flea Market Finds magazine … or maybe it was Country Living … uh oh, I can’t remember.  Well, regardless, a recent issue showed a room with shelves that housed the set of classic books that I found in my attic last December.  I got these books from my parents and had entirely forgotten about them.

I must confess, I never saw myself doing anything with these books other than donating them to the Goodwill eventually.  But there they were in the magazine, and they looked pretty fabulous in a color-blocking sort of way.  So I pulled them out of the attic once again.

You might be wondering why I titled this post ‘the beast’ and really it’s just because this dresser is quite a bit larger than it looks in photos.  It is 46.25″ tall x 41″ wide x 22″ deep.

I think this dresser is a great example of how much you can change the look of a piece with just some paint and a hardware change.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint, as well as the Mud, used for this project.  Thank you to Fusion Mineral Paint for supplying the clear wax (once again I used their new Hills of Tuscany scented wax).

You can find Dixie Belle products here.

And here is a link to info on where to buy Fusion Mineral Paint products.

If you’re looking for a beast of a dresser in a rich navy blue, check out my ‘available for local‘ sale page.