Category: furniture.

A few weeks ago my picker, Sue, sent me an ad for an estate sale that was just a few blocks from our office at the day job.  The ad included a photo of a gorgeous dresser that would have been beautiful painted.  I had some other things on my to-do list for my lunch break that day though, so I didn’t think I’d be able to get there.  And can I just add in, it’s super frustrating that so many estate sales are only open 9 am to 3 pm on weekdays, thus making it impossible for any of us 9 to 5-er’s to get there!

I didn’t pay too much attention to the location of the sale thinking that I didn’t have time for it anyway.  As it turned out, I did have an extra 15 minutes after running my errands, so I decided to swing by after all.  Except then I couldn’t find it!  It should have been easy, just look for a sign right?  And I mean an actual sign, not a sign from above.

I knew the general vicinity, just not the exact location.  Except there was a garage sale sign at the corner of every single street along the way!  So.  Many. Sales.  Which one was the right one?

After stopping at three sales, none of which were not the right sale, my fifteen minutes ran out and I never did find the sale I was looking for that day.

The next day was Saturday though, so I decided to try again and just see if the beautiful dresser was still there.  I recruited my neighbor, nnK, to keep me company.  When we got there, there were quite a few things in the driveway, but not the furniture I was looking for.  I assumed it was gone, so disappointing.  Then I noticed the sign that said “more furniture inside”.  Eureka!

Sure enough there it was, inside the house.  Unfortunately, it was part of a set.  The bed was also gorgeous and I would have loved to have it.  The third piece to the set was a dressing table.  I could have made that work.  Then I saw yet another sign.  This time it said “bedroom set – $500”.

After all of that, the dresser was ultimately way, way out of my price range.  True, there were three pieces, but that still would have made each piece $167.  I just can’t justify spending that much on pieces when I know I can find other pieces to work on for much less.  And in case you are wondering, yes, I do sometimes ask if a seller will take less for something, but in this case it would have needed to be much less and I was getting a definite ‘antiques are valuable’ vibe from these sellers.

I was about to just walk away from the sale empty handed when I noticed they had a couple of mid-century pieces for sale as well.  And guess what, they were only $35 each.  Clearly they did not consider them ‘antiques’.  This price was much more in line with what I like to pay for things.  So they came home with me instead, sort of like a consolation prize.

This past week I painted one of them.

It’s your typical Bassett mid-century tall boy, but what I really loved about it was the hardware.  Aren’t those awesome drawer pulls?

I decided to go with one of my favorite colors for mid-century pieces, Fusion’s English Rose or as I like to call it, Millennial Pink.

I did my usual prep, a light scuff sanding following by a good cleaning with TSP substitute.

It took three coats of paint to get good coverage.

I spruced up the hardware by cleaning it with dish washing soap, then once dry I added some of Prima Marketing’s Art Alchemy Metallique wax in Vintage Gold.

Normally I stage my mid-mod pieces with more period appropriate props (say that 10 times fast!), but this time I went vintage using this adorable baby dress.

I used to have several of these, they all came from Sue originally.  She tried to sell them at one of our occasional sales …

But they didn’t go.  So I purchased several of them myself.  They were all hand stitched and absolutely beautiful.

I’ve sold most of them over the years though and this is the only one I have left.  I hang onto it just for staging photos.  It’s hanging from a vintage hanger that I dressed up with one of the Prima Marketing knob transfers.

Can you just imagine the patience it takes to stitch that?

I tried to replicated that amazing original paint color on the hanger on the little chair that is also pictured.

This is a custom mix of milk paint that I couldn’t recreate if I tried.  I just kept throwing in a little of this and a little of that, using leftovers of both Miss Mustard Seed’s milk paint and Homestead House milk paint that I had on hand.

The chair is also dressed up a bit with some Prima Marketing transfers from their Delicate Fleur collection.  I’ll most likely take the chair to Reclaiming Beautiful to sell.

I tend to have good results selling these pink mid-century pieces on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, so fingers crossed that this one sells quickly.

As always, thanks to Prima Marketing for providing the transfers and metallic wax.  I purchased the Fusion paint at Reclaiming Beautiful this time around though.

If you’re local and in need of a millennial pink mid-mod dresser, be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

Before I get into today’s post, congratulations to Debbie (not my sister, another Debbie) as the winner of my Out on the Farm giveaway last week.  Luckily she is a country girl at heart so she’s sure to enjoy the farmhouse decor magazines!

Lately I’ve been steeling my resolve and not looking at Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.  When I look, I tend to buy.  But what I really need to do right now is get through some of the pieces that have been stored out in my workshop/carriage house too long.  Like this one …

I purchased this waterfall desk at the thrift store way back last October, before the leaves had all fallen but after our first dusting of snow (as evidenced by the ‘before’ photo).

I had actually passed this one by the first time I saw it, as we know I’m not a huge fan of waterfall style furniture.  But when I went back a 2nd time and it was still there I decided ‘why not?’  I thought it would make a good winter project, ha!  And here it is July.

I mainly loved it for those fabulous handles.  Aren’t they awesome?

Had I painted this one over the winter I would have painted the entire thing.  However, since I procrastinated, I decided to strip the top.  I don’t really like to strip furniture inside the house during the winter.  It’s just too messy.  Plus, even though the citrus stripper I use doesn’t have a toxic, chemical smell, it does still have a kind of icky smell.  Sort of like wet dog mixed with oranges, or in this case, wet old furniture mixed with oranges.  Ewww.  So I save most of my stripping for the summer (please don’t quote me out of context on that, lol).

I felt like this waterfall style would be better served by a more traditional treatment on the top rather than my typical antiquing wax over bare wood, so I stained it with Varathane Premium Fast Drying stain in Dark Walnut.  Then I made a bit of a boo boo and purchased MinWax Fast Dry poly in satin to go over it.  I rarely use poly, and I hadn’t bought it in forever, so I mistakenly selected this oil based poly.  By the time I had it on the brush it was too late to go back, so I just went with it.

It certainly turned out pretty, but I had a heck of a time with drips and runs on that curved edge!  I’d think I had them all and then look back and find that more had developed.  I also ended up just tossing the brush I used because I hate cleaning oil based products using mineral spirits.  Next time it’s back to either the Wipe On Poly or the Polycrylic.

That gorgeous shade of navy blue on the desk is Dixie Belle’s In the Navy.  I used two watered down coats of paint because I find that is the best technique for getting really full and smooth coverage with the Dixie Belle paint.

After distressing the edges by lightly sanding them, I used clear wax for the top coat over the paint.

I spruced up the handles just a bit using my favorite Prima Marketing Art Alchemy Metallique Wax in Bronze Age.

The color looks more gold in that photo, but really it’s a warmer, more brownish color.

This time, rather than using a q tip, I wore some disposable latex gloves and applied it with my finger tip.  This worked much better on the larger surface of these drawer pulls.

Once it was dry (several hours later), I buffed the pulls with a piece of old flannel sheeting to give them a little shine.

You may have noticed that I moved my staging back indoors for this one.  That was mainly because I really wanted to stage my photos with these cupboard doors hanging on the wall above the desk.

These are some old cupboard doors that I purchased at a garage sale for $2 each.  I usually snatch up doors like these because they make great signs.  In this case I painted them white and then added two of the designs from Prima Marketing’s Seaweed transfer set.

The set comes with 4 designs total, and obviously I only used two.  I may do something similar with the other two, or I may hang on to them until I find a piece of furniture that they will look good on.

The detail on these transfers is absolutely gorgeous.

Their nautical theme, plus the fact that they are navy blue, made them perfect to pair up with this desk.

In addition to the transfers, I also used the Prima Marketing Seawashed Treasures mold and some of their Modeling Material to add the shell detail at the bottom of each door.

I feel like I got just a bit too carried away using dark wax to highlight the details of the mold this time.  I’ll have to practice a bit more to make that effect more subtle.  I’ve been playing around with the molds quite a bit and working on perfecting my technique.  I plan to share what I’ve learned soon, and will also have a fabulous giveaway in conjunction with that, so be sure to stay tuned for that one.

In the meantime, what do you think of this nautical style desk makeover?

Both the desk and the cupboard door wall art pieces are for sale.  The desk includes the chair, by the way.

It was one that I just had on hand.  I gave it a quick rub-down with Miss Mustard Seed hemp oil and now it works quite well with the dark wood top on the desk, even though it’s not a perfect match.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle for providing the paint for this project and to Prima Marketing for providing the transfers, the Art Alchemy wax, the mold and modeling material.

If you’re wondering where to purchase the Prima Marketing products check out their ‘where to buy’ page.

If you’re wondering where to buy the Dixie Belle In the Navy, you can shop with them directly online or find a retailer near you.

And finally, if you happen to be local (Twin Cities, MN) and in need of a nautical style desk, check out my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details.

Are any of you guys familiar with the book Romantic Prairie Style by Fifi O’Neill?

It came out in 2011, but it continues to be one of my favorite decorating books.  It’s one that I still refer back to periodically.

I was paging through it the other day and I came across this photo …

I was totally drawn to that green cupboard in the foreground.  Isn’t it fab?  So perfectly chippy, and that green is gorgeous.  As I was admiring it, I thought about the washstand that I brought home from the Prospect Park neighborhood sale a couple of weeks ago.

I thought I could possibly create a similar look on it using Sweet Pickins In a Pickle milk paint.

I started out by stripping the top.  As you can see in the ‘before’ photo, the stain on this thing was pretty dang dark.  The top also had several water marks on it.  I wasn’t sure I would have the patience to see this one through, but after two passes with the stripper, lots of rubbing with steel wool, then cleaning, then sanding, then more sanding … phew … I got ‘er done.

Once I had the top down to bare, unblemished wood I simply waxed it with Miss Mustard Seed’s Antiquing Wax.  You won’t get much sheen with this treatment, but it creates a wonderfully rustic look.

Then I moved on to paint the rest of the piece.  Since I was hoping to end up with a chippy finish, I opted to skip scuff sanding this one and instead just wiped it down with a damp cloth.  Sometimes this can backfire on you, so I don’t necessarily recommend it if you are someone who isn’t comfortable with an unpredictable outcome.  You do run the risk of having all of your paint chip off if there is something on the surface of your piece that resists the paint.  Scuff sanding will help prevent that from happening.

But I was feeling lucky, so I skipped the sanding and went right for the paint.

It took three coats of the In a Pickle to get good coverage over that really dark stain.

Initially I really didn’t get much chipping, except at the very bottom of the piece.  So I forced it by using painter’s tape to rip off chips here and there.

If you’ve never tried this trick, it’s similar to getting lint off your black slacks using masking tape.  Just press the tape down and then rip it back off.  This technique won’t always pull some chips off, but it often works pretty well (and sometimes too well, so use caution).

Once that was done, I sanded the piece with 220 grit to make it nice and smooth.  I finished it up with Fusion’s clear furniture wax.

I love the cut out detail at the bottom of the washstand, isn’t that pretty?

The bottom on the sides has a similar look, but I didn’t do a very good job of getting a photo of that.

I have to admit, I’m pretty pleased with how this one turned out.

Aside from not having a marble top, I think it looks quite similar to the inspiration piece, don’t you?  Although perhaps mine could look just bit more roughed up, huh?

I hesitated a bit before going with the green on this piece.  Historically pieces in this color have taken a bit longer to sell for me, which always surprises me because I absolutely love it.  Check out a few of my fave In a Pickle pieces here, here and here.

But I’ll keep my fingers crossed that this one finds a forever home soon!

If you are local and would love to have a romantic prairie style washstand (they make perfect bedside tables), be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page to see if this one is still available.

Pretty much everybody looked at me askance when I showed them today’s piece in its ‘before’ state.

I know they were all wondering what in the world I was thinking.  I have to admit, I’m not even sure why I purchased this one.  I even paid way too much for it at $5.  It should have been in a free pile somewhere, or maybe priced at $1.  In the end, I really just wanted to take on the challenge of bringing this sad little half chair back to life.

In case you can’t tell, it’s basically an ugly 80’s kitchen chair that is missing its back.  It originally had some kind of spindled back, but someone had removed it and left holes where the spindles were.

Ken filled the holes with dowel sticks for me and then I used some wood filler to complete the job.  I sanded them smooth once the filler was dry.

I thought this would make a pretty cute stool … maybe?  hopefully?

I started by painting it with Fusion’s Laurentien.  I hadn’t used this color in a while and I’d forgotten how much I love it.  If you are a fan of turquoise Haeger or McCoy pottery, Laurentien is about that same color.

Such a gorgeous color, right?  And by the way, I took these pictures a week or so ago when the peonies were still blooming.  They are long gone now.

Once the stool was painted, I sanded the edges lightly to distress and then I added pieces of the Spring Meadow Life transfer from Prima Marketing.

Just look at all of those fun images that you could play around with!

I only used four sprigs of flowers on the stool, so I have lots more of this transfer left for future projects too.

 I think the black drawings look great over that punch of turquoise.

This actually makes quite a comfy little stool too.

Perfect for sitting on while perusing your favorite magazine.

So what do you think?  Did I accomplish my goal of bringing this piece back to life?

I took it to Reclaiming Beautiful, the shop in Stillwater, MN where I sell on consignment.  I’m not sure if it’s still there or not.  It will be interesting to see whether or not someone buys it.

Thank you to Prima Marketing for providing the Spring Meadow Life transfer and to Fusion for providing the paint.

If you’re wondering where to purchase the transfer, check out Prima’s ‘where to buy’ page.

If you’re wondering where to buy the Fusion paint, check out their ‘where to buy’ page.

My neighbor, nnK (that stands for ‘new neighbor Karen’ because when she moved in across the street we already had a Karen next door.  Granted, that Karen died a couple of years later and now there is just one Karen, but nnK stuck) found this bed free at the curb for me sometime last year.

I’m not a huge fan of waterfall style furniture, plus I always find that it’s rather cheaply constructed.  I think waterfall furniture was the IKEA of its day.  Inexpensive and mass produced.  But the price was right (ie. free) so I decided to see what I could do with it.

Before I started with the fun part though, Ken had to cut some replacement trim pieces for the bottom of the foot board.  He made quick work of that (that part was already done in my ‘before’ photo, see arrows in photo above).  Then we also worked together to re-glue the foot board because the sides were coming apart.

Next came the fun part.  I did my usual prep work and then painted the pieces in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth using my new favorite paint brush.

This is Dixie Belle’s Flat Medium synthetic brush and it costs $25 on their website.  I’m going to be honest with you guys, I’ve tried a lot of different paint brushes in a lot of different price ranges and so far none of them have particularly impressed me.  I like many of them for waxing, but not necessarily for painting.  But I really love painting with this brush.  I don’t know if it’s the ‘highest quality Dupont synthetic blend filaments’ or what, but I think this one is worth the money.  It just makes the paint flow smooth like butta’.

Anyway, next I taped off some 4″ stripes and painted them with Dixie Belle’s Sand Bar.  If you want more info on painting stripes, check out my more detailed how-to post.

Once the paint was dry, I added portions of two different Prima Marketing transfers, Somewhere in France and Lavender Bush.

The headboard got the lettering section from Somewhere in France and a little flower accent from Lavender Bush.

The foot board just got some flowers from Lavender Bush.  I cut out three different groupings of flowers from the transfer and overlapped them a bit to create my design.  I just wanted to point that out in case you are looking at that transfer and thinking ‘why do I not see that particular grouping of flowers?  Is this really the right one?’

I’m not at all sure why this transfer is called Lavender Bush.  I don’t see any lavender (to be specific, I mean the plant and not the color, but there is that pretty blue-purple color that could potentially be called lavender I guess).  I am thinking that some of those pink and white flowers are peonies though, so it seemed apropos to stage the photos with some real peonies from my garden.

I’m so glad I did because I took these photos last Sunday and since then the peonies have all fizzled out.  They come and go so quickly!

Initially I wasn’t planning to go quite so feminine and pretty with the design on this bed, but in the end I think I made the right choice.  It really turned out sweet, don’t you think?

Once again, as with most vintage beds, this is a full or double sized bed.  You could easily modify it to fit a queen bed with the extenders available at places like Rockler.  I do have the metal side rails and wooden slats that go with the bed, but I didn’t pull them out for the photos.

Thank you to Dixie Belle for providing the paint for this project and to Prima Marketing for providing the transfers.

If you’re wondering where to purchase the Prima Marketing transfers check out their ‘where to buy’ page.

If you’re wondering where to buy the Dixie Belle Drop Cloth or Sand Bar, you can shop with them directly online or find a retailer near you.

And finally, if you happen to be local (Twin Cities, MN) and in need of a pretty French peony bed, check out my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details.

It was the best of garage sales, it was the worst of garage sales …

Sorry, I couldn’t resist a little play on classic literature there, but actually it was just the best of garage sales because I found two fab washstands a week or so ago.

I purchased this one from a lunchtime garage sale first …

Looks pretty fab in that photo, but the finish was dried out and there were quite a few stains on both the top and the sides of the piece.

When I brought it home, I had just gotten a shipment of Prima Marketing’s newest transfers from their 2019 Summer line-up which debuts today!  There was one design included in my shipment that I thought would be perfect on a piece this size and style, Out on the Farm.

  I planned to put just the top half of the transfer (the photo of the barn) on the front of the washstand.  To prep for that, I stripped the top of the washstand and painted the body in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

But then, I hesitated.  The transfer wasn’t quite large enough to fill in the entire front of the washstand.  I wasn’t sure I would be happy with the results.  So I hemmed and hawed, and then delayed some more.

And then I found a second washstand!

Unfortunately, I neglected to get a good ‘before’ photo of this one alone, but you get the idea.  It was even already painted, and better yet, it was nearly the perfect size for the transfer.

What luck that I had hesitated on applying the transfer to the first one, it was going to work so much better on the second one!

Ta da!

Oh my gosh you guys, I totally felt like I was cheating with this project.  I didn’t even have to paint it!  I just went with the existing paint job and simply added the transfer to those lower doors.

It was a little bit tricky getting it applied because of the raised trim, but not too bad.  I did trim a bit of excess from the top of the design so that it would fit.

I also swapped out the brass knob that came with the washstand for a glass knob on the door.  I wanted the knob to disappear allowing that fabulous barn to get all of the attention.

As you can see, the design was not quite as wide as the doors on the washstand.  I sanded those edges quite heavily to help them blend a bit more.  If I was good with custom mixing paint colors, and if I was aiming for perfection, I could have painted the uncovered edges of each door to blend even better.  But no, I didn’t need to make it perfect.

I think it looks pretty sweet as is.

Oh, by the way, the ‘1871’ on the top drawer was a remnant left over from one of the Prima Marketing Seeds transfers that I used on a piece a while back.

I sort of neglected to get a good photo of that trim piece at the back of the washstand, which is pretty unique.  You can see it a little bit better here …

As for the other washstand, I went back to the smaller version of the Seeds transfer (it came in two sizes, and I say ‘came’ because they are no longer making this one, so if you love it you should order as many as you can online and then hoard them because that’s what I did).

And, funny enough, I swapped out the original wooden knob that came on the door with the brass knob from the other washstand (that I replaced with a glass knob).  It worked beautifully with the original brass drawer pulls.

If you remember, I mentioned that I had stripped the top of this one.  I have to confess I did a rather imperfect job of it and I had trouble eliminating some of the stains.  So I decided to try using white wax on it to help mask some of those imperfections.

It’s definitely still not perfect, but I still think it looks pretty.  This washstand had a fairly heavy grain to the wood which really catches that white wax.

I used a mishmash of products on this one.  The paint is Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, the top is waxed with Fusion’s white wax, the body is waxed with Fusion’s clear wax.

You guys are probably getting tired of seeing my clay pots, but I’m digging the ‘gardening’ theme these days (pardon the pun).  So you’re going to be seeing them again at the end of the week too!

I’ll probably be over it about mid-August.

In the meantime, what do you think of my two washstands?

Which one is your favorite?

Many thanks to Prima Marketing for choosing me to help them reveal their new transfers.  I’ll be sharing a couple more of them later this week too.

If you’re wondering where to buy them, check out Prima’s ‘where to buy‘ page.

And if you are local (in the Twin Cities), these washstand pieces make amazing bedside tables.  Check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page to see if either of these pieces are still available.

Here in Minnesota, I always feel a bit self conscious the first time or two that I bare my legs in the spring.  Oh, who am I kidding, spring?  As if!  I don’t let those suckers see the light of day in public until at least June.  This year I had a bit of a head start because we took our trip to Punta Cana in May.  I was able to get a little color on them before I had to expose them to the world back home.

But this post isn’t about that kind of bare leg, it’s about the furniture kind.

I’m sure you’ve seen the bare leg look on other people’s pieces.  They paint everything but the legs, or the legs and the top.  Katie of Katie & Co. furniture is a master at this look (check out some of her work here).  She paints some really lovely pieces.

I have mixed feelings about the bare legs though.  Personally, I love the way they look, but I wonder if the average buyer will be saying ‘um, I think you forgot to paint the legs.’  But when I picked up this dresser at a lunch time garage sale a month or so ago, I thought it might be the perfect candidate for trying out the bare leg look to see how it goes.

The first thing I did was strip the top.  The wood veneer on the top was in really great condition, but the finish was shot.  Once stripped, I sanded the top smooth and then stained it with Varathane wood stain in Dark Walnut.  Once that dried, I added a top coat of Fusion’s Tough Coat.

Next I prepped the body of the dresser, and then painted it in Fusion’s Midnight Blue.  Once that was dry I added the top 2/3 of Prima Marketing’s Somewhere in France transfer.

I should note here that this color and transfer combo was inspired by a similar piece by Denise at Salvaged Inspirations (you can see her piece here).

The gold transfer over a dark blue paint color was so striking on her piece, I just had to try it on my dresser too.

Before I move on here, I have to add that I’ve also seen this transfer used over a burgundy color and over a creamy white, plus I’ve used it over black …

and it looks gorgeous over all of these colors!  This really is a versatile transfer.

The Fusion paint doesn’t require a top coat for durability, but I like to go over the transfer itself with a little bit of their clear furniture wax which I think helps blend the edges of it more.

Next came those bare legs.  I wasn’t really sure if I needed to strip them entirely, or if I could get away with just sanding them down a bit and then staining them.  So I decided to just give it a try and see how it went.  It seemed to work great.  I sanded them, cleaned them and then wiped on the Varathane stain with a rag.  Once dry, I added a coat of Tough Coat Sealer.

I think they turned out pretty good, don’t you?

Honestly, there isn’t a huge contrast between the dark stained legs and the dark painted body of the dresser.

So, it doesn’t totally jump out at you that the legs are bare.

Next time I might go for a more pronounced contrast between the body and legs.

I brightened up the original hardware by adding some of Prima Marketing’s Vintage Gold Metallique wax.

The gold drawer pulls work beautifully with the gold transfer.

By the way, I don’t know if you noticed, but in the ‘before’ photo the drawer with the little raised detail on the front was at the bottom of the dresser.  That just looked wrong, so I moved it back up to just under the side by side top drawers which looks a lot more appropriate.

So there it is.  A gorgeous French themed dresser in Midnight Blue.

What do you think of bare legs?  Do you allow your’s to see the light of day before June?  Have you left any legs bare on your furniture, and if so, did anyone point out that you forgot to paint the legs?  Curious minds want to know!

Thank you to Prima Marketing for providing the Metallique wax and transfer and to Fusion for providing the paint and Tough Coat sealer.

If you’re wondering where to purchase the Somewhere in France transfer, check out Prima’s ‘where to buy’ page.

If you’re wondering where to buy the Fusion paint and Tough Coat, check out their ‘where to buy’ page.

And finally, if you happen to be local (Twin Cities, MN) and in need of a French themed dresser, check out my ‘available for local sale’ page to see if this one is still available.