Category: furniture.

I purchased this mid mod piece at a garage sale earlier this season.

It had been lingering out in the workshop all summer because it’s so huge.  I felt worn out just looking at it.  Plus the top is laminate, so I knew that would require some extra steps.  So I procrastinated a bit.

But much like painting my baby grand piano, I am now wondering what in the world I was waiting for.

In fact, this is the perfect sort of project for a working gal like me.  Each step only took about an hour or so and then needed dry time in between.  Perfect for fitting in after work each evening.  By Friday you suddenly realize that you’ve finished the piece and it didn’t take long at all.

I started by removing the drawer pulls and sanding everything a little more thoroughly than usual.  Then I cleaned the entire piece using TSP substitute.  I was extra diligent with these two steps because I wanted to make sure I would get good adhesion with my paint.  Next I added a coat of Fusion’s Ultra Grip to the laminate top of the piece.  The directions on the Ultra Grip say to let it dry for 12 hours for best results, and since I wanted the best result, that’s what I did.

While that was drying, I painted the drawer fronts and the base of the piece with Fusion’s Park Bench.

The next evening I added a 2nd coat of green on the bottom and the first coat of Park Bench to the top.  I then let that dry for 24 hours before adding a 2nd coat to the top the next evening.

Again, I wanted to allow for maximum durability of the paint over that laminate.  It’s always a good idea to do two light coats of paint rather than one heavy coat, and to make sure the first coat is totally dry before adding the 2nd.

Next I washed the drawer pulls using Dawn dishwashing soap.  Once they were dry I ‘golded’ them up a bit using Prima Marketing re.design’s Decor Wax in Eternal.

To apply the wax to pieces like this I just put on some latex gloves and rub the wax on with my finger.  Somehow I just can’t seem to stop the theme to Goldfinger from running through my head while I’m doing this.  Goldfinger.  He’s the man, the man with the Midas touch.

I like to give the wax a couple of hours to harden and then I buff the pulls lightly with a soft cloth to bring out a little more shine.

The paint totally updates the look of this credenza.  I think it simplifies some of the detail that is going on with those raised panels on the drawer fronts and makes them look less ‘busy’.

You’ll remember the pair of quail I purchased at the Mac-Grove sales last weekend, here they are again with their new paint job.  They tie in nicely with the gold hardware.

I think they look a bit more fresh and updated now.  I used the same RustOleum spray paint in gold that I used on my living room lamp and the hardware on the cobalt blue dresser.  I seem to be getting a ton of use out of that one can of spray paint.

In the past these Park Bench green pieces have sold really well for me so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this trend continues.

Thank you to Prima Marketing for providing the Decor wax and to Fusion for providing the Ultra Grip.

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

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

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

Today’s piece is a true trash to treasure story.

A couple of weeks ago Mr. Q and I were headed out for our daily walk in a nearby park when I spotted some furniture at the curb with a ‘free’ sign.  Most of the pieces were trashed beyond my level of repair, but this dresser had potential.

Now, you might be thinking ‘jeesh Quandie, could you take a straight photo already!’, but FYI, this is a straight photo.  It’s the dresser that’s crooked.  The front leg on the left is about 2″ shorter than the rest.  At some point a portion of it either broke off or just rotted away, I’m not sure which.

You could also possibly be thinking ‘egads, that thing is kinda hideous’, which is a fair assessment I think.  But just wait until you see how it turned out.

Naturally my handyman/neighbor Ken made quick work of that repair.  So quick in fact that I never even got photos for you.  But he basically cut the bad leg off a bit higher than the damage, cut a new bottom half of the leg, and then attached it using a dowel pin to make sure it was stable.  I then used a little Dixie Belle Mud to fill the seams.  Once painted, unless you know it has been repaired, I don’t think you would even notice.

Once the leg was repaired I simply sanded and cleaned the piece and then painted it in Dixie Belle’s Bunker Hill Blue.

This deep, rich blue is really difficult to capture well in photos.  It’s one of those chameleon sort of colors that changes depending on the light, sometimes just looking like navy blue and other times looking more cobalt.  Nonetheless, it’s perfect for a mid-mod piece, don’t you think?

Once the paint was dry I added clear wax over the top and used Buffy (my Black & Decker car buffer) to give it a little sheen.

I thought the drawer pulls on this piece were fairly unique.

There is a cut out piece of veneer-like material behind the pull that was originally black.  I pulled those out when I removed the pulls and painted them all in the same RustOleum Mirror Finish gold spray paint that I used on the lamp in my living room.

I love how the gold pops with the rich cobalt blue.

I’m not usually one for lining drawers, but these were pretty stained and unattractive so they needed to be either lined or painted.  I just happened to have some blue gingham paper on hand, and enough to line all four drawers so I went with it.

By the way, the modern painting I’m using in my photos belongs to nnK and normally hangs in her living room.  But I found it at a garage sale in Minneapolis several years ago and passed it on to her.  It has the perfect colors in it for her house.

Wouldn’t this piece be amazing in a downtown loft?

Or perfect for a boy’s room.  Or an adult’s room for that matter.  In fact, it would be perfect for providing a pop of gorgeous, deep blue to any room!

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle for providing the Bunker Hill Blue paint, the Mud filler, and the clear wax that I used for this project.

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

And if you happen to be local (Twin Cities, MN) and in need of a brilliant blue mid mod dresser, check out my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details.

As a reminder, here is the pretty little secretary desk that I shared with you guys on Monday.  I picked this up at an ‘epic’ garage sale while out driving around in Wisconsin.

Just check out that curvy serpentine front and those fabulous claw feet.  Ignore the not so great hardware and the incredibly beat up finish.

You’ll also have to ignore the Blue Cross/Blue Shield information sticker inside, plus the bent and disconnected hinge.  Not to mention all of that dust.

I knew that behind those flaws was a gorgeous piece of furniture.

I started work on this piece by removing the inside piece.

Did you know that sometimes these just come right out?  Unfortunately that’s not true of all secretary desks.  Plus someone had added a couple of screws to this one to hold it in place, but once I removed those it slid right out.  It couldn’t be any more convenient for painting.

Once I had it out I removed the sticker, then the little knobs.  I cleaned it up and then sprayed it with Rustoleum Chalked spray paint in Charcoal.  With all of those slats it would have been a bear to paint with a brush.  After sanding some edges to distress, I sealed the spray paint with the Rustoleum spray matte clear sealer as well.  Finally I put the original knobs back on again.

Much improved.

Next I sanded and cleaned the outside of the desk.  As I was cleaning it, the water was turning decidedly orange-ish in color.  That was a good indication that this piece was going to be a bleeder and since I was going to paint the outside in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth (a creamy white), I needed to find out for sure.

So I painted just one of the drawers as a test.  Yep, definitely a bleeder.  In other words, the orange-y colored stain on this piece was bleeding through my creamy white paint.  I’m sure many of you are familiar with this phenomenon, but in case you aren’t, when this happens you have to seal your piece with a stain blocking sealer before you can proceed with painting.  It doesn’t matter how many coats of paint you put over bleeding stain, that stuff will just continue to bleed thru.

So I brought out the Dixie Bell BOSS.

This product comes in both a clear version and a white version.  I think the clear version is more versatile since I don’t always want to see white under my paint color when I distress the edges, although the white version would have worked fine for this particular piece.

I painted the outside of the desk with just one coat of the BOSS and then I let it dry for 24 hours.  I’ve learned in the past that extra drying time can make a big difference with this product, so I now always let it dry for at least 24 hours.

And here is the difference using the BOSS made.

Ha!  Yep, I wasn’t kidding when I said this one was a bleeder!  The top drawer is my test drawer without the BOSS.  The bottom one is another drawer with one coat of BOSS followed by two coats of Drop Cloth.  That’s some pretty good blocking power.

Now, you do have some other options for sealing a bleeder.  You can use shellac.  But that stuff is smelly and it’s a pain to clean your brush afterwards.  You can use spray shellac and sometimes I do pull that out for spot treatments, but you can only use that outside (unless you want to gas your family).  You also can use a stain blocking primer from your local DIY store, but I have yet to see those available in a clear version.

So, BOSS gets my vote.  It has very little odor and you can clean up with soapy water.

Once I had the rest of the piece painted with two coats of Drop Cloth I had to wait for the next step.  I knew I had the perfect transfer coming from Prima Marketing, but it wasn’t here yet.  I’m not very good at waiting … tick tock, tick tock … but this one was definitely worth the wait!

Now, I have to say, I don’t know why Prima chose to call this one Parisian Letter because there is only one small line of French on it, and it’s a the very bottom and didn’t fit on my desk.  Obviously there’s also a little Latin on that crest, but otherwise all of the writing on this one is in English.

But that doesn’t make it any less gorgeous.

Most of the writing seems to have something to do with the quantities and prices of things, and a lot of it isn’t terribly legible.  But that isn’t the point, the point is to look pretty not to impart a message of any kind.

I’m not sure if you noticed, but I changed out the drawer pulls.  I really wasn’t loving the original hardware, plus it’s always my preference to let the transfer be the star of the show.  Clear glass knobs from D Lawless sort of fade away, but yet also look appropriate to the piece.

This sweet serpentine secretary desk would be perfect to use bedside instead of a nightstand.  You could keep all of your reading material inside.  It would even be quite simple to set up some sort of charging station inside by cutting a hole in the back to allow cords to go through.

Of course, you could just use it as a desk.  My handyman Ken repaired and reinforced the hinges that support the desk top so it is perfectly functional.  Of course I wouldn’t put something super heavy on it, but it would easily hold a lap top.

But it would also be a great spot for dropping your keys and mail in the foyer.  You could fill the drawers with hats, scarves and gloves.

So many possibilities!

As always, many thanks to Dixie Belle for providing the BOSS sealer, the paint and the clear wax, and to Prima Marketing for providing the transfer for this project.

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, 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 sweet serpentine secretary desk, check out my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details.

Recently I shared the story of a pair of mid-mod pieces I picked up at a garage sale.  I painted the taller piece in my favorite millennial pink shade of paint …

Here is the matching low boy …

I decided to go in a completely different direction with this piece.

I started by stripping the drawer fronts.  I thought the veneer on them was quite pretty.  Even though there were some damaged spots, I thought I could minimize them with some stain-able filler.

Knowing what I know now, I’m not sure I’d make this same choice again.  Not because of the veneer damage, I do think I successfully downplayed that damage.  But there were a lot of steps involved in refinishing these drawers.   It took three passes with the stripper to get all of the shiny varnish off, then gluing and filling damaged veneer spots with filler, then sanding, then two coats of Minwax Wood Finish Penetrating Stain in Special Walnut, then two coats of Minwax water based matte Polycrylic  with a light sanding with 400 grit in between.

In other words, it took a lot more work (and drying time in between) than just painting.  This is just something to keep in mind if you are refinishing furniture to sell.

The drawer fronts are pretty now though.  It remains to be seen whether or not I can sell this piece for a good enough price to make the effort worthwhile.

In addition to refinishing the drawers, I painted the body of the piece in Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road.  That part was fairly simple.  Things went wrong a bit when I tried to top coat it with the Polycrylic.  My initial thought was that having the same sheen on the paint (ie. matte) as on the drawers fronts would be a good move.  However, the poly ended up looking really streaky over the dark grey.  I’m not sure if my technique was faulty, or possibly the matte finish of the poly doesn’t work well over the dark grey color.  Regardless, to fix the problem I painted back over it with the Gravel Road.  Then I top coated it with a product I am much more familiar with, Dixie Belle’s clear Best Dang Wax.  I probably should have just done that in the first place.

This gave me a good opportunity to try out my new buffer.

Mr. Q ordered this from Amazon for me and he decided we should name it Buffy.  I have to say, it does make quick work of buffing a waxed finish.  It’s also quite light and rather quiet for a power tool.  I have no idea how well Buffy will hold up over time, and how many of those pads I’ll go through, but for now I am loving her.

I really liked the style of the original hardware that came with this piece, but the brassy gold color wasn’t really working for me.  So I got out the Prima Marketing Art Alchemy Metallique wax in Bronze Age.

This stuff did a fantastic job of warming up the color of the hardware and it works so much better with the stain color on the drawer fronts.

After many trials and tribulations, this piece is finally done.  I know this style isn’t to everyone’s taste.  Well, to be quite honest, it’s not to my taste either.  But there is a market out there for these pieces so sometimes it’s fun to step outside of my comfort zone and work on something like this.

I’ve got a couple more mid-mod pieces waiting in the workshop too.  But I also have some pieces that are more ‘me’, so be sure to stay tuned.

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle for providing the paint and the wax for this project, and to Prima Marketing for providing the Metallique wax.

Every once in a blue moon I work on a piece that is meant for me.  It doesn’t happen all that often because usually my own projects get pushed to the bottom of the list.  Plus, my house is pretty much full, so if I bring in something new then I have to get rid of something else … usually something that I still kind of love, so I don’t do it very often.

But recently I decided to swap out the small farmhouse table on my front three-season porch.  Let’s first look at the table that I had there before …

FYI, I custom mixed the milk paint on the base.  It’s a lovely color, but not one that you can buy already mixed.

Having a small table in this particular spot is super functional for me.  I generally get great lighting here, even on gloomy days.  So this is where I take many of my close up photos of things, like this …

But it was bugging me that the top of this table was pretty stained, and it had black streaks in the wood.  I didn’t love seeing those flaws in my close ups.

Meanwhile, I had this 2nd small farmhouse table out in the photo cottage.

I tried to sell this table when I first painted it, which was way back in October 2015.  It never did sell, and somehow it was just abandoned out there.  While out there, a bird pooped on it.  Yep.  Gross, right?  Although I’ve been told that it’s good luck to have a bird crap on you, or does that not apply to tables?

I thought that the top was probably permanently stained from the dark bird droppings.  It became one of those out of sight, out of mind situations and the table just lingered out there.

But recently I decided enough was enough, I needed to deal with the table.  So I pulled it out and started by cleaning off those droppings.  Much to my surprise, they came right off and hadn’t left much of a stain at all.  So if you’re ever wondering just how durable a waxed wood surface is, well, there you go.  This table top had been waxed with Miss Mustard Seed wax almost four years ago and I was still able to clean that crap (literally) right off.

None the less, I decided that this would be a good time to sand the top down a little and add a fresh coat of wax.  This time I went with Fusion’s Liming Wax instead of the clear wax.  That really brightened it up.

I have to note here that this is one of my reasons for preferring a waxed (or hemp oiled) surface over a poly’d one.  It’s really quite an easy job to sand it quickly and apply a fresh coat of wax giving it a completely refreshed look.  I would say it took maybe about 20 minutes, and now it looks brand new.  Easy peasy.

After adding the wax I decided to try out my new toy, a car buffer.  Mr. Q purchased it for me to save me some elbow grease when doing large waxed surfaces.  It worked great, giving me just a little more sheen than I get when buffing by hand with very little effort at all.  Since I’ve only used it this one time so far, I’m really not ready to provide a recommendation or a proper review of it.  But I’ll keep using it and let you know how it goes.

I sort of captured the sheen of the wax in this next photo.

In the end, I loved the way the top looked so much that I decided I should keep this table and swap it for the other one on my porch.

Once I’d made that decision, I realized that the existing paint color, Miss Mustard Seed’s Shutter Grey, was not going to work on the porch.  But I could easily repaint the base in the color of my choice.  It didn’t take me long to decide on Miss Mustard Seed’s Linen.

I didn’t do any prep at all, other than cleaning it.  I knew that I would be rolling the dice when it came to chipping since I was painting over a waxed surface (I had waxed over the original milk paint as well as the top).  But the wax had been curing for almost 4 years, so I was betting it would be OK (a waxed surface is fully cured after 30 days).

Sure enough, I got just the right amount of chipping.  There are some spots where you can see the Shutter Grey color underneath, but there was no excessive chipping.

After I had the table sanded, I decided that again, since this was going to be for me, I was free to add my own personal style to it.  So I used just a small section from the old Prima Marketing Specimens transfer.

It was just enough to add a unique flavor to the table.

Finally, again, since this table was just for me and I could do as I liked, I did not add a topcoat to the painted part of the table.  Did you know that you don’t ‘have’ to use a topcoat with milk paint?  It will cure and harden over time to provide durability.  It won’t be super washable or water resistant though, so that’s something to keep in mind.  I’m OK with that though.  After all, I’ll probably want to re-paint it again in another four years anyway 😉

But for now, I absolutely LOVE how this one turned out.  As I was admiring the finished product, I said to Mr. Q, “I just love working for myself!”  Somehow it frees me up to make choices based solely on what will make me happy, not on what will sell, or be durable enough for the buyer, or how much something will cost and whether or not I can recoup that cost.

In this case I cut up a large transfer to use just a small piece of it on this table.  Sure, I’ll use the rest of it on something else, but I still probably wouldn’t have done this for a piece I was going to sell.

I don’t know, maybe I need to start treating more pieces as though I’m working for myself!

After taking these photos outside (because it was far too pretty of an evening not to do them outside), we moved the table into its new home on the front porch …

Yep, I have to admit, I really prefer this one over the previous one.

What do you think?

Thank you to Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint for providing the Linen paint, Prima Marketing for providing the Seeds transfer and Fusion for providing the Liming Wax.

First things first, congrats to Irene for winning the Prima Marketing Modeling Material and molds drawing.  Hope she has fun making up some molds!  Now, onward with today’s post …

A while back my hairdresser texted me to ask if I wanted a table that she was getting rid of.  The table reminded me quite a bit of the one that I use on my side of the bed as a night stand …

It’s the same general style, size and height.  These taller occasional tables are perfect next to a bed that has some height to it.   There isn’t any storage, but a little wicker box will do to hold lotion, tissues, etc.

So although I tend to shy away from smaller occasional tables these days, I knew from experience that this one could serve a practical purpose.  So I said yes.

Here is the ‘before’ …

Oh boy.  So dark it will need three coats of paint to go light, and all of those legs to paint!

More on that in a minute, but first, here’s a look at the ‘before’ condition of the top …

Pretty scratched up and discolored.  But I thought the wood grain pattern in the veneer itself was quite pretty.

So I started out by stripping the top.   Then I got a wild hair to try either white washing or lime waxing it to lighten it up, while still allowing the grain to show through.  But instead of either of those, when I reached into the supply cabinet I pulled out the Homestead House Stain and Finishing Oil in Driftwood which is a grey color.

After the first coat I really thought I’d made a mistake.  It was streaky and dull.  But the SFO (Stain and Finishing Oil) is meant to be applied in several light coats.  Each coat progressively adds a little more color, durability and sheen.  So I applied a second coat, which improved the look immensely.

But then I stopped after two coats because I liked the look, and I didn’t want to hide any more of that grain with a more opaque finish.  I could have added additional coats of the SFO in Natural at this point because it will add protection and sheen without adding color, but I didn’t have any of that on hand. So instead I added a topcoat of Miss Mustard Seed’s clear wax to give it a little more luster and protection.

Next up was painting the base of the table … but oh my, six legs!  That’s a lot of putzy painting with a brush.

I don’t own a paint sprayer.  Typically, spraying is just not for me.  I enjoy painting with a brush.  I know I would not enjoy the process of using a sprayer; taping things off, finding a way to contain the over spray, and most of all, cleaning the sprayer when you’re done.  Yep, that part is especially not for me.  I’ve been known to completely forget about the clean up step and throwing a paint brush away is bad enough.  Having to toss an expensive sprayer would really be a bummer.

But in the case of something like this piece, I’m not opposed to pulling out a can of spray paint to get the job done.

In this case I thought I’d try the Rust-Oleum Chalked ultra matte spray paint in Country Gray.

I taped off the top, and then sprayed three coats on the base of the table.

I pretty much used up the entire can on this one small table.  Spray paint is definitely not the most cost effective solution, but it can sometimes be the easiest.

I staged the photos with a chair and one of my stenciled faux grain sack pillows just to give it some scale.

I filled an old transferware tea pot with some coleus clippings and put it on top of a couple of books too.

One of my readers, Shelly, recommended the book on top, Country Brocante Style by Lucy Haywood.  So Mr. Q ordered it from amazon for me (gotta love that next day shipping).  Thanks for that recommendation Shelly, I love the book.  It fits my style to a t (or should I say a q?)

As for the table, I think it has a completely updated look now, don’t you?

Thanks to Homestead House for providing the Stain & Finishing Oil, and to Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint for providing the clear furniture wax.

If any of you locals need a fabulous new bedside table, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.