Category: furniture.

So here’s the truth.  July was a complete bust as far as selling furniture is concerned.  I sold one piece in the entire month, and that was a small table that sold at Reclaiming Beautiful.

I’m not gonna lie, lack of sales is the biggest drain on my creativity.  Sounds mundane and prosaic to depend upon sales for the motivation to get creative, but that’s just how it works for me.

I also tend to start questioning the entire thing when nothing is selling.  Should I give up on the furniture painting hobby completely?  Or am I just painting the wrong pieces?  Is vintage farmhouse style out already?  Should I switch over to entirely mid-mod?  Maybe it’s my color choices.  Should I forget about shades of blue and move on to green?  Should I just paint everything black?

Ugh!

I suspect the answer is a combination of things, but mostly the fact that July is typically just a slow month for furniture sales.  People are spending time at the cabin or taking family vacations, not decorating.

Nonetheless, I decided to make a concerted effort to add a few more mid mod pieces to my line up because the mid-century stuff was selling really well for me for earlier this year.  My friend Sue forwarded a Craigslist ad to me for a 3-piece mid mod bedroom suite, so I contacted the seller and made arrangements to pick it up.

This past weekend I got started on the headboard and the tall dresser.

I wonder how many of you are looking at those photos and thinking yuck!

I have to admit, after I brought these home and took a proper look at them I was sort of thinking I’d made a mistake too.

But paint can perform miracles.  You’ll see.

Although I’m normally not a fan of matching suites of furniture for any room, I decided to keep these two pieces together and paint them as a pair.  I was thinking they’d be perfect for a kid’s room.  They have a bit of a masculine feel to me, so I chose to paint them in Fusion’s Ash (thank you to Fusion for supplying me with the paint).

Let’s just jump right to the ‘after’ and then I’ll share the details of how I got there.

Amazing difference, right?

And here is my little secret.  This makeover was incredibly simple.  I prepped the pieces by removing the hardware, sanding them lightly, cleaning them with Krud Kutter Kitchen Degreaser, and then rinsing with clear water.  Once they dried out, I started with one coat of the Ash.  I almost could have gotten away with just one coat but there were a couple of spots that needed some additional touch up so I added a 2nd coat of paint.

The beauty of Fusion Mineral Paint is that it doesn’t require a top coat.  There is no additional step after prep and painting.  Ta da, you are done.  Well, unless you count putting the hardware back on.

Once the Ash was dry, I taped off the inner cubbies on either side of the headboard and painted them with Fusion’s Mustard.

I know not everyone loves Mustard, although it does pair beautifully with this dark grey (and corn dogs), so I only painted the two sides.  The sliding doors can be pushed to each side creating a solid dark grey piece.

Or, slide the doors to the middle for that pop of Mustard.

I took that photo from a fairly low position which makes those holes for electrical wires look kind of obvious.  In person they aren’t noticeable at all.  They do make it convenient for an alarm clock and a phone charging station though.

The beauty of the sliding doors is that you can move them around any way you like.

The dresser is also painted in Ash.  The insides of the drawers were in pristine condition and there was no need to line them, or paint them Mustard.  Maybe that’s because this dresser was permanized by the world’s largest furniture manufacturer!

Ha!  I don’t know what ‘permanized’ means, but I suspect the real reason that the drawers are so clean inside is because they were all lined with paper.  Not sticky, gross, contact paper but just sheets of loose paper that came right out.  Nice!

 Have you noticed that the knobs and pulls on this piece look just a little bit different in the ‘after’ photos?  Scroll back up and check them out again in the ‘before’ photo.  See?  They were a bright, shiny gold.

To tone them down a bit I sanded them to give them some tooth, and then I coated them with Prima Marketing’s art alchemy Metallique wax in Bronze Age.

This color looks gorgeous next to the dark grey and gives the hardware a more industrialized or masculine look.

I’ve got some of this wax to give away, but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.  I’ll try to get it on the schedule for next week, so be sure to keep an eye out for that post.

By the way, the forest fires out west were creating a bit of a haze for us here in Minnesota last Saturday morning when I took these photos.  We were under an air quality alert and that haze definitely affected the quality of the light in my photos.

Anyway, there you have it.  A mid mod makeover that took about one day to accomplish.

Now let’s see if it sells!

If any of you local readers need a mid-mod dresser and headboard, be sure to check my available for local sale page for more details.

It’s the darkest hour
Of the darkest night
It’s a million miles
From the morning light

Anybody else remember that song by Gary Moore, Midnight Blues?  I’m probably dating myself again.  Well, if you’re in the mood for some bluesy guitar riffs check it out on YouTube.

But if you’re in the mood for some bluesy furniture, stick with me.

Let’s start at the beginning with a ‘before’ photo.

If you’re paying attention to details in the photo you might guess that I brought this dresser home last spring before there were any leaves on the trees.  But actually I brought this dresser home in spring of 2017.

I initially wanted it for its mirror frame.  I turned that into a chalkboard way back then, but I’ll be darned if I can find the blog post about it!  I’ve done so many that they are all starting to blend together in my mind.

But anyway … that left the dresser.  Which then sat in my carriage house for over a year.  I hate storing furniture that long.  It’s not good for the furniture.  My carriage house is damp, stinky and full of critters like spiders and mice and possums, oh my!

However, as you can see from the photo, this one was already in terrible shape so I suppose another 16 months or so in storage didn’t do too much additional damage.  I finally pulled it out a few weeks ago to get started on it.

First my handyman Ken had to do some work.  The top of the dresser had split its seam, so he took it off and repaired it with glue and dowel pins.  Then reattached it to the dresser.  Ken wasn’t entirely happy with the repair because he wanted the seam to be invisible.

I try to explain to him that I like the rustic look.  As long as the piece is sturdily glued and isn’t going to fall apart, I’m happy with a non-perfect look.

Once the repair was done, I stripped the finish from the top, sanded it down and then waxed it with Miss Mustard Seed’s Antiquing Wax.

I painted the rest of the piece with Homestead House milk paint in Midnight Blue.

I’d say this color is certainly a million miles from the morning light.  It’s the most gorgeous deep, rich, navy blue.  The color of darkest night.

You might be wondering why I chose the milk paint version of the paint rather than the Fusion acrylic version of the paint, because both come in Midnight Blue (and if you didn’t already know this, Fusion Mineral Paint and Homestead House Milk Paint come from the same company, as does Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint).  However, I wanted a more aged looking finish on this dresser.  Something that looked more authentically old to match the age of the dresser itself.

Plus, there was quite a lot of texture left on this piece from the previous finish.  I could have sanded that down to bare wood, or stripped it, but I like the look of that texture.  Especially with milk paint.

I also wanted to distress the piece and that is easier to do with milk paint.  You can do it with Fusion, but it just doesn’t have quite the same look and it takes just a little bit more elbow grease (or pre-treatment with Homestead House Salad Bowl Finish, but that’s another subject altogether).

After two coats of the milk paint were dry, I sanded with 180 grit paper and then added a coat of Miss Mustard Seed’s Hemp Oil to give me the darkest version of the color.  Hemp oil will give you a deeper, darker version of your milk paint color while wax will leave the color a little bit lighter.

Also, keep in mind that most water based sealers like the Miss Mustard Seed Tough Coat or The Real Milk Paint Co’s Finishing Cream may look cloudy or streaky over dark colors and neither product is recommended for use over deep, dark colors like this one.

The final obstacle in the makeover of this dresser was the drawer pulls.  Looking at the before picture you might be tempted to think that the originals were pretty fab and could be put back on.  However, in reality they were pretty beat up; bent out of shape, rusty and crusty.  Plus one was missing its bail.  I wanted to replace them with some brass cup pulls but I had a heck of time finding just what I wanted at a reasonable price.

I found what I thought was a great option on Amazon until I realized they came in a five-pack.  Ugh.  A five-pack?  What are they thinking?  Who needs an odd number of pulls?  Well, maybe for a kitchen I suppose.  But I would have had to order two packs at around $25 each and then would have had 4 left over.  I may have been able to use 4 pulls down the road, but who knows.

So instead I ended up with these pulls from Target.  These came in a six-pack which was perfect.  They were $27.99 plus tax.  They also happened to fit the existing holes from the original hardware.

The drawer bottoms for this piece weren’t in really awful shape, but they did show some signs of their age.  So I opted to line them with some fabric that I purchased at a garage sale a couple of years back.

I didn’t have enough of either fabric for all three drawers, so the top drawer got the paisley and the bottom two got the coordinating stripe.  To line drawers with fabric I simply cut the fabric to fit and then use some spray adhesive to hold it in place.  If the future buyer wants to remove it down the road, it will be easy for them to pull it back out and clean off the adhesive residue.  It comes out much more easily than contact paper or, heaven forbid, paper that was decoupaged into place.

I think it goes without saying that this piece was definitely improved.

The cup pulls give it an updated feel.  It’s all spruced up and ready for a new home.

If you are local and need a Midnight Blue dresser check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details!

I’ll be sharing the rest of the tour of Jackie’s garden on Wednesday this week, so be sure to stay tuned.

Please note that Homestead House provided the milk paint used on this dresser, but all opinions are my own.

 

A week ago Monday evening Mr. Q and I were chilling out watching Jaws.  Did you know that Jaws was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry?  They deemed it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.  Some people consider it one of the greatest movies of all time.

I think it’s the whole ‘summer at the beach’ vibe of the movie that really appeals to me.  It’s certainly not the incredibly hokey looking shark.

The beach scene with Chief Brody looking tense as he scans the water for shark fins while everyone else is laughing, playing and simply enjoying the day is one of my favorites.  I bet we can all relate to feeling like the one person who is responsible, who can’t just sit back and have fun but has to make sure that everyone else is safe.  Or is it just me?

Or maybe it’s just simply all of the 70’s details that really speak to me.  The can of Tab that someone is drinking, the floppy hats, all of those people totally unconcerned about skin cancer and the sound of Olivia Newton John singing “I Honestly Love You” on the radio in the background.  Ahhhh, those were the days.

Whatever it is, Mr. Q and I tend to watch Jaws every summer.  That fact really has very little to do with today’s blog post except that while we were watching the movie I got an email from one of my readers, Monique, who was offering me a free bed frame and mirror.  Not only were they free, but she was willing to swing by with them if I wasn’t busy.

I figured watching Jaws didn’t really constitute being busy, so I said sure!

Monique and her husband pulled in the driveway right as Richard Dreyfus was being lowered into the sea in the shark cage.  So we hit the pause button and went out to see what I was getting myself into.

Fortunately it was nothing nearly as scary as shark infested waters.

In fact, I was a little speechless as Monique started hauling this amazing bed out of her vehicle.

Granted, at that point in time the headboard was actually in two pieces.  The top half had come unglued from the bottom half.  But I knew my handyman Ken would make quick work of using fresh glue and dowel pins to put them back together again.  As it turned out, he was so quick about it that it was already done before I could get around to the ‘before’ picture.  So technically this isn’t a true ‘before’ photo, it’s more of an ‘in between’ shot, post-repairs.

I’m guessing that there are a few of you who are looking at that photo and thinking ‘oh no, she’s not going to paint that bed!’  Yes, it had beautiful veneer.  Yes, I think it’s probably burled walnut.  But the finish was not in good shape and there are a few bits of trim here and there that are missing.  This bed could have been stripped and refinished, but that would have been a fair amount of work due to all of the carved detail.

Plus, the reality is that this bed will most likely sell much more quickly painted than it would refinished (I hope, fingers crossed).  Dark reddish stained pieces are just not popular right now.

Bottom line, I paint furniture, so this one got painted.  It’s not life and death, there aren’t any giant man-eating sharks involved, it’s just paint.  Down the road when painted furniture is back out, and stained furniture is back in, someone can strip this bed and it will still be gorgeous.

But in the meantime, I’ve painted the bed black using two coats of Dixie Belle’s Caviar.

Once the paint was dry, I sanded to distress the details and then finished it with Fusion’s Black Wax.  I have to tell you guys, Fusion wax is my favorite.  I think it’s the creamiest and easiest to apply of all the waxes I’ve tried.  I apply the wax with a brush, remove the excess with a cloth (or in this case, an old pair of black yoga pants cut into rags) and then wait an hour or two and buff slightly to bring out just a little sheen.  I use a cut up flannel shirt for the buffing.

The carved details on this bed are simply beautiful.

I think a distressed paint job helps make those details more noticeable.

I threw in a few vintage suitcases along with Collette, the dress form, for the photos.

Collette is wearing some lovely vintage jewelry for the occasion.

By the way, the bed does include side rails and slats.  It didn’t come with slats, but I happened to have some on hand and nnK cut them to size for me.

Personally I love the look of a black bed against a white wall … in my case preferably a white ship lap wall like in my own bedroom.

Check out my pinterest board devoted to ‘a pop of black‘ for more inspiration on using black pieces in your home.

For those of you who are local, this bed is for sale.  Be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details!

Several years ago … gosh, I’m not even sure how many … I went through a numbering phase.  I added numbers to everything and the stuff that got ‘numbered’ sold like hotcakes at my Carriage House occasional sales.

It must be the accountant in me, but I love things with numbers on them.  At the time it appeared that others did as well.

I painted a chair for myself back then and I gave it a no. 6.

Chair no. 6 was in my own kitchen for several years, but eventually I swapped it out for something else.  I recovered the seat and put it in my last occasional sale (fall of 2016), but no one bought it.  I guess the numbering phase is over.  So then it sat in my carriage house for almost two years, lost and forlorn.

I’ve been trying to go through everything that I have stored out there this summer and either revamp it to sell, donate it, or put it at the curb.

So I pulled it out and did a little re-gluing of the joints.  Then I sanded down the ‘6’, gave it a good cleaning and re-painted it with a fresh coat of creamy white using Fusion’s Limestone.

Then I pulled out the small version of Prima Marketing’s Seeds transfer.

I knew the entire thing wouldn’t fit, but it’s so easy to cut these up and just use parts of them.  I cut out a couple of sections of the transfer and played around with placement on the chair back.  Once I had them where I wanted them, I taped them in place.

Then I just used the applicator stick that comes with the transfer to rub it onto the chair.  It couldn’t have been easier and took all of about five minutes to do.

And thus chair no. 6 becomes a garden themed chair instead.

By the way, in case you were curious, I used a plain beige fabric that I painted with a grain sack stripe using black acrylic craft paint for the seat.

Then a couple of evenings ago I had some fun setting up a potting shed themed photo shoot with the chair.

First I pulled out a dresser that I just picked up last weekend.  One of my readers offered this dresser to me free of charge and you’ll read more about that next week.  But for today I thought it was the perfect stand in for a potting bench for some photos.

I love the crackle finish on those drawer fronts, but I don’t know that I’ll be able to save that.

But before I even get to that part, Ken is going to have to do a bit of work on this one so it may be a while before you see it again.

Anyway, I also grabbed some clay pots, a small hand held garden shovel, and yes I even yanked a geranium right out of one of my window boxes just for these photos.

It is possible that I have completely lost my mind.

But don’t worry.  No plants were harmed in the making of this blog post.  I simply tucked that geranium right back in place when I was done and gave it a good soaking.  It will be fine.

All of that, just to take a photo of a chair.

But it sure was fun.

This chair will likely make its way to Reclaiming Beautiful to be sold.  Unless of course one of you local readers wants to purchase it from me first.  Be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

I brought this Thomasville dresser home a couple of months ago.

This is how the drawers were arranged for the seller’s Craigslist ad photo, so I left them like this for my ‘before’ photo too.  I wonder, did they not realize they were in the wrong spots?  Or did they just think the dresser was supposed to look like this?  Or did they just not care?

Either way, this dresser was an amazing deal.  Probably for two reasons; because it’s laminate and because one drawer pull is missing.  I’m bummed about that missing pull because those original pulls were perfectly themed for the faux bamboo style of this piece.

This piece is made entirely out of laminate fiberboard rather than real wood.  Let’s talk veneer v. laminate for a minute.  I think these terms sometimes throw people off.  What is the difference?

Technically the term veneer refers to a thin layer of hardwood that is bonded, or glued with adhesive, to a cheaper sub-surface that is hidden below.  I sometimes call it ‘wood veneer’ to make it clear that it is still a wood surface, just not solid wood.  When working with a wood veneer you can finish it in much the same way as solid wood.  You can strip an existing finish from it and then wax, stain, oil, paint, etc.  The main thing to keep in mind is that the veneer is very thin so you need to be careful when sanding it so that you don’t sand right through it.

Laminate on the other hand is a man-made plastic product.  It can be manufactured to sort of look like wood or marble or granite, but it also can be just a solid color (like on this piece) … really, I think the sky is the limit with the look of laminate.

But laminate cannot be treated just like wood.  It is a slick, impervious surface that can’t be stained or waxed and gives paint absolutely nothing to hang on to.  However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t paint it.  With the proper prep and primer you are able to paint laminate and once the paint has cured (usually about 30 days) it will be just as durable as other painted surfaces.

You may remember that I tested out Dixie Belle’s Slick Stick on a laminate tabletop recently.  It worked really well, so I knew that I would have success using it on this piece too.

Once again I followed the directions carefully.  I started by cleaning my piece thoroughly using TSP Substitute.  Next I used a damp brush to apply one thin coat of Slick Stick and allowed that to dry for 3 hours.  Then I added a second coat of Slick Stick and left it to dry overnight.

I want to also remind you that the Slick Stick dries white.  I didn’t distress this piece, so the white worked fine for me.

As soon as I saw this dresser I knew I wanted to paint it in a vibrant color.  I had recently seen something painted in Dixie Belle’s gorgeous color called Peony.  So I reached out to them and asked if they’d like to sponsor this project.

They jumped on board and provided me with all of the products I needed for this piece including the paint, the Slick Stick and the Clear Coat.  Although they provided this stuff for free, all opinions are my own.

I went way outside my comfort zone with this color choice and I got quite the reaction from pretty much everyone who saw me working on this piece including Ken, nnK, Mr. Q and my sister.  I think they were all wondering if I’d lost my mind.

But I went for it with three coats of the Peony.  I used the Dixie Belle recommended technique of dipping my paint brush in a cup of water every 2nd or 3rd time before I dipped it in the paint.  This basically waters the paint down allowing it to go on more smoothly.  If you leave the paint thick you will see more texture, ie. brush strokes.  However, to get good coverage with the bright pink over the white Slick Stick I needed three thinned coats of paint.

Once the final coat of paint dried I added a coat of Dixie Belle’s Clear Coat in the satin finish.  I wanted just a hint of shine rather than a flat finish.

I have to admit, there is more than one reason why I generally prefer working with a flat finish.  The first reason is that I love the look, of course.  But the second reason is that a shinier finish highlights any flaws there may be in the paint job.  Working on this piece reminded me that I am good at flaws and it’s probably best if I stick to a flat finish in the future.

Part of the reason for my delay in working on this piece was that missing drawer pull.  I so very badly wanted to find an exact replacement.  That hardware would have looked amazing with some gold wax on it.  I searched for weeks.  I tried Etsy, any number of hardware suppliers, and some Facebook hardware exchange groups, all to no avail.  I found a few similar vintage pulls, but none that were an exact match.  I even would have purchased three that matched each other and replaced all three if I could have found them, but no luck on that either.

So I finally gave up on that idea and purchased these white rose knobs from Hobby Lobby.  Wait … are they roses or are they cabbages?  I’m really not sure.  No, they’re roses, right?

Anyway, I’d gone crazy wild with the color after all, so why not go a little over the top with the knobs too?  I filled the holes left by the original drawer pulls using Dixie Belle’s Mud in brown and then drilled new holes so that the knobs lined up all the way down.

In the end, I think the new knobs give it a slightly more updated look, although I still would have loved to have that original hardware!

I staged this piece very simply with just a couple of books and a pretty floral arrangement.

Let’s face it, nothing was going to be able to compete with that amazing color!

So, there you have it.  A gorgeously bright pink bamboo dresser.

What do you think?  Have I lost my mind going with this vibrant color?  Or do you think someone out there is going to love it?  Ken predicts that it will take no longer than two weeks to sell.  I hope he’s right.

I’m going to hang onto it for the full curing time before I list it for sale though, just to be on the safe side.  However, if you are local and interested in knowing when it’s ready to go be sure to let me know in a comment or via email (qisforquandie@gmail.com).

This past weekend I finished up the remaining piece from the trio of large pieces that I purchased at the Linden Hills garage sales back in May.

You’ve seen the dresser …

And the white bookcase …

Now for the bookcase with the glass door.

Much like the white bookcase, this piece was also once a built-in.  However with this piece someone had already done some work to allow it to be a stand-alone piece of furniture.  There had already been a finished side added to the side that was once up against a wall.

If you look at the top of the bookcase in the ‘before’ shot, you can see that at one time there also must have been some trim around the top that had been removed.

As luck would have it, I happened to have a spare length of old trim in the rafters of the carriage house that was plenty long enough to add some trim back to the top of the bookcase.

My handyman Ken made quick work of cutting the trim to fit and attaching it.

From there I simply sanded lightly, cleaned the piece with TSP Substitute and then I painted the outside with Sweet Pickins In a Pickle.

Except … wait a minute … hold the phone … did you notice the piece doesn’t look green at all in that photo of the trim?  Well, as it turned out I didn’t like the green on the bookcase.  I can’t really explain why, it just wasn’t working for me.

So I whipped up a custom mix of Homestead House milk paint instead.

This is about a 1/2 cup of Craftsman, which is a pale minty gray-green, with about 2 tablespoons of Loyalist, a medium blue, added.

This subdued blue-green-grey color seemed much better suited for this bookcase.  I added two coats of this color over the In a Pickle.  Once dry I sanded the piece and added a very light coat of Miss Mustard Seed’s clear furniture wax for protection.

I was initially planning to paint the inside as well, but ultimately I decided I wanted to leave it the dark wood instead.

Something like ironstone or milk glass will really pop against the dark wood.

I swapped out the original knob, which was rather boring, for this white enamel knob.

I’ve had that single knob in my stash of hardware for so many years that I can’t remember where I purchased it.  Possibly Anthropologie, but I’m not positive.

As you can see in those close up shots, the finish on this piece was very alligator-ed.  It had to have been stored somewhere hot (like an attic) for some length of time.  I love the textured look I get using milk paint over a damaged finish like this.  I didn’t get any chipping with my milk paint, but sanding over that bumpy finish created an aged look that I love.

Looking at these photos has made me realize that if I’m going to keep attempting to take furniture photos inside my photo cottage (like these), I really need to put a fresh coat of paint on the floor and walls.  It has not held up well at all.  It looked so fresh and clean when I initially painted it …

I guess four years of walking on it with dirty shoes, dragging furniture across it, and having it semi-open to the Minnesota weather has taken its toll.

I’ll just add that project to my to-do list … you know, the one that is longer than my arm.

But in the meantime, be sure to let me know what you think of my alligator’ed bookcase!

This piece is available for sale locally, so be sure to check out the details if interested.

Earlier this summer I picked up a simple pedestal style table at a garage sale.

I have to admit up front that I made a couple of poor buying decisions this summer at garage sales and there is an underlying theme to them.  I purchased things that had other things piled on top of them so that I couldn’t really see what I was getting.  One table I purchased has a huge burn mark on the top that I didn’t notice until I went to load it in the car.  And this table has a Formica (laminate) top.  That fact completely escaped my attention until I got it home.

Today’s q tip:  Do as I say, not as I do, and thoroughly inspect a piece of furniture before you agree to purchase it!

But look back at that ‘before’ picture, see how shiny that top is?  Yep, it’s Formica instead of wood.  I should have noticed that.

The problem with Formica is that paint doesn’t always like to stick to it.

But then I realized that this table provided me with the perfect opportunity to try a product that Dixie Belle sent to me recently, Slick Stick.

I plan to use this product on a dresser that is entirely laminate, but before I get to that I thought it might be a good idea to test it out on a smaller scale first.  Here is how the Dixie Belle website describes it:  Slick Stick is a water-base primer specifically made to bond to most any “tough to paint” surfaces. With Dixie Belle’s Slick Stick, surfaces like PVC, glass, Formica, metal, and more, are easily painted and stay painted.

It has some very specific instructions that I followed to the letter.  I started by cleaning my piece thoroughly using TSP Substitute.  Next I used a damp brush to apply one thin coat of Slick Stick and then I allowed that to dry for 3 hours.  Then I added a second coat of Slick Stick and left it to dry overnight.

I used the Slick Stick on the laminate top only, not on the wood pedestal.

The next step was to paint the piece using two coats Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road.

I want to point out here that the Slick Stick does dry white.  If you are a distress-er (and I definitely am), you will see that white when you sand the edges of your piece to distress it.

That is definitely something to keep in mind when choosing to use this product.

After I had the table painted I let it sit for a week or two.  Not for any real reason, just because it was really just rather blah.  While the paint job had definitely given it some more appeal, it needed something more but I wasn’t sure what.

Then while I was stenciling the back of the bookcase that I shared on Friday I decided to use the same Prima Marketing re.design stencil on the top of this table.

I used the same small foam roller and the same Dixie Belle paint in Driftwood to apply the stencil over the entire tabletop.

I think it’s interesting to note that when used over the darker grey of Gravel Road the Driftwood looks really light, while over the white of Fluff it looks really dark.

But I promise you, it doesn’t look it, but the stencil was painted with the exact same color on both of these pieces!

Once the paint was dry I sanded over the entire thing to give it a more faded appearance.

And that was enough to give this table plenty of personality!

It’s now a great little table for a reading nook or perhaps at bedside.

As I was taking the photos for this post, one of the books happened to flop open to this page.

That brought a smile to my face as an unexpected reminder of the trip Mr. Q and I are taking to Italy later this fall.

In fact, it made me realize that this table has a bit of an Italian flair, maybe Italian renaissance with that damask pattern?

OK, that might be a tiny bit of a stretch, but I’m going with it.

Remember the pile of furniture that I purchased at the Linden Hills neighborhood garage sale?

Well, today’s post is about that white bookcase in the back behind the other pieces.  As it turns out, I neglected to get a good ‘before’ photo of just the bookcase.  Argh.

My handyman/neighbor Ken would be so disappointed if he knew that I didn’t have a good ‘before’ photo of this one (he never reads my blog because he is 80 years old and he doesn’t even know what a blog is, so let’s not tell him about this, OK?).  He made some clever changes to it and I know he was proud of his work.  Although I can try to describe what he did, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Well, I’ll try and do my best.

The thing about this bookcase is that it was formerly a built-in.  One side of it wasn’t finished on the outside because it had been up against a wall and tied in to the baseboard trim along the wall.  The other side was trimmed out top and bottom.  And of course the side that was trimmed out is the side you can’t see in that photo because it’s behind the cabinet with the glass door.  Dang.

Suffice to say that Ken removed some trim, cut down some trim, added an outside to the one side, and basically gave the entire piece a more symmetrical look.  He did a brilliant job.

While he was doing all of that, I removed the back so that I could stencil it.

I’d recently received some beautiful stencils from Prima Marketing’s new re.design line including one called Imperial Damask.  This is a large stencil at 22″ x 28″.

I knew it would be perfect for adding something special to this bookcase.

If you’re ever thinking about stenciling (or wallpapering) the inside back of a bookcase, it is much, much easier if you can remove the back to work on it.  In this case the back was held on with a bunch of nails and it came off rather easily.

So I started by sanding it down and adding a coat of Dixie Belle’s Fluff, which is a lovely shade of white and almost perfectly matched the existing paint job (which badly needed to be refreshed).

Before I started stenciling, I needed to pick the right color for the stencil.  I narrowed it down to three Dixie Belle colors; Sand Bar, Savannah Mist and Driftwood.  I painted a scrap of wood in the Fluff and then pulled out a small stencil I happened to have that is very similar to the Imperial Damask, just on a much smaller scale.  I stenciled a section with each of the three colors (please excuse the sloppy stenciling, this was only a color test).

Once I saw all three, it was easy for me to pick the Driftwood (far right).

Next I used a small inexpensive foam roller to apply the paint using the Prima Marketing stencil.

I just poured a little of the paint onto a paper plate and then rolled the foam roller in it.  I didn’t water the paint down at all.  The original thickness of the Dixie Belle paint makes it perfect for stenciling.  Much like when stenciling with a brush, you want to use a somewhat dry roller to avoid a messy result.  Runny paint is not your friend when stenciling.

I wanted the design to be centered once the back was back in place, so I measured and placed the center of the stencil at the top center of the back and then worked out and down from there waiting for the paint to dry each time before re-positioning the stencil.

Today’s q tip:  always start in the center and work your way out when using an all-over stencil like this one.  Otherwise your end result may look very unbalanced.

Before putting the back of the bookcase back on, I gave it a coat of Dixie Belle’s Flat Clear Coat.

Next I sanded and added a fresh coat of Dixie Belle’s Fluff to the rest of the piece, followed by the Flat Clear Coat.  I added a second coat of Clear Coat on the shelves because they will likely take more of a beating than the rest of the piece.

Once everything was dry, Ken helped me put the back piece back on.  While we were working I was telling him that I really couldn’t have done this piece without his help, while he was claiming that he really couldn’t have made it pretty enough to sell without me.  We concluded that we are a great team.  He makes ’em functional, and I make ’em pretty.

And this one sure is pretty!

The stenciled back adds so much life to this bookcase!

What do you think?

The bookcase is for sale locally.  If interested, be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page.

Happy 4th of July to all of my readers in the U.S. and happy Wednesday to the rest of you 😉

I thought it would be fun to go a little patriotic with the color scheme today in honor of the holiday.

Remember the desk I purchased at the Kenny/Armitage sales?

We came across it at the end of our shopping that day and I have to say, my sister is always game to try and fit stuff into her SUV.  So what if it’s mostly full already?  She will help me pull everything back out and re-arrange until the amazingly-bargain-priced desk fits.  Even in the rain.  That quality alone makes her the ideal garage saling companion.

Anyway, I mainly fell in love with the knobs on this desk.  Aren’t they adorable?  They give an otherwise fairly plain piece a lot more personality.  I’m so glad they were all there and I could keep them on the desk.

It needed a bit of repair, and at some point someone stripped some existing paint off of it and they didn’t do a very good job.  But it was nothing that a little glue and some new paint couldn’t solve.

After some gluing and clamping (handled by my handyman/neighbor Ken), I sanded lightly and then cleaned the entire piece with TSP Substitute.

Next I added two coats of Dixie Belle paint in Drop Cloth.  I left that overnight to be sure it was good and dry before I taped off some grain sack style stripes and painted them in Dixie Belle’s Yankee Blue (note:  all Dixie Belle products used on this desk were provided to me free of charge from Dixie Belle, but all opinions are my own).

I sanded to distress and then finished with Dixie Belle’s Easy Peasy spray on wax.

I gotta say, I love that stuff.  It’s SO much easier than traditional waxing.  Just spray it on, lightly spread it with a cloth, then just let it dry and you’re done.  I will admit that it is not the cheapest topcoat option available though.  It costs $19.95 for 8 oz.  The same amount of Clear Coat is $12.95, and you can get a 10 oz. can of traditional wax for $18.95.  But sometimes it’s worth the splurge to go with the easiest option.

I did two coats of the spray wax on the desk top for added protection.

When I brought this desk home the drawers were all fully lined with some rather old and grungy contact paper.  I pulled all of that out only to find even older and more grungy drawer bottoms.  It’s always a gamble what you might find under drawer liners.  Most of the time I find pristine drawers that were always protected.  But sometimes I find yucky ones that were covered up instead.

So I cleaned them all with Krud Kutter, then painted them with the Yankee Blue.

That ended up working out great on all of the drawers except the middle one.

The middle drawer had a large black ink stain that bled through the paint.  So I pulled out the Dixie Belle BOSS (blocks odors, stains, stops bleed thru).

I followed what I thought were all of the instructions.  I painted one coat just over the stain (no need to coat the entire drawer bottom), let it dry, then painted a 2nd coat and let it dry.  Once the second coat was dry, I painted over it again with the Yankee Blue.  But once again, the ink bled through the paint.  Egads.

So as my dad used to tell me, when all else fails read the instructions.  It says right on the jar that if two coats doesn’t work then a longer drying time of the BOSS is needed.  So I put two more coats just over the stained spot and then let it dry overnight.

That did the trick.  The next day I added a coat of the Yankee Blue over the BOSS and voila, no bleed thru stain!

After I finished the desk I realized that it really needed a matching chair.  I just happened to have a spare chair out in the carriage house.  It also needed some gluing, but once it was shored up I simply painted it with just one coat of the Yankee Blue, sanded to distress and finished with the spray wax.

I especially love that Dixie Belle spray wax for chairs, it’s so much easier to apply than other waxes!

By the way, the back of the desk is painted as well as the front.  Whenever a desk has a ‘finished’ looking back I always paint it too just in case the future owner wants to float the desk in the middle of the room with the back facing out.

Since it’s the 4th of July, I couldn’t help but stage this piece up against the carriage house under my flag holder.  I purchased that flag holder years ago at an antique shop in New Jersey.  At the time my sister was still living there and I was visiting her over the 4th.  This style flag holder was everywhere out there and I’d never seen one before.  Just in general I would have to say that people in New Jersey do far more decorating for the 4th of July than people in Minnesota, does anyone disagree?

Anyway, I was determined to find one and bring it home with me.  I have since seen them for sale here too though.

Well, I’m off to enjoy the holiday with Mr. Q, my sister and my niece.

If any of you locals are in need of an adorable desk, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details!

Late last winter I shared the story of the three pieces of furniture that I purchased from one of my readers, Mary.  I finished the first two pieces earlier this year but the third piece was hanging out in my carriage house waiting for some more significant repairs.

Specifically, one of the legs had broken off the dresser and a big chunk of it was missing.  I thought I had taken a great photo of the dresser in its initial ‘before’ state, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere.  Drat!

I did manage to get a photo of the repaired leg before I painted it though.

I have to tell you guys, when I first asked my handyman/neighbor Ken to take a look at this leg he gave me one of those looks.  You know the one, the look that says you’ve got to be kidding me.  But I had total faith that he could fix it and make it look like it was never even broken.

And I was right.  Basically Ken cut away the broken portion of the leg.  The he cut down and carved a new section of wood to match the shape of the original leg and glued it in place.  The man is basically a miracle worker.

Next I realized that a piece from the side of one of the lower drawers was cracked and had broken off.  We could have tried gluing that back together, but I don’t think it would have held up very well.  So I came up with plan B, remove the lower two drawers and add a shelf to the bottom instead.  Then the future owner could use baskets on that shelf instead of having drawers.

This involved another consultation with Ken, and a bit more work on his part, and here’s what I ended up with.

Ken removed the framework that was between the two bottom drawers, and he added a sturdier bottom ‘shelf’ made from the old bead boards from a ceiling that nnK tore out of her breezeway.  Try to imagine that there are two smaller drawers still in place at the top because those are going back in.

The next task was to strip the top using Citristrip.  That was easy enough.

Once I got that far, I was a little stumped about what color to paint the piece.  It had to be something that would work with the wood top and wood bottom shelf because I was leaving both of those unpainted.  I also wanted to use a contrasting color inside the bottom section.  I debated using green, or maybe aqua, or even just white.  But none of those choices felt right.

That’s when I decided to just go with what has become my favorite black, Dixie Belle’s Caviar.

And to brighten up the inside of the lower section, I painted it in Fusion’s Plaster.  I also painted the insides of the upper two drawers in the same color.

Then, while I had the Plaster out, I went ahead and used it to stencil ‘Farmers Market’ across the top two drawers.

It really wasn’t until this moment that I decided this piece would make an amazing kitchen island.  But for that it needed to have some sturdier updated casters so that it could be moved around in a kitchen.  The dresser had come with old wooden casters, but a couple of them no longer had the wooden wheel, just the metal framing for the caster.

So I removed all of them, but was unfortunately left with holes that were larger than the size of the new casters that I purchased at my local DIY store.

Once again, I called on Ken for assistance.  He filled the old holes using a dowel stick and lots of glue.  Once the dowel stick was in place, he cut it off even with the bottom of each leg.

Once the glue was dry, he drilled new holes of the correct size for the new casters.

Next I realized that I also needed to paint the back of the dresser if it was going to be used as an island floating in the middle of someone’s kitchen.  So I gave that a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s Caviar too.

Finally I used Dixie Belle’s Easy Peasy spray on wax as a top coat over the paint.  I used Miss Mustard Seed hemp oil to freshen up the bead board lower shelf.  And I used Miss Mustard Seed Antiquing Wax on the dresser top.

You might now be rolling your eyes and asking yourself ‘why oh why does she use so many products?  couldn’t she have gotten by with just one?’  And the answer is yes, I could have.  I could have used the Antiquing wax for the entire piece.  It would have worked beautifully over the black paint, and it also would have freshened up the bead board nicely.  However, it would have required more elbow grease for both of those than the products I did use and I’m a fan of saving myself extra labor whenever possible.  So, three different topcoats it was.

So after many starts and stops and decisions along the way, the Farmers Market Island is finished!

And I absolutely love it!

My sister loved it too and is inspired to create a similar piece for her own kitchen.  I’ll be sure to share her project when she gets going on it.

In the meantime, if you are local and need a Farmers Market island be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details!

P.S.  Be sure to let me know what you think of the results on this one Mary!