Category: furniture.

Mr. Q and I picked up this dresser the eve before Christmas Eve, and it couldn’t have gone more smoothly.  I was taking a bit of a leap because the craigslist ad for this one had one tiny, dark picture that just showed about half of the dresser, and one line of text that said “Old dresser for sale.”  And that was it.  But the price was right, and it was only about 20 minutes away, so we went for it.

I love these kinds of CL transactions.  I show up on time (I always try to show up on time), the seller is waiting for me, the dresser is empty and ready to go (in this case, already sitting out in the breezeway), I look it over, the drawers work, the hardware is all there.  I hand over the cash, we load it up, and are heading back home, all literally within about five minutes.  Slick.  And I came home with this.

It was in fairly decent shape, but the finish on the top was looking pretty rough.  There are a couple of spots with veneer problems too.  Definitely nothing that a little paint and wax can’t fix though.

I knew right away that this was the perfect candidate for milk paint.  It needed a chippy, distressed, authentic farmhouse finish.  For some reason I really felt like going with a lighter color on this one.  I’ve done a lot of black lately, and maybe because it has been so gloomy here, I just needed to lighten up.  So I decided to mix up another batch of the mint green milk paint that I used on the minty fresh vanity last summer.

I think it helped create the perfect vintage look for this one.

I considered highlighting some of the detail with white paint, but once I had it painted I realized that I prefer the way the design looks all in one color.  It reminds me of a butterfly.

  The top had to be stripped, even if I was going to paint it.  There were numerous water rings whose outlines would have shown through the paint.  Once I had the finish stripped, the wood was so pretty I decided to just wax it with the CeCe Caldwell dark wax.

This was my first effort at stripping something other than just a flat surface (because of that detailed back piece), and I was very happy with the result.  You probably don’t remember this, but one of my New Year’s resolutions for 2014 was to work on my stripping skills (ha!) and I feel like they have come a long way this year.

Are you digging my vintage wallpaper background?  I have to chuckle a little, but just last week my friend Sue and I both admitted that we have a problem in common.  We both tend to hang onto our favorite ‘supplies’ rather than using them.  Do you do that?  Sort of hoard those things that really speak to you, even though you just keep them stored away somewhere?  This wallpaper is one of those things.  I really love it, so I hesitate to actually use it on something.  The color was perfect for behind this dresser though, and I’m still considering using it to line the drawers … except I’m not sure I can part with it.

In fact, I would prefer not to part with this dresser either.  In case you haven’t noticed, this is exactly my style.  Vintage, with a little bit of curvy feminine detail.  Just enough chipping to look aged without being over the top.  Yep, I love it.  But, there is no room in the inn, so this one will have to be sold.

Oh, one last thing, did you notice the original drawer pulls?  Their shape mirrors the shape of the raised detail on the upper two drawers.  I had to keep them for that reason, even though I considered replacing them with clear glass knobs.

So, what do you think of a little fresh wintergreen for brightening up some otherwise rather dull winter days?

While moving all of my painting supplies indoors for winter, I noticed that I had several small jars of the same (or very similar) color.  None of them would paint an entire piece of furniture though.  So it occurred to me to just mix them all together.

Two of these were sample size pots of different brands of chalk paint; the Americana Decor paint is from Home Depot (yep, did you know they are carrying a chalk paint now?) and the Cottage Paint (bottom, back) is from our local Hirschfields.  The Annie Sloan can just had a tiny bit left in the bottom.  I mixed all of these together in a Talenti gelato container.  Not only is their gelato delicious, but the containers have a fab screw on lid and work great for mixing and storing paint in smaller quantities.  I can’t really think of a better excuse for eating banana chocolate swirl gelato, can you?

Once I had these all mixed together, I had more than enough for a dresser.

I bet you don’t even recognize this one.  It’s Humpty Dumpty!  Remember him?  He started out like this…

And then Ken fixed him up to look like this…

Finished, he looks like this …

Now for the choices I made, which were inspired by several comments left on my first post about this piece (thanks CJ, Victoria and Darrielle).  First, I stripped the top using a non-toxic (less toxic?) citrus stripper.  When I decided to do this, I wasn’t sure if I would follow it up with some dark Java gel stain, or just wax.  After removing the old finish, I knew that I didn’t want to go as dark as the Java, so I pulled out a sample size pot of CeCe Caldwell’s Dark Aging Wax.  It is a rich brown color, compared to the MMS antiquing wax, which leans more towards black.

I sanded the top lightly by hand with 220 grit sandpaper, and then rubbed on the wax.  The wax added a beautiful richness to the top of the dresser without going too dark.  See…

Gorgeous, right?

I really debated the color and brand of paint for this one.  I seriously considered the MMS Artissimo.  I’ve done a couple of Eastlake style dressers in it, and they both turned out lovely.  Then, I thought maybe MMS Boxwood, mainly because I thought the dark green would be festive for the Christmas season, and fun to stage with some red and green holiday stuff.  In the end though, I decided to go with a color that I know sells really well.  And why wouldn’t it?  It is a beautiful color.

After painting the body of the dresser in my mixed up paint, I decided to go ahead and paint the hardware.  Darrielle was right, since I had all of the hardware I should make it work rather than replacing it.  And Victoria reminded me that painting the hardware was a good option.  Once I covered the brassy gold color with paint, the hardware was actually quite pretty.

I also decided I had to come up with some keyhole escutcheons as CJ suggested.  The holes for the original escutcheons were just too large to ignore.  Unfortunately I only had two matching escutcheons, not three.  So I improvised by adding a number plate to the top drawer.

Yes, I know that escutcheon is crooked, it’s not permanently adhered yet.  I had to get some pictures done while I could, so I just slapped them on temporarily.  We literally had a 20 minute window of sunshine on Christmas Eve, and otherwise have had nothing but gloomy overcast days for what feels like weeks.

This dresser has the pin and cove dovetail joints that I’ve talked about before, so this piece likely dates to the late Victorian period (late 1800’s).

Ken pulled out all the stops when he put this dresser together.  He even reattached the top using dowels and glue.  The next time he does this for me, I should really get pictures of that process to share with you.  But, my point here is that this dresser is now as solid as can be.  It does not wiggle or jiggle in the slightest.  The drawers slide as smooth as silk. This dresser can easily last someone another 100 years now.  So if any of you local readers need a beautiful Duck Egg blue dresser, let me know!  This one is available.  Sorry, this one is sold.

I’m returning to milk paint on my next dresser, which I hope to get painted this weekend.  Check back next week to see it!

I confess I have a bit of a back up of unpainted furniture lingering in my Carriage House.  Luckily, we had to purchase a new truck for Mr. Q last summer and we decided to go with something bigger than our old Ford Ranger (to be able to haul more furniture, naturally) and the F150 we bought doesn’t actually fit in the Carriage House.  We didn’t think ahead about that part, and now Mr. Q is stuck parking outside and cleaning snow off his vehicle all winter long.  But on the bright side, I now have one side of the building to store furniture in.  Silver linings, right?

This may be a slippery slope though; I have found myself filling it up with future projects!

I was planning to take a much needed break from painting after my vacation, but my plans for this past Saturday fell through at the last minute and I ended up with some time on my hands.  The moment was right to break out the supplies and get some painting done!

So, Mr. Q and I hauled this dresser into the house.

First off, I had the mirror for it.  I just removed it before I took the ‘before’ photo to do some repairs to the frame.

If you look closely, can you see how badly damaged the veneer is on the two big drawers?  Wait, here is a close up photo …

It didn’t take me long to realize that the veneer on those two drawers couldn’t be saved at all.  It obviously really dried out at some point and splintered all over the place.  Someone had tried to repair it with a lot of glue, but it just wasn’t going to cut it.  So I removed the drawer pulls and that bit of trim on the upper drawer, and then sent them off for a date with Ken and his belt sander.  Ken sanded the veneer completely off down to the wood underneath.  He was worried I wouldn’t be able to make the drawers look good afterwards, but he underestimates the power of paint and a good stencil!

Right?

OK, let’s talk details.  when I took the mirror apart I realized that there were some spots near the bottom that had lost their silvering.  Remember the ‘old black magic‘ dresser I painted late last summer?  That had a mirror in similar condition, and I lined it with old book pages.  I knew that technique would also be perfect on this dresser, which then led to my choice to paint it black.  So, it is painted with MMS milk paint in Typewriter.  I did not get any chipping on this piece, and I did not use a bonding agent.  I think the existing finish was just so dry that the paint nearly behaved as it would on bare wood.  I used hemp oil for my topcoat.

I used pages from the old German book I recently purchased at Carver Junk Co to line the mirror, and that led to my decision to use a German stencil as well.  I’ve been dying to use a new stencil I purchased recently, but it’s in French for one thing, and for another it translates to “friends and family gather here”, which just seems wrong for a dresser that will likely go in a bedroom.  Kind of … wrong, right?  So I had to go with my old German standby.

It is one that I have been using for a couple of years, and funny enough “Donau” is German for Danube.  And Worth an der Donau is a town on the banks of the Danube, 22 km east of Regensburg, which means I sailed right past it on my trip.  Unfortunately, it was probably dark out when we passed by.  Isn’t it a small world?

You’d think from the photos that I stenciled this using a white paint, but actually it is Martha Stewart craft paint in Gray Wolf and it’s fairly dark.

I swear.  It really is this color.  The contrast with the black just makes it appear much lighter.  Check the first full on picture of the dresser for a better representation of how it looks.  Keep this in mind if you plan to stencil on black.  White has far too much contrast.

One last detail, I replaced all of the knobs on this piece with some vintage black glass knobs that I had on hand.  I had planned to keep the original hardware, but when I removed the knobs on the upper drawers, I found that two of them were missing their back plates.  Thus, you couldn’t tighten them up without them sinking into the holes they were in.  While digging around in my stash for replacements, I came across these black knobs and had enough for the whole piece.

At 34″ tall and about 40″ wide, this dresser is actually rather more petite in person than it looks in the photos, although the mirror adds another 37″ to the overall height.

If you need a black dresser with a little German flair, this one is for sale.  Leave me a comment if you are interested and I’ll get back to you.  Sorry, this one is sold.

Remember the dresser that fell apart?  I’m fondly calling it Humpty Dumpty.  Well, it didn’t take all the king’s horses or all of the king’s men … although I think some horses of a different kind were involved … it just took handyman Ken and his clever know-how to put Humpty together again.

Yep, he’s already got it done!

As a reminder, here is how it started out.  In a pile on the floor.

Somehow Ken managed to sort all the pieces and start putting them back together again.

This time it didn’t fall off the horses.

These photos of the repair process were all taken by Ken in his workshop, which is far tidier than mine.

And now, Humpty Dumpty looks like this!

This is now one solid, well functioning dresser, thanks to Ken!

Next up, a new paint job.  I’m trying to decide what to do about the handles.  These are obviously new replacement handles designed to look old.  Should I keep them?  Or replace them?

All three of the keyhole escutcheons are missing.  Should I find replacements?  Or leave them as is?

Should I strip and wax the top, and just paint the rest?  Or paint it all?

What do you think?

I was going through some old photo files the other day.  A couple of things struck me.  The first was just how long I’ve been doing furniture make-overs.  I started in the 90’s when shabby chic was at its height.  How is it even possible that this was more than 20 years ago?  Have I really been doing this that long?  Crazy!

Next, I was reminded of some really fun pieces I had done.  So I decided to share some of them with you.  I don’t have extensive before and after photo shoots of any of these.  Most of them were just photographed for a Carriage House sale ad.  So, no judgments about the quality of my photos, ok?

Let’s start back in 2008.  Look!  The photo cottage exterior was barn red back then.  And I painted this fab potting bench and used a rusty old child’s shovel as the drawer pull.  I was using a lot of vintage tablecloths to reupholster chairs back then.  I was also doing a fair amount of decoupage (on the bucket under the chair, the galvanized pot under the bench).  If memory serves, I believe my fab customer Jenny bought this potting bench.  Am I right Jenny?  Do you still have it?

In addition to containers, I also decoupaged on furniture.  Many of my favorite pieces back then were decoupaged.  Like this desk.

Here is a close up of the drawer.  Those black swirly bits are rub-ons.

In 2009, I painted this gorgeous white buffet.

Fast forward to 2012.  The always classic Union Jack dresser.  This was the first one I ever did, and honestly, I think the best.  I’ve struggled with getting them right every since.  Maybe it was just beginners luck.

I’ve always been a fan of both white and aqua.  So fresh and lovely.  That little aqua and white table originally belonged to my grandparents.  I kept in my own home for a long time, but it was time to say goodbye to it.  So I gave it a darling makeover and sent it on its way.  That sleigh bed was one of my favorite pieces too.  How fantastic would that be in a young girl’s room.  Actually, that is where it ended up.  I remember the woman who bought it was going to put it in her daughter’s room.  I wonder if she still has it.

This darling little aqua and white nightstand was one of my faves.  I’m quite sure that it was originally half of a vanity/dressing table that someone took apart.

When it comes to the Carriage House sale, I am not the only one coming up with fabulous furniture.  Sue occasionally knocks one or two out of the park herself.  This was one of my favorite pieces that she did.  Isn’t it deliciously chippy and fabulous?  It sold in about 2 seconds flat!

So, there you have it, a little walk down memory lane.  Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Every winter a magical thing seems to happen.  Just when it gets too cold to be taking photos either outside or in the photo cottage, the leaves all fall off the trees and suddenly I have this fantastic light in my piano room.  This also happens to be the only room in my house with a wall that works as a suitable back drop for furniture photos.  It’s like kismet.

I was never really happy with the outdoor photos I took of this petite dresser that I painted in MMSMP in Kitchen Scale.  The fall leaves are gorgeous, but I didn’t like the way the color looked on the dresser.

So, once all of those yellow leaves fell, I decided to stage a ‘do-over’ inside the house.

I think this gives you a better idea of the true color.  As we all know, Kitchen Scale is my fave, so I want to do it justice.

Maybe it’s my imagination, and it doesn’t really look all that different.  Maybe I just prefer the color when paired with white and grey rather than yellow.

Either way, I’m glad I allowed myself a do-over for this one.

I had planned to add these photos to my craigslist ad for this piece, but there was no need because it sold without them!  I had a lot of interest in this one, so I am on the lookout for similar pieces to make over.  It seems that lots of people out there would love to have a Kitchen Scale nightstand/dresser!

A while back my friend Cathy offered me a vanity bench.  I initially thought it would work with my stenciled vanity/dressing table.  However, when I put them together, they just didn’t suit each other.  The bench is too wide for the vanity.  Nonetheless, it is a fabulous little bench, and I’m sure it will find a good home with another vanity, or maybe just on its own at the foot of a bed.

I painted it with Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Trophy, and then reupholstered it in a simple linen with a stencil added.

This is so simple to do, and the linen stencils beautifully.  Here are my tools.

A stencil, some craft paint, a stencil brush, paper plate, paper towel, some new batting and some plain inexpensive linen (not pictured).

The original seat to the bench is underneath my supplies.  As you can see, all that was left was a remnant of the original fabric.  I ripped that off, and then cut my linen about 2″ bigger than the seat all the way around.

Now, this next tip is important, so I hope you are paying attention.  You should stencil the fabric on a hard flat surface before you upholster the bench.  You won’t get crisp lines on your stencil if you try to stencil over the batting.  I’ve learned this the hard way.

I just laid my linen flat on a table.  I squirted some paint onto the paper plate, swirled my brush in it, and then blotted it on the paper towel.  You don’t want your paint to go on thick and goopy or runny.  You could tape the stencil in place, but I like to live dangerously, so I just hold it in place.  Then, just stipple the paint on.

The Martha Stewart paint I used dries pretty quickly.  I probably only waited about 10 minutes before continuing on to staple the fabric over a couple layers of new batting onto the seat.

The trickiest part of this process was being sure the design was straight before I stapled the fabric in place.

I just came to the realization that I did a pathetic job staging this one.  I meant to go back and add in some accessories, but I got distracted by laundry and then some gardening.  With the end of daylight savings time, it was getting dark out before I remembered and then it was just too late.

Let’s just imagine there is a lovely rug under this bench instead of my dirty photo cottage floor.  Or maybe a cute pair of shoes stashed under there.

Try to focus on the pretty upholstery and paint job, OK?

Sometimes I wonder if I make it all look too easy.  I want to be sure to share the disasters with you too.  And today I have a good one.

Recently I sent Mr. Q off to pick up an Eastlake dresser.  I love painting these.  I know there are probably some ‘antique’ people out there that cringe when I say that, but I only paint the ones that are in questionable shape.  So this one seemed right up my alley.  Note:  the photo below is not the actual dresser, I borrowed this photo online, but this is the basic style of the dresser and in similar condition.

It was a little rickety, but Mr. Q had Ken over to consult, and he thought we could re-glue some key joints and it would be good as new.  So, we threw it up on some horses and started gluing and clamping.

We left everything to cure properly, and Ken said he would check on it the next day while I was at work.

That day, my phone rang at the office and it was Ken.  He was laughing so hard, he could barely get the story out.  Apparently he was going to move some clamps and add some more glue when he bumped the dresser.  He said he watched it, as if in slow motion, fall to the ground where it came apart into a million pieces.  There was nothing to do but laugh.  And laugh.  And then call me and laugh some more.  Note:  the photo below IS the actual dresser!

Yep.  We’re going to call this one Humpty Dumpty from now on.

I don’t have all of the king’s horses and all of the king’s men, but fortunately I do have Ken.  And he likes puzzles.

He is actually looking forward to the process of putting it all back together again!  He likes a challenge.  It will make a great winter project for him.  So, it may be a while before you see this one again.  And there is always the possibility that instead of a sturdy dresser, we will just end up with some very expensive fire wood.  I’ll keep you posted!

When hinges creak in doorless chambers, and strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls; Whenever candlelights flicker where the air is deathly still – that is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror with ghoulish delight!

Happy Halloween!  I thought this would be the perfect day to share my latest creation with all of you because it’s perfectly bewitching!

Are you scared yet?

Mr. Q and I picked up this waterfall dresser in the dark of night a couple of weekends ago.  The ‘before’ picture is deceptive.  All looks well on the outside, but dig a little deeper and beware of creepy crawly things on the inside.

Seriously, all Halloween references aside, this dresser looked gorgeous in the light from the headlights on our truck, which was all we had to go by.  Even if we’d had more light, I still don’t think we would have looked past what appeared to be a dresser in pristine condition.  Once we got it home and really started to dig in, I realized that this one needed more work than I thought.  The top drawer was very hard to open and close, and there was some veneer damage along the bottom of the sides.  But it was nothing that I couldn’t deal with.

However, the biggest problem was that the seller must have coated this dresser with something to make it look this pretty.  I could feel an oily residue on it.  I suspected that this would be a problem when using milk paint.  So, I sanded it thoroughly, and then just to be double safe, I washed it with a TSP substitute.  Then I totally ignored the little voice in my head that said “maybe you should switch to chalk paint!”, and I painted it with MMS milk paint in Typewriter.

And as the paint dried, that was when I started to get scared.  It was chipping.  A lot.

I wasn’t planning on super chippy, but super chippy is what I got.  Once I got over the intial ‘oh crap, what have I done’ moment, I realized that it actually looked pretty fab.  If you are an afficinado of the chippy look (and I am), this is really a cool dresser.

Let’s just discuss a couple of details before I unveil the dresser in all of its glory.  You may have noticed the little strips of inlaid veneer on the top and bottom drawers.  I thought they were pretty, so I masked them with tape while I painted.  I love how that worked out.

You can also see that I kept the original hardware.  It was just perfect for the dresser.

I also painted the interior behind the top doors black.

That interior space could be a nice way to hide a small TV in the bedroom, if one was so inclined.  It would have to be a small one though.  Aside from a TV, it makes a great space for spare folded blankets, or all of your sweaters.  This would be fun piece for a kitchen though too.  Plenty of storage with a more unique look than cupboards.

As usual, I really struggled with getting any sort of pictures that do justice to this dresser.  It’s just so hard to get good photos of black pieces.  And the contrast between the chippy areas and black paint is much more pronounced in photos than it is in person.  I spent the better part of an afternoon trying to improve my results.  I used a tripod.  I changed my aperture, I played around with my shutter speed.  In the end, this is as good as it got.

So, what do you think of my perfectly spooky make-over?  Who needs a bewitching black dresser?  Anyone?  Sorry, this one is sold.

I sent Mr. Q out to rural Wisconsin to pick up this dressing table a few weeks ago.  There was some confusion about the location and he ended up at an abandoned farm.  He said there were overgrown weeds and rusted out farm equipment everywhere, and since we’ve been watching a lot of Criminal Minds lately, he was kind of creeped out.  It looked like prime serial killer territory.  Fortunately, he figured out he was at the wrong end of the road and was able to find the right house and no harm came to him.

And then he came home with this.

This piece seems older than the hills.  I decided to go with it and try to add even more age to it.  I painted it in MMS milk paint in Trophy.  Then, I added a stenciled pattern to the drawer fronts.  The gorgeous silver drawer pulls that came with the vanity worked perfectly with the grey of the Trophy.

I added another stencil under the mirror, distressed heavily and finished with a coat of hemp oil.

And this would be about the moment where I realized that even though you can’t see that board at the back under the mirror while standing in front of this vanity, or while sitting in a chair in front of it … once you sit on the floor and start taking pictures shooting up it seems like a glaring omission!

So I went back and painted it, and then took some more pictures.  And voila!

A sweet little dressing table.  Or vanity.  What do you call them?  I must tell you, while surfing craigslist today I found one person calling theirs a ‘powdering desk’ and another called it a ‘sitting dresser’.  I generally call these vanities, but if you search ‘vanity’ on pinterest you’ll also get a bunch of bathroom vanities.  So, perhaps vanity, thy name is ‘dressing table’!  I don’t think I’ll go with ‘powdering desk’, although I do find it kind of quaint.

I staged the dressing table with a few of my favorites things.  Some vintage jewelry and buttons, and some crackly ironstone.

Some old family photos.

And of course, Lula, my dress form.  You can read all about Lula here.

I got some great reflections of the photo cottage in some of my shots.

So, how about you?  Could you use a powdering desk of your own?

This one is available, leave me a comment if you are interested.  Sorry, this one is sold.