Category: furniture.

For those of you not local, there is a town across the border in Wisconsin called Dresser.  For me, it leads to a lot of confusion on craigslist when I am searching for a “dresser.”  But, in this case, I found a pair of dressers in Dresser and I sent Mr. Q to pick them up.

They are classic blondes.  A tall gentlemen’s chest …

And its companion …

I knew these would be gorgeous painted.  Yet, I struggled a bit at first with inspiration.  I wanted to play up the inset portions of the lower drawers.  I could have done this in my standby Annie Sloan Provence, but quite honestly, I am a little bored with that color right now.  I needed to change it up just a tad.

I was surfing pinterest when I came across this color.

Hello gorgeous!

This is Sherwin Williams’ Aloe (6464).  The 2013 color of the year from their Vintage Moxie collection.

Um, Vintage Moxie?  Where do I sign?  I’m in.  Clearly this pair of dressers was meant to have a little vintage moxie, and I am just the girl to give it to them.  This color is a gorgeous aqua that leans a bit more towards the green than the blue.  Very similar to the color on my vintage ice cream scale.

I purchased the paint from Sherwin Williams in their matte sheen and then doctored it up with my chalk paint recipe (add a little plaster of paris mixed with water) and painted these up.

I used white to accent the detail.

The hardware totally makes these pieces, don’t you think?  Thank goodness it was all there.

 Mid century modern isn’t for everyone, but even so, you gotta admit these are just gorgeous pieces.  They have style oozing from their pores. Very glam-tastic.

And I do believe I am in love with this color.  It’s delicious.

Both of these pieces are available, although the low one may be spoken for quickly (I have a customer looking for a piece like this).  The insides of the drawers are in pristine condition and they all function perfectly.  If you are local (I don’t ship) and are interested in prices and/or measurements, just drop me an email at oakdalecarriagehouse@gmail.com or leave me a comment.

Maybe the reason I like working with the tiny furniture so much is because you can paint an entire dresser in less than five minutes.  It’s really kind of fun working in miniature.  I suppose that is only part of it though, the other reason is that I still like to play with toys.  One of these days I will have to share my dollhouse with you.  Yep, I have one.  My dad made it.  But that is for another day.  For today, I am sharing the mini-dresser.  I gave you a sneak peak of it sitting on the top of this dresser …

See how tiny it is?  Here is a close up.

I bought this at a lunchtime garage sale for a whopping $1.  Really, who can pass that up?

I decided to paint it in a custom MMS milk paint mix.  I was going for Robins Egg blue using a recipe from Miss Mustard’s milk paint blog.  I feel like the color turned out a bit darker than I wanted.  Mr. Q tells me that this because I painted something so small, something about it tricking the eye.  On a bigger piece, this color would look lighter.  Apparently when it comes to color, size does matter!

It’s still a cutie though.  I added a little Tim Holtz rub-on to the top drawer.  Am I the only one here who loves Tim Holtz?  It goes back to my scrapbooking hobby.

For now I decided to keep this tiny dresser.  I think it will be sweet on a shelf in my crafting room.  Plus it will be great for organizing some bits and bobs.  Next time, I must return to painting the full sized stuff though.

One last note, since we’re talking about how size matters here, I did some research into why my pictures were getting fuzzy on the blog.  I found out that something about the way that WordPress automatically re-sizes photos to fit on a blog makes them fuzzy (I’m sure there are technical details here that I am missing), but basically if you re-size the photos yourself before loading them, the fuzziness is reduced.  So, I’m giving that a try.  Hopefully I’ll see some improvement!

Way back in early summer I picked up this farmhouse table at the ECCO neighborhood garage sales (along with that first mini cabinet!).

Personally, I’m not a fan of the leaving the leaves on these tables.  They are ten times more fabulous without their leaves.  So I removed the leaves and saved them for a future project.

I took my inspiration for this table from this pin.

And accordingly, I painted the base in MMS milk paint in Boxwood.  I purposely did no sanding at all because I wanted to maximize chipping for a beat up farm table look.

And I did end up with some fantastic chippyness.

And I love the green base with the beat up wood top.

I staged this table as a desk with a vintage Underwood and some old books in varying shades of green …

And with the most charming little chair …

Believe it or not, no one purchased this desk at the Carriage House sale.  I’ve been trying to think of a spot for it in my own house, but I haven’t come up with anything yet.  I’ll keep thinking about it though.  In the meantime, how about you?  Need a fabulous chippy farmhouse table?

When I popped by the Farmhouse Inspired booth at Oronoco Gold Rush back in August, the owner Jody told me she was giving demos on a layering technique that she has been using lately.  She showed me a painted chair that she was using for the demo, and it was fab.  So, I tucked that little bit of info away in the back of my head.  It popped back up when I came across this blah little oak chair that I purchased at a garage sale while my sis was here.

 Basically, the twist on this layering technique is that you get the best of both worlds; chalk paint and milk paint.  You’ve probably seen the comparisons, the pros and cons of each product.  They both have their place in my heart.  Some projects are more suited for milk paint, and some for chalk paint.  But with this technique, you can take advantage of the best qualities of both!

You start with an undercoat of chalk paint.  Using the chalk paint eliminates the need for much, if any, prep work at all since it will stick without chipping or flaking.  This gives you a base color that can then show through your 2nd layer, which will be milk paint.

In this case, I skipped the prep.  No sanding, no cleaning, no nothin’.  I just painted on one coat of Annie Sloan’s Aubusson.

Oooooo, pretty!  Of course, this is without any sanding or waxing; so far you only see the chalky finish that comes with chalk paint.

Next I wanted to make sure I got lots of chippy-ness with my milk paint, so I used a hemp oil resist.  Basically all this means is that I added a layer of hemp oil in all the spots on the chair that I wanted to get chippy.

Then I mixed up some MMS milk paint in Eulalie’s Sky, and I left it slightly thicker than usual.  I painted on one thick coat.  Since I wanted extra chipping/crackling, I gave it a shot of heat with my blow dryer (this is not the same blow dryer I use on my hair, I swear).

You can see that it is starting to chip from the blow drying.

I then left the chair to fully dry overnight.  The next evening I got out the sand paper and sanded harder in areas that I thought would be more worn naturally, and a little more lightly everywhere else.  I was hoping for a lot more chipping, but I did get some fairly realistic looking chips.

I was able to sand lightly down to the undercoat in some areas, which gives a worn appearance.  I finished by vacuuming away the dust and adding a final coat of MMS furniture wax.  Here is the final result.

It’s pretty sweet.

You’ll probably see me experiment with this some more in the future.  I think Annie Sloan’s Duck Egg would make a lovely undercoat with some MMSMP in Linen on top.  I’ll keep you posted if I give that a try!

Last week my co-workers Sue & Cathy and I went garage saling over our lunch hour, and I picked up this dresser.

It was pretty beat up, as you can sort of see in the ‘before’ picture.  But on the plus side, it had all of the original hardware, the drawers all worked well, and I knew it would be much cuter painted.

I really thought about painting it in MMS Kitchen Scale, but in the back of my mind I just kept seeing it painted yellow.  Then I realized why.  It’s basically the same style as this famous piece by Miss Mustard herself.

In fact, take a close look, aside from the shape (tall v. wide), it is the same dresser.  I assume they are the gentlemen’s and ladies’ version of the same bedroom set.

In the end I decided, why fight it?  I can only see it painted yellow, so yellow it shall be.  I will call it an homage to the incredible style of Miss Mustard herself.

Let’s go ahead and point out how my version pales in comparison to Miss Mustard.  First, the pattern on the top drawers.  You can see that this pattern was there originally.  I don’t think it was an actual inlay, but just stained to look like an inlay.  Once painted, I could barely even see the outline.  I very much admire Marian’s ability to paint designs like this free-hand on her drawer fronts, but I do not have that skill.  So my upper drawers remained plain.

Miss Mustard also painted some of the bands around the front legs of her dresser white, and I did not think to do that.

As for the top, Miss Mustard stripped and stained the top of her dresser in Dark Walnut.  I just stripped and added a dark wax to mine.  I think her’s is better.  Although I will say that I think if someone is looking for a more rustic, aged look, mine fits that bill.

Now let’s get a close up look at the gorgeous chippy finish I ended up with on this dresser.

And that right there is why I love Miss Mustard Seed milk paint.  In a nutshell.  You simply won’t get this look with a chalk paint.  This dresser has the perfect amount of chippyness to look authentic without it being over the top.  I love it when that happens!  Standing next to this dresser in person, one would really be tempted to believe this is an authentic 75 year old finish.

Here are the boring painting details for those of you who want to know (everyone else can skip this part).  I stripped the top, sanded the body lightly, painted three coats of MMS milk paint in Mustard Seed Yellow on the body, and three coats of MMS milk paint in Linen on the details.  It took three coats to get full coverage on this piece, and I didn’t want a streaky look.  I waxed the body with MMS clear wax, and I waxed the top with two coats of my own custom blend dark wax.

This very charming yellow dresser will be available at the Carriage House Sale on Saturday.  Hope you can stop by!

P.S.  One little housekeeping note here.  Do any of you blog in wordpress?  I have been really frustrated by how fuzzy my photos seem once I load them on the blog.  Recently I discovered that if you click on the photo and bring it up in another tab, you lose the fuzziness.  Maybe all of you already knew this?  Anyway, my tip to you if you want to see a picture in more detail with less fuzziness, just click on it (or right click, select ‘open in a new tab’).  And if any of you know why this happens, or if there is a way that I can correct it, please let me know!

I figure if Picasso can have a blue period, then so can I.  Right?

Of course, Picasso’s blue period works were somber and desolate.  Plus, he had trouble selling them in his lifetime, it was only later that they became popular.  Hopefully none of that will be true of my blue period!

Much like a lot of other furniture painters out there, I do seem to be drawn to blues of all kinds this year.  From the deep, rich indigo of Miss Mustard Seed’s Artissimo …

to the gorgeous paler blue green of Annie Sloan’s Duck Egg …

I was inexplicably drawn to these blue motel chairs at a garage sale.

My recent attraction to blue even inspired the ‘save the date’ card for my upcoming sale.

And now I seem to be enamored with Annie Sloan’s Aubusson.  First the little cupboard I salvaged, and now … the mirrored dresser that was part of the two-fer.

I have to say, I went around and around about what color to paint this dresser.  There were just so many possibilities.  MMSMP in Mustard Seed Yellow with white accents?  Trophy with a stencil on the front?  Another custom mixed Minty Green?  Black?

In the end I had to tell myself to snap out of it and remember it was only a dresser, and it wasn’t the last one on the planet.  Another dresser will come along to be painted, so for now, just pick a color for gosh sake!

And so, I picked Aubusson with the details highlighted in MMSMP in Linen.  I knew that I wanted the eye to be drawn to this gorgeous detail at the top of the mirror.

I actually started with outdoor photos for this one, but the blue seems far too bright in these.  It’s not that bright in person.

As you may notice in the before & after side by side, I changed out the hardware on the lower two drawers for some much prettier stuff that suited the dresser.  The knobs it came with were definitely not original to the piece.  And if you are wondering about that scroll-y trim around the bottom two drawers, the previous owners had removed all of it.  What you are seeing is the shadow from where it was.

This dresser will be available at the Carriage House sale!

I know others have a lot of success re-painting an already painted piece of furniture, but I really try to avoid it.  I don’t like stripping paint, I find it time consuming and messy.  I also don’t like painting over latex with milk paint.  It can be done, but it gets even more unpredictable than usual.  I’m also kind of picky about the color of an undercoat that is sure to show through whatever I put on top of it, at least on the distressed edges.  So, keeping all of those factors in mind, I usually pass on already painted pieces.

However, last winter after probably one too many cocktails in Las Vegas, I texted Mr. Q and sent him off to pick up a dresser/nightstand combo while I was off visiting my mom.  They were already painted white.  But I thought I could work with the white.

Here is what they looked like when I got them.

They came as a pair, so I was stuck with the chunky nightstand, even though it obviously doesn’t really match the dresser and it’s not something I would normally grab.  As for the dresser,  the hardware was all wrong, the existing white paint job was poorly done and, you can’t see it here, but there is a coat of garish green under the white.

Upon returning from Las Vegas I took a look at them, and then promptly stored them in nnK’s garage for several months and forgot all about them (sorry nnK).

I brought them back over to my place earlier this summer though, and still couldn’t find the motivation to work on them.  Finally, I told myself that I had to get these done before my sale.  Nothing like a deadline to get my mojo going.  I decided to work with the white by freshening it up with a coat of American Paint Company’s mineral/chalk paint in Navajo White.  The next step was to add a stripe to the drawer fronts using Annie Sloan’s Louis Blue.

I started with the night stand.  I used yellow Frog tape (the one for delicate surfaces), taped off some stripes on the drawer front, painted the blue, and pulled off the tape.  Ack!  The tape pulled the paint off right down the to wood.  I am guessing this is because the original paint used on this piece was probably latex.  And it didn’t stick.  In the end, I just touched up the paint, added some Louis Blue to the top, added a vintage glass knob and called it good.

It has a sort of beachy vibe, don’t you think?

Definitely not my best work ever, but hopefully someone out there will want a beachy keen nightstand.

Meanwhile, there was no way I was going to try using tape on the dresser, so I went back to the drawing board.  It then occurred to me that I should get out my stencils.  Duh.  Why didn’t I think of this sooner?

And voila!  The finished dresser.

Seriously, isn’t it amazing what a fresh coat of chalk paint, some stenciling, and some new hardware can do for a dresser?

Here is a peek at the inside.

I’m thinking maybe I should have numbered those interior drawers.

What do you think?  Should I add numbers?

You may have caught a glimpse of this tiny dresser that I used for staging …

Yes, my addiction to tiny furniture continues.  I plan to paint this one too … but maybe after the Carriage House sale!

Remember the whole ‘my computer died and I haven’t been able to retrieve my photos yet’ thing?  Yeah, well, I haven’t made that a priority.  With my sale coming up, I am mainly focusing on getting furniture done.  This is further exacerbated by the fact that fall is in the air here in Minnesota.  I know I only have another month or so before my summer workshop in the Carriage House is closed up for the winter.  I’ll have plenty of time after the snow flies to concentrate on indoor projects … like figuring out how to retrieve my photos from an external hard drive (snore.)  And cleaning.

Meanwhile though, that means I don’t have a ‘before’ picture of this project for you.  Let me try to paint a picture.  One afternoon my pal Cathy texted me and said “I have a piece of furniture for you, I’ll drop it off.”  She came by with a little washstand in her car and a tall tale about how she wrangled that thing into the back seat all by herself.  You see, she saw it at the curb with a “FREE” sign on it.  It was in a sad state of affairs.  It had the most hideous replacement hardware ever, one caster was missing, the veneer on the top drawer was totally buckled.

But, Cathy saw through all of that and she knew this little cupboard could be salvaged!  So she manhandled it into her car and brought it to me.  The furniture whisperer.

Where do I even start with this one?  First of all, the hardware that came with it went right into the trash.  This is practically unheard of for me, but seriously, this stuff was butt ugly.  Bad, bad, bad 70’s hardware.  I felt that it was my responsibility to protect humanity from ever having to lay eyes on such a hideous sight ever again.  Fortunately, I had these vintage glass pulls and knob on hand to use as replacements.  Ahhhhh, so much better.

Once the hardware was gone, I made the decision that the top drawer was beyond salvage.  Or at least not worth the trouble.  Instead, I had Ken put a shelf in that spot.  He also cut a hole at the back for electrical cords, thus making this piece functional as a TV stand.

I actually kind of loved the wood top on this one.  It was pretty beat up, and the veneer is buckling on top too.  But I kind of dig the aged, beat up look.  I had to strip the top because it had some paint drips and splats on it from it’s previous life.  Once stripped, I gave it a quick sand and a coat of dark wax.

Next came the paint.  I had picked up a quart of Annie Sloan’s Aubusson while my sister was here visiting.  I’ll be honest, when I first opened that can of paint I thought “what was I thinking?  why in the world did I buy this color?”  But I realized that I must have seen it on something in the store, and I must have loved it.  I decided to go for it.  Two coats of paint, followed by a coat of dark wax.

Sidebar.  When I say ‘dark wax’ I am referring to my own concocted mix of Johnson’s Paste Wax and Briwax in Dark Brown.  When I first purchased the Briwax, I didn’t realize how really, really dark it would be.  I toned it down by mixing it with clear paste wax.  I ended up loving this combo.  Plus it is a great way to stretch the more expensive Briwax with the really cheap Johnson’s (about $6 a can).  However, FYI, the Johnson’s is very stinky.  I never use it indoors.

Anyway, guess what?  I do love Aubusson.  It’s a nice, rich blue.

As a last final touch, I lined the bottom of the cupboard with some vintage wallpaper that matched perfectly.

 I think I will save this little cupboard for my upcoming Carriage House sale.  Hopefully someone there will want to give it a new home.