Category: furniture.

A while back my pal Cathy texted and said she picked up a FREE dresser for me!

Woo hoo!  Free!

Then she dropped it off.

Yikes.  No wonder it was free.  It came complete with a horrible paint job and some half removed stickers.

Then I got the brilliant idea that this would be a good candidate for attempting to strip paint.  You may remember that learning how to strip was my goal for this summer (not that kind of stripping, get your mind out of the gutter).  So far I have mainly just stripped varnish and stain, not paint.

After all, this dresser has decent bones, and those knobs are rather fab so why not give it a go?

All I can say is, wow, what a mess.  I didn’t take photos because it was so disgusting and messy, I didn’t want to go anywhere near it with a camera.  It took three passes with the stripper to get the paint off.  Everything was covered in paint/stripper goo.  My tools, my driveway, my apron, my shoes, my legs.  Egads!  And after all of that, the stain underneath that paint was one of those horrible red bleeding stains.  No amount of paint will cover that stuff.

Well, when you can’t beat ’em, you just paint ’em red.

This is Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Tricycle.  I waxed with a custom blend of clear wax and dark wax.

There are still shadowy areas in the finish that are a result of that stain bleeding through mostly on the top drawer front.

But that just adds to the character of this one.

Those knobs are pretty cute, and the base definitely has some charm.

This dresser would be great in a kids room, or maybe in a mudroom or laundry room for a pop of color.

I’m passing the savings on to the buyer with this one and pricing it at a mere $125.  If you need a cute red dresser, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you with an email.

P.S.  After a very productive weekend, the finished pieces are piled up like cord wood.  I’ll be posting something fab every day this week.  Stay tuned!

Mr. Q and I picked up this beautiful antique dresser on the other side of the city a couple of weeks ago.

The seller was a very nice gentleman, but as soon as we stepped inside his house I knew he wouldn’t be happy that I was going to paint it.  It was probably because the house was full of lovingly refinished antiques.  Lots of shiny wood.  Everywhere.

I wasn’t going to mention that I would be painting it, but he asked me outright what I was going to do to it, and since it was already loaded in the truck at that point, I figured it was safe to admit that it would be painted.  Sure enough, his response was “oh, I wish I hadn’t asked!”

I should have kept his contact information though because I like to think that he would be happy with the end result.  True, it’s painted, but I got the most lovely crackled finish on this one.  I feel like it almost looks more authentic painted than it did with its former semi-shiny poly finish.

What originally drew me to this piece was this trim on the sides.  I knew it would just pop with a little paint and distressing.

The top of this dresser was already stripped when I got it, and it looked so nice that I decided to just wax it.

The body of the dresser got a base coat of Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Eulalie’s Sky, followed by two coats of MMSMP in Linen.  I was hoping for some chipping to reveal the base coat, but got very little.  You can see it peeking out just a little in some spots, but it is subtle.

I finished with MMS furniture wax.

I also painted the hardware.  That is milk paint, and I did not use the bonding agent.  So, as you can see, milk paint will stick to metal.  Not always!  But in this case it did.  All I did to prep the hardware was wash it with dish soap and a toothbrush.  Not only did this dresser have all of its drawer pulls, but it even had all of the keyhole escutcheons.  That is extremely rare with most of the stuff I work with (in other words, lower priced pieces, lol).

I staged this guy with some lovely hydrangea that I picked up at my local Bachmans.  I wish I could say these grew in my garden, but no.

I added some vintage wallpaper as a backdrop for my first photo shoot.

Then I thought perhaps I should try some shots with the window.

Now I have managed to provide myself with another conundrum.  With window, or without?

Both lovely.  At least I think so.  What do you think?

This lovely antique dresser is for sale for $245.  Ooops, this one is sold.

 

If you are a Miss Mustard Seed follower (as I am), you’ll have seen her recent post about inventing a new minty color for her friend Layla.

It was great timing because I had also recently pinned this fabulous minty chair.

And I was contemplating a fresh new color for the vanity table I was about to paint.  You’ll remember this vanity, I posted about it many moons ago and said I needed to get around to painting it.

Well, I finally got around to it.

I don’t know what I was waiting for.  I could say that I was waiting to find the time, but the really honest answer is that I knew I had to deal with some veneer issues and that was holding me back because repairs aren’t my favorite thing to do.  I like to just get on with the painting.  In the end, the repairs were really simple and didn’t take much time at all.  I simply removed all of the remaining veneer from the decorative scrolly bits at the bottom of the drawers on each side.  It came off very easily.  The scrolly bit on the left side of the mirror was a bit more work.  Ken had to rebuild a portion of it and then I had to do some gluing and patching.

But once all of those little tasks were completed, I was able to get to my favorite part.  Painting.

I used Miss Mustard’s recipe for Layla’s Mint, but then I added a little extra Eulalie’s Sky.  I wanted my mint to lean a bit more towards the aqua end of the spectrum.

For clarification, or if you are trying to match it, here is my exact recipe using Miss Mustard Seed milk paint:

This made more than enough paint for the vanity.  But when I am custom mixing like this, I always err on the side of extra paint.  I know it would be difficult to match it exactly with a second batch if I run out of paint, and this would be a serious bummer.  I plan to use the excess to paint an oak chair, and I can always add a touch of something more if I don’t have quite enough for the chair.

OK, so, enough of this babbling.  What do you think?

Once again I did not get any chipping, bit I did get some great crackling.

  I should back up and explain that I was painting this vanity in the Carriage House during a thunderstorm.  So we are talking some major moisture in the air.  The milk paint was not drying nearly as quickly as it did in the middle of winter inside my heated house.  So when I had painted the entire thing once, and realized the drawers I started on still weren’t dry, I got out the blow dryer.  I know that blow drying leads to crackling, but this piece was starting to crackle even before the dryer came out.

You may also have noticed that there is vintage wallpaper peeking out from underneath this piece.  I thought it would add a touch of fabulosity, but I was hoping it would be a little more noticeable.  My friend Sue says it’s sexy to have just a little bit showing like this, so I’m going with that!

I have some more of this wallpaper left and I think it’s gorgeous.  I’m sure it’s going to make its way onto another piece of furniture in the future.

Meanwhile, this minty fresh vanity is ready to go!

Wait!  One last thing.  Did you notice?  My first real photo shoot in the new studio.  I’m loving that floor!  And the faux wall is perfect behind the vanity (a window would have been very strange).  If you are wondering how I took this shot without appearing in the mirror, it was a combination of cirque du soleil style contortion-ism and being able to open the lower half of my door while leaving the top half closed.  Those Dutch doors are very handy!

I was overcome by mid-century madness this past week and the end result was not one, but two fabulous mid-century pieces!

I just can’t help myself, I always envision mid-century pieces in turquoise.  In this case, I used Annie Sloan’s Provence on both.

The first one finished was your typical mid-century blonde bureau.  We’ve all seen these before (sorry, no before pic), I even had one in my room growing up although my mom ‘antiqued’ mine in lime green.  I had toyed with the idea of painting the dresser white and orange, but in the end, the turquoise won out.

I loved the curve to the top drawers on right and left.  And can we just take a moment to admire the hardware?  Seriously.  I’m pretty sure the Jetson’s had furniture like this (am I dating myself here or what?)

I purposely did not add much distressing at all to this piece.  I thought it worked better with a clean solid finish.

This dresser is an absolute bombshell.  She is gorgeous in person.  Wouldn’t she work well with a wide screen TV on top?  And you could store a ton of stuff in all of these drawers, there are 8 of them.

My resident mid-century fan, nnK, loves this one!

The 2nd mid-century piece is this credenza.

I snapped this up on craigslist despite massive competition.  Luckily I was the first one to email the seller, and the seller was one of those people who believe in dibs to the first person.  It probably helped that I could send Mr. Q to pick it up right away.  I just knew this one would be gorgeous painted.

I used a combination of Provence and Old White, both Annie Sloan chalk paint.  I love the legs/base on this piece.

I kept the original hardware on this one too, I just painted the bamboo-ish portion of the pulls.

So there you have it, my fling with mid-century madness.

Both of these will be at my Carriage House Sale on Thursday evening.  I wish I could say that Don Draper will be there too, but sadly not.  We do have some hip mid-century cocktail shakers, and that fantastic turquoise chair you see in the pictures of the credenza though.

Is it possible to be in love with a dresser?  Because I think I am in love with this one.

I know, I’ve said it before.  And I’ll probably say it again, but this is one of my all time favs.

I’ve wanted to try using vintage wallpaper on a dresser for a while.  You’ll remember that I purchased some from my new friend Michelle at Junk Bonanza.  There it is, in the back on the right.  I also purchased the Annie Sloan Duck Egg paint at the same time.

All I needed was the perfect piece of furniture to use it on.

And I found it.  A lovely linen press dresser.

This was one of those pieces that was actually in decent shape to begin with, although it had some damage on one of the inside drawers.  I knew that the areas framed in with trim would be perfect for the wallpaper.

My process on this dresser in a nutshell was this.  I painted the entire thing with the Annie Sloan paint in Duck Egg.  Then, I used wallpaper paste to adhere the wallpaper.  It was slightly frail, and back in the day wallpaper was not pre-pasted.  I went back to my former wallpapering days and followed the same rules.  I ‘booked’ my wallpaper by spreading it with wallpaper paste and gently folding the piece in half, pasted sides together.  I waited a couple of minutes and then opened it back up and applied it to the dresser.  I smoothed out any bubbles and excess paste, trimmed around the edges with a razor blade, and cleaned off excess paste that had oozed out.  Once the wallpaper was dry, I waxed the painted portions of the dresser.  I did not wax the wallpaper.  I don’t think wax and vintage wallpaper would have mixed well.

What makes this dresser a linen press are the drawers inside that were intended for storing linens.

I added some label holders to the drawers.  They currently just have some of the vintage wallpaper in them, but one could change that to paper labels that show the contents of each drawer.

Imagine how pretty it would be to have all of your linens neatly stored inside this dresser.

I staged the drawer with some white quilted Euro pillow shams that will be available at my sale.

I have to tell you, it was ridiculously windy when I was trying to take these pictures.  The doors kept blowing closed.  The lilac on top was fluttering madly.  Seeds kept falling out of the trees onto the top of the dresser.  It was pure madness I tell you!  You can see the movement in the lilac in this next photo.

I once again painted the original knobs on this piece.  I had planned to change them out for glass knobs, but because of those interior drawers, I couldn’t have the screws on the glass knobs sticking out on the back side of the doors.  I could have cut the screws off, and counter-sunk the nuts, but that would have been quite a job.  I decided to just keep the originals instead.

Although you see casters on this dresser in the pictures, in the end I had to take them off.  They weren’t very sturdy, they kept falling out, and one broke off after the photo shoot!  Luckily I was able to repair the leg, but I wouldn’t recommend using casters on this piece.  In fact, I am learning to remove the casters from any older pieces that have slender legs like this one.  I love the look of the casters, but the reality is that they usually aren’t strong enough to handle rolling the dresser around on them.  And people are tempted to do just that if they are there.  I am warning all of you now, don’t roll your vintage dresser around on its antique casters.  You are inviting disaster.

So there it is, my vintage wallpapered linen press dresser.  This will be available at the Carriage House Sale!

I don’t know why this dresser makes me feel patriotic.  I suspect it’s because it feels early American to me.  I have no idea if it is.  I’ve seen similiar dressers identified as the Eastlake style online, but I always thought Eastlake was a little more decorative than this, with some spoon carving or other detailing.  Any Eastlake experts out there?  Does this qualify?

Either way, I went with a patriotic color.  I painted it with MMSMP in Artissimo, which is a navy/indigo.  I finished it with hemp oil, which makes the color nice and dark.  This is my 4th dresser in Artissimo.  I used it on the Hudson and the 1890’s dresser, but it is also one of the first MMS colors I ever used.  Way back when I was a newbie.  And I’ll confess, I thought there was no way I would ever use it again.  I didn’t know about the hemp oil back then and I over-waxed it with Briwax resulting in a rather shiny finish.  But, I’ve learned since then, and now I love working with this color.

  It also is Ken the handyman’s favorite of all the colors I’ve used.  Actually, it would truly be more accurate to say that this is the only color I use that Ken likes at all (except black, as he says).  He really doesn’t get the whole furniture painting thing.  That’s OK, he doesn’t have to like ’em, he just has to fix ’em.

You can see that I didn’t really get any chipping on this one.  I think that I have lost my touch when it comes to the chippy.  I’ve painted numerous pieces in the last couple of weeks, and none have chipped.  At all.  Nada.  Is it me?  Is it the weather?  I’ve wondered if it’s the humidity.  All winter I was painting in the house with the heat on, and I got chipping galore.

My neighbor, nnK, thinks this one would look great in someone’s cabin.  I agree.  You could keep all the towels and swimsuits in it, or maybe your sweaters for those chilly days at the lake.  It would look awesome in a rustic room with a patriotic color scheme of red, white and blue.

I once again tried my hand at stripping the top and just waxing it.  I used Citristrip to strip it, sanded it and then waxed with my own combination of Johnson’s Paste Wax and a dark Briwax.  There were some pretty major discolorations on top of this dresser, and I didn’t want it to end up looking perfect.  I wanted it to show its age.  I am starting to get the hang of this stripping thing, which was one of my goals for this summer.  It’s good to meet your goals.

I replaced the knobs that came on the dresser with some that look old, but are faux old.  I feel pretty certain that the white porcelain knobs that came with it are not original.  The scale and the style were all wrong for this guy.

I will have this dresser at my occasional sale unless someone wants to snatch it up sooner than that.

Even if you don’t think you need a new dresser, wouldn’t it be fun to freshen up one of your rooms with this one?    You can always sell your old one on craigslist!

 

I never would have bought this color based on the sample chips.  I also never would have found it appealing based on the Annie Sloan description, a ‘warm greyed brown’.  Brown?  Me?  No way.

Then I saw a dresser painted in it.  Yes way!  Lovely.  So I purchased a can of Annie Sloan’s Coco and brought it home.

And I decided to use it on the Bryn Mawr vanity.  You remember, the orange-y companion to the dresser that I picked up in Bryn Mawr.

I wanted to get some more practice with stripping and staining, so I stripped the top and refinished it with the General Finishes Java gel.

It was the perfect pairing.  The dark Java finish on top with the Coco on the bottom.  I could just eat this one up.

I’m calling it a vanity, but I don’t have a mirror for it.  Perhaps I should just call it a desk.  It’s a nice petite size, which would be perfect tucked into the corner of a living room or bedroom.

I staged this with one of the alabaster lamps I picked up at the Linden Hills sales.  I actually came home with three of them!  And I happened to find the perfect shade for it in my stash.

This guy does have a bit of a flaw.  I thought the dark finish would cover up some stains on the top, and they are still visible.

But I am sure that someone out there will be able to overlook that because otherwise this vanity/desk is quite lovely.

I like this side view shot because it gives you a good look at how nicely the Coco and the Java gel work together.

I’m sure this one will go home with some lucky new owner.  Will it be you?

It is posted on craigslist for those of you in the Twin City area.  Woops, missed it, this one is SOLD.

Mr. Q picked up this dresser the other day.  I was drawn to the wreath applique on the middle drawer.  It hearkens back to my shabby chic days.  I still like a well placed applique.

This one had some veneer problems at the bottom that someone tried to fix with a red marker.  Not with much success.

Anyway, here is where our story begins.  I had just seen a gorgeous dresser that Miss Mustard Seed herself painted recently.  She used an undercoat of Luckett’s Green, some well placed vaseline, and then a top coat of Boxwood.  She also left the top unpainted.  When I saw this dresser, I thought to myself “yes, this would be perfect for that very same look!”

I got to work.

I stripped the top, sanded it and then just waxed it with dark wax.  So far, so good.  Easy and the results were lovely.

Next, I painted two coats of MMSMP in Luckett’s Green.  Then, I strategically rubbed some hemp oil in areas where I wanted to distress the final color to reveal the Luckett’s underneath.  Next, I added two coats of Boxwood.

Let me add here that I know all of the rules.  Or at least I think I do.  I mixed my paint ahead of time and let it sit to be sure the pigments were dissolved.  I shook.  I stirred.  I let it rest again.  I shook.  I stirred.  The paint looked good to me.  No lumps.  I stirred frequently while painting.  Basically once between each side, and between each drawer.

I let it dry, and then I started distressing.  I worked on the body of the dresser first, and it was turning out absolutely beautiful.  I was excited.  Then I started on the drawers.  They weren’t looking quite as good as the body, but I thought it was just me.  Finally, I waxed everything and put it all back together.

Oh my.

I don’t even want to put my name on this one.

It’s awful.  If anything, it looked even more awful in person than it does in this photo.

The green on the drawers had far more yellow in it than the body of the dresser.  And I hated it.

I was crestfallen (isn’t that a great word?).  Horrified, really.  I had spent ALL day on this.  And it was hideous.

Sometimes I just have to walk away.  Put the dresser in the corner with its face to the wall to consider its bad behavior.  Go three days without even looking at it.  In the end, I figured I had a number of options.

I could try repainting the drawers with another batch of paint, as I have done in the past with two other dressers in milk paint greens.  But the danger in this plan is that I could end up with the same problem all over again.

I could repaint the entire thing in another color all together.  Specifically I was thinking of some Annie Sloan chalk paint because I knew I wouldn’t have the same coloration problem.  But, I also knew I wouldn’t be able to replicate this fabulous chippy look with Annie Sloan.  And this dresser just needed to be chippy.

  Final option … I could try painting just the drawers white and see how it looks.  I just loved the way the body of the dresser had turned out and I didn’t want to cover it up.

I mean, really, just look at this gorgeous leg.

Would you want to cover that up?

So … I sanded the drawers really well (remember, they had already been waxed), mixed up some MMSMP in Linen, and painted it on.  I could see a lot of chipping showing up pretty quickly.  I was nervous.  Would it be too much chipping because of the wax?

And here it is.  Yes, there is plenty of chipping on the drawers.  But I really think the chippyness works with this style of dresser.

I love the white and green combo.  It’s fresh.

You can see that in most spots I got chipping right down to the wood on the drawers, but some spots just chipped to the green undercoats.

Here is the top.

 This dresser has a fresh spring garden appeal to it.  I’m sure it will be perfect in someone’s fabulous home.

If you are interested in purchasing it, leave me a comment.