q is for quandie

You probably remember this beautiful dresser that I shared a couple of weeks ago with its amazing … and huge … Prima Marketing Rose Celebration transfer.

Prima had sent me several of the new transfers in their re.design line and this was the first one I tried.  What I didn’t mention when I shared this was that I chose my ‘least favorite’ of all the transfers they sent to try first, just in case I got it wrong and wrecked it somehow (which obviously didn’t happen).

Now, before you take that wrong, that definitely doesn’t mean that I didn’t love this transfer.  What that really means is that the rest of them are even more fantastic.  If that one was my ‘least favorite’, just imagine what the rest of them are like!

As soon as I finished that dresser I was on the hunt for another dresser to add a mammoth transfer to .

To be specific, this time it’s the Imperial Garden transfer (this one is 44″ wide x 30″ tall) and it looks like this.

If you look closely at the background you might guess why I fell in love with this transfer at first sight.  Do you see it?  It’s Venice!  See the gondola (lower left)?  And those classically Venetian buildings?  Since I’ll be spending my 55th birthday in Venice this year, this transfer felt special.

I wanted to find a dresser that would accommodate most, if not all, of the design.  If you’ll remember I had to trim about 6″ off of the sides of the transfer on that previous dresser.

So when nnK sent me the Facebook Marketplace ad for a dresser that someone she knew was selling, I jumped at it.  It looked right about the perfect size.

Mr. Q picked it up while I was at work one day last week, but as soon as I got home I took some measurements and discovered I was right.  It’s the perfect size!

The next step was to pick a paint color.  There were so many possibilities.  I could have gone with an off-white, of course.  But I also could have chosen a pale pink, either Dixie Belle’s Pink Champagne or Fusion’s Little Piggy (both of which I had on hand).  Either of those would have been gorgeous.  I also debated using Fusion’s Lichen, which is a pale green grey.  It was a perfect match for some of the greens in the leaves.

But I ended up choosing Fusion’s Inglenook.  I absolutely love the pale blue green color and I thought it would work beautifully with the colors in the transfer.

I also made the decision to leave the top ‘as is’.  I think this is a first for me.  But the dresser had been recently refinished and although the finish is a bit shinier than I would have chosen, it was in really good shape so I left it.

I figured that if I didn’t love the way it looked after finishing the rest of the dresser, I could always paint it later.

I also made the decision to remove the existing hardware and not put it back on.

These pulls might work for another piece down the road, but they would have fought with the design of the transfer.  So I filled the holes for the original hardware using Dixie Belle’s Mud before painting and I added glass knobs instead.

I followed my usual protocol of sanding lightly and cleaning with a damp rag, then I added two coats of Fusion’s Inglenook.  Once the paint was dry, I distressed the edges of the dresser by hand sanding them with 180 grit sandpaper.

Next I applied the transfer.  I used the same method I used last time (find that here).

Once the transfer was applied, I sanded over it very lightly by hand with 220 grit sandpaper to give it a more faded, vintage look.  That’s totally optional and just a matter of preference.  Some of you may prefer the look of the transfer without sanding it.

Adding the transfer completely transformed this dresser.

Although it was in nice shape before, it was kind of ho hum.  The previous owners did a nice job refinishing it, but I think they robbed it of its character.

But now it has plenty of personality again.

The little chair in the photos is from the Mac-Grove sales.  I started out painting it grey, but it ended up being a bleeder (ie. the red stain bled through the paint) so I zapped it with some spray on shellac and then ended up giving it a coat of the Inglenook while I was painting the dresser.

Then I used the left over remnants from another Prima Marketing transfer to dress it up a bit.

I love the petite size of the chair.

I also used a few of my hydrangeas to stage this piece.

They are looking pretty much amazing at the moment, so it was hard to resist getting them in a few photos!

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

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

If you’re wondering where to buy the Dixie Belle Mud that I used to fill the old drawer pull holes, you can shop with them directly online or find a retailer near you.

If you’d like to order the glass knobs I used on this piece, you can find them at D Lawless Hardware.

And finally, if you happen to be local (Twin Cities, MN) and in need of a gorgeous dresser, check out my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details on the Imperial Garden dresser!

 

I purchased this sweet little nightstand at one of the neighborhood garage sales earlier this summer.

I sort of threw it in at the last minute because the price was right and I thought it would make a great smaller project for winter when I have to go back to painting in my living room.

But then Prima Marketing sent me a few of the new transfers from their re.design line, including the Floral Home set.

And I realized that the one on the lower right would be perfect on this piece.

Shortly after that, Dixie Belle sent me some of their paint in a color called Pink Champagne.  It’s the most delicate pale, pale pink and I thought it might just be perfect behind that beautiful transfer.  So I simply couldn’t wait until winter to get started on this makeover.

Before I got started painting though I wanted to remove that carved rose detail from the front of the top drawer.  It looks OK in that ‘before’ photo, but in real life it looked really plastic-like.  I had to chip it off with a putty knife because it was made out of some strange rubbery, plastic, waxy, I don’t know what, kind of material.

But I got it off, did a little patching with some of Dixie Belle’s Mud and then painted the nightstand with three coats of the Pink Champagne.  Next I sanded the edges and the detailed trim to distress.

Then came the fun part.  Adding the Prima Marketing transfer.  The transfer design had a pretty scroll-y frame around it, but I cut that off because it was just a tad bigger than my drawer fronts with the frame included.

One detail you might notice in that photo is that I don’t just apply the transfer to the drawer fronts leaving gaps where those cross pieces are between the drawers.  I did that once and I thought it looked kind of funny.  I prefer to put the drawers back in place and then apply the transfer without any blank spaces between the drawers.

If you use this technique, just be absolutely sure that your drawers are back in the right spots before you begin because there’s no going back.

Once the transfer was applied, I went over it ever so lightly with some fine grit sandpaper to give it a little bit of a distressed look as well.  I finished the piece with some of Dixie Belle’s Spray On Wax.  I used it right over the transfer and it worked beautifully.  That stuff is just so darn easy to use.

I replaced the original wood knobs with some petite glass knobs that I purchased from D Lawless.  These are the 1″ version.

Let’s face it, something this pink and flowery was just calling out for glass knobs.

I’m still dying to put those gorgeous Prima Marketing knob transfers that I shared with you a couple of weeks ago to work, but obviously it would have been a bit much to have knobs with transfers on top of a larger transfer.

I’m sure I will come across just the right piece for some knob transfers soon though.

In keeping with my ‘never say never’ motto, I once again lined the drawers with pretty paper.  I just happened to have this old roll of wallpaper in my workshop, so why not?

By the way, after working on this piece I came to the conclusion that it was probably originally one half of a dressing table.  There are some screw holes on one side, plus the wood on one side looked a little bit rough around where it would have connected to a center piece between the two sides (although you have to look closely in person to notice those details, they don’t show up at all in a photo).

I wonder what happened to its other half.

Didn’t this one turn out sweet?

As usual, if you are local and in need of a new nightstand, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

I told you guys all about my July dry spell, only one piece of furniture sold in the entire month.  As a result of the dry spell, I spent some time re-evaluating my business plan (that’s a fancy way of saying that I obsessed about this while I was in the shower every morning) and decided to look for a few more mid-century pieces because they seem to sell more quickly.

So I picked up a few mid-mod pieces in the first part of August and got to work.

And then while I was working on those, I sold eight pieces.  All of them vintage farmhouse style rather than mid-century.

Naturally.

Well, of course that’s a good thing because those are the pieces that I love working on.  So now I feel confident in doing more of them.

In fact, sales really took off in August.  I went from having my worst month ever in July to having my best month ever in August.  Such is the world of furniture sales I guess, it’s like a roller coaster.

Meanwhile, I finished up one more mid-mod piece last week.  It’s the third piece in a set of three.  You’ll remember the first two that I painted in Fusion’s Ash.  Unfortunately I totally neglected to get a ‘before’ photo of this last piece, but suffice to say it looked just like the other two …

But this time, instead of the Ash, I went with my go-to color for mid-century low boys … Fusion’s Park Bench.

This shade of green just works beautifully with the mid-mod vibe.

I followed my usual m.o. of sanding lightly, cleaning with Krud Kutter kitchen degreaser, rinsing with clear water and then painting with two coats of Park Bench.

You may remember that I spruced up the hardware on the dark grey pieces using Prima Marketing’s Metallique wax in Bronze Age.  But for this piece I wanted to retain the light gold on the drawer pulls, so I just washed those with soapy water and put them back on.  But the little round knobs were a much darker brass color than the pulls.  To get a better match, I again used the Metallique wax, but this time in a color called White Gold.

It ended up being the perfect match for the existing color on the pulls.

Just for fun, I staged the piece as a buffet.

These pieces are really very versatile.  Of course you can just use them in a bedroom, but they also work beautifully as a sideboard in the dining room or to hold a wide screen TV in the living room.

Remember my fake ice cube purchase at a garage sale?  I still just love the fake ice and how much fun it is for photo shoots!

You may also remember that I purchased an old Atlas at a garage sale earlier this summer because I thought the predominantly green maps inside would be perfect for styling pieces painted in Park Bench.

Yep, perfect shade of green.

Have you noticed that there are a lot of furniture re-finishers out there who line their drawers with really pretty paper.  I think that looks gorgeous, but I rarely do it.  Mainly that’s because I find lining drawers to be an annoying little task.  But also, the really pretty paper is kind of expensive.

I’ve checked Spoonflower.com and a 26″ x 72″ roll is typically about $15 plus shipping unless you spend at least $60, then shipping is free.  I would need three rolls to line all of the drawers in this dresser … so yep, $45 plus shipping.  Yikes!  That adds up fast.

However, when my sister and were out at the Mac-Grove sales last Saturday we stopped for lunch at Billy’s on Grand and right next door was the Paper Source.  The full price for most of their rolls of paper was $9.95 and the rolls contain two sheets of 27″ x 39″ paper, so just a tad more paper for a bit less money than the Spoonflower rolls, but still a bit pricey.

They also have loose sheets of 20″ x 30″ paper starting at $4.95 per sheet.

But the real bargain turned out to be the summer clearance rack where the loose sheets of paper were 50% off.  That’s where I found the perfect paper to go with the Park Bench green.

Unfortunately there weren’t enough sheets to do all of the drawers, so I just lined the top three.  But I was able to do it for less than $5.

I wish they’d had more of this paper, it would work really well with the Millennial Pink mid-mod pieces I do too.

I’ll be listing this piece online today and I’m hoping it sells as quickly as my previous Park Bench pieces.

Fingers crossed!

And of course, if any of my local readers need a fabulous green dresser, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

I’ve been so excited to share today’s piece with you guys!  I actually finished it over a week ago, but I had so many other posts waiting to go … plus I had been bumping the wax giveaway post for several weeks so I had to get that one up last week (by the way, the winners have all been notified via email and are Pat, Laura & Sheri).

OK, so on with today’s post!

You’ll remember that back when I shared a tour of Jackie’s garden (here and here), I mentioned that she had offered me a free dresser.

Obviously it had seen better days, that’s why it was free.

Let’s start by identifying the issues.

My handyman neighbor Ken hauled this piece next door to his own workshop to give it a complete overhaul.

He started by removing that odd strip of wood that had been added to the bottom front of the dresser.  I suspect that was added at some point as a quick fix to hold the dresser together.  Ken took it off and then glued and clamped those joints back together.  He also removed the top of the dresser and re-glued it with dowel pins.

Next he replaced one of the drawer slides for the top drawer that was missing from the inside.  That was why the top drawer was sagging down on the right side.

Then he also built up the bottom sides of that drawer.

The sides of a drawer can wear down after rubbing on those slides after 75+ years or so!  That causes the drawer to tilt backwards a bit at the top when it’s pushed in.

As you’ll see shortly, the top drawer now sits in place perfectly thanks to Ken’s repairs.

Once the repairs were all finished, I stripped and waxed the top of the dresser using my usual technique.  Stripping with Citristrip, cleaning, sanding and then waxing with Miss Mustard Seed’s Antiquing Wax.

When I have a piece with a solid wood top like this with plenty of stains and dings, I prefer to leave them.  I love the patina they add, the sense of age and of this being a piece that was well used.

Next I sanded the rest of the piece and cleaned it well using Krud Kutter kitchen degreaser, followed by a rinse with clean water.

The chippy, vintage look of milk paint is perfect for these antique Eastlake style pieces so I pulled out my stash of partially used bags of milk paint.  I had just a small amount of paint left in three different colors, Homestead House Raw Silk, Homestead House Casement and Miss Mustard Seed Marzipan.  None of them would have made enough paint for the entire piece, so I mixed them all together which ended up creating the perfect creamy color for this dresser.

I ended up doing three coats of paint on the body of the dresser to get good coverage with the light color over the dark original stain, but I only need two coats on the drawers fronts which were already painted white.  I had briefly debated the idea of just leaving the drawer fronts as is, but once I started painting the rest of the piece I could see that they really needed fresh paint as well.

Next came the really fun part of this project.  I went through some of the new transfers that Prima Marketing sent me from their re.design line.  I pulled out an amazing floral design called Rose Celebration that comes on six sheets (two across and three down) and is a whopping 44″ wide x 30″ tall.

I really debated whether or not to use it on this dresser because the drawer fronts are only 32″ wide, so I knew I would be trimming about 6″ off each side of the design which felt sort of sacrilegious.  But in the end I decided what the heck.  I’m never going to find a dresser that is perfectly sized for the transfer, better to modify the transfer than endlessly search for a piece exactly 44″ wide, right?  Plus, since this dresser came from Jackie and she has such an amazing garden, it seemed entirely appropriate to go with this gorgeous floral transfer.

A quick q tip:  before you get started with one of these transfers, lay it out on a large table (or in my case, your baby grand piano) and make sure you have the pieces ready to go in the right order.

I then put the dresser up on some horses so that it was at a convenient height to work on.  With the drawers in place, I measured to find the center of the front of each and marked it with a pencil.  Next, I trimmed off most of the excess 6″ from the left side of the first sheet I’d be working with just to make it more manageable.  Then I removed the backing paper from the transfer and lined up the center of the design with my pencil marks at the center of the top drawer.  Once I was sure I had it even and level, I pressed it into place with my hands.  Before continuing on, I used a razor blade to trim the transfer more precisely on the left side and to slice the plastic sheet at the top and bottom of the drawers so it would lay more flat.  Then I used the wooden stick that comes with every transfer to apply it to the drawer.

Next I lined up the top right side piece of the transfer and followed the same process.  Then I moved down and lined up the top of the next piece with the bottom of the piece that was already applied above it.

Lining up the design was similar to lining up a repeat pattern on wallpaper.  If you’ve ever wallpapered, you will easily be able to line up one of these transfers.

I just continued to follow this process and applied the transfer going across and then down the rest of the dresser.

Keep in mind that perfection is not the name of the game here.  There were a few spots where I didn’t get the transfer adhered entirely, and things got a little kittywampus as far as keeping a straight line all the way across.  But as you’re about to see, that is entirely unnoticeable in the finished piece.

OK, you’ve gotten this far into my post and you’re probably dying to see the whole picture.  I won’t leave you in suspense any longer.

What the what?  How amazing is that?

You might be wondering at this point what happened to the mirror.  I like to remove them and turn them into separate pieces and you’ll see that later in the week, so stay tuned.

But back to this dresser itself …

I could just sit around and stare at it because it’s so pretty.

I like to use clear glass knobs on pieces with transfers because they don’t distract from the design of the transfers.

By the way, I have not added a top coat of any kind to the body of the dresser.  To make the piece more washable, I would add the Real Milk Paint Co’s Finishing Cream in Dead Flat over the paint and transfer.  That product is my favorite for pieces like this because I like the sheen (or lack thereof) and I like that its thick, gel-like consistency means little danger of drips (I’m bad about drips).  If you aren’t as drippy as I am, the Miss Mustard Seed Tough Coat is also a good option.  And of course, you could just use wax as well (yes, you can wax over the top of these transfers).

However, I have a couple of milk painted pieces in my own home including one with a transfer that I didn’t top coat and they have held up beautifully.

The top of the dresser is likely to see the most danger from sweating drinking glasses or other wet things being placed on it, and that is protected with the Miss Mustard Seed Antiquing Wax.

If you want to find out where to buy any of the Prima Marketing re.design products near you or online, check out this link to their ‘where to buy’ page.

I have to say, I am very proud of the work that both Ken and I did to salvage this dresser.  It always feels good to take a piece that most people would have chucked into the bin and turn it into something beautiful.

If you are local and in need of a beautiful floral dresser, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page to see if this piece is still available.