brrrrrr.

Published on by Quandie19 Comments

In the past I know that I have been able to continue painting in my unheated carriage house workshop well into October.  Usually October is one of my favorite months weather-wise; cooler, but not too cold.  Perfect for painting outside.

But for the last two weekends in a row we haven’t made it out of the low 50’s.

Despite the temps, I had some pieces out in my workshop that I really needed to get painted.  Since I planned to use Dixie Belle paint on them I reached out to my contact there to find out if it was OK to use their paint in the cold.  The official answer is yes, you can apply the paint outside if the temps are in the 50’s.  However, it will take longer to dry.

And of course, I’d have to pile on the fleece to be comfortable myself too.  Plus keep in mind that Dixie Belle paint should not be allowed to freeze.  Freezing and thawing again may affect the integrity of the paint.

So in the long run, even though I could have painted in my workshop, I opted to move my painting operations back indoors.  Luckily Dixie Belle paint is non-toxic and has zero VOC’s, so I’m perfectly comfortable with using it indoors with the windows closed to keep out the cold.

Since low temps below freezing are predicted for this coming weekend, I realized it was time to move all of my painting supplies back inside the house too.  This seems like a good opportunity to remind everyone of some cold weather painting tips for the three types of paint that I use most.

Milk paint is probably the most cold weather hearty paint that I use.  I’m referring to authentic milk paint that comes as a powder that you then mix with water when you’re ready to use it (Miss Mustard Seed, Homestead House, The Real Milk Paint Co and Sweet Pickins are all true milk paints).  General Finishes Milk Paint is not a true milk paint, but an acrylic paint, FYI.

Although I can’t find any definitive information about it online, I’m sure I could get away with leaving the milk paint powder packets out in the workshop in temps below freezing as long as I warmed it back up a bit before mixing it with water.  I wouldn’t choose to store it out there all winter of course, but if I forgot it out there for a few freezing nights I’m betting it would be fine.

Once mixed milk paint only has a shelf life of a few days.  Plus it is recommended that you store it in the fridge overnight if you aren’t going to use it right away.  So leaving mixed milk paint in a chilly workshop would be OK, but don’t allow it to freeze at that point.

Also, it’s OK to paint with mixed milk paint outside all the way down to freezing.  Just keep in mind that it will take longer to dry and you’ll freeze your butt off while doing it.

Fusion Mineral Paint is freeze/thaw stable.  It has been formulated to withstand freezing and then thawing up to three times without affecting the integrity of the paint.  So if you forget to bring your paint inside when the weather turns, you have three chances to get it inside before it starts to feel the effect.

Well, that makes sense eh?  Fusion is a Canadian company and they know cold.

Also, much like the Dixie Belle and milk paint, you can apply the paint in temps down into the 50’s but it will take longer to dry.

As for safety, all three of these paints are perfectly safe to use indoors with the windows closed.  Each one has zero VOC’s, and all three have very little odor.  Since I typically spend nearly six months out of 12 painting inside (more like seven this year apparently) this is an important quality to me.

This is a good time to remind you guys that not all waxes are created equal when it comes to safety.  If you didn’t see my previous post about that, you can find it {here}.  Please stay safe, especially when working indoors with little ventilation!

And if you’re wondering what I did get done last weekend, I finished up five pieces all painted with Dixie Belle’s Caviar.  I’ll be sharing them with you next week, so be sure to stay tuned!

 

foul weather friends.

Published on by Quandie16 Comments

Every so often my friend Meggan, the thrift doctor, and I get together on a Thursday evening for what we call Thrifty Thursday.

This tends to be a winter activity for us.  Meggan and her family have a cabin up north that they spend time at in the summer (one of these days I’m hoping she’ll write a guest blog post for us about her cabin, hint, hint Meggan), and I tend to do more garage saling rather than thrifting in the summer.  We hadn’t gotten together for a Thrifty Thursday since some time last winter!  Instead of ‘fair weather friends’ I think it would be more fitting to call us ‘foul weather friends.’  When the weather isn’t suitable for anything else, we go thrifting.

So last Thursday, which was chilly and rainy, Meggan picked me up and we headed to our local thrift store.

We always manage to come home with at least a few goodies.  Meggan has three outdoorsy boys at home and she always finds gear for them at bargain prices, but both she and I are on the lookout for fun vintage decor pieces too.

I always dig through the racks of hangers looking for any with old advertising on them.  I only found one this time …

But I also grabbed several plain vintage wooden hangers.

I thought it would be fun to see if I could add a little faux ‘advertising’ to them.  I started with some old 7 Gypsies rub-on’s that I had in my stash.

These are all from their set called Nomenclature and they ended up being perfect for these narrow hangers.

I pulled out some of the Prima Marketing knob transfers to use on the other two hangers I purchased.

I keep finding fun new ways to use these transfers.  They have just the right vintage vibe for the hangers don’t you think?

While I was digging around in my stash of Prima Marketing transfers I came across one that was a perfect fit for the enamelware refrigerator box that I also found while thrifting.

This is the bottom portion of the smaller sized Seeds transfer.  I’d used the rest of it on a chair recently and this bit was left over.

This box is the perfect size for storing all of my Prima Marketing waxes and chalk pastes.

That reminds me that I never did share that chair here on the blog.  It’s one that I painted, photographed, and then took to Reclaiming Beautiful to sell.  I didn’t get around to looking at the photos until after I’d taken the chair away.  In the end I had taken only one photo that was blog worthy, so I never blogged about it.

So now you know, I only share the cream of the crop here on the blog 😉

Speaking of which, I painted three pieces of furniture last weekend but we’ve had nothing but dreary weather unsuitable for photography since then.  Hopefully the sun will come out again soon.  Sometime before next spring would be nice.  Otherwise Meggan and I will have no choice but to continue thrifting every Thursday.

Linking up with the Vintage Charm Party at My Thrift Store Addiction.

it’s officially fall.

Published on by Quandie23 Comments

I tend to not do a whole lot of seasonal decorating.  How about you?  I find as I get older that time goes by so ridiculously fast that it doesn’t feel worth it to get out the Halloween decor because in five minutes it’s going to be time to get out the Christmas stuff.  Do any of you feel that way?

Plus, nature does such an amazing job of decorating for fall that it feels silly to have to add anything more!

Apparently nature is trying to reinforce my opinion on that because the tiny pumpkins I added to my fairy garden last week have already been stolen.

I suspect that squirrels are to blame rather than klepto fairies though.  The white pumpkin disappeared first, and the orange gourd followed a couple of days later.  So much for that plan.

I have done a few fall craft projects in the last couple of years though, so I thought I’d recap them for you today in case any of you want to do some fall decorating yourselves.

I’ll start with my ‘hello fall’ book page banner.

Last year I shared a quick tutorial on how to make one using old book pages and your printer.

You’ve also already seen my french pumpkins.

The one above was made using a cardboard pumpkin, paint and some Fusion transfer gel.  Get all of those details here.

My second french pumpkin looked like this …

It’s an old wooden pumpkin transformed with some paint and a Prima Marketing transfer (details here).

Then there were the ‘hello fall’ toolbox planters.  The one on the bottom is painted in Fusion’s Mustard.  The one on the top is in its original red.

I used my Cricut machine to cut the words out of adhesive vinyl.  These are perfect for just popping in some mums and calling it good.

While I had the Cricut out that year, I also made some ‘hello fall.’ plates …

They are fun to add to planters full of mums, kale and hydrangea flowers.

I did whip up one more quick fall decoration this year.  I had a fake plastic pumpkin in my stash so I painted it white using Fusion’s Limestone.  Then I pulled out some Prima Marketing supplies; decor wax in a color called Eternal and a transfer called Simplicity.

Rather than try to apply the transfer as one whole sheet, I just cut out sections of the design to place randomly on my pumpkin.

It was a little tricky to place the flat designs onto a curvy pumpkin, but I’m OK with a little imperfection.

I used the Eternal wax to give the pumpkin a gold stem.  This was the first time I tried the Eternal, but it definitely won’t be the last.  It’s the perfect gold, and it was so easy to apply using a q-tip.

My new toile pumpkin pairs nicely with my french pumpkin, don’t you think?  OK, maybe not the most traditional looking fall decorations but they suit my style for sure.

too sexy for my shirt.

Published on by Quandie25 Comments

Back in May I picked up this manikin at the Roseville city-wide garage sales.

She’s probably a shop manikin, not to be confused with a dress form that can be adjusted for size.  She didn’t have a stand, and she’s just a Styrofoam type material underneath a stretchy knit fabric cover, but I still figured I could do something with her.

After all, I’d worked with something similar when I came up with Lulu.

If you look closely you can see that Lulu is also Styrofoam and she has a doorknob for a head (poor thing).  I’ve turned her Styrofoam-ness into an asset by using her as a pin board for old photos.

I painted her with black chalkboard paint and used the base to one of those table/lamp combinations to create a stand.

I can’t remember precisely how long ago I cobbled Lulu together, but it was before I had a blog which makes her at least 5 years old or more.  She’s held up remarkably well for being made out of painted Styrofoam.

Anyway, I felt sure I could do something similar with the manikin from Roseville.

First I had to come up with a stand of some kind.  I’d been waiting all summer to magically find another table/lamp but no such luck.  But then I remembered that I had an antique metal floor lamp thingie tucked away out in the carriage house.

Please pardon the terrible photo.  It was raining when I took it, but I just wanted to grab a quick photo to show you what it looked like.

Initially I thought I was going to have to have my handyman Ken cut it down to the right height, or at a minimum cut that top decorative piece off.  However, as it turned out the top piece screwed right off and then when I added the manikin torso (which has a hollow metal pole up the center) it ended up being the perfect height already.

Next I removed that hideous stretchy knit fabric from the manikin.

This was about when that song “I’m too sexy for my shirt” popped into my head (who else remembers that song?).

This torso is just way more, well, sexy than Lulu.  It almost feels a bit wrong to leave her unclothed.  She seems to have a lot more curves to her.

But, I pressed on.

I first gave her a coat of Rustoleum black chalkboard paint.  Since it had worked so well on Lulu, I thought it would make a good base coat for this manikin too.  But ultimately I knew I wanted to add a Prima Marketing transfer to her like I did with Collette, the dress form that I refurbished earlier this summer …

I had some Homestead House milk paint on hand in a color called Algonquin, which I thought would be perfect for this look.  If the milk paint got chippy, I didn’t want to see the yellowish color of the Styrofoam underneath hence the black base coat.

So once the black paint was dry I mixed up the milk paint and added a coat.  So far, so good.  Once that was dry, I added a 2nd coat and then left the manikin to dry overnight.

The next day I was so excited to get home from work and get the transfer added.  But, that was not how it went at all.  Instead I went into my workshop only to find that the milk paint had chipped like mad.  Except instead of revealing the black chalkboard paint, it was taking it along for the chippy ride and chipping all the way down to the Styrofoam underneath.

This was that moment that you dread in any project.  The moment when you realize that you have to start over.  Well, actually, even worse.  First you have to remove all of the chipping paint, and then start over.  Ugh.

Lesson learned:  Styrofoam, chalkboard paint and milk paint don’t mix.

Well, it was an experiment.  And now we know.

After chipping away all of the loose paint, I gave the manikin a light sanding just to be sure she was ready for another go.  Luckily I had some Fusion paint in Algonquin on hand.  Yes, same color as the milk paint, but this time in an acrylic paint.

Ahhh, much better.  One coat of Algonquin later and things were looking up.

As you can see, I ended up with a lot of texture (some might call it damage, I prefer to call it texture), but that just gives it more character.

Next I applied the transfer.

I knew it would be somewhat challenging applying it to a curvy surface rather than a flat one.  To make that easier, I cut the transfer into smaller sections which helped quite a lot.

In the end it went surprisingly well.  If you try something similar, just be sure to go slowly and make sure each letter is adhered before moving on to the next.

I still wasn’t done though.  Next I added a coat of Miss Mustard Seed Clear Wax followed by a coat of Fusion’s Expresso Wax.  It’s always wise to use a base coat of clear wax before adding a dark wax to make it easier to blend your dark wax.

I also painted the wooden topper on her neck in Algonquin and then added a Tim Holtz number rub-on.  I finished that off by adding some of the Prima Marketing metallique wax in Bronze Age to the screw that holds it in place.

When she was all done I decided to call her Coco.

She almost looks a bit like she’s made out of stone or plaster.

I ended up bringing her in to Reclaiming Beautiful (the shop where I sell on consignment) on Wednesday evening and even though I still wonder if she’s just a bit too sexy for her shirt, someone snatched her up right away Thursday morning!

 

the black bag.

Published on by Quandie18 Comments

A couple of months ago my friend Sue found this old black leather bag for me.

It doesn’t look like much in that photo, but I knew I could dress it up with a stencil.

The trick with stenciling something like this is being able to provide some support behind the surface you are stenciling.  In this case I laid the case on its side and filled it up with a stack of large books so that I would have a firm, flat surface for stenciling.

I stenciled it with Ceramcoat acrylic craft paint in Deep Taupe.  I know it appears white next to the black, but trust me.  It’s this color …

This is one of my favorite tricks for stenciling on black.  If you use a white paint the contrast will be much more stark.

I used just the lower portion of a stencil that I purchased from Maison de Stencils (and I noticed it just happens to be on sale at the moment).

Sue tells me that the person selling this bag said it was actually used as a doctor’s bag.  It is quite old, but unfortunately not in the greatest of shape.  You wouldn’t be able to use it as a bag anymore.  The zipper is broken and the leather handles are starting to give way.

But it works perfectly if you just want to use it as decor.

I filled it with crumpled paper to give it some shape and then I stitched the opening closed since the zipper wasn’t functional.

It looks great on a stack of vintage suitcases …

It has a bit of a spooky feel which is perfect for this time of year.

Adding a quick stencil is a super easy way to give something just a little more interest, don’t you think?

a spooky fairy garden.

Published on by Quandie17 Comments

And just like that, in the blink of an eye, it went from summer to fall here in Minnesota.  Last Monday it was sunny and warm and by Friday night we had our first frost warning of the season.

With highs in the low 50’s, it was too cold to paint in my carriage house workshop all weekend.  So instead I worked on pulling out all of the annuals that were past their prime in my planters and replacing them with mums, ornamental kale and pumpkins.

I decided to go traditional this year with oranges, reds and yellows.

While I was at it, I decided to add a little fall decor to the fairy garden too.

I started with a tiny white pumpkin and a tiny orange gourd (yep that’s technically a gourd and not a pumpkin).

They were only 99 cents each at my local Bachman’s.  Although they are tiny, in the fairy garden they become huge, blue ribbon worthy pumpkins!

I also came across some tiny pepper plants in the miniature section at Bachman’s.  Even though peppers don’t normally scream fall, I thought the red and orange coloring would lend an autumnal vibe.

Next I added some fun miniature decorations that I picked up last year at another local flower shop, Rose Floral in Stillwater.

With the additional of a few spooky tombstones and the fairy garden is definitely feeling more in season.

And who doesn’t love to see a tiny skeleton clawing his way out of the ground in their fairy garden?

I also put some fresh batteries in the tiny string of fairy lights on the evergreen shrub to make sure the fairies don’t get too frightened by the new decor.

And just like that we’ve got a spooky fairy garden!

a never ending bedtime story.

Published on by Quandie21 Comments

Back in August I purchased this full size bed frame at the MacGrove garage sales (there are metal side rails included, they just aren’t pictured).

Aside from being a bit orange, it really is made out of rather pretty wood.

But this sort of look isn’t a hot seller just now as is, so I decided to give it a new look to try to make it more marketable.

I started with some basic prep, a light sanding followed by cleaning with some Krud Kutter and rinsing with clean water.  The I painted the bed with three coats of Fusion’s Limestone, a beautiful creamy white.  Once the final coat had dried overnight, I pulled out a new transfer from Prima Marketing’s re.design line called Never Ending Story.

What I noticed as I was applying it is that it isn’t really a story.  Instead it’s a collection of fabulous quotes such as ‘never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore’, ‘strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value’ and  ‘all of our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them’.

How inspiring to sleep near such wise words.

This particular transfer comes on three sheets that are 10″ tall by 22″ wide each (for a total of 30″ tall by 22″ wide).  I used two of the sheets side by side on the foot board, and just a portion of the third sheet on the headboard.

Then, because I just couldn’t bear to leave them blank, I used a couple of the re.design knob transfers on the little raised rectangles on either side of the headboard …

This one is from the French Maison set.  It’s the one in the upper left portion of the sheet …

I trimmed off the little curlicues at the top and bottom so that it would fit, which left it looking less round too.

It’s a tiny little detail on the headboard that is barely noticeable, but I still love it.

Another detail that I should point out is that this transfer isn’t really meant to be placed side by side like I did on the foot board.  The quotes do not read all the way across the full foot board.

But the transfer has a distressed, faded appearance anyway … it’s not like the wording is crisp and meant to be easily legible, so I don’t think that matters much.

I love the unique look of this bed now, and it’s perfectly themed for a bookworm!

If you’re wondering where to purchase the Prima Marketing re.design Never Ending Story transfer or the knob transfers, check out their ‘where to buy’ page.

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

And finally, if you happen to be local (Twin Cities, MN) and in need of a Never Ending Bedtime Story bed, check out my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details.

Thank you to Fusion for providing the paint for this project, and to Prima Marketing for providing the transfers.  And a special thank you to my sister for squeezing this bed into the back of the already full SUV that day at the MacGrove sales 😉

my kind of Monday.

Published on by Quandie40 Comments

There’s nothing better than walking into the office on a Monday morning to be greeted by the sight of a fab vintage suitcase.

My picker had been busy hitting the estate sales last weekend, while I, on the other hand, was busy painting.

By the way, if you don’t remember my last post about my picker, my friend/co-worker/garage sale mentor, Sue, is now my official picker.  In other words, if she sees something when she’s out and about that she thinks I would like, she picks it up for me.

So when I saw the suitcase sitting there in my office, I knew she’d found it for me.

I didn’t immediately take the time for a closer look.  I hadn’t had my coffee yet, and a girl has to have certain priorities.  I ran into Sue at the coffee machine and thanked her for finding the suitcase and she said it’s not just the suitcase, there’s more inside!

Apparently Sue had been at an estate sale where everything that fit into a grocery bag was $5 for the whole bag.  So she filled one up for me!

Isn’t the needlework on this pillowcase fantastic?

I’ve never seen little flowers like those before, have you?  It must have taken quite a bit of time, not to mention floss, to stitch all of those.

I’m not sure what I’ll do with this price tag stamp.  Maybe I’ll even use it for its intended purpose!

As I unwrapped the items bundled up in newspaper I found this beautiful green transferware tureen, or is it for gravy?  It’s rather small for anything else.

But isn’t it gorgeous?  I’m trying really hard not to add a transferware non-collection to my list of other items that I absolutely deny that I collect.  But sometimes these things are just really hard to resist.

The other item wrapped in paper was this sweet ironstone gravy boat.

Here’s the mark on the bottom.

I’ll fully admit to perhaps having a few more ironstone gravy boats than one can legitimately claim are simply for serving gravy.  Especially if one doesn’t actually even know how to make gravy.

But still … do I have to admit that it’s yet another item that I deny collecting?

And underneath all of the goodies packed into the case …

the keys to the suitcase, or are they the keys to my heart.  You tell me.

Now that’s my kind of Monday.

simply beautiful.

Published on by Quandie34 Comments

As much as I love the gorgeous pieces I’ve done lately using those beautiful Prima Marketing floral transfers, or the really cool buffet that I shared last Friday stenciled with the re.design decor wax, sometimes I like to just keep it simple.  So that’s what I decided to do with today’s piece.

I picked this one up a week ago at the Lynnhurst/Fulton garage sales.

It was ridiculously bargain priced, but it also was in pretty rough shape.  I didn’t get a good ‘before’ shot that shows how badly warped the top was so you’ll just have to trust me on that.  But my handyman Ken had to literally cut it into strips and then glue them back together again to attempt to flatten it out.  He made several other repairs that I neglected to get photos of too.

Once Ken was done with the repairs, it was my turn to make it pretty again.

I started by painting the inside in Fusion’s Coal Black and the outside in Dixie Belle’s Caviar.  You might be wondering why I didn’t go entirely with one or the other, and the honest answer is that I didn’t have enough of either one to paint the entire piece!

So I opted for the Coal Black on the inside because it will be fully washable once cured which is really nice on a shelf.  Plus it’s rather putzy to wax the inside of a cupboard.  The Fusion paint doesn’t need a topcoat, so I avoided that task.  I went with the Caviar on the outside because I just slightly prefer the look of distressed and waxed chalk paint over the look of Fusion.  The Fusion paint has just a little bit more shine (although it is still considered matte) than the waxed Dixie Belle paint.  And by the way, I waxed over the Caviar using Fusion’s Black Wax.  I absolutely love all of the waxes from that company whether it’s Miss Mustard Seed, Fusion or Homestead House.  It’s soft and creamy smooth, so it goes on easily.  Plus it’s perfectly safe and doesn’t contain any aromatic hydrocarbons (if you don’t know about those, check out my wax post).

I added a simple little ‘1918’ stencil above the door.  You know me and my numbers, I’ve got a thing for them.

You may also have noticed that I chose to remove the fretwork from behind the glass.  I really feel like I could have gone either way with that.  Some people love that look, and others prefer a more simple look.  Since I was going for simple with this one, I took it off.

Then finally, the pièce de résistance, I used some of the Prima Marketing re.design knob transfers on the knobs!

This design is from the Cursive Letters set.

Let me explain how this style with the black background works.  These are black rub-on’s.  The portion that shows as white in the picture above is clear, these are not white rub-on’s.  So if my knobs were painted solid black, the design wouldn’t really show up much.

Instead I painted my knobs black on the ‘stem’ of the knob, but a creamy white on the face.  Then I applied the transfer.  Once that was in place, I sanded around the edges of the knob to remove any excess white paint and to give them a distressed look.  I followed up with a topcoat of Fusion black wax.

It may appear like the entire knob was painted black and then the transfer was applied over the black, so I just wanted to make that clear (pardon the pun).

I love how the knobs add just a little touch of the unexpected to this cupboard.

I feel like this piece is a great example showing how you don’t necessarily have to do something fancy or use complicated techniques to salvage an old piece of furniture.  Sometimes all it takes is a little paint  …  and maybe some cool knob transfers … and your piece will turn out simply beautiful.

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

If you’re wondering where to buy the Fusion paint in Coal Black or their black wax, check out their ‘where to buy‘ page.

If you’re wondering where to buy the Dixie Belle Cavair paint, you can shop with them directly online or find a retailer near you.

And finally, if you happen to be local (Twin Cities, MN) and in need of a simply beautiful cabinet, check out my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details.

a galaxy far, far away.

Published on by Quandie56 Comments

Sometimes I take on a piece that I think is going to be a fairly simple makeover and it just ends up taking forever.  Today’s piece is one of those.

First off, we drove to a galaxy far, far away (to the opposite side of the Twin Cities) to pick this one up.  I’m really not sure what possessed me.  Normally I won’t go that far for a piece of furniture.  And it wasn’t particularly bargain priced either.

I guess something about it just spoke to me.  I also thought it would be a quick paint job, but that ended up not being the case.

My initial plan was to strip and wax the top, but then I discovered that it’s full of really deep scratches.  So deep they seem to go right through the veneer in some spots.

So that scraps that idea.

Next, one of the pulls was missing and one was broken.  Sigh.  You know what that means.  All new hardware.  Then as the icing on that cake, when I removed the rest of them I found that they had all left big gouged out rings around the holes.  Those had to be filled before I could move on because the new knobs I selected wouldn’t cover up those rings entirely.

Next, as Mr. Q and I were moving this piece around to get that ‘before’ photo taken I realized that one of the back legs was a bit wonky.  So I had to ask my handyman Ken to take a look at that and do some repair work.  That required taking the back off the piece so that Ken could get to some nails that were holding the leg in place.  He removed the nails, then the leg, and then added fresh glue and new screws to hold the leg in place.  It’s much sturdier now.

Finally, my initial plan was to paint this piece either white or pale grey and then use a Prima Marketing transfer on the front.  However, I quickly realized that the mahogany stain on this piece was going to be difficult to cover with a pale paint color.

So at that point I re-evaluated.  It was time to consider using a dark color to save myself further headaches, and that meant no transfer.

Then I remembered a tutorial by Brandy from Brushed by Brandy  I believe you have to join the How to Paint Like a Pro Facebook page to watch that video though, so if you aren’t already a member I encourage you to become one.  Brandy used the new Prima Marketing re.design decor wax with a stencil.  Eureka!  If I hadn’t seen her video, I don’t think it would have ever occurred to me that I could stencil with these waxes.

And it just so happened that Prima Marketing had provided me with a bunch of their new waxes, as well as some of their amazing stencils.  So I had all of the necessary ingredients to try this technique.

So I started  with some test boards.  These were just scrap chunks of unfinished board.  I painted them with various Fusion paint colors and then stenciled them with the different wax colors.

From left to right the paint colors on the boards are Ash, Bedford and Midnight Blue.  I tried several wax colors over each paint color.  This was a great way to both practice stenciling with the wax, and also to see how I liked the various colors together.

I quickly realized that my two favorite combos were the Diamond Dust wax on the Bedford paint …

and the Galaxy wax on the Ash paint.

Obviously I’m a fan of the more subtle combinations, but there are many different looks that you can get using these waxes with a stencil.

Since I wanted to keep my paint color dark, I decided that the Ash would be my best bet, paired with the Galaxy wax (now are you getting my galaxy far, far away title?)  Some black knobs with a matte finish that I found at Hobby Lobby would be the perfect finishing touch.

After my usual prep of light sanding followed by cleaning with a damp rag, I painted the buffet with two coats of the Ash.

Once that was dry, I used the Imperial Damask stencil and the Galaxy Decor Wax (both from the Prima Marketing re.design line) to add the most subtle textural-looking design onto just the door and drawer fronts.

Isn’t that a cool look?  Although it looks fairly pronounced in that photo, it actually looks a little bit more subtle in real life.  In a dimly lit room you can barely even see the damask pattern.  And it also shows up better at certain angles more than others.

In case you are wondering, once it has dried/hardened the wax does not smear or rub off.

I couldn’t resist adding a gorgeous pop of color to the inside of the buffet with Dixie Belle’s Peony.

I just love this beautiful vibrant pink.  Using this color on the outside might scare off some of my more conservative mid-western buyers, but having it on the inside is a whole different story.  It’s just there to make you smile when you open those doors.

I debated adding some of the wax to the carved details on the buffet to highlight them, but in the end I just distressed them and left them alone.

This next photo gives you a better feel for how subtle the waxed stencil pattern is from straight on.

In the long run, I’m very happy with how this piece turned out!

If you’re wondering where to purchase the Prima Marketing re.design stencils or decor wax, check out their ‘where to buy’ page.

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

If you’re wondering where to buy the Dixie Belle Peony paint that is inside the buffet, you can shop with them directly online or find a retailer near you.

The knobs came from my local Hobby Lobby but you can also find them online.

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 buffet from a galaxy far, far away.