decorating for free.

Published on by Quandie51 Comments

I’ve been hemming and hawing a bit about my outside Christmas decorations this year.  I really didn’t want to spend any money on them and usually I spend well over $100 on pretty evergreens to fill my planters.  So initially I was thinking I would just skip the outside stuff this time around.

I’ve got to be honest and admit that part of the problem is my tendency to compare myself to other bloggers.  I have been admiring all of the gorgeous decorating that some of the other bloggers out there are doing, and I really didn’t think I could measure up on my budget of $0.  I really wasn’t even sure if I could measure up on my $100+ budget.

So the insecure defeatist inside of me decided to give up before I even started.

But then last weekend we had a bright and sunny (albeit a bit chilly) Saturday and I decided to at least put the twig lights up in my front window box.  Once those were in place I thought, what the heck, I could certainly fill the window box with a few of the bazillion dried hydrangea flowers that were still on my bushes.  Once those were in place I could see that the arrangement desperately needed at least a bit of evergreen, so I clipped some random clumps from my arborvitae hedge and threw those in.

And guess what?  For a cost of $0 it looked pretty good.  At that point I was on a roll.  Why not go ahead and do the planter by the back door too?

I used some birch logs and some rusty metal ornaments that I already had, plus the same arborvitae and dried hydrangeas from my garden.

Next why not do the galvanized boiler planter on the side of the carriage house too?!

While working on that one I remembered the old pair of snow shoes that my neighbor, nnK, dug out of a dumpster for me.

What?  Don’t your neighbors bring you treasures from the trash?

I wasn’t quite sure what I would do with those when she first brought them over, but I realized they would fit perfectly in this planter.

I just tucked them in the back behind the evergreens.

And then I added some hydrangea.  As the crowning touch (pardon the pun), I tossed in a metal crown that usually sits in the garden.

It feels like the planter is positively bursting with stuff, all of which cost me again, $0.

But wait, there’s more!

While I was digging around in the carriage house for stuff I could use, I came across an old fake Christmas tree that was also being discarded when I grabbed it (so again, $0).  I’ve always thought it would be fun to have a Christmas tree out in the garden, but I’d never gotten around to putting it up before.

Up it went.

I added a string of white lights that I already had on hand, and then I decorated it from the garden.

In addition to the dried hydrangeas, I also used dried allium flower heads as well as some curly willow branches.

Then I tucked in things like this watering can …

and a vintage kid sized shovel.  Just fun vintage garden stuff that I already had on hand.

I placed the tree so that it’s perfectly centered outside the bay window in my piano room, just behind Cossetta, my statue.  I love the way the tree looks lit up at night just outside the window.  I think it will be even prettier when we get a bit of snow.

For spending $0, I think I did pretty good.  I’ve definitely proven that you don’t have to spend a bunch of money to decorate for the holidays.  I realize that not everyone has loads of dried flowers to harvest, or a spare faux Christmas tree lying around somewhere.  But today when everyone else is out spending a gazillion dollars, I hope I’ve inspired you to think about using whatever you already have in a new way and decorating for free this Christmas!

 

jingle all the way.

Published on by Quandie24 Comments

Back in April, Mary over at orphans with makeup (if you’ve never visited Mary’s blog, you should, she does beautiful work) posted about working with Homestead House to style and photograph all of their milk paint colors.

Her photo of the color Upper Canada Green (above) got me thinking about an oval gold frame that I’ve had hanging around for ages.

I used this frame in my dining room for a long time.  I never put anything in it.  I used it flat on the table as part of a centerpiece for a while, and I also layered it in front of a larger gold framed mirror hanging on the wall.  But as much as I loved it ‘as is’, when I decided to change up the dining room a couple of years ago it was time to sell it and move on.  As it turned out, no one else loved it as much as I did because it didn’t sell.  Maybe no one could figure out what to do with an empty frame?  Or maybe no one else loves the gold?

When I saw Mary’s photo it got me thinking about using some milk paint to give the frame a new look.  So a while back when I had some milk paint left over after painting my green alligator farmhouse table, I used it to paint this frame.

Green Alligator is a custom mix of equal parts Miss Mustard Seed’s Kitchen Scale, Homestead House’s Upper Canada Green and Loyalist.

As you can see in that photo, I didn’t try to get paint into every crack and crevice.  I almost dry brushed it on, trying to leave bits of gold showing on the high points.

I then used 220 grit sandpaper to remove even a little more paint, and finally I waxed the frame with Miss Mustard Seed antiquing wax to give it some age.

The dark wax dulls the color a bit and adds more definition to the details.

Ken cut a piece of hard board to fit the frame so that I could turn it into a chalkboard.

I added the ‘jingle all the way’ using my tracing method (shared here), and then I free-handed the holly and sprigs of evergreen.

So now that I’ve solved both of my problems; it’s no longer gold and it now has a designated purpose as a chalkboard, hopefully it will sell quickly at Reclaiming Beautiful.

What do you think?

 

 

skating away.

Published on by Quandie28 Comments

Who remembers the old show Ally McBeal?  Am I seriously dating myself with that one?   It was on back in the olden days when you actually had to watch a TV show when it was scheduled to be on.  Ah, the memories.

Well anyway, I was a fan of that show and at the time I purchased their Christmas CD which is mainly Vonda Shepard, but also a couple of numbers by the actors from the show including I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus sung by Jane Krakowski and the song River sung by Robert Downey Jr.

Who knew that Iron Man could sing?

Well, that song is one of my favorites from the CD.  It’s a bit melancholy, but it’s so beautiful.  Normally I give myself permission to start listening to Christmas music on Thanksgiving, but I’m starting a little early this year.

I don’t actually wish I had a river that I could skate away on, but somehow that song always pops into my head when I see ice skates!

When I dug that pair of ski’s out of the back of the carriage house that I posted last week, I also grabbed this pair of skates.  These are another item that was left over from my occasional sale last year.  They weren’t quite so grungy at the time of the sale, but a year in the carriage house lean-to did them no favors.

So I decided to paint them.  Because … duh … that’s what I do!

I started by removing the laces and putting them in a bucket of water with some OxyClean to soak.  Then I washed the dirt off the skates with some Dawn dish washing soap and water and let them dry.

Then I painted them with Fusion’s English Rose.  After all, I did decide to have a pretty in pink Christmas this year, remember?

It only took one coat to get this beautiful coverage by the way. Once the paint was dry I added a couple of rub-on’s from my scrap-booking stash.  Unfortunately, I’ve had the leafy rub-on that is on the side of the skate so long that I doubt you could find it to purchase anymore.  If you want to search, it’s from the Sabrina line from Making Memories.

Didn’t those laces brighten up nicely from their soak in the OxyClean?

I also added a few random number rub-on’s from Tim Holtz.  Some on the heels …

and some on the toes …

By the way, if you know anything about ice skates you might have noticed that these are training skates.  You can’t really tell in the photos, but they are little bitty … only about 8″ long, meant for a little girl who is new to ice skating.

But I really think of them as a home decor item rather than for actual skating.  They are perfect for draping over a vintage sled, don’t you think?

 

 

a blank slate.

Published on by Quandie12 Comments

If you’ve been following my blog for very long, you’ll know that I have horizontal grey and white stripes on the wall in what I call my ‘piano room’ (for obvious reasons).

It took me a long time to get to these stripes.  I’ve painted this room so many times since Mr. Q and I moved in.  Well, first I stripped the existing wallpaper and then re-wallpapered with a white on white damask (very trendy in 1988).  Then I stripped that and painted the walls red.  Didn’t everyone go through a red phase in the 90’s?  Next after painting the kitchen its current dark color, I tried bringing that color out into the piano room too.  It looked awful, which I blame on a difference in lighting and a different ceiling color.  At that time the ceiling was still both white and popcorn-ed.  Next I tried a mustard yellow.  That never even made it beyond just one wall before I realized it was a terrible choice.

That led to olive green horizontal stripes.

I loved the horizontal stripes, but it didn’t take long after starting my blog to realize that this particular wall in my piano room was where I would have to stage all of my furniture photos in the winter.  And the olive green was not going to cut it.  Especially paired with the Miss Mustard Seed Kitchen Scale that’s on that buffet!

So I switched to white and pale grey stripes.  Somewhere in between there we also had the dreaded popcorn ceilings scraped off and I painted them in a pale aqua blue.

I loved the pale grey and white.  And immediately my furniture photos were improved.

But here we are almost 4 years later and I am absolutely fed up with trying to make those horizontal stripes work as a background for all of my winter furniture photo shoots.

They worked OK for some pieces …

For others they just really didn’t cut it.

I tried covering them up by layering various things over the wall, which helped somewhat.

But this year I decided the stripes had to go.  I needed a clean, blank slate to use as a background.

So last weekend I pulled out the paint I used for the white stripes and after sanding the tape lines, I painted over the stripes.

Today’s q-tip:  If you have used tape to paint horizontal or vertical lines on something, always sand over that paint line before re-painting.  Otherwise you will have a visible ridge of paint along those lines.

I was worried that the paint wouldn’t match perfectly and I’d end up having to paint the entire wall from base board to crown molding, but no, it blended perfectly.

And now I have the white background that I have been craving.

Well, except for that electrical outlet, but look how easy it is to edit that out, and while I’m at it, also edit out the thermostat …

As you can see over at the right edge of the photo, I still have the stripes in the living room.  And actually, I even kept the stripes on the opposite side of the room for now.  I may ultimately paint those out as well, but then again I may not.  I’m going to live with it for a while and see how it feels.

In the meantime, I’m very happy with my blank slate.

By the way, are you wondering about how practical it is to move that large cupboard out of the way every time I want to take photos of a finished piece?

At the end of the summer, Ken came over and helped me add wheels to the bottom of it to make it simple as can be to move it in and out of that spot.

I have to say, I always learn something new from Ken.  This time it was that you can get these extended length Phillips drill bits for your drill.  It made it so much easier to get in there and attach those wheels.

It might seem a little crazy that I’ve painted a wall and modified my furniture just to accommodate blogging, but I’m learning that it pays off to find ways to make the ‘things’ in my life more functional for me.

So if that means a blank white wall and a cupboard on wheels, so be it.  Right?

 

 

 

vintage sled, take two.

Published on by Quandie26 Comments

Last year I picked up a few vintage sleds at garage sales and then added stencils to them.

I had them at my occasional sale that fall and two out of three sold.

But there were no takers for this one.

It’s easy to see why.  There just isn’t enough contrast between the wood sled and the black stencil.  But at the time my sale was looming and I didn’t have time to re-work it.  After my sale I tucked it away in the back of the carriage house and there it sat along with those ski’s that I posted on Tuesday.

So I pulled the sled out a week or so ago knowing that a do-over was in order.

I started by painting the wood with just one coat of Homestead House’s Coal Black milk paint.  I really just slapped it on somewhat haphazardly because I planned to distress it heavily anyway so I didn’t need precise coverage.  Plus, because I was painting over bare wood (much like with the ski’s) the paint really soaked in and provided great coverage with just one coat.

Then I debated what stencil to use.  I thought about another Christmas stencil, but that would mean that the sled has to be put away after Christmas.  Why not go more generic so that the sled can be a winter decoration rather than just a Christmas decoration?  No need to put it away until spring!

I also needed a stencil that would fit the width of the sled.  I ended up pulling out this pretty stencil that I’ve only used a couple of times.

I know it’s a little hard to believe looking at the pictures, but I used an acrylic craft paint in a dark greige for the stencil.  This color from FolkArt is called Barn Wood.  I prefer using this cheap acrylic paint for stenciling because it tends to dry out a bit over time, getting nice and thick, which helps give my stenciling a crisp edge.

I got a more ‘faded ‘ sort of look by using this color rather than white, and in contrast to the black background it still reads as ‘white’.

After sanding the wood heavily to distress I put the tiniest amount of Miss Mustard Seed furniture wax on a cloth and then wiped the painted wood down.  I didn’t really apply wax like one would normally, I didn’t work it into the surface or buff it or anything like that.  I mainly just used the tackiness of it on my cloth to remove any remaining loose paint.

I love the worn, dull, muted appearance of the black without any other top coat.  It works perfectly with the metal rails of the sled.

Once I had it all done I really loved the way it looked paired with my Specimens cupboard, but size-wise it just wasn’t working with some other plans I have for that spot.

Then I remembered that I had another sled out in the carriage house, so I pulled that one in the house and painted it the same exact way.

This one is a bit smaller and will be staying with me.

I took the larger sled in to Reclaiming Beautiful this week, so hopefully it will go to a new home soon!

Meanwhile Mr. Q and I are off to a creative writing workshop this morning taught by one of his favorite college professors Alison McGhee, so obviously next week my blog posts are going to be massively improved.  At least the writing part.  So be sure to stay tuned!

 

a pretty in pink Christmas.

Published on by Quandie33 Comments

When the issue of Vintage Holiday magazine that featured my non-collection of vintage Christmas ornaments arrived in my mail box a while back I sort of fell in love with the pink Christmas scene on the front cover.

Isn’t that pink chippy mantle to die for?

Following closely on the heels of the magazine’s arrival, the people at Fusion offered to send me some of their newest shade of paint, a gorgeous pink called English Rose.

It seemed as though the universe was trying to tell me something, that I should plan a pretty in pink Christmas!

So I started with making some gift boxes using the same technique I’ve used in the past for faux french hat boxes.

I purchased several plain cardboard gift boxes at Hobby Lobby.  You can get these for just a few dollars each if you wait until they are on sale for 50% off (which seems to happen every 4 – 6 weeks or so).

Next I simply painted some of them in the new Fusion pink, English Rose and one in Fusion’s paler pink, Little Piggy, for contrast.  I painted each with two coats of paint.

I wanted to use a Christmas themed graphic on them, and when I found these 12 Days of Christmas graphics on Etsy I knew they would be perfect.  I purchased six of them from Project Printable for $1.50 each, so an investment of $9.  The seller conveniently provided a mirror image jpeg along with the regular jpeg so I didn’t have to worry about figuring out how to print a mirror image, which is what you need for a transfer.  Slick, right?

Yes, I know you can find free graphics online and I like to find those when I can as well, but sometimes it’s worth it to pay a little money for the convenience of finding exactly what I wanted.

Next I used Fusion’s transfer gel to transfer the graphics to the painted boxes.

  You can print a copy of the detailed instructions here:  making a faux hatbox with transfer gel.

And voila, I have pretty Christmas gift boxes that can be re-used over and over.

Keep in mind that you aren’t likely to achieve perfection with this method of transferring a graphic.  Some bits of your design will likely rub off.

But perfection is seriously over-rated.  I prefer to embrace a distressed, imperfect look.

These packages are going to look so pretty under my tree full of vintage ornaments … just as soon as I get that set up …

If any of you locals want to make your own pretty in pink gift boxes, Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater has some of the English Rose paint in stock while it lasts.  Plus their holiday open house is this afternoon from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.  Stop by, have a glass of wine and do a little shopping.

If your aren’t local, click here to find a Fusion retailer near you!

 

 

 

around the world in 6 hours.

Published on by Quandie20 Comments

I’ve mentioned before that whenever I travel I love to splurge on a guided tour.  Usually it’s well worth the money (although our experience on the Isle of Skye was definitely an exception).  Disney, however, is no exception and we’ve done several amazing guided tours at both Disneyland and Disney World.  I know it seems crazy to have already paid over $100 for a park ticket and then have to come up with another $109 for a guided tour.  But since I was only paying for one and not for a family of 4, it was more do-able.  And it was so worth the extra money!

The tour we booked on our recent trip to Disney World is called World Showcase:  DestiNatons Discovered.  You can follow that link to read more about the tour, but here is a snippet of how Disney describes it:

The World Showcase: DestiNations Discovered tour is a fascinating 5-hour walking excursion through 11 “countries” and 4,000 years of history, culture and food. From the streets of Paris to the Bavarian countryside, Guests can immerse themselves in the architecture, landscapes, streetscapes, attractions, shops and restaurants of 11 themed pavilions.

Before we get started on our tour around the world, I want you to check out the photo (above) that I took just before our tour started.  Can you tell what’s missing?

Here’s a hint, they stop in the middle of walkways to take photos, they run their strollers right over your feet, and they eat 5 million hot dogs every year in Disney World … yep, it’s people!  Thousands and thousands of people.  The crowds at Disney World are simply mind boggling.  Disney doesn’t publish any actual attendance figures by day, by park, so I really can’t give you an official stat on this, but let’s just say the crowds can be a tad overwhelming.

So one of the biggest benefits you’ll get by taking this tour is the opportunity to see a park without the crowds.  The World Showcase in Epcot opens to the public at 11 a.m., but we started our tour at 8:30 a.m.   That’s 2 1/2 glorious crowd free hours!  There were about 12 of us on our tour, plus of course there were workers scattered about here and there, but otherwise we had the whole place to ourselves!

See?  Nobody else in sight …

Let’s get started on our world tour, shall we?

We started in Mexico.  Inside Mexico’s pyramid you’ll find the most charming restaurant.  I find Disney’s ability to recreate the atmosphere of a romantic dinner on a patio under the stars amazing.  Usually this place is bustling and I miss most of the details, but it was easy to get a good look at things while we had it to ourselves.

There is also a little marketplace inside, just in case you need some souvenirs from your trip to Mexico!

Next up, Norway!  After my trip to Norway last May, it was fun to compare the real Norway to the Disney version.  I saw the real Gol stave church in the open air museum in Oslo and the stave church in Epcot is supposedly a 4/5 scale replica of that same church.  Can you tell the difference?

Real:

Fake:

Yeah, OK, the real one doesn’t have a sign advertising Disney’s Frozen movie on it.  Plus I’m not really buying the 4/5 scale thing.  I feel like the real one was quite a bit larger then the fake.

Do you remember the Akershus fortress from my May trip?

They have a version of it in Epcot as well.

Unfortunately our guide proceeded to tell everyone that Norway’s royal family lives in Akershus Fortress.  I didn’t want to embarrass him by pointing out that their official residence is actually the Royal Palace.  Minor detail, right?

The Norway pavilion at Epcot has been ‘Frozen’d up’.  The ride that used to be about Norwegian culture now is the Frozen ride.  The inside of the stave church contains traditional Norwegian items with signs about how they relate to the Frozen movie.  Well, you can’t blame Disney.  They are going to ride those Frozen coat tails for a long time, and they are trying anything they can think of to make kids enjoy the World Showcase.

So let’s all sing a little “let it go, let it go” in our heads and move on to China!

One interesting factoid that we learned in the China pavilion is that while all of that amazing detail on real Chinese temples is painted on wood, the Epcot version is all done with stickers.

Apparently the humid weather of Florida was not good for painted wood.  Now when the stickers start to fade or peel, they just slap a new sticker on.

Now we take a big leap from China to Germany.

The Germany pavilion is very charming and it did remind me a little of our trip to Germany several years ago.  I think Disney has punched up the volume just a bit though.  The colors are a little brighter and more cartoon-ish.

But if you know my love for miniatures as most of you do, you’ll know that I was drawn to the model train garden that is located along the ‘Romatic Road’ …

It was interesting to learn that the trains are on loan from a local model train club and they change them out weekly.

Next up, Italy.

Since Venice is one of my favorite cities, I am always drawn in by the fake St. Mark’s Campanile and Doge’s Palace at Epcot.

In this next photo take a look at how oddly short the pillars on the right hand side seem on the street level of the Doge’s Palace.

Disney did that on purpose to give the illusion that the city is sinking, much like the real Venice.

I have to say, seeing the real Doge’s Palace this devoid of people is even less likely than an empty Disney park!

The American pavilion was purposely placed right in the middle of the World Showcase.

This is one of the very few Disney buildings that was designed to appear smaller than it really is.  With most Disney structures it’s just the opposite and they are meant to appear larger than they really are.

Japan is lovely, but unfortunately I was too busy admiring the garden which meant I didn’t pay attention to our tour guide at all so I have no insider secrets about Japan aside from the fact that apparently there is an eagle nearby that keeps eating all of the koi in the pond.

I started paying attention again in Morocco and I thought it was interesting to learn that this is the only pavilion in the World Showcase that was not sponsored by a corporation but instead was funded by the King of Morocco who also sent his own official artisans to Orlando to help build it.

This pavilion definitely reminds me of my trip to Tangier with Mr. Q.

Especially the tile work, which is very typical of Morocco.

By the time we got to France the park was open to the public and things started to get a little more crowded.

I just love the style of these Parisienne buildings.

And it just wouldn’t be Paris without the Eiffel Tower, would it?

Our tour included lunch at the Rose and Crown pub in England.  Our guide explained that they chose that name for the pub by compiling a list of the most popular words included in pub names throughout the UK and the words ‘rose’ and ‘crown’ were the top two.

Funny sidebar.  We were served Scotch Eggs as the appetizer for our lunch, a traditional Scottish food.  If any of you remember the sad story of my tour on the Isle of Skye last May, you may remember that on that tour we were served tomato soup and egg salad sandwiches that were billed as the ‘best of Scottish cuisine’.  Apparently I should have just gone to Orlando to get some authentic Scottish food!

And in case you are wondering, the Scotch Eggs were delicious and so were the Bangers & Mash that I had as my main course, but the absolute best was the Sticky Toffee Pudding that was served for dessert.  Delish!

And here’s a little insider info on the thatched cottage on the right.  Apparently when it was first built they used real thatch only to discover that thatch and Florida do not go together, so now it’s fake plastic thatch instead.

I feel like the Canada pavilion has the most diverse collection of features ranging from totem poles to a French gothic ‘hotel’.

The famous Butchart Gardens are also represented, as well as the Canadian Rockies.

Our guide brought us behind the scenes in a few spots on our tour including here in Canada.  We went behind “the Rockies” to see that all of the trees are actually planted in big tubs so that they can be changed out easily when they get too big.  Large trees would totally throw off the illusion of scale.  And of course all of the rock is fake and from behind they are just hollow forms.  Picture taking was strictly forbidden ‘back stage’ though, so no worries about spoiling the magic.

As a special treat to end our tour, our guide brought us the back way to Soarin’ Around the World where he lead us to the front of the line and we were able to take the ride.

All in all, it was truly an incredible tour and I would do it again in a heartbeat.  So if any of you have a trip to DisneyWorld planned I encourage you to consider a tour.  Or maybe you’ve already been on one, if so I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

 

 

 

 

faux ski re-style.

Published on by Quandie30 Comments

I picked up this beat up pair of faux wooden ski’s at a garage sale a couple of years ago.

Then I promptly forgot all about them until I was cleaning out my carriage house the other day.  I think they were about one step away from ending up in the burn pile.

They aren’t real ski’s, obviously.  I’m assuming they were always meant to be decorative in some way.  So I decided to see if I could improve them with a little paint.

I started by mixing up some Barn Red milk paint that Homestead House sent me a while back.

This color is pretty much exactly what you would expect from a barn red.  Just a tad darker and more muted than Miss Mustard Seed’s Tricycle.

It just took one coat to cover the wood perfectly.  Since this was bare wood the paint soaked in and didn’t chip at all.  Once dry, I stenciled my Christmas message in a warm white acrylic craft paint.

Can I just mention at this point that it’s really challenging to take interesting photos of long skinny items?

Once the stenciled designs were dry I sanded the ski’s to distress them a bit and then wiped them down with a rag and just a small amount of Miss Mustard Seed furniture wax.

And just like that these ski’s became colorful Christmas decor.

I put a hanger on the back so they can be hung on the wall horizontally under one’s banjo, if one happens to have a banjo on the wall.

But they also could be just propped up vertically.

I worked on a few other little painting projects last weekend, all part of a pile of stuff I’ll be bringing in to Reclaiming Beautiful  for their upcoming holiday open house on Thursday.

If you’re local, consider heading to Stillwater on Thursday starting at 3 p.m. for a little shopping!

coffee is always a good idea.

Published on by Quandie42 Comments

First things first, I drew five names at random from the comments left on Friday’s post and Susan, Cynthia, Wendy, Alison and Kim all won some samples of Miss Mustard Seed milk paint.  I sent emails to all five winners, I know I have multiple readers with those first names, so if you didn’t get an email, I’m sorry to say you didn’t win.

But, keep in mind that you can still order 3 samples from Carver Junk Co for $18 with free shipping (use the code MILKPAINT), so I hope some of you will order some samples and give it a try even if you didn’t win.

Now, on with today’s post!

A while back (when the grass was still green and there were leaves on the trees) I picked up another small washstand.

I’ve painted quite a few of these over the years.  They make awesome bedside tables.  Initially that was my plan for this one, so I didn’t even include the towel rack that came with it in my ‘before’ photo.

That turned out to be unfortunate because a picture is worth a thousand words, and it will be so much easier to explain this with a photo so I borrowed a picture of a similar piece from the world wide web.

Freakishly tiny photo, but it shows a towel bar at the back that is very similar to the one on my piece.

Usually I just discard these towel bars.  Much like mirrors on dressers, I feel like they hamper the versatility of the piece.  You wouldn’t really want that towel bar on your nightstand for example.

But then I had an idea for this piece.  I decided to make it into a coffee bar, and to turn the towel bar into a frame for a chalkboard.  I asked Ken to remove the round dowel that went across the top and replace it with a piece of bead board instead.

Then he cut a piece of hardboard for the chalkboard and I painted it with Rustoleum’s black chalkboard paint.

Initially I was just going to paint the entire piece, after all, here is what the top looked like when I brought it home.

It was in pretty rough shape.  But I love to pair a wood top with black paint, so I decided to try stripping it.  After all, if it didn’t work out I could always paint it later.

I stripped it, sanded it down and then waxed it with Miss Mustard Seed antiquing wax, and I’m so glad I did.  It’s not perfect, but I still love the way it turned out.

I painted the rest of the piece in two coats of Miss Mustard Seed’s Typewriter.  If you haven’t tried milk paint yet, I always recommend starting with the black.  It’s so, so easy to use.  It often covers in just one coat, and I probably could have gotten away with one here but I like my paint really opaque so I went with two.  I never have any trouble with the pigments dissolving with the black either.  Also, as you can see, it distresses beautifully leaving a gorgeous authentic looking aged finish.

And speaking of finish, I used Miss Mustard Seed hemp oil as my top coat over the black milk paint.  If you are new to milk paint, keep in mind that it’s the hemp oil that gives the black this rich, deep color.

I cleaned up the original hardware by just scrubbing it with some dish washing soap and then I put it back on.

To give it a little bit of an industrial vibe I added some chunky black wheels.  Somehow I thought it would be more functional to have a coffee bar that is easy to move around.  In hindsight, I’m not sure why I thought that.  For use at parties?  In case you want coffee in bed?  Well, they look cool and they do add a bit of height to the piece even if there isn’t really a need for them.

And in case you are wondering, yes, that is snow.  Just enough to be pretty in the morning, but mostly melted by the afternoon.

I drew the chalkboard using the method I shared in my tutorial last week.

This coffee bar is the perfect size for your Keurig and all of your coffee making supplies.

After all, coffee is always a good idea!

Please check my ‘available for local sale’ page for details if you are local and in need of a coffee bar!

a sample sized giveaway.

Published on by Quandie139 Comments

Last week while my sister, niece and I were at Disney World the Food & Wine Festival was taking place at Epcot.

During the F & W Festival there are kiosks set up in each of the various countries around the World Showcase where you can purchase samples of food and wine from those parts of the world.  Some of my favorites included the Bougatsa from Greece, a phyllo dough strudel with sweet vanilla custard filling drizzled with lemon-honey syrup, and the Canadian cheddar cheese soup and pretzel roll.  The Grand Marnier orange slush at the France pavilion was pretty fab as well.

The samples are sized smaller so that you can try lots of different things, rather than just one.  What a great concept, right?

Last month when I attended the Miss Mustard Seed paint workshop at Carver Junk Co I saw that each participant received a little sample sized bag of milk paint to take home along with their finished projects.  I’d forgotten that you could get MMS milk paint in these adorable little sample size bags.

Each bag contains just enough paint to mix up and try out on something small.

What a great way to try milk paint for the first time!  I always recommend that you start with something small if you’re a milk paint newbie.  Maybe a wooden picture frame, or a small shelf or a little keepsake box.

But really, it’s also the best way to try a  particular color for the first time.  As much as I try to get the white balance right in my photos, the bottom line is that colors don’t always look true in a photo.  The color settings on your device might be different than mine.  Even between my computer monitor and my phone the colors in my photos can look quite different.  I really prefer to see a color in person before I commit to using it on a piece of furniture.

Although I’ve worked with almost all of the Miss Mustard Seed paint colors, there are a couple that I haven’t tried yet.  One of them is Bergere.  What color is that anyway?  Blue?  Gray?  How pale is it?  What will it look like with my chosen top coat?

Before committing to using Bergere on a big piece of furniture, I decided to mix up a sample to paint on this little wooden recipe box that my friend Sue gave me.

I mixed about 1.5 tablespoons of paint with the same amount of water (the sample bags contain 30 g of paint powder, or roughly 2 T).  I gave the paint powder about 10 minutes for the ingredients to fully dissolve in the water.  Then I gave my paint another good stir and painted it on.

I probably could have gotten away with two coats of this color, but since I had the paint mixed and there was still enough to go around I added a 3rd coat for good measure.

Here is the box painted, but without a top coat.

Then to add a little something extra, I decided to add another of my IOD french pot transfers.  I didn’t do any prep work on this box, and as a result I did get a bit more chipping than I anticipated, and that gave me a little trouble with the transfer.  I’ve mentioned this before, but if your paint is chippy it will stick to the transfer sheet rather than the transfer coming off on your painted surface.  As a result I had to be very gentle while pulling the backing sheet off, but I managed to get it off without losing any of it.

To make sure the transfer didn’t chip off along with some paint down the road, I added two coats of Miss Mustard Seed Tough Coat Sealer to seal everything up.  The Tough Coat darkened up the color just a bit, and added just a little bit of shine.

This is just an example of what you can do with a sample of Miss Mustard Seed milk paint!

I love little projects like this that can be completed in a couple of hours.  They are so satisfying!

And now it’s your chance to see what you can paint with a sample sized bag of Miss Mustard Seed milk paint.  I have 10 sample bags provided by the manufacturer to give away.  To be eligible to win, just leave a comment on this post by Sunday, November 12 at noon central time telling me which Miss Mustard Seed color(s) you’d pick to try out.

The fine print:  5 winners will be chosen at random.  Each winner will receive two sample sized bags of milk paint.  The winners won’t necessarily receive their colors of choice, although I’ll do what I can.

Even if you don’t win a sample, consider ordering some colors to give them a try.  Specially for us,  Carver Junk Co is offering 3 sample bags of Miss Mustard Seed milk paint for $18 with free shipping!  Use the code MILKPAINT when you place your order to get the free shipping!

Be sure to check back here next week to see who won, to read more details about my trip to Epcot and to see the latest piece of furniture I painted!