a pair of french chairs.

Published on by Quandie55 Comments

Before I get into today’s post, I have to mention … Fusion’s Park Bench green on mid-century pieces seems to be a magical combination.  The dresser I posted on Wednesday is already sold.  Once again, less than 48 hours from posting on Craigslist to being sold.  I’m going to have to start painting everything green!  How boring would that get for you guys?

Well, not to worry, today’s pieces aren’t green, and in fact they aren’t even painted … yet.

Do you guys remember the day for chairs last September?  I ended up bringing home 8 chairs from a neighborhood garage sale.

I love the carved detail and the pretty curvy legs on this trio of chairs.

Shortly after bringing them home I decided to save two of the chairs to deal with later, but paint the third chair for my guest room.

I used Miss Mustard Seed’s Apron Strings milk paint and the milk paint did its fabulously chippy thing.

My plan all along was to paint and reupholster the remaining pair, using the Iron Orchid Designs Decor Stamps on some basic muslin fabric for the upholstery.

Here’s the Decor Stamps how-to.

Step no. 1 – pull out your fabric, ink and stamps and do some test runs to be sure that the ink you are using will work well on fabric, and that you like the color combo.

Not all stamp inks are appropriate for use on fabric, so it’s always a good idea to test your ink first (or read this great article comparing various ink brands for use on fabric).  It’s also a good idea to see exactly how your ink color will look on your fabric before committing fully as well.  I was totally expecting that I would use the Sepia colored ink for this project, but after trying both that and the Watering Can I realized that I much preferred the latter.

Also, I have to note here that I like to use ink rather than paint for any stamping project (whether it’s on fabric, wood or paper).  Paint can be sloppy and harder to control than ink.  I get a much crisper image with ink.  That might just be my personal experience, but if you’re going to use paint be sure to fully test it on some scrap material first and make sure you like how it looks.

Step no. 2 – lay out your stamped design on the chair seats, making sure it fits properly.

I used stamps from two different sets of IOD Decor Stamps; the letters and no 2 are from the Alpha II set and the wreath and the crown are from the Grain Wreath set (by the way, the smaller wreath and rooster I used for my test are also from the Grain Wreath set).

Be sure that you have placed the pieces stamp side down with the smooth flat side up.  If you have any letters or numbers in your design you should be able to read them as shown in my photo above.

Once your design is laid out just place your IOD 10″ x 12″ acrylic stamp block over them and press down lightly.  It picks up the stamps almost like a magnet.  That smooth side of the rubber stamp will easily cling to the acrylic block.  At this point you could still change the placement of any of the stamps if you want to by pulling the individual stamp off and re-positioning it.

Now it’s time to ink up your stamp by pressing it into the stamp pad making sure it is evenly covered with ink  (hold it up to the light and you can easily see if it’s well inked).  Place your fabric on a flat, hard surface.  The surface under your fabric is going to determine how well your stamp works so make sure it is flat and doesn’t have any concave spots.  Place your stamp where you want it on your fabric (I tried to keep mine centered on a piece of fabric that was about 3″ bigger than my seat all the way around).  Then press firmly on the block over all of your design trying not to rock the stamp, just press straight down.  Use your hand to press down on the acrylic block above anywhere there is a stamp.

Step no. 3 – place the fabric over the chair seat, centering the design appropriately.  Staple your fabric in place, and voila! you are done.

Once I had the seat reupholstered I decided to just pop it on the as-yet-unpainted chair quick to see how it looked.  That’s when something really unexpected happened.  I kind of liked it as is.

I totally did not see that coming.  The finish is worn away in some spots and I think that is part of what I like about it.

So now I have to make a decision.  Do I leave these chairs unpainted?  In which case I would clean them up and maybe add a coat of hemp oil or wax for some added protection.

Or do I paint them?  Most likely in a chippy look using milk paint in white, or maybe pale grey (check out my pinterest board full of chippy chairs for inspiration)?

Any thoughts?  What would you do?  Let me know with a comment.

And in the meantime, be sure to pin this post for future reference!

here’s a hint, it’s not quite mint.

Published on by Quandie22 Comments

After painting the tall mid-century modern piece in a neutral dark grey last week, I promised myself that I would go for a more daring color on its companion piece.

I have to confess, I almost backed out of that promise when I saw how amazing the taller piece looked in the dark grey.

But I stuck to my guns and went for a brighter color on the low piece.

Can you guess what color I went with?  And no, it’s not mint!

But it is green.

Yep, I just had to choose Fusion’s Park Bench.  It worked so beautifully on the last mid-century piece I painted and that piece sold in just over 24 hours, so I decided to see if I could repeat that experience.

The prep work on this piece was exactly the same as for the taller one.  I had to re-position the drawers so that they were inset once again, but other than that it was ready to paint thanks to the sanding and repair work that the previous owner had already done.

I really love painting a large piece like this with the Fusion paint mainly because it cuts out one major step in the makeover process, having to add a top coat.  Fusion paint has a built in top coat.  After curing for about 3 weeks or so, this paint is fully washable and water resistant as is.  You’ll often see people adding a top coat, and you can add one if you want to, but you don’t need one for durability.

I love this gorgeous shade of green!

On the taller dark grey dresser I used Prima Marketing’s Metallique wax in Bronze Age on the knobs, but for this piece I wanted to go with a brighter gold so I went with their Vintage Gold Metallique wax.

 

Now it just remains to be seen if this green appeals to a buyer too.  Fingers crossed.

If you are local and would like more details, be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page.

blondes have more fun.

Published on by Quandie12 Comments

As I was working on two mid-century pieces recently, I was thinking about how many blonde dressers I’ve done in the past.

I took the time to look back and realized I’ve done more than I thought.

My very first mid-mod blonde was a dresser that my friend Cathy gave me.  This was waaaay back, before I had a blog and before I realized that these pieces from the 60’s were coming back in style.  At the time I was just trying to make this piece more palatable somehow.

It was also before I realized that bright reflecting sunlight maybe wasn’t the greatest lighting choice for furniture photos.  And back when I was painting with plain ol’ latex paint and doing things like spraying the hardware white.

The blonde bombshell came along a bit later.  It’s painted in Annie Sloan’s Provence.

It had the most awesome drawer pulls.  They look like something that came off an airplane.

I think the vintage moxie pieces were my favorite blonde pieces to work on.

I painted them in Sherwin Williams’ Aloe (6464), which was the 2013 color of the year from their Vintage Moxie collection.  Seriously!  Vintage Moxie!  I had to use that name.

Aren’t those circular drawer pulls to die for?

On many of these mid-century pieces, the hardware is what makes the piece.

This mid-century nightstand is the first one I used vintage wallpaper on.

This was a case where I didn’t have the original mid-century hardware, so I gave it more of a vintage makeover with the wallpaper drawer fronts and the old milk glass knobs.

In March of 2015 I worked on another cute little blonde nightstand, this one made by Dixie.

It’s painted in Fusion’s Champlain and Laurentien, and I used the same vintage wallpaper inside the cubby hole area.  The flecks of gold in the wallpaper tie perfectly with the gold knobs.

Fast forward to September 2016.  Another friend gave me a blonde mid-century piece and surprise, surprise, I decided to paint it mint green.

The mid mod mint is painted in Dixie Belle’s Mint Julep with Annie Sloan’s Old White in the center.

Once again the piece has some distinctive mid-century drawer pulls.

Boy, it wasn’t until I saw all of these pieces in one place that I noticed how much I love painting the blondes with aqua/mint and white.

I’m glad I stepped out of that comfort zone when I painted my latest mid-century blondes.

You’ve seen the one painted in Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road, but you’ll just have to come back on Wednesday to see what color I chose for the 2nd one.  Here’s a hint, it’s not mint.

what took you so long?

Published on by Quandie33 Comments

I don’t normally post on a Sunday, but this morning I wanted to thank you for your support after my post on Friday regarding Tom & Naomi’s fire.  Every comment and/or donation was greatly appreciated.  The ash has settled and Tom & Naomi are considering their options on how to proceed from here.  I’ll be sure to keep you all posted as their plans progress.

Also, I wanted to let you know that Mr. Q’s grandpa Bud passed away early this morning.  You might expect us to be a house in mourning, but that isn’t the case.  Bud had an amazing long and full life.  He was always telling stories about his experiences such as helping his dad run bootleg liquor down from Canada during prohibition. He also told many tales about serving in WWII as an interpreter.  Having been around for over 100 years, Bud had seen a lot.  Can you imagine having been born at a time when only 35% of homes had a telephone and then living to see that come full circle to cell phones that can be taken with you everywhere eliminating the need for a home phone?

Recently though Bud was basically just patiently waiting to join his wife who passed away two years ago.  When someone asked him what he thought she would say when he joined her in heaven, his answer was ‘what took you so long?‘

So rather than being sad, we are celebrating the fact that Bud has gotten his wish to join his wife and that after two years apart they are finally back together again now and can both rest in peace.

highs and lows.

Published on by Quandie32 Comments

The radio station that I regularly listen to used to have listeners call in on Monday mornings with their ‘high’ and their ‘low’ from the weekend.  It was amusing to hear what kinds of things people called in with.  But it also made you think about life and how it really is all about the highs and the lows, and how often they happen in the same week.

But this week the balance got a little out of whack around here.

High:

Mr. Q’s bff (I’m pretty sure they don’t call each other bff’s, but I can, right?) came to visit from New York to help him celebrate his birthday.

Low:

Mr. Q’s 100 year old grandpa’s health has been steadily declining and this week they officially put him on hospice care.  Grandpa Bud has been ready to go for a while now.  He hasn’t had much quality of life for the last couple of years.  Mr. Q has breakfast and lunch with him every day, which is an awesome thing and I know Bud enjoys seeing him, but nonetheless Bud has made it clear that he is tired and ready to be done with this thing we call life.  He says that no one should live to be 100.  So although it’s hard to see Bud declining, it is not unexpected and it will ultimately be a blessing when Bud goes.

And another low:

And then while my mother-in-law was in town to attend a meeting about her dad going on hospice care, her husband’s incredibly amazing workshop burned down.

You might remember when I blogged about Tom’s fabulous workshop about two years ago.

When Tom & Naomi moved back to this area from New Orleans several years ago they bought a fixer upper property.  Their plan was to fix it up over time doing all of the work themselves.  They live on a very modest fixed income, so they have to space the work out over time as they can afford the supplies.  It’s absolutely nothing like an episode of Fixer Upper where the work is done by a team of people in the space of a month or two.

Their initial priority was to build a workshop for Tom to work in.  He is an amazing woodworker.  I showed you the trim he made for the front of their house …

But before he got to that trim, Tom spent several years getting his workshop up and running.  He’s been continuing to work on it while also working on the house.  The upstairs of the workshop was nearing completion.  Naomi had just called me last week to ask if I would help them stencil the ceiling (which I thought would make an awesome future blog post).

They heated the workshop with a giant wood burning stove.

They thought it was safe.

They were wrong.

Although there is no official word on the cause of the fire, it’s likely that it was a spark from the wood burning stove.

Not only did Tom lose his workshop, but he lost everything in it.

His tools and supplies, his books, his photos of past projects.

What used to look like this …

Now looks this …

But worse yet, he also lost some of his most precious things like this amazing miniature train chapel car that he built many years ago for Naomi.

Which now looks like this …

Remember the tiny boats that he carved …

Gone.

Yes, these are just things.  And no one was hurt, which is absolutely the most important thing here.  We haven’t lost sight of that and we feel totally fortunate that this wasn’t so much worse.

But I know many of you are fellow artisans and can probably understand the loss that we are all feeling, most especially Tom.  Many of the pieces in that workshop were ones that he put his heart and soul into crafting by hand.

My sister-in-law Heather has set up a Go Fund Me page for Tom & Naomi.

So today I am doing something I’ve never done before (and hopefully won’t ever have to again).  I’m asking you to consider showing your support for my blog with something more than just a comment.  Even if all you have to give is $10 or $20, if even just 100 of you can give a small amount … well, you can do the math.  It will add up.

It will also go a long way towards helping Tom & Naomi rebuild.  Although they are insured, the insurance is never going to pay out enough to replace all of the equipment that was in the shop, and certainly never enough to replace the handmade details that made the workshop what it was.

So thank you from the bottom of my heart if you are able to help.  And even if you can’t help with a donation, just knowing that people care would be a big boost to Tom & Naomi’s morale, so please leave a comment that I can share with them.

painted books.

Published on by Quandie21 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve painted some books.  Unless you’ve followed me from the beginning, or gone back and read to the beginning, you probably haven’t seen my painted books.

The first batch I painted were all done in Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Typewriter, then stenciled in a pale grey acrylic craft paint and finished with some hemp oil.

Then I branched out and added some grey books (painted in Miss Mustard Seed’s Trophy)…

and some pale minty green books.

For a while now I’ve been thinking it would be nice to have some white painted books.

So I pulled out some old hardcover books (find them at your local thrift store for as little as .15 ea when they are having a sale) and started by painting the covers with Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth and sealing them with The Real Milk Paint Co’s Dead Flat.

Then I pulled out a bunch of my stencils.

Don’t worry about the stencils being larger than the books.  I think it just adds to the look to have the design running over the edges.

This is a great way to get a bunch of decorative books to fill up some shelves on a budget.  Displaying things en masse always has more impact.

It seems that the Drop Cloth goes particularly nicely with some old ironstone.

The painted books also make great props for furniture photo shoots.

If nothing else, it’s just a fun project for a cold winter day!

 

salvaging some mid mod style.

Published on by Quandie34 Comments

Unlike some lucky furniture painters, I don’t have a pole barn full of furniture waiting to be painted.  Although on occasion I’ve been known to have as many as 10 or so pieces out in the carriage house waiting for their moment in the sun, for the most part I don’t have room to store a lot of inventory.

I try to stock up a bit in the fall because typically by now there are slim pickings on Craigslist.  In February people in Minnesota are hibernating, they aren’t cleaning out the attic or getting ready to move.  Plus in the winter I’m obviously not finding pieces at garage sales either.

But I’ve pretty much worked through most of what I had stocked up and now I’m scouring Craigslist on a regular basis looking for candidates for a makeover and not finding a whole lot.  The occasional piece that attracts my eye ends up either too far away, too expensive, or else it has already sold to someone else but the ad wasn’t deleted yet.

When I initially came across the ad for this pair of mid-century dressers I gave them a pass.  I didn’t hate them, but I didn’t love them either.  I do enjoy working on the occasional mid-century piece, but I usually prefer older stuff.

But week after week I kept seeing this ad.  I suspect they weren’t selling because the seller wasn’t ‘working his ad’ very aggressively.  By that I mean that he wasn’t renewing the ad periodically to keep it towards the top of the list.  Over a month had gone by since the ad was originally posted and he’d never renewed it once.

Or perhaps the problem was that no one could see the potential in these pieces.

The price was certainly right, and after seeing the ad pass by a couple of times I stopped to take a closer look.  You know what I saw?  I saw two pieces where someone else had already done half of the work for me.  They’d already been sanded and were pretty much ready to paint (and when Mr. Q and I picked them up the seller told me that he’d also already replaced all of the runners inside).  So I realized that these two pieces could be a pretty quick turnaround.

Unfortunately, in addition to the sanding and repairing, the seller had also replaced the original knobs with these awful cheap knobs from the hardware store that are all wrong and have zero mid-century style.

But imagine my glee when I opened one of the drawers and found a Ziploc baggie filled with the original knobs inside.  Jackpot!

If you are thinking they look a bit grungy in that photo, just sit tight.  You’ll see what I did to spruce them up in a few minutes.

As we got talking with him, the seller happened to mention that he’d also made a couple of … well … let’s call them adjustments to the style of the pieces.  He said that originally the drawers with the long handles has been inset.  He thought that looked weird, so he added stops inside the dresser to keep the drawers from pushing all the way back.  Plus he moved the shims on either side of those drawers forward to bring all of the drawers flush with the front.

Now that you are aware of this, go back and look at the ‘before’ picture again.  Yep, now your eye immediately goes to those shims and you realize they look kind of odd, right?

I realized that I had to un-do those changes before I could start painting.  So much for the quick turn around.  But that being said, thank goodness the seller mentioned this.  I’m honestly not sure that I would have figured this out on my own.  I know I would have been puzzled about those shims, but would I have realized that two of the four drawers were meant to be inset?  Probably not.

I tried to remove the shims intact so that I could just simply move them back to their original location, but I ended up breaking two of them.  That’s when I called my handyman Ken for a consultation.  He came over and helped me get the rest of the shims off without breaking them (they were glued and stapled with heavy duty staples), and he took the broken ones home and cut replacements for me.  What would I do without Ken?

While Ken was working on that I had to take care of one last problem before I could start painting.

It wasn’t until I was wiping the drawers down to paint them that I noticed there was a hole on either side of the long wooden drawer pulls.  I’m guessing that there used to be a metal cap of sorts on either end of that pull.  I wish I’d found those inside a drawer in a Ziploc baggie, but no such luck.  So I needed to fill those holes.  I used my usual trick of placing a piece of tape on the back side of the hole, but then this time I filled them using Dixie Belle’s brown Mud.  It cracks me up that the label says ‘straight from the swamps of Dixie’.

Fortunately it does not smell like it’s straight from the swamps of Dixie 😉

I used a putty knife to press the mud into the holes and then I let it dry.  Once the first pass was dry I went over the holes a second time with the mud to make sure they were level with the drawer front.  Once dry again, I sanded them smooth and cleaned the drawer fronts with a damp rag.

Now came the fun part, the paint!  I always struggle with deciding between choosing a more neutral color that I think will sell more easily and choosing a more vibrant color that will be fun to paint with but may not appeal to as many buyers.  So I made a deal with myself to paint one piece in a neutral and one in a brighter color.  Today I’m starting with the taller piece, and it’s going more neutral.

Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road, to be precise, which is a warm, dark grey.  Once again I used Dixie Belle’s recommended method of painting.  I dipped my brush in water periodically to thin down the paint.  The paint goes on so smoothly using this technique.  It does also thin it down a fair bit, so two coats were required.  Also, in case you are wondering I used about half of the 16 oz jar for this dresser, so less than $10 worth of paint.

I use Dixie Belle’s Best Dang Wax! in brown as a top coat.  I like how the brown wax warms up and deepens the color a bit.

Before putting those original brass knobs back on, I washed them with soap and warm water and then once dry I added some Prima Marketing Metallique wax.  I debated using the Old Silver and although I think that would have looked gorgeous, I went with the warmer tone of the Bronze Age instead.

I like to apply it with a q-tip (although some people just use a fingertip).  The trick is to apply even coverage and then leave the knobs alone to ‘dry’ for a couple of hours.  Once dry you can buff lightly to add some shine.

They look amazing on the dresser.  It was so lucky that I was able to put the original knobs back on this piece.

I have to admit that I did not have high expectations for this dresser.  I really expected to improve it somewhat with a paint job and call it good.

But in the end, after salvaging a bit of the original mid-century modern style, I am amazed by the transformation.

How about you?

 

out of the blue.

Published on by Quandie22 Comments

By now I’m sure most of you have seen the 2018 Pantone color of the year.

Purple.

A choice that seems to have come completely from out of the blue.

As a Minnesotan, I should probably be embracing the purple.  Purple pride, Purple Rain, purple is everywhere here (just for fun, check out this flash mob video taken at this year’s ice castle and you’ll see what I mean!)

But no, I’m just not a fan of purple.  You aren’t likely to see me painting purple furniture anytime soon.  Although as I like to say, never say never.  I did use purple on a dresser I painted for my niece a while back and I did once paint a desk using Miss Mustard Seed’s Dried Lavender, so you never know.

However, when I want a little more color, for the most part I’ll stick with the blues.

I have yet to meet a shade of blue that I didn’t like.  The trio of chairs below are painted, from front to back, in Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in French Enamel, Artissimo and Flow Blue (I’ve included a link to the original post for all of the following pieces, just click on the green underlined wording to go back and see the full details on each one).

Fusion’s Midnight Blue is a gorgeous navy blue.

Homestead House makes a matching milk paint also called Midnight Blue.

Homestead House’s Maritime milk paint is a sweet blue that reminds me of the color of blue hydrangeas.

Little Billy Goat makes a beautiful shade of dark blue called Prize Winner.

I also used Prize Winner on the pirate desk (click on that link to find out why I called it the pirate desk, but here’s a hint, it has a peg leg).

 I haven’t used it in a while, but I always liked Annie Sloan’s Aubusson.

Sometimes I just create my own shade of blue.  This next dresser was painted in a mix of Miss Mustard Seed’s French Enamel, Luckett’s Green and Eulalie’s Sky with a touch of Ironstone thrown in to lighten it all up.

Miss Mustard Seed’s Eulalie’s Sky, Shutter Grey and Grainsack combined to make the gorgeous pale grey blue shade on the dresser below.

This washstand is also painted in a mix of Miss Mustard Seed colors.

Mixing Fusion paints to come up with a unique shade of blue is fun too.  My sister created a color we decided to call Lake Superior Blue, which is a mix of Fusion’s Homestead Blue and Liberty Blue.

 And now I’m looking forward to painting something in Dixie Belle’s Yankee Blue.

I have just the piece in mind, a lovely buffet that I brought home a few weeks ago.  It needs a little work first though, and my handyman Ken doesn’t work in the cold.  So it could be a while before I get to it.

But how about you?  Do you have a favorite shade of blue?  Please share in a comment.

heartless.

Published on by Quandie31 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

I don’t have a pretty, frilly pink or red filled post for you today.  Valentine’s Day just isn’t a holiday that I decorate for.  I’m pretty much heartless, at least when it comes to decor.

A while back my thrifting friend Meggan and I were at our local favorite thrift store (Arc Value Village on White Bear Ave, for those of you locals who might be curious) and I was laughing over the plethora of items with hearts on them.  I pointed them out to Meggan, and we both agreed that hearts are pretty much out these days from a home decor point of view (thus they end up in thrift stores by the dozens).  I mentioned to Meggan that I have a couple of tricks for dealing with them though and she suggested that would be a great idea for a blog post.  So I filled my cart with some hearts …

The easiest way to get rid of a heart is to just simply cover it up.  That’s what I did with the heart cut out on this little wall shelf.

But first I transformed the shelf with Dixie Belle’s Patina Collection.  You may remember that they sent me some of their Iron paint and Patina Spray to play around with a couple of weeks ago.  At the time I mentioned that I wanted to try this stuff on wood to see how it looked, so this shelf was the perfect candidate for a little experimentation.

Since the shelf is made of wood, you don’t need to use the special Prime Start primer (you just need that if you are painting over metal).  Instead you can just start with a layer of any color paint.  I used Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road since I happened to have it close by, but the color really doesn’t matter since you’ll be covering it up entirely.  Once that dried I added a coat of the Iron paint and allowed that to dry.  Then I added a second coat of the Iron paint and while it was still wet, I sprayed it with the Patina spray.

Next I just dug through my stash of random bits and pieces and found this back plate to a drawer pull.  It was already rusting on its own, plus it was just the right size, so I thought it was the perfect cover up.

Both Meggan and I simply couldn’t resist this next item.

It’s got both a heart and a cow … a classic.

And actually, in the end I didn’t get rid of the heart cut out, just the cow with her heart shaped face and the country welcome.

I removed the glued on words, sanded the entire thing down and then painted it in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  I added the grain sack stripe in Dixie Belle’s Driftwood.

Then I added an Iron Orchid Designs rub-on from one of the French Pots collections.

A vast improvement, even if it isn’t totally heartless.

Unfortunately I ran out of steam (and straight into that cold that I’m still getting over) before I could get to the rest of those heartfelt pieces from the thrift store.  I may have to hang onto them until next year.

But to prove that perhaps I’m not entirely heartless after all, I couldn’t leave the thrift store without this sweet Dinner for Two cookbook.

It has some great illustrations …

A candlelit dinner for two served on a gondola in Venice would be my idea of the perfect Valentine’s celebration.

So sweet.  This is much closer to my idea of a little Valentine decor.

How about you?  Valentine’s Day decorating, yeah or nay?

 

 

the blanchisserie dresser.

Published on by Quandie37 Comments

As you can probably tell by the ‘before’ photo below, I purchased this dresser back at the end of summer when I was trying to stock up some projects for the winter.

I think we can all agree that the previous owner had made some rather unfortunate hardware decisions, but otherwise this piece didn’t look all that bad at first.

I wanted to strip the top and then wax it with a dark wax, but after stripping the top of the dresser it looked like this.

I’ve run into these black streaks before.  I’m not 100% sure, but after doing some quick google research I think they might be iron oxide stains (if any of you have any insight, please share in a comment).  Iron oxide stains can occur when the tannins in the wood interact with moisture and turn black over time.  There are methods for removing these stains, but I didn’t think it was worth it to spend that much time and effort on this dresser.  The wood just wasn’t that pretty.  So, in the end I opted to just paint the whole thing.

I also found some clues to tell me this dresser was probably originally intended to be painted.  In fact, it had been painted at least twice and possibly three times.  Clue no. 1 is on the back side.

Isn’t that a gorgeous aqua?  I know I would have loved that color!

Clue no. 2 was inside the openings for the drawers …

So it was probably also pink at one time, and maybe even white.

Whoever bought the dresser, then stripped off all of those colors and refinished it, was probably pretty disappointed in the lackluster results.  But I was happy to take it back to its roots.  Except I didn’t choose aqua, pink or white.  At least not on the outside.  Instead I chose black.  More of Dixie Belle’s Caviar to be precise.

Once the paint was dry I added bits and pieces of my french laundry stencil to the drawer fronts.  Once again, I’d love to share a source for this stencil but the company I purchased it from via Etsy seems to no longer be in business.

To keep the stencil subtle I used a warm, dark grey acrylic craft paint rather than a white.

Once the stencil paint was dry, I sanded lightly by hand over the entire dresser with a fine grit paper and then waxed it using Dixie Belle’s Best Dang Wax! in brown.  I think the amount of sheen I got from this wax is just about perfect.

I ended up using clear glass knobs and drawer pulls on this dresser because I happened to have them on hand.  My friend Sue gave them to me and I had just the right amount for this dresser, plus they were just the right size for the existing holes.  It seemed like it was meant to be.

 As a nod to the remnants of pink paint that I found inside the dresser, I painted the interiors of the drawers in Fusion’s English Rose.

I like to use Fusion paint in spots like this because it doesn’t need a topcoat, yet is still fully washable once cured.  A great quality for the insides of drawers.  It only took me about 20 minutes for each coat of paint (I used two) and that fabulous pop of pink when you open the drawer is a lot of bang for your buck, time wise.  I generally only resort to painting the inside of drawers when they are really stained up and scary looking.  These drawers had a few ink stains that needed to be covered up.  In order to prevent the ink stains from bleeding through my paint I tried out the new clear sealer that Dixie Belle provided me with last month, B.O.S.S.

B.O.S.S. stands for Blocks Odors, Stains, Stops bleed-thru.

Had I wanted to block odors, or stop a reddish stain from bleeding thru I would have painted the B.O.S.S. over the entire surface.  However in my case I just had a couple of stain spots that needed blocking, so I just painted two quick coats of B.O.S.S. over the stains themselves.  It worked perfectly.

You might be wondering why I didn’t paint that edge of the drawer.  That is because the drawer fits fairly tightly as it is.  If I added paint, it would not open and close freely.  Always beware of adding too much paint to the edges of your drawers when they are a tight fit.  Nobody wants sticky drawers!

I staged the dresser with some of my favorites from my non-collection of vintage alarm clocks, plus one of my favorite old photos.

That photo was taken on the stoop of my grandparent’s home in South Minneapolis, but no one in the family seems to know who the people are.  They look like such a fun couple though, don’t they?  I imagine that it was a sunny spring day and they were on their way to a picnic at Minnehaha Falls when the photo was taken.

This was back in the day when ladies wore dresses and men wore ties on picnics in the park.

They probably had fabulous painted dressers with glass knobs too, but maybe not with french stencils on them.  Their loss, right?

I gotta tell you guys, I’m kind of in love with this Dixie Belle Caviar.  Lucky they sent me the big jar, because I’m going to be using a lot of this color.

The blanchisserie dresser is available while it lasts, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details!