mirrorless v. DSLR.

Published on by Quandie18 Comments

The cold that I’m still fighting off has completely zapped my energy, so since I haven’t had the gumption to finish a piece of furniture I thought I would share an update on the Olympus O-M-ED-10 camera I purchased over a year ago.

I realized recently that I tend to grab my Olympus camera (which is a mirrorless camera) more often than my old Canon Rebel (which is a DSLR) these days.  I have to say, it took me almost a year to get to the point where I am more comfortable with the Olympus.  That’s mostly because I’m a slow learner when it comes to the tech-y stuff.  I just don’t have the patience to learn something new, I’d rather jump in at the deep end and sink or swim, which usually tends to involve a bit of sinking.

I purchased my Olympus back in September 2016.  You can read a post about that purchase here if you want more details on why I chose to purchase a mirrorless camera.  And then back in May 2017, just before my cruise to Norway & Scotland, I purchased a 17mm prime lens for it, and I posted another update on the camera here.

I promised to keep you guys updated on how the new camera worked out for me and now that I’ve had it for over a year I feel like I’m in a good position to report back on it.

I generally use my camera for two things, travel photos and blog photos, so I thought I’d address both of those needs separately.

Travel Photos.

I took both of my cameras on that cruise last May, but I definitely used the Olympus far more than the Canon.

Flam, Norway

The main reason for that was size.  The Canon is much bigger and heavier than the Olympus.  I just didn’t want to carry the Canon around with me all day.  The only time I took the Canon off the ship was the day we hired a private guide with a car, so we weren’t on foot all day plus I could leave the camera in the car if I wanted to.

Dunrobin Castle, Scotland

I also used the Canon while taking photos from our balcony.  I have a decent zoom lens for it, so it was fun to play around with that from the comfort of our room.  I definitely got some shots with that zoom lens that I couldn’t have gotten with the Olympus (unless I purchase a zoom lens for it).

sailing away from Bergen, Norway

However, when were off the ship touring around on foot, I only carried the Olympus with me.

It worked beautifully in low light situations.

The Beamish

And I got some beautiful landscape shots with it.

Isle of Skye, Scotland

Before our next trip I plan to find a good zoom lens for the Olympus and not even bother with packing the Canon.

Blog Photos.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, I find myself grabbing the Olympus for blog photos most of the time these days too.  I can’t blame that on size and weight, since I don’t have to lug the camera far to take my furniture photos.

One of the main reasons is the 17mm prime lens that I use with it.  For those of you who aren’t into tech-y details you can skip this next bit, but for those of you who are interested, a 17mm prime lens on a mirrorless camera (like my Olympus) is approximately equivalent to using a 35mm prime lens on a DSLR camera (like my Canon).  There is some sort of mathematical reason for that, but let’s not kid ourselves, who really understands that stuff?  And who really cares?

The important bit is what that means.  With a prime lens you can’t zoom in and out.  It has a fixed focal length.  That means to ‘zoom in’ you have to literally walk closer to your subject, and to ‘zoom out’ you have to walk away from your subject.  You may be wondering why anyone would want a prime lens at this point.  Well, it’s because you can get a good, fast prime lens for less money than a good, fast zoom lens … and speed translates to crisper photos, especially in less than optimal lighting conditions.  So when I’m taking furniture photos in winter, I get better results with a prime lens.

Currently I have a 50mm prime lens for my Canon.  It works great for furniture photos out in my driveway when I can get a good 20’ away from my subject.

But it doesn’t work so great inside my house where I just can’t get far enough away from a piece of furniture to fit it into the frame using that 50 mm.  I can only use it to take close up photos indoors.

The 17 mm prime lens on the Olympus, on the other hand, is just right for indoor photo shoots.  I only need to get about 6’ away from the piece of furniture to get a full shot of it.

I should point out here that if I had a 35mm prime lens for my Canon DSLR I could easily use that for indoor furniture photo shoots too, I just don’t happen to have one.

The 2nd reason I tend to grab the Olympus these days is that feature I mentioned the last time I posted about this camera.  The touch screen focus.  Here’s how that works, the LCD screen displays the image you’re about to take and to choose the spot where you want the camera to focus you just touch the screen there.  The camera focuses and takes the shot with just one touch, no need to depress the shutter release button.

I use this feature ALL. THE. TIME.  I can’t emphasize that enough.  It’s how I get awesome crisp photos of the hardware on my furniture even when the hardware isn’t centered in the frame, like this …

I can accomplish that with my Canon also, but it take a few more steps and it’s not as precise.

Lastly, I have found that the automatic white balance setting on my Olympus works better than the same setting on the Canon.  White balance is something I have an ongoing struggle with.  Since a big part of my blog involves showing specific paint colors and how they look on furniture with different top coats, I want the colors in my photos to look as real as possible.  Honestly, sometimes I still don’t manage to pull that off, but I do work at it.  Seriously, just how many different shades of white are there in this next photo?  And which one is ‘true’ white?

Of course, you can adjust your white balance with photo editing software after the fact, but it’s so much easier if you are starting out with a photo that was captured with good white balance.  If you are a fellow furniture painter or blogger, I hope that you are also paying attention to white balance in your photos.  Even if you’re taking photos with a smart phone you should have some options for setting your white balance so be sure to check that out.

One instance where I do still prefer my Canon Rebel is when I want to get a photo like this next one.

For some reason I still find it easier to use the zoom lens on my Canon to create photos with a shallow depth of field (where the background is blurred out like the example above).  If you want to learn more about how to take photos with a shallow depth of field, check out this article I found on the subject.  I’m sure that I can accomplish this with the Olympus, but that is something I need to work on.  That sounds like a good goal for 2018, doesn’t it?

If you’ve stuck with me to the end of this post I hope you learned something new about cameras, lenses, white balance or depth of field.  I plan to be back next week with a gorgeous dresser makeover (photographed indoors with my Olympus mirrorless camera and 17mm prime lens), so be sure to stay tuned.

 

jodie’s box.

Published on by Quandie16 Comments

Hello!  I’ve been down for the count with a cold since last Friday, so I don’t have anything earth shattering to share on the blog today.  Instead I pulled together a post on this quick project I worked on a while back.

You probably don’t recognize this box, but it has been shared here on q is for quandie once before.

It belongs to my friend Jodie, and the box made it into the photo of Jodie’s dining room back in December when I shared a tour of her home.  There it is on her dining room table …

Recently Jodie decided the box needed just a little more oomph, so she asked me if I would stencil it for her.

Of course I agreed.  Stenciling is just so quick and easy, and really cost effective once you already have the stencils (and I have quite a few).

Jodie was pretty flexible and said I could use whatever stencils I thought would look good, so I went with some french stencils that seemed appropriate for a dining room.  I used a different one on each side.

By the way, both of these are just portions of a larger stencils.  I just used sections that would fit and looked good on the box.  I purchased both of these stencils via Etsy which is a great place to find them.  You might recognize the first one I showed, it’s the same stencil I used on the Windsor chairs last Friday.

Jodie asked me to use white paint for the stencils, but I suggesting going with a pale grey instead.  I think a crisp white would have been too stark and would not have worked with the rustic, aged look of the wood.  The pale grey (this is Martha Stewart Multi-Surface acrylic craft paint in a color called Wet Cement) reads as white next to the wood.

How’s that for a quick and easy update?

Hopefully I’ll get my energy levels back up to normal soon and be able to share something a little more exciting with you.  Until then, be sure to stay tuned!

the windsors.

Published on by Quandie22 Comments

You might think I’m about to talk about England’s royal family, but no.  I’m talking about the chair kind of Windsors, not the royal kind of Windsors.

I picked up these Windsor chairs at one of the neighborhood garage sales last summer .

Structurally they are in great shape, they just have a bit of an outdated finish on them.  As soon as I saw them, I pictured them painted black.  Black is a classic color for a Windsor.  So when Dixie Belle sent me some of their chalk style paint in a color called Caviar I dug these chairs out of the carriage house to give them a makeover.

I did not sand the chairs before painting them, I just gave them a good cleaning with some TSP Substitute and started painting.  I used the same damp brush technique that I mentioned in my post on Monday, simply dipping my brush in a cup of water occasionally while painting.  It took two coats to fully cover mainly because the paint thins out using this technique, but it also goes on ultra smooth.  So for those of you who prefer to see a brush-stroke free finish, this is definitely the way to go.

Once dry I wet distressed the edges of the chairs using a damp rag and then used a 320 grit sandpaper on the seats, flat arms and flat top at the back.

I did not sand any of the spindles because that would likely have pushed me over the edge.  Painting them was putzy enough, just look at all of those spindles!

Can we just stop here a minute though and talk about this color?

The Caviar is a gorgeous deep, rich, saturated black.  It looked deep and dark even before I waxed it.

In fact, here’s a secret.  I didn’t wax the legs yet.  Obviously I have to get to that before I sell the chairs, but I was trying to take advantage of a sunny day to get my photos done so I saved the legs for later.

Before waxing I stenciled the seats with a fab french design.  I’m fairly sure I ordered this stencil via Etsy, but once again the shop I ordered from is no longer there.  I seem to have bad luck in this way with stencils.  So I’m sorry that I can’t give you a source for this one.

The stencil was just the pop of something special that took these chairs from ho-hum to fab.

Once I had the stencils done, I sanded lightly over them with 320 grit sandpaper and then waxed the chairs (and I will get to those legs!) with Dixie Belle’s Best Dang Wax in clear.

If you’re used to using Miss Mustard Seed, Homestead House or Fusion wax (like I am), don’t be freaked out when you open up the Dixie Belle clear wax and it looks really white.  I thought for sure I had gotten a white wax by mistake.  But no, ultimately it dries clear.

Also, you really won’t need a dark wax (like brown or black) to deepen the black color of this paint.  It looks gorgeous even with the clear wax.

I love how the chairs turned out.  If I had a spot for them I’d definitely keep them.  But there is no room at the inn, so they have to go.  If you are local and need a pair of Windsors, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details.

 

shaken, not stirred.

Published on by Quandie36 Comments

When Dixie Belle asked if I’d like to try some of their products, their Patina Paint was at the top of my list.  I am super excited that they sent me a couple of different looks to try.

I love a good authentic aged patina.  Nothing can beat the real McCoy like the gorgeous verdigrised copper roof on this building in Vienna.

But finding the real thing isn’t always possible, or affordable.  And I’ve never been a fan of the faux paint jobs that use several paint colors to create something that ‘looks’ like verdigris or rust.

That is not how the Patina Collection from Dixie Belle works.  Instead it uses actual flakes of metal in the patina paint combined with a spray on acidic solution to create actual rust or verdigris.

I’m intrigued by the idea of trying this effect on a piece of furniture at some point, but for today I decided to start small with this lamp that I recently picked up at the thrift store.

The base on this lamp is metal, but you can also use the patina paints on any other paint-able surface.  However, when using them on metal you must start with a coat of the Prime Start (on all other surfaces you can prime your piece with a coat of regular paint).

The reason for this is simple.  The Prime Start contains an acid blocker that prevents the activator that you apply later from eating through the paint and degrading your metal item.  So be sure not to skip this step if you’re working with a metal item.

It’s not very pretty (unless you like orange), but don’t worry, you’ll be covering that up entirely.

Next you add two coats of your Patina Paint of choice.  I’m using the Iron Paint because I want a rusty patina on my lamp.  There is one very important instruction to take note of before you start using the Patina Paint, can you guess what it is?

Shake well!

I really want to say that the paint should be shaken, not stirred (you know I love my Bond) but I think you could also stir it if you prefer.  But the important thing is that you mix it well in order to distribute the metal flakes throughout.  These are what will give you the patina that you want.  If you don’t get them well mixed you will be disappointed with your end result.

The first coat of the Iron paint goes on fairly thin.

Now here’s the next important bit of info, after painting on a second coat of the Patina Paint you should immediately shake the Patina Spray well and apply it while the paint is still wet.

Now you can sit back and watch metal rust.  It’s sort of like watching grass grow.  It can take 2-6 hours to reach the full effect so I recommend going and getting yourself a vodka martini, shaken not stirred, while you wait.

Then spend some time watching your favorite Bond movie.  Mine is Skyfall which is 2 hours and 23 minutes long, perfect for killing time while waiting for your patina to develop.

In reality, I just went to bed after this step and when I got up in the morning my lamp looked like this.

That patina is so delicious I could just eat it up.

When looking at the ‘before’ photo of the lamp you may have noticed that it had a tacky yellowed plastic faux ‘candle’ at the top of the metal base.  I covered that up with a page from my old Swedish bible.  I simply cut the piece to fit, sprayed it with 3M Super 77 spray adhesive and wrapped it around.

I added a lamp shade that I purchased at Junk Bonanza several years ago.

The shade was made by Light Reading and if you follow my link to their Facebook page you can see that they are going to be at an event in Edina coming up soon.  So any of you locals who need an amazing lamp shade, you can check them out there.  I think I might swing by and try to score another lampshade myself.

In the meantime, I’m going to go look for some more stuff around my house that needs a rusty patina!

 

stool samples.

Published on by Quandie26 Comments

Back in the beginning of January I was pondering my blog content and thinking about potential ways to grow in the new year.   I felt like it was time to try some new products.  Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Fusion, Homestead House and Miss Mustard Seed products and I’ll definitely continue to use them on a regular basis.  I’m also still officially addicted to the IOD Décor Transfers.  But I felt like I needed to add a good chalk style paint to my line up and also just take a look around at what other sorts of products are out there and what they can do.

After all, variety is the spice of life, right?

My painting philosophy is that there is no one perfect paint that is best no matter what the project.  Some projects are better suited for milk paint, some are better suited for an acrylic paint and some are better suited for a chalk style paint.

I decided to do a little research by looking at what other furniture painters that I admire are doing these days.  One of those painters is Denise at Salvaged Inspirations (be sure to check out her blog post today about painting with black).  She recently painted this gorgeous dresser in Dixie Belle chalk paint in a color called Caviar …

and this stunning blue buffet painted in Dixie Belle’s Bunker Hill Blue …

So I went to the Dixie Belle website and just browsed around a bit.

And guess what?  They had some really cool stuff, like their Patina Collection for creating an aged metal look and a stain-blocking, smell-blocking clear primer called BOSS.  I was also intrigued by their Easy Peasy Spray Wax and Dixie Belle Mud.

That was when fate intervened in an amazing way.  I received an email from Teri at Dixie Belle out of the blue.  She had seen my blog and wondered if I’d be interested in trying any of their products.

Seriously!  What a wild coincidence right?  The timing could not have been any more perfect.

Of course I said yes!  I’d definitely be interested in trying a whole bunch of their products.  Like all the ones I listed above, and certainly some paint too!

So last week I received a big heavy box in the mail from Dixie Belle!  I’d asked them to ship it to my day job.  The Dixie Belle paint should not be allowed to freeze.  Since it’s January in Minnesota, having the box shipped to my office meant it wouldn’t be left sitting outside on my porch for any length of time.

Now I was fully stocked with some gorgeous paint colors and some fun, unique products that I couldn’t wait to experiment with.

Having made my share of mistakes with new products over the years, I’m learning to start out slowly; test them out on something small to get a feel for how they work before jumping right in to the deep end and painting a big piece of furniture.  So this time I pulled out a pair of stools that my friend Sue recently passed on to me to sample some of the paint colors and top coats.

And hence, the title of this blog post was born.  Stool samples.  Seriously, how could I resist?

The ‘how-to’ guide for Dixie Belle chalk paint says that you don’t have to sand your piece, just clean it and then start painting.  I would have followed that advice to the letter except the seat of the taller stool had a big glob of spilled blue paint on it.  Although I could have painted right over that and the paint would have adhered, you still would have been able to see the texture from it.  In other words, it would have looked like I painted over a glob of something.

Q-tip of the day: if you don’t want to see texture (including drip marks and brush strokes) from a previous paint job (or spill), you will need to sand it down before painting with any kind of paint.

So I sanded the top of the taller stool pretty vigorously, but left the rest alone.  It really was a relief to not have to sand all of those legs!

I didn’t want to see either of the existing colors on each stool when I distressed them after the final coat of paint, so I gave them an undercoat of a color that I wouldn’t mind seeing, Savannah Mist.  Dixie Belle recommends using a damp paint brush and painting in thin coats.  I’d never tried the damp paint brush technique before so I thought I would give it a try.  You simply dip your brush into a bit of water, just a quick dip, not a big, swooshy, saturate your brush sort of dip, then dip your brush into the paint.  You don’t have to re-dip your brush into the water with every fresh dip of paint, maybe just with every 4 or 5.  I just kept a plastic cup of water handy.

Turns out I really like this technique which basically just waters down your paint as you use it.  It makes the paint easier to apply and it definitely goes further.  It also helps prevent brush strokes.  Despite the watering down, I still got great coverage with just one coat of the fairly light base color.

I used the same technique to paint each stool with a top layer of a different color.  The smaller stool got one coat of Gravel Road and the taller stool got two coats of Drop Cloth (white tends to require more coats for good coverage no matter what kind of paint you are using).  Then, while I had the paint out anyway I also painted a third even smaller stool in the Gravel Road.

Since I was going to add some grain sack style stripes using tape next, I flipped over to the underside of one of the stools (which I had also painted) to test whether or not the tape would pull off any paint.

Nope.  I was good to go.  By the way, this is the color called Gravel Road.

I taped off some stripes on the two larger stools.  One got striped with Drop Cloth, the other got Yankee Blue.

Next I decided to try wet distressing them.  I think a chalk style paint is easier to wet distress than other types of paint.  The trick is to do it right away as soon as the paint is dry, but before it hardens too much.  In case you’ve never heard of it, to wet distress a piece you just use a damp cloth and wipe the paint off wherever you would normally distress the piece.  I like to use a nubby terrycloth fabric for this and I have a bunch of old towels that I’ve cut down into rag sized pieces for jobs like these.

Here’s how the wet distressed edge looks up close …

 There are a couple of benefits to wet distressing.  First of all, you don’t create any dust.  This is a big plus when you are working indoors in the middle of winter.  Second, you can more easily control how far down you distress.  I didn’t want to see much of that original green color of this stool.  As soon as I could see the coat of Savannah Mist coming through I stopped rubbing.

To add a little something extra, I stenciled the two smaller stools.  After the painted stencil designs dried, I sanded the top of each stool with a fine 320 grit sand paper to smooth them out.

Next I sampled two of the Dixie Belle top coat options, the Easy Peasy spray wax and their Best Dang Wax! in Brown.  The ‘1902’ stool was finished with the spray, the smaller stool with the brown wax.

The Easy Peasy spray definitely lives up to its name.  You simple spray it on in a fine mist, wait 5 seconds and then wipe.  Done.

The Best Dang Wax! is very creamy, soft and workable and it has no smell (which translates to no petroleum distillates and you know I like that).  I also like the rich, dark color of the brown.  I’m planning to test it out on some bare wood soon.

After sealing the tall stool with the Real Milk Paint Co’s Dead Flat, I used Fusion Transfer Gel to add a graphic (click here to read more about that technique).

Remember, if perfection is your goal then graphics added with transfer gel might not be right for you.  If you want to compare various methods for adding a graphic to something check out my post on that {here}.  Using transfer gel is definitely one of the most cost effective ways.

I had fun playing around with the various Dixie Belle paint colors and top coats while creating my three stool samples.

To recap …

stool sample no. 1 – painted with a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Savannah Mist, then painted with Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, striped with Dixie Belle’s Yankee Blue, sealed with Real Milk Paint Co’s Dead Flat, graphic added using Fusion’s Transfer Gel.

stool sample no. 2 – painted with a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Savannah Mist, then painted with Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road, striped with Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, stenciled with Martha Stewart acrylic craft paint, sealed with Dixie Belle’s Easy Peasy Spray On Wax.

stool sample no. 3 – painted with Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road, stenciled with Martha Stewart acrylic craft paint, waxed with Dixie Belle’s Best Dang Wax! in brown.  You’ll notice that the Gravel Road looks darker on this stool as a result of adding the dark brown wax v. the Spray On wax.

I’ve already started my next project using the Dixie Belle products, so be sure to stay tuned!

 

 

 

more fun with rub-on’s.

Published on by Quandie15 Comments

I’ve always loved a good rub-on.  Wait.  That doesn’t sound quite right, does it?

But seriously, I’ve been in love with these things since the 70’s.  I think they went out of vogue for a couple of decades, but they came back when the scrapbook craze started to take off.

Two of my favorite brands are Tim Holtz and 7 Gypsies.

I have had hit or miss luck finding these in craft stores.  Hobby Lobby used to have a good selection of the Tim Holtz brand, but they don’t seem to any longer.  Meanwhile, Michael’s currently seems to have a large section devoted to the Tim Holtz line, but a small selection of his rub-on’s themselves.  Ever since my favorite scrapbook store went out of business, I haven’t been able to find the 7 Gypsies brand anywhere except online.

I’ve always been a little bummed that these designs are so small, obviously meant for small paper crafts.  That’s why I was so thrilled when I discovered the Iron Orchid Designs Decor Transfers, which are basically rub-on’s that are sized for furniture.

Adding rub-on’s to vintage pieces, big or small, is a quick and easy way to give them a little extra pizzazz.

You saw me do this a little while back with the vintage graters that I turned into photo holders.

 Today I’ve decided to add some rub-on’s to this …

But first, what is it?  I don’t actually know.  Perhaps one of you does?  Those pieces on the side flip out to become a sort of handle.

Now, before you guess some kind of campfire cooking pot, I know it’s hard to judge size from these photos.  This thing is only about 1.5″ deep and 4.5″ across.  It’s way too small to cook in, it’s even way too shallow to be some sort of campfire coffee cup.

I’m baffled.

But whatever its original purpose, I think it would make a great little container for any number of things.  Hairpins?  Jewelry?  Nuts and bolts?  Spare change?

Or perhaps stamps.

I’ve suggested that with my choice of rub-on’s for one side, but on the other side I went more generic with just some numbers.

I added a little something to the top too.

It’s just a fun way to add some interest to an otherwise plain container.

 So if you’re looking for something fun to do this weekend, get yourself some rub-on’s and see what you have lying around that needs a little pizzazz.

the rest of the desk.

Published on by Quandie43 Comments

Today I’m sharing the rest of the desk makeover.

As a refresher, here is the ‘before’.

And here is the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of the desk top.

If you’ll remember, my initial plan was to paint the entire desk green.  But then I decided to try and save that wood top.  I still could have painted the rest of the desk green, but I decided to go with black milk paint instead.

I used Homestead House milk paint in Coal Black, and this seemed like a good opportunity to try the Homestead House Stain & Finishing Oil in Cappucino as a topcoat over the milk paint.

The technique for this is fairly simple.  Once your milk paint is dry, sand it with a fine grit sandpaper to smooth it out, distress the edges as desired and loosen any flaking milk paint.  Vacuum away the dust, and then wipe your piece down.  I like to use a dry microfiber cloth for that.

Next, apply a coat of the SFO.  You can wipe it on with a lint free cloth or you can apply it with a stain applicator pad, but I chose to apply it with one of those cheap sponge brush thingies.

The angled tip of the sponge worked really well for getting the SFO into corners and grooves.

After allowing the SFO to absorb into the surface for a few minutes, wipe away the excess with a lint free cloth.  I used an old black t-shirt.

One coat of SFO will give you a matte finish.  Subsequent coats will increase the shine, deepen the color and increase the durability.  I had this crazy idea that I wanted a little more shine, so I added a second coat (after waiting 24 hours for the first coat to dry).  As it turns out, I had a little trouble keeping the gloss consistent with the second coat.  You don’t notice that on the front of the desk at all, but it’s more apparent on the sides when they catch the light just right.

I’m sure this was the result of ‘user error’, this is the first time I’ve used the SFO over milk paint on a larger piece.  Perhaps I wiped too much off in some areas and not others, or perhaps I didn’t wait long enough for the SFO to absorb before wiping.  I’m not sure.  Either way, I definitely prefer more of a matte look over my milk paint so next time I will stop after one coat of SFO.

Regardless, I absolutely love how the Cappucino SFO darkened up the black milk paint and really brought out the richness of the color.

As for the hardware, I kept the original drawer pulls that came on the desk but I dressed them up a bit with some of the Prima Marketing art alchemy Metallique wax in Bronze Age.

If you remember back, Prima Marketing provided me with several different colors of this wax a month or two ago.

I really love how subtle the Bronze Age is.  Not too bright or too shiny.

To apply the wax simply dip a q-tip into the wax, swirl it around and then use the q-tip to apply the wax to your piece.  Allow it to dry and harden for a couple of hours and then buff to bring out some shine.

Since I loved the look of the Bronze Age wax against the black milk paint so much, I added some of it to the raised detail on the middle drawer.

I applied this in the same way, using a q-tip and rubbing it over the surface.  Be careful to not get the wax anywhere you don’t want it, it is hard to remove again.  So be sure to use a steady hand while doing this.

By the way, the chalkboard hanging on the wall is an old mirror frame taken off a dresser with a piece of hardboard cut to fit the opening which was then painted with two coats of Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Typewriter.  Once the last coat of milk paint is dry, I sand it smooth and then ‘season’ the chalkboard by rubbing chalk all over it and wiping it away with a microfiber cloth.  I wiped the wood frame down with a little Miss Mustard Seed hemp oil just to freshen it up a bit.

If you’re wondering why I suddenly switched from the Homestead House Coal Black that’s on the desk to Miss Mustard Seed Typewriter for the chalkboard, it’s simply because I used up all of my Coal Black on the desk and I had the Typewriter on hand.  I’ve painted with both of these colors side by side and I don’t think there is any difference.  Of course they look different here because one has the SFO topcoat and one just had white chalk smeared all over it.

We’ve come to the part of my blog post where I normally share a side by side collage of the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of the desk, but earlier this week Mr. Q gifted me with a new computer!  It has a huge display screen, which is amazing, and it’s so much faster than my old computer.  However, I don’t have Picasa on it which is the software I used to make those side by side collages.  Picasa was retired back in March 2016 so I can’t load it on this computer.  And as it turns out, Windows Live Photo Gallery was discontinued back in January 2017, so I couldn’t load that either.  I’m going to have to learn all new software for organizing my photos, and I’m going to have to find new photo editing software that will let me make those collages.  But I still have my old standby, PicMonkey so all is not lost there (but I’m not impressed with PicMonkey’s collage options).

In the meantime, you’ll have to excuse me while I take some time to learn some new tricks and just be content with seeing the ‘after’ all by itself.

This desk is for sale, so be sure to check my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details.

playing doctor.

Published on by Quandie40 Comments

I saw this desk listed on Craigslist shortly after painting the ‘young at heart’ dresser in Fusion’s Park Bench (green).

If you’ll remember, I’d purchased a 2nd pint of the Park Bench that I didn’t need for that dresser so I was looking for something else to paint green.  I did some searching for ‘green painted furniture’ on pinterest looking for some inspiration and I came across a very similar desk painted green.  So Mr. Q went off to New Richmond, Wisconsin to pick this one up.

The inspiration desk on pinterest was gorgeous.  Very fresh and modern looking.  But as it turns out I just don’t lean towards fresh and modern.  I really want to be young and trendy.  But when it comes right down to it, my vision almost always seems to go in a different direction.  I might as well face it, I am neither young nor terribly modern.

So let me show you what I did with desk instead, starting with the top.

The seller turned out to be one of those guys who buys out storage units where the renter has defaulted on their rental payments.  He had a huge pole barn full of stuff.  This desk had likely been stored for a while.  That’s always a bit of a dicey situation.  Furniture really doesn’t do well in storage, and sure enough this piece was not in the greatest condition, especially the top.

But underneath all of those stains, scratches and gunk I thought there might be some very pretty wood veneer.  It was time to play doctor and do some serious desk top surgery to save it.

I started by pulling out my Citristrip.

As I mentioned last week, this is my stripper of choice because I can use it inside the house in the middle of winter.  It has a slightly orange scent, not a nasty chemical smell.  And see?  Right on the label it says ‘safe for indoor use’.

It seems that there are two camps when it comes to refinishing wood tops; the strippers and the sanders.

I’m definitely a stripper (but please don’t quote me on that out of context).  There are a few reasons for that.  For one thing, when sanding veneer you have to be very careful not to sand right through it.  Second, when using a power sander you also have to be careful not to leave sanding marks behind.  Third, sanding to remove a finish in the middle of your living room (which is where I work in January) would be huge mess.  But the main reason is that I don’t enjoy using power tools of any kind, including electric sanders.  I know, hard to believe that a prolific furniture refurbisher like myself doesn’t like power tools.

It all stems back to a childhood incident.  My friend Heidi and I were playing with our Barbie dolls on her back porch one pleasant summer day.  I must have been about 8 years old or so.  The neighbor was out mowing his lawn when something must have gotten clogged in the mower, so he stuck his hand in to dislodge it.  Yep, you know where I’m going with this.  When he pulled his hand back out it was missing four fingers.  I still clearly remember vivid details from that day, like how much I loved my Malibu Barbie and the fact that the neighbor’s wife ran out of the house with an adorable embroidered vintage dish towel and wrapped it around his bloody hand.  Although of course the towel wasn’t vintage at the time, it was just your standard dish towel and obviously it never got the chance to fulfill its vintage destiny.

Anyway, you get the picture.  It was traumatic.  To this day I refuse to operate a lawn mower, or a snow blower, electric hedge trimmers or any kind of power saw whatsoever (thank goodness for Mr. Q).   I’ll probably get some sort of DIY blogger demerits for admitting that out loud, but there you have it.  I prefer to work with plain old hand tools whenever possible.  I still have to break out the electric sander sometimes, but I try to limit its use.

So, back to my desk.  Here is how the top looked after being stripped.

Hmmm.  Not sure that is an improvement.  And the stripping brought to light a secondary issue.  The veneer had started to buckle in a couple of spots.

Drat.  At this point even painting isn’t an option that will disguise that problem.

So I decided to attempt to fix it.  First off I had Mr. Q order some glue syringes via Amazon.  We paid $7.50 (free shipping with Amazon Prime) for a kit with two syringes and 4 tips (the yellow and metal part).  The tips are meant for a single use only because you can’t clean the glue out of them well enough to save them for another use.

To repair spots of buckling veneer you fill the syringe with wood glue and then insert the small metal tip under the loose veneer to get the glue way back in there.  If your veneer is buckled, but hasn’t cracked you may have to use a razor blade to make a small incision along the buckled area for inserting the syringe.

Incisions?  Syringes?  Paging doctor q, you’re needed in surgery, stat!

Once you’ve got plenty of glue under there, press the veneer flat and wipe away any excess glue that squishes out.  Then lay down a sheet of wax paper first, followed by lots of heavy stuff to hold the veneer flat while the glue dries.  Of course you can also use clamps if your repairs happen to be in a location where clamps will work.  Mine weren’t, so I used bricks and heavy books.  The purpose of the wax paper is to prevent you from gluing the books to the desk top.

Let your glue dry overnight, remove the books and voila!  No more buckling.

My next step was to sand the desk top smooth removing any last remains of finish that didn’t come off with the stripping.  This is not the heavy duty sanding that would be required to completely remove a finish from scratch, just a couple of passes with my new orbital sander.

Although the sanding made the water stains a little less dramatic, they were still fairly obvious.  This was the point where I had to step back and consider my options.  I debated using some Miss Mustard Seed antiquing wax and going with a more rustic look for the desk top.  I wasn’t sure how much of the discoloration would be disguised by the wax.  If I was keeping the desk, I would have chosen this option because I like a very rustic look.

But I’m not keeping it.  So I next considered using a milk paint stain made with watered down Miss Mustard Seed Curio (brown) to even out the color first, followed by the Homestead House Stain & Finishing Oil that I wrote about last week.  I knew the SFO would work beautifully over milk paint.

But ultimately I decided to use just the Stain & Finishing Oil in Cappucino alone and keep my fingers crossed that the color would be dark enough to disguise those stains.  In a worst case scenario, if the top looked awful, I would have to wait three weeks for the SFO to fully cure before painting over it.  I decided it was worth the gamble.

Luckily my gamble paid off.  Here is one coat of the SFO.

Pretty much amazing, right?

I do have a couple of wonky spots where I fixed the buckling veneer.  I suspect it’s because I didn’t quite get all of the glue off and the SFO wasn’t able to penetrate to the wood in those spots.

Next time I’ll try using some mineral spirits to make sure that I’ve gotten every last bit of the glue before applying the SFO.  Unless one of you has a tip for that?  If so, please be sure to share in a comment.

But despite those couple of marks, the difference between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of this desk top is like night and day.

I am perfectly happy with this transformation despite a couple of flaws.

But it took me so long to explain this process that I’ve run out of time for sharing the rest of the desk today, so be sure to check back later in the week to see the total transformation!

In the meantime, be sure to pin this post for future reference.  You never know when you may have to play doctor and repair some buckling veneer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

mind the gap.

Published on by Quandie22 Comments

Remember this dresser that I painted last September?

I mentioned at the time that I don’t usually keep the mirrors that come with dressers.  I have found that it takes much longer to sell a dresser with a mirror than one without.  But this mirror was so gorgeous and it added so much to the dresser that I decided to keep it.

But I didn’t literally want to keep it.  I wanted to sell it.  I posted it on Craigslist and it sat, and it sat, and it sat.  I got a couple of nibbles, but no one even so much as came out to look at it.

Honestly it’s not often that my pieces don’t sell within a month or so, sometimes even faster.  But it does happen.  When it does I usually go back to the drawing board and try to figure out why and what I can re-work to make the piece more marketable.

First I figured it couldn’t possibly be the color.  Right?  It’s white.  Anyone can work a white piece into their existing color scheme.

I supposed it could be the transfer, or the hardware.

But I don’t think its any of those things.  I think it’s the mirror.

So it’s time to cut my losses and remove the mirror.  However, removing the mirror leaves a gap at the back of the top of the dresser because the mirror sat down into that gap.  So it wasn’t quite as simple as just removing the mirror and calling it good.

Luckily, I have a handy neighbor who can help me out with such things!

Ken made short work of cutting a board to fit down in that gap.

I painted it up to match the dresser (in Fusion’s Limestone) and attached it.

And presto, the dresser has a whole new look.

Now this dresser could hold a widescreen TV, or it could be used under a window.  It could work in a living room, dining room or foyer.

It would also work well in a home office to hold the printer and office supplies.

  It’s just so much more versatile without a mirror, don’t you agree?  I also have to say that I like it much better this way myself.

And in case you are wondering what the fate of the mirror will be, Ken and I are going to turn it into another chalkboard shelf so it won’t just be going to waste.

So now we’ll just have to wait and see whether or not my theory about mirrors is right.  I’ll be sure to keep you posted.  In the meantime you can see some of my other do-overs here, here and here.

s.f.o.

Published on by Quandie38 Comments

I purchased this table back in September at a garage sale.

I loved the detail on the base of the table, but didn’t love the dated dark, shiny, reddish finish which also was not in very good condition.  So of course I planned to give it a makeover.

I started by stripping the top of the table using Citristrip.  Although I stripped this piece outside in my driveway back in September, I like using the Citristrip because it can be used indoors also and it’s not as toxic as some of the stronger strippers.  But the trade off is that it doesn’t work as quickly as the stronger strippers.  Usually it works great to just remove some old varnish, but this piece had some serious red colored stain that just kept coming up.  In fact, even after three passes with the stripper I still hadn’t gotten quite all of it.  So I put the table in the back corner of the workshop to think about its bad behavior for a while.

Then over a frigidly cold weekend recently I pulled it into the house to finish the job.  Since the tabletop was not a uniform color, I decided to forgo my original plan of just waxing it and instead try the Homestead House Stain & Finishing Oil All in One (or SFO for short) in Cappucino.

Homestead House sent a complimentary sample of this product to me a while back, but this is the first chance I’ve had to try it out.  Although this product isn’t designed to cover up discolorations, my hope was that the dark color of the Cappucino would help disguise the fact that the wood tabletop was still just a little bit splotchy from that red stain.

First things first, the SFO is ideally meant for bare wood.  It is designed to soak into the wood rather than sit on top of another finish like a gel stain does.  Also, it is color and topcoat in one, no need for the multiple steps of stain followed by poly.  Once cured this stuff is even durable enough to use on floors.

Here is what Homestead House has to say about the ingredients:  “Our Stain & Finishing Oil is composed of plant products, Safflower oil, Tung oil, Linseed oil, Vegetable wax, safe odourless mineral solvent and cobalt free siccative which means effective drying without toxic cobalt dryers while being virtually odourless.”  And based on that, I felt comfortable using this product inside my home with no windows open.  It was -12F outside when I was working on this, so opening a window was definitely not an option.

To prep the table top I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper, vacuumed the dust, and then wiped it down with a clean microfiber cloth.  I applied the SFO with an old brush, but next time I think I would just use either a lint free cloth or a stain applicator pad either of which can then just be tossed.  This is not a water based product and cleaning an oily brush is just not something I enjoy spending time on.

After applying the product I let it sit for about 10 minutes to absorb into the wood.  Then I used an old t-shirt to wipe away the excess.

And that was it.

Yep.  Done.

No need for an extra topcoat.  After 3 days this finish is cured enough for normal use and after 10 days it is fully washable making it a great choice for table tops.

Although you can use multiple coats to deepen the color, I found that just one coat was plenty dark for my table.  However, keep in mind that multiple coats will also improve the durability and increase the shine slightly with each coat.  If you don’t want to darken the color, but do want to increase durability or shine you can do your first coat in the color you want (Cappucino for example) and then add subsequent coats of SFO in Natural (allow 24 hours of drying time between each coat).

Seriously though folks, I am pretty much a novice stain-er.  I don’t have a lot of experience with wood stain and I am pretty intimidated by it.  It seems like you have to be very careful to keep the color even, etc. etc.  But this stuff was super easy to use.

I mentioned that the SFO is best suited for bare wood, but it also works great over milk paint.  I did a double take the first time I read that one myself.  I do a lot of painting with milk paint so I’m always interested in alternative top coats.  When you think about it, it makes total sense that the SFO will work well over milk paint since the paint itself is porous and will allow the finish to soak in.  I did a little practice board to see how the Cappucino SFO would look over both some Coal Black (top) and some Midnight Blue (bottom) Homestead House milk paint.

By the way, please try to ignore those white specks in my paint.

Don’t use sandpaper that was previously used over white paint to sand your dark milk paint, it will leave little flecks of white paint behind.  Lesson learned.

But hopefully you can see that the SFO looks fantastic over the milk paint.  It adds a richness to the color, but not a lot of shine.  I plan to try this technique on a piece of furniture that I’m working on currently.

With all this talk of SFO being an oil, designed to soak into porous surfaces like bare wood and milk paint, you might be thinking that you can’t use it over an existing sealed surface (such as Fusion or other acrylic paints).  While it’s true that it’s not ideally meant for those surfaces, you can do it.  Much like you can put hemp oil over Fusion paint.  It won’t soak in like it does over bare wood or milk paint, but it will harden as it dries and provide both color and added protection.  I tried a practice board for that too, using Fusion’s Plaster and Park Bench.

The difference when using the SFO over non-porous surfaces is that you need to wipe carefully.  If you wipe too vigorously you will just wipe away all of the SFO.  Wipe gently leaving a thin coat behind and then let it dry.  I think it gives a similar look to using a glaze, but again with very nice matte finish.  I love the Cappucino over the Park Bench.

I hope that some of this info about the Stain & Finishing Oil has helped give you a better understanding of how this product works.  I definitely plan to use it on a couple of upcoming projects, so I’ll be sure to keep you posted on that.  But meanwhile, back to my little table.

For the base of the table I pulled out some Fusion paint in a color that I’d never tried before called Cathedral Taupe.

I’d always thought this color had a bit too much pink in it for me, and it definitely does have a pink undertone.  I think the pink shows up more in photos than it does in real life actually.  The combination of the Cappucino colored top and the Cathedral Taupe base is gorgeous in person.  I feel like I didn’t really capture it well in my photos.

Once again I applied a little beeswax before painting to help make distressing the edges of the table base easier.

I plan to bring the table in to Reclaiming Beautiful to sell, unless one of you wants it first?  If interested, check out my ‘available for local sale’ page for more info.