q is for quandie

Have you heard?  Pink is the new neutral.

I’ll be honest, I had not heard this.  But when my friend Meggan was over last week, she mentioned that she’d read it somewhere.  So later that evening I did some googling.  Sure enough, I found lots of articles about the subject including {this one} from houzz and {this one} from Apartment Therapy.

Well, you all saw how much I loved the new pink from Fusion, Little Piggy, and this is a pink that I can easily see being used as a neutral.  It’s a very subtle blush pink.  After painting a small chair in it, I knew I had to go bigger.  I decided it would be perfect on this dresser that Mr. Q brought home from the thrift store for me.

This dresser was just kind of ugly.  I’m not sure, but I think that is a cut-out section of floral wallpaper that is stuck to the middle of that one drawer.  A few passes with some coarse grit sandpaper took care of that.

Next came a couple of coats of Little Piggy.

I wasn’t entirely happy with any of the photos I took in the photo cottage, so I pulled the dresser outside and tried again.

The knobs that came with the dresser seemed just a little too small, so I replaced them with some pretty faux mercury glass knobs that I had on hand.

Still not super excited about the photos of the dresser.  None of them do justice to the color, but the peonies look great.

The dresser really is very sweet, and I got such a great deal on it that I am passing the savings on to whomever purchases it.  If interested in more details, check out my ‘available for local sale tab’!

Thank you all so much for the great response to my camera obsession post!  I’ve given people until Friday to get a comment in to be eligible for the giveaway, so I’ll be announcing the winner next Monday.

In the meantime, remember the little folding chair that I recovered a while back?

When I posted about that chair {here} I mentioned that I had two more green chairs, and  I asked for your opinion.  Vintage fabric seat, or chalkboard?  I have to admit I was a little surprised that so many who weighed in preferred the vintage fabric seat over a chalkboard.

I really thought it would go the other way.

But the people have spoken!

Let’s start with the ‘before’, just like the aqua chair only in a spring green.

I’d been watching for some sweet vintage fabric to use on these, so when I found these pillow cases at the Linden Hills garage sales for $3 per set, I snatched them up.

I thought that pair on the top would be perfect for these chairs, and I just couldn’t pass up that pair on the bottom.

I’d guess these are from the 60’s or 70’s, wouldn’t you?  I love the colors and the daisies.  I may just hang on to this pair for my own bed.

Yep, I’m gonna keep them.

Anyway, I was all set to cover the seats with that other pair, but I also had this set of ‘his & hers’ pillowcases from Linden Hills.

Since they happened to be in the same pile as the others, I couldn’t help but notice that the green of the cross stitch was very close to the green on my chairs.  But I also thought it might be silly to have ‘his & hers’ folding chairs.  Who’s going to want ‘his & hers’ chairs?

Still, I just couldn’t help folding them up and placing them on the chairs, just to see how they would look.

Well dang, they looked so cute!

But did I really want to cut up these vintage pillowcases?  Well, I didn’t love the green and white tatted edges on the pillow cases, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to cut that off.  Plus, they had a couple of stains.  Nobody wants stained pillowcases, am I right?

Then I put the originally intended pillow case on the chair, just to see how it would look.

Not bad I guess.  But definitely not as fab and the ‘his & hers’.  That clinched it.  “His & hers” was the winner.

I don’t know if anyone out there is going to want a pair of ‘his & hers’ folding chairs, but I just couldn’t help myself.  I took these to Reclaiming Beautiful, so hopefully they will find a new home.  I think they would be darling hanging on the wall on either side of the bed.  Or maybe if you are lucky enough to have ‘his & hers’ closets, you could hang one on each door.

Aren’t they sweet?

Last week I shared the Little Speckled Frog dresser, as well as the new line of nursery colors from Fusion.  I mentioned that they sent me a few jars of different colors to play around with.  One of the colors they sent is called Little Piggy.

Now don’t tell them I said this, but I have to admit that when I first saw this color I thought “hmmm … maybe this one isn’t really for me.”  But then another one of Fusion’s bloggers, Mary from Orphans with Makeup posted an absolutely gorgeous dresser painted in this color and I realized that I had it all wrong.  She had way more vision than I.  She could see that it was going to be the most lovely pale champagne pink, and she was right.

Once I’d seen the color actually on something, I knew I had to crack open that jar of paint and try it out myself.

I pulled out this little child sized chair that I purchased at the Linden Hills garage sales …

and I painted it up with two coats of Little Piggy.

To add a little pop of interest to the chair, I stenciled the seat with my french ‘sweet dreams’ stencil.

Isn’t this the most lovely subtle pink?  It’s not over-the-top bubblegum pink, or sickly sweet cotton candy pink, it’s a sophisticated pink.

I staged it at the bend in my staircase.  I get the most gorgeous light in that spot towards evening and I wanted to capture that.

And the chair fit perfectly into that corner.

It’s probably not the safest spot for little ones to sit and sip their pretend tea while reading fairy tales from Shakespeare, but it sure looks pretty for pictures.

Since I don’t have any little ones to place in precarious positions, this little piggy chair is going to market.  I’m taking this and a few other pieces to Reclaiming Beautiful tonight.

What do you think of this lovely pale pink?

Recently my friend Donna emailed me and asked if I’d like some furniture.  She had a few random small pieces that she was going to take to Goodwill unless I wanted them.  It’s always nice when people think of me!  She and her husband (a former co-worker of mine) even delivered them to me.  It doesn’t get any better than that.

Included in the mix was a pair of small tables.

They have removable glass tops, which is kind of cool (the glass top isn’t pictured on the smaller table).  Their only flaw was that they were missing the little finials that go here …

There was a little hole that they fit into, so I could have opted to just fill the hole and go without.  I thought that would look just a little off though.  So I dug through my stash and came up with two finials that were originally used to hold a dresser mirror onto its harp.  They were the perfect size.  I just had to glue them into place.

After painting the washstand that I posted yesterday, I had just enough of that custom mixed color left over to use on the smaller table.

And it got gorgeously chippy!

The chippy-ness works on this table because it is so ornate and has such a vintage feel.  You can almost believe this is an 80 year old paint job.

People often ask me if chippy milk paint will continue to chip over time.  My answer is: it depends.  If you seal it with the Tough Coat Sealer, it shouldn’t continue to chip.  But if you just use wax or hemp oil, it will.  Go check out {this post} to see an example.  But personally I am fine with continued chipping.  It just adds more personality to the piece over time.  That’s why I chose to just use wax as the top coat on this table.  I am embracing the chippy!

When Donna gave me this table she mentioned that she pictured a stencil on the top, under the glass.  She was right, it was the perfect spot for a stencil and I just happened to have a new one that was just the right size.

I staged this little table on my front porch which is finally open for the season.  I don’t know what took me so long to get out there this year!  Usually I am out there setting it up for summer in April, and here it is almost June.

I took most of my photos with the glass top removed to cut down on glare and reflections, but the beauty of the glass top is that it will protect that chippy paint job.

But obviously you could choose to use it either way.

This little table is the perfect size for between my wicker chaise lounge and my adirondak chair on the porch, but it would also work as a small coffee table.  If I didn’t already have a fab old trunk that I use in that spot I’d be tempted to keep this there.

But I’m fond of that old trunk, so I’m planning to take this one into Reclaiming Beautiful to sell, unless someone nabs it here first!

Sometimes I am merely a copy cat.  I see something that I love on pinterest, or on another blog, and I want to do that too!  I’d like to say that I put my own spin on it, and sometimes I do, but not always.  I know that some people are quite furious when people ‘steal’ their ideas, whereas others put stuff out there for precisely that reason.  They want to inspire people, plus they realize that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I fall in that latter category, and I’m pretty sure that Miss Mustard Seed does too and she won’t mind that I copied her.  At least I hope so.

You may have seen the sweet little washstand that Miss Mustard Seed painted to bring to Lucketts.  She painted it in a custom mix of her milk paint and she thoughtfully provided the recipe (that’s kinda why I’m pretty sure she won’t mind that I copied).  I loved this color instantly and I knew I wanted to try it on something.  I was thinking more about a full sized dresser, but then while garage saling in Linden Hills I found this fab washstand …

Well, duh, it was a no-brainer.  I hadn’t really intended to completely copy MMS right down to the washstand, but this just felt like it was meant to be.

So I mixed up my paint according to Marian’s recipe; equal parts Shutter Grey, Eulalie’s Sky and Layla’s Mint.  I like to let my milk paint settle a bit before I start to brush it on.  Especially when I’m mixing colors like this.  It’s sort of like making homemade salad dressing, you want to give the flavors some time to blend together.  So while I was waiting I removed the hardware and lightly sanded the washstand.  It’s difficult to see in the photo, but this washstand had been poorly ‘re-finished’ with a coat of shiny polyurethane.  I knew that the impervious poly would give me some serious chipping.  I wanted some chipping, but not serious chipping ;-), so I sanded.

That did the trick perfectly.

I love the scalloped edge on the back trim piece.  Isn’t it sweet?  Those are the last of my lilacs, by the way.

Washstands tend to be the perfect size to use as a bedside table.  Mr. Q has a washstand on his side of the bed, while I have a small table.

They are painted in the same color and are about the same height which helps unify them.

So, if you are on the hunt for a nightstand with some chippy, vintage farmhouse style this might be the one for you.

As always, check out my ‘available for local sale’ tab for details.