q is for quandie

I spent a little time on Rachel Ashwell’s blog the other day.  She doesn’t really blog a whole lot, but every once in a while I check out what’s new.  Her latest post was about vintage furniture and here is what she had to say:

“When hunting for wooden pieces,  I am usually  looking for authentic paint in the Shabby palette (white, ivory, pale pink & blue, grey teal or bleached raw wood) or pieces that can create a rustic vintage decor and on a rare occasion I will repaint.  I get great joy when I see pieces come through our “restoration for reloving”  process.  Each piece is cleaned, shored up if wonky, drawers and shelves lined with vintage wallpaper, new glass, marble or hardware applied…and when ready we proudly tack on our branded brass plaque.”

Well, I am rarely lucky enough to find a piece that has an authentic vintage paint job in a color that I like so when I find one, much like Rachel, I like to preserve it.  Such was the case with the Nokomis dresser.

It was really pink, but not a terrible pink.  It also had some great layering under the pink.  Some blue and some cream.  I like to believe that Rachel would have snatched this one up had she come across it somewhere too.

Even though I wanted to save the original paint, I felt like I needed to tone down the pink-ness just a tad.  Adding some vintage wallpaper to the drawer fronts was just the ticket.  I chose a paper that had pink roses, but also has the blue and cream (ordered from Hannah’s Treasures via Etsy).

To me this is the quintessential farmhouse floral wallpaper.

Now, I’m going to give some details on wallpapering furniture here.  If you are never in a million years going to wallpaper anything, feel free to just skip right over this next part.

But, if you have been thinking about using vintage wallpaper on something yourself, here are a few tips.  First of all, I use Zinsser Sure Grip all purpose adhesive (I got mine at Home Depot).  I use the powder, because I can just mix up as much as I need, which isn’t much.  I usually cut my pieces just a bit bigger than they need to be.  For example, these drawer fronts were about 7.5″ high, so I cut 8.5″ strips.  I apply the adhesive to the back of the paper using an inexpensive chip brush.  Then I “book” the paper.  This is basically just gently folding half of the paper over to the other half, glued sides together.  Gently!  Don’t make a crease in the middle.  I was taught to do this back when I was wallpapering entire walls.  I don’t really know why.  Google says two things.  One, if your paper is going to stretch, this allows it to do so before you apply it.  Two, this allows the adhesive to “activate”.  I don’t know if either of these things are really true or not, I just do it anyway.  Next, since this pattern had a stripe, I tried to pick an obvious position on the paper to start at the left hand side of each drawer.  I could go into a bunch of detail here about ‘repeats’ and stuff like that, but that would really get boring.  For the most part, I didn’t pay too much attention to the repeat on this paper.  If you know what I’m talking about, go back and take a look a the pictures.  Yep, didn’t get the repeat perfectly, did I?  Did you care the first time you looked?  Probably not.  However, I did have to get the stripes lined up.  That would have been easier had I started with the bottom two drawers, and then lined up the upper right hand drawer last.  But, never let it be said I do things the easy way.  I had to rip the paper off that upper right drawer and re-do it when the stripes didn’t line up with the bottom.  I didn’t take that piece separating the upper drawers into account.  Ooops.  Luckily I had enough paper.

I actually had more than one person ask me if it was going to be difficult to trim the wallpaper around the keyhole escutcheons.  Sometimes it catches me off guard when I realize that not everyone knows how some of these things work.  Although they were fairly painted over, the escutcheons were just held in place by two small nails.  I used a razor blade to loosen the paint around them, then just carefully pried them off.  After I wallpapered the drawers, I put the escutcheons back on using the nails.  Easy peasy, no trimming around them required.

So far I have had very good luck with the Zinsser adhesive.  I find that the wallpaper goes on and stays on.  I wait 24 hours or so after applying it, and then I go back and sand the edges.  Yep, you read that right, I sand them.  It gives them a nice smooth edge, and leaves nothing loose to catch on stuff.

My little Artissimo blue chair makes a great companion to this dresser.  It cuts a little of the pink sweetness, and it brings out the blue in the wallpaper.

I like to think that Rachel would approve of this one, what do you think?

I had a conversation with some creative types the other day, and we were discussing the idea that there are really very few original ideas out there.  I am the very first to admit that none of the ideas I come up with are original.  Somewhere, whether in a magazine, on pinterest, or watching HGTV, I have seen something that planted the seed of the idea in my head.  Hopefully I add a splash of “quandification” (another word for you, Victoria!) to what I do, but I don’t claim sole ownership of any of my ideas.

That is in large part why I’m comfortable with sharing everything I do here for the world to see.  I didn’t invent any of it.  Someone else somewhere has already done it.  I try to always give credit where credit is due when I can point at something and say ‘that is what inspired me’, and such is the case with the dirty farmhouse table that I picked up the other day.  I had seen a photo of a gorgeous farmhouse table with a green base in the 2015 Best of Flea Market Style magazine.  It was just a little photo (p. 4 if you are looking for it), and I couldn’t find credits for it anywhere.  I still don’t know whose photo it is (if anyone knows, please tell me).  However, I was able to find the photo itself online, and here is it.

And here is my interpretation.

I knew I wanted milk paint for this makeover, and I knew I wanted a vibrant kelly green.  Neither of Miss Mustard’s greens were going to cut it.  So, I ordered “In a Pickle” green from Sweet Pickins online and patiently (not) waited for it to arrive.  Fortunately, it was shipped to me lickety split so I didn’t have to wait long.

This is such a rich, vibrant green.  You’ll remember that the table base was already painted a grey blue color, so spots of that color do peek through on the edges.  I think it works.  The Sweet Pickins milk paint mixed up very nicely.  You can see that I didn’t really get any chipping with it, which kind of surprised me since I was painting over existing paint.  I did sand first.  This was the second time I used the Sweet Pickins paint.  I also have used her Sweetie Jane, which is the perfect shade of aqua/blue-green.  I finished the table with Miss Mustard’s furniture wax.

Here is a reminder of where this table started out.  Remember how dreadfully stained and dirty the top was?

Gross!  After I literally hosed it down in the yard and then scrubbed it from top to bottom, Ken came over with his belt sander and we tried to knock back the worst of the stains.  I think we were pretty successful.

I added some Dark Walnut gel stain and called it good.  It’s not perfect.  I wanted it to look beat up and rustic, but in a good way.

I filled my French Market wooden tote with Annabelle hydrangeas arranged in my now clean and sparkling Ball jars.

I’ve actually got this flower arrangement on my own dining room table at the moment, but I knew it would be perfect for staging this table.

This is one of those versatile pieces that could be used in several different ways.  It would make a fantastic desk.  It’s larger than the table I’m currently using as a desk, too large for my space or I’d be tempted to keep it.  It would be a great size for crafting.

This would also be an amazing piece for a covered porch.  I can picture a candlelit dinner for two, listening to the crickets chirp, a glass of wine.

Or, another great idea, add some large casters to the legs and use this as a move-able kitchen island.

So many possibilities for this table.  What would you do with it?

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m drawn to farmhouse style.  Maybe it’s because I live in what was originally a farmhouse.  Or maybe it’s because I always enjoyed visiting the South Dakota relatives who still live on the family farm where my grandmother was born.  This photo of one of my grandmother’s sisters and her farmer husband was taken there.

Most probably, it’s just because it’s really popular right now and I tend to fall for trendy stuff.

Whatever the reason, when Mr. Q brought home this little washstand, I got a vintage farmhouse vibe from it.

This came from the same couple who sold me the primitive cupboards.  When Mr. Q went back to pick up the 2nd cupboard, he was offered this piece plus a galvanized metal pie safe.  He figured it was a safe bet that I would want both of them, so he brought them home.  And he was right!

After stripping the top, I originally put two coats of Miss Mustard Seed’s milk paint in Mora on the rest of the cupboard.  If you’ve used the Mora, you know that although it is a very pale grey, it has an almost minty green undertone.  That green tone just wasn’t working with the dark wood top.  If a color isn’t working for me, I’ll cut my losses and start over rather than try to be happy with results I don’t like.  So, out came the Marzipan.  Turned out that the warm almond color was perfect on this piece.  By the way, the finish on this was so dry that I didn’t get any chipping at all with the milk paint.

You may also have noticed that I changed out the hardware.  I was not a fan of the drawer pulls that came with this.  I filled in the extra holes on the drawer and used some distressed glass knobs instead.

I left the rustic inside alone, and as you can see I staged it with just some of my many, no longer dirty, vintage blue Ball jars.

This little cupboard was missing its original casters when I got it, but I could see that it must have had some at one time.  Luckily I have a stash of old casters so I was able to replace them.  I like how they lift the piece up off the floor (or in this case, the ground) a little.

The top of this piece was in slightly poor condition.  One section had split off from the rest.  I asked Ken to repair it for structural integrity, but leave it kind of rough looking.  I also stripped the remaining finish, but I didn’t try to sand out all of the imperfections.  I liked the rustic nature of it.  Once it was stripped, I added a new stencil that I just got from Maison de Stencils.  I used black acrylic craft paint.  Once it was dry, I sanded over it to give it an aged appearance.  Then I just waxed the top with Cece Caldwell’s Aging Cream.

This little cupboard sold very quickly at Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater, so clearly I am not the only fan of farmhouse style out there!

Yep, I’ve got the blues.  The vintage blues!

I have become a big fan of rich, saturated blue hues like Miss Mustard Seed’s Artissimo, Flow Blue and French Enamel.  And I used all three of them on this dresser!

But let’s start at the beginning.  A couple of weeks ago on a beautiful summer evening, Mr. Q, my sister and I hopped into the truck and took a little road trip to Somerset, Wisconsin to pick up this dresser.

It was about dusk as we headed back home and we were dodging deer right and left on the road.  Luckily though, no deer were injured in the making of this blog post.

We got the dresser safely home and once I got a good look at it in the daylight, I realized it was really orange.  Gack!  It was definitely time for a change.

I stripped the top, sanded it down, added some Varathane Dark Walnut gel stain, and then waxed it with Cece Caldwell’s Aging Cream.  This is rapidly becoming my “go-to” process for tops.  I love the color of the Dark Walnut and the finish I get with wax.  I’ve tried the Wipe On Poly, but I’m still a wax girl at heart.  There is something very organic about the look of wax that I prefer over a harder finish.

Once that was taken care of, I painted the body of the dresser in MMS Artissimo, a very dark blue.  I then used Vaseline to help make sure this undercoat showed through in some strategic spots.  Next I mixed Flow Blue and French Enamel together, about 2 to 1, and painted one coat of that over the Artissimo.

These photos are looking very bright on my computer.  This dresser is a rich shade of blue, but not super bright.

The hardware on this dresser was a bear.  If you refer back to the ‘before’ photo, you can see that it came with mismatched wood knobs (the bottom two were painted pale pink!).  Boring.  I originally planned to replace them with glass knobs, but I was in a hurry and couldn’t find the right size for this piece.  I purchased 3 different sets of potential knobs for this dresser and disliked all of them once I got them on.  At one point, I thought these funky white key hole knobs from Hobby Lobby would work, but I only had two of them.  When I went back to get two more, I bought the wrong kind.  Plus, the white really stood out too much next to the blue anyway.

In the end, nnK convinced me to pull out my stash of vintage hardware to find something that worked with the cute bird knobs that I used on the top drawers.  I had four matching drawer pulls that were perfect.

Now what am I going to do with the 26 knobs I purchased that I didn’t use?  Oh, I’m sure they’ll find a home eventually.

Before we go any further, have you noticed anything in my photos so far?  Like my amazing vintage blue and white toy truck?

I picked it up at my favorite occasional sale, which happens to be my own sale.  Ha!  No really, that’s only because I get first dibs on everything that my sale co-host brings to the sale, and that included this super darling toy truck this year.  I snatched that up before it was half way out of the box.

Mr. Q brought this dresser, along with a few other pieces up to Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater where it is for sale.  If you are local, be sure to stop up there if you’re interested in purchasing it!  They are open all weekend!

Remember the little chairs I picked up while garage saling last week?

Well, as it turned out, they are the perfect solution for using up some left over milk paint.  As most of you know, milk paint comes as a powder and you mix it up as you need it.  Once mixed, it only has a shelf life of about a week.  Although I’m pretty good at judging how much paint to make, there are usually a few tablespoons left over.

So after a recent dresser make-over (soon to be revealed), I pulled out one of these chairs to use up the extra paint.

I simply sanded down the existing blue paint, then painted a couple coats of MMS’ Artissimo on the chair.

The Artissimo worked perfectly with the lighter original blue color of the chair peeking through.

Once painted, I sanded the chair again and then added Miss Mustard Seed furniture wax.

I staged it with some fabulous vintage blue books and a Cornishware pitcher.

 Did you notice how perfect these little chairs are for hanging on the wall and using as a shelf?

In the end that might be the fate of all three.  I’m still working on that idea a bit.  Stay tuned.

Yikes!  We’ve got a bleeder!  Hand over the sealer, stat!

I have to say, I have had my fair share of bleeders.  What I’m talking about, for those of you who don’t do furniture, is when the stain on a piece of furniture bleeds through the paint giving it a pink or orange tint.  It doesn’t matter how many coats of paint you put over it, it will continue to just bleed through.  When you have a bleeder, there are a couple of solutions.  One is to just use a really dark color of paint.  I have successfully painted bleeders with black and dark navy blue without sealing them.  Another solution is to go with spray paint.  I know, spray painted furniture is tacky, but spray paint will generally ‘seal’ a bleeder.  But if you are determined to go light, you have to seal the piece first somehow.

Usually I can pick out a bleeder from a mile away, and I tend to avoid them.  I just don’t want to mess with it.  But this one totally snuck up on me.  Seriously, does it look like it’s gonna be a bleeder to you?

OK, in hindsight, maybe it was a bit orange.  But I really just saw “blonde” when I looked at it.

The plan for this dresser was to go black and white.  I wanted a geometric, bold, black and white look.  I painted the black sections first.  No problem.

Then I painted the white.  I totally did not see this coming.

What started out as just a few little spots that were slightly peach turned into large areas of rusty orange overnight.  The next day I pulled out the MMS Tough Coat Sealer.  Miss Mustard has used it to seal such pieces successfully, so I thought I’d give it a try.  I went with two coats and 24 hours of drying in between each one just to be on the safe side.

Then I added back my white paint.  I tiptoed around the situation with more care than usual.  I let the first new coat of white dry a full 24 hours before adding another.  Just to be sure.

Ahhhhh, so much better.  It worked so well that I don’t think I’ll worry as much about avoiding bleeders in the future.

And here you have the finished piece.

I painted this one in chalk paint.  I happened to have an almost full can of CeCe Caldwell’s Beckley Coal and some Vintage White already on hand.  Plus, I knew I didn’t want the chippy-ness of milk paint on this piece.  So chalk paint it was.  Before I painted, I stripped off the very bottom middle piece of veneer that was chipped up (you can see the chunk missing in my ‘before’ photo).  I then sanded the entire piece lightly.  The black went on super easy in two coats, and you’ve already read what happened with the white!

The handles got touched up with some gold rub n’ buff.  They were in fairly gnarly condition.  The rub n’ buff worked really well to just perk them up.  I wiped it on with my finger, then let them dry/cure for about 4 days (while I dealt with the bleeder situation).  Then I just buffed them with a shop towel.

And yes, I kept them!  That seemed to be the general consensus among those who weighed in.

Good call people!

I have to say, I am really loving the black and the gold.  Egads!  I can hardly even believe I’m saying that!  I’m finding it so appealing that I’m thinking about ordering these light fixtures from Schoolhouse Electric for an upcoming master bedroom makeover.

What is happening to me?  In January 2014 I posted about the trend towards gold and how I really didn’t much care for it.  Now I want some in my own house!  Fickle, thy name is Quandie!

I staged the dresser with my new petite black vintage suitcase, some clock faces and a brass desk lamp.

Initially I was going to use strictly black and white pieces for staging, but as I played around with various props, I realized that the warmth of the suitcase handle, the brass and even the aged book page on the wall really played well with the gold handles.

I don’t know about you, but I definitely do not see the world in black and white, however, I think I can see putting a little black and white into my world.  Especially when it’s paired with some gold.  How about you?