q is for quandie

I purchased a fantastic french stencil a while back, and quite honestly I wasn’t paying any attention at all to what it said (not to mention that I don’t actually read  or speak any french).  I bought the stencil strictly for its looks.  Later I realized that it says “family and friends gather here”, which made me laugh since I was considering using it on a bedroom dresser.  Hmmm.  Probably not quite the right sentiment for the bedroom.

However, when it came time to paint this tiger oak buffet, I knew I needed to use this stencil!  Because family and friends do indeed tend to gather in the dining room.

Originally I had planned to paint this buffet with Miss Mustard Seed’s Kitchen Scale, like my own oak buffet (see it up there in my blog header).  But I decided I wanted a more subtle color to work with this stencil.  I would have loved to use one of Miss Mustard’s new European colors like Mora or Schloss, but I haven’t managed to get my hands on anything except the Layla’s Mint so far. So instead I mixed my own pale grey using approximately 1/3 c of Trophy and 2/3 c Ironstone.

I decided that rather than attempt to patch all of the chipped up veneer, I would just work with it and give the piece a very distressed, aged look.  After painting the first coat of my custom grey color, I found that there were also some stains on the top that were bleeding through the paint.

This gave me a great opportunity to try out Miss Mustard’s new product, the Tough Coat Sealer.  I simply brushed the sealer on over the spots that were bleeding through the paint.  I did not coat the entire top of the piece.  Once it was dry, I painted another coat of paint over the whole top.  There was definitely a great improvement, but I think a second coat of sealer would have eliminated the bleed through entirely.

But since I’m going for a rustic look, I decided to go with it at this point.  Or more accurately, I was running out of my custom color and didn’t have enough left to seal again, and the repaint the entire top, so I let it go.  Note to self:  next time try two coats of sealer before painting again.

After the second coat of paint on the entire piece, I added my stencils using Martha Stewart craft paint in Lake Fog.  I want to take a minute here to explain to you how I use just pieces of a stencil rather than the entire thing.  Here is my ‘family and friends’ stencil.

As you can see, I used just part of it on the doors of my buffet and then I used just the lower portion of the stencil on my lower drawer.

The sweet little leafy bits that are around the locks on the upper drawers came from a different stencil, this one.

It’s super simple to just mask off the portions of a stencil that you want to use with painters tape.  I do it all the time and it gives me a lot of new looks out of the same old stencil.  Since these stencils tend to be a bit pricey, it’s nice to be able to use them in different ways like this (and as a reminder to Patty, I get most of my stencils from Maison de Stencils).

To help support my distressed look for this buffet, I sanded with extra vigor around areas that would normally have some wear on an old piece such as around the key holes and on the knobs themselves.

Then I waxed the entire piece with Cece Caldwell’s clear wax.

The insides of the drawers on this piece were in rather pathetic condition as well.  Normally I don’t line my drawers, unless they are in this kind of condition and there is no better option than to just cover them up.  Luckily I had some lovely vintage wallpaper on hand that worked perfectly with the grey.

I’ve staged this piece for a wine and cheese party.

Wouldn’t it be fun the next time you have family and friends over to be able to serve them from this fab piece?!

This buffet still needs some help from my handyman Ken.  The mirrored back piece needs to be re-attached because it’s just not secure with its original screws.  I’m sure he will be able to shore it right up though.

The other day I saw an ad on craigslist for this pair of chairs (this is the seller’s picture that was with the ad).

Here is how my thought process went.  “Hey, those could be kind of fabulous!  Then again, maybe they are permanently ugly.  I know paint can do wonders, but is the shape all wrong?  And what are those weird pointy things sticking out of the back?  Will they come off?  And what is under those cushions?  Even though the upholstery is white, it still manages to be all wrong with that 80’s texture and sheen.  What will it take to re-fab these?  Should I?  or shouldn’t I?”

Then I did some research on pinterest and the closest I came to a similar chair that looked good was this chair from The Cross Decor & Design (although it appears to no longer be available).

And it’s not painted.  Mine will be painted.  But it still gave me a hint of what these chairs could look like.

After exchanging a couple of texts with the seller and finding out that yes, those back cushions are removable and there is cane beneath them, I decided to take a chance on these chairs.  Mr. Q and I drove out to pick them up on a frigid evening.  Upon seeing the chairs in person, I was still not sure about them.  They weren’t as nice as the cane back chair I painted last year that now resides in the Q Branch, but I had to remind myself that I wasn’t sure about that chair at first either.  The price was right, and I was there already, so I handed over the cash and threw them in the truck.

Here is my ‘before’ picture of one chair.

From the angle of my shot you can see that it has some pretty cabriole legs in front, and some nice curves on the arm supports that weren’t as apparent in the craigslist photo.  That back cushion is still just freaking me out though!  Not to mention the weird pointy details, which as it turns out are made of metal.

Those are definitely coming off!

Then there are the tacky arm sleeves that are velcroed in place.

Gotta go!

Here is the chair with those items removed.

Ahhhhh, getting better already.  I also found upholstered arms under those funky sleeves, and started ripping one off.  There are about a million staples holding it in place though, so that little process is going to take some patience.

I threw one of my H & M pillows on the chair just to get a feel for how it would look without back cushions.

Not bad, right?  Some paint and some new fabric on the seat cushions are going to do wonders for these chairs.

By the way, after I showed these chairs to Meggan, she sent me this.

Turns out that Joanna Gaines used them in the a recent episode of Fixer Upper, the Tire Swing House.  I hadn’t even noticed!  Well, if cane wing back chairs are good enough for Joanna, they are good enough for me!

Now I just have to decide, should I go for chippy with Miss Mustard Seed milk paint, or solid with chalk paint?

Remember the lovely tall dresser I picked up a while back and took its photo in the snow?

I pulled it out of storage for its makeover last weekend.  The shape of this dresser says ‘gentlemen’s chest’ to me.  Usually the taller dresser in a set was meant for the gent (sorry, couldn’t resist that bad rhyme).  I could easily have gone more feminine on this piece though, with those pretty curvy legs at the bottom.  But I was feeling the masculinity of this piece and went with MMS milk paint in Artissimo, which is a rich navy blue (finished with Cece Caldwell’s clear wax, which has rapidly become my favorite wax to work with).  I stripped the top and then just waxed it with the Cece Caldwell’s dark wax.

After adding a vintage suitcase and my dad’s old Tarzan books, I was getting the feeling that this dresser had a sense of adventure.

Then I added some old sheet music inside the upper drawer.

And now this dresser is ready to sail the seven seas!

How about you, are you ready for some adventure?

Linking up with:

Embracing Change

The client who purchased the gorgeous dresser that I painted in Duck Egg blue recently, also purchased the matching bed.  She’s not putting them in the same room though.  The dresser was for her own bedroom, and the bed is intended for her daughter’s bedroom and she wanted it painted white.  I am still a big fan of white painted furniture, although I don’t do as much of it as I used to.  I knew this bed would be gorgeous no matter what color it was painted though.

Am I right?

But let’s go back to the beginning of the story.  This bed had some damage on the footboard, which you can see here.

I sent it home with Ken for repairs.  He chiseled the break so that it was even, and then glued in a piece of wood to patch it.  Here is how it looked with the patch in place.

If you haven’t heard me say it before, I’ll say again, I am very lucky to have Ken for a neighbor.  He can do these sort of repairs in no time, and he does a beautiful job of it.

Here it is painted.  You can hardly even tell that there was a problem.

This foot board was really the piece that sold me on this entire bedroom set.  I have seen many beds with a foot board that curves around the bed, but I had never seen one that had side pieces quite like this.

Aren’t they just gorgeous?  The headboard on this bed is lovely too.

But the foot board is like a work of art.

I staged the bed with a stack of vintage suitcases, and you’ll recognize my faux french hat box from Monday’s post.

My client told me that her daughter loves everything french, so I couldn’t help adding a little surprise to the bed.

Do you see it?  There at the bottom?  A little Paris stencil that fit perfectly on that raised section of trim.

I think it added the perfect finishing touch to this lovely bed.

Linking up with:

French Country Cottage