q is for quandie

Every winter a magical thing seems to happen.  Just when it gets too cold to be taking photos either outside or in the photo cottage, the leaves all fall off the trees and suddenly I have this fantastic light in my piano room.  This also happens to be the only room in my house with a wall that works as a suitable back drop for furniture photos.  It’s like kismet.

I was never really happy with the outdoor photos I took of this petite dresser that I painted in MMSMP in Kitchen Scale.  The fall leaves are gorgeous, but I didn’t like the way the color looked on the dresser.

So, once all of those yellow leaves fell, I decided to stage a ‘do-over’ inside the house.

I think this gives you a better idea of the true color.  As we all know, Kitchen Scale is my fave, so I want to do it justice.

Maybe it’s my imagination, and it doesn’t really look all that different.  Maybe I just prefer the color when paired with white and grey rather than yellow.

Either way, I’m glad I allowed myself a do-over for this one.

I had planned to add these photos to my craigslist ad for this piece, but there was no need because it sold without them!  I had a lot of interest in this one, so I am on the lookout for similar pieces to make over.  It seems that lots of people out there would love to have a Kitchen Scale nightstand/dresser!

A while back my friend Cathy offered me a vanity bench.  I initially thought it would work with my stenciled vanity/dressing table.  However, when I put them together, they just didn’t suit each other.  The bench is too wide for the vanity.  Nonetheless, it is a fabulous little bench, and I’m sure it will find a good home with another vanity, or maybe just on its own at the foot of a bed.

I painted it with Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Trophy, and then reupholstered it in a simple linen with a stencil added.

This is so simple to do, and the linen stencils beautifully.  Here are my tools.

A stencil, some craft paint, a stencil brush, paper plate, paper towel, some new batting and some plain inexpensive linen (not pictured).

The original seat to the bench is underneath my supplies.  As you can see, all that was left was a remnant of the original fabric.  I ripped that off, and then cut my linen about 2″ bigger than the seat all the way around.

Now, this next tip is important, so I hope you are paying attention.  You should stencil the fabric on a hard flat surface before you upholster the bench.  You won’t get crisp lines on your stencil if you try to stencil over the batting.  I’ve learned this the hard way.

I just laid my linen flat on a table.  I squirted some paint onto the paper plate, swirled my brush in it, and then blotted it on the paper towel.  You don’t want your paint to go on thick and goopy or runny.  You could tape the stencil in place, but I like to live dangerously, so I just hold it in place.  Then, just stipple the paint on.

The Martha Stewart paint I used dries pretty quickly.  I probably only waited about 10 minutes before continuing on to staple the fabric over a couple layers of new batting onto the seat.

The trickiest part of this process was being sure the design was straight before I stapled the fabric in place.

I just came to the realization that I did a pathetic job staging this one.  I meant to go back and add in some accessories, but I got distracted by laundry and then some gardening.  With the end of daylight savings time, it was getting dark out before I remembered and then it was just too late.

Let’s just imagine there is a lovely rug under this bench instead of my dirty photo cottage floor.  Or maybe a cute pair of shoes stashed under there.

Try to focus on the pretty upholstery and paint job, OK?

Sometimes I wonder if I make it all look too easy.  I want to be sure to share the disasters with you too.  And today I have a good one.

Recently I sent Mr. Q off to pick up an Eastlake dresser.  I love painting these.  I know there are probably some ‘antique’ people out there that cringe when I say that, but I only paint the ones that are in questionable shape.  So this one seemed right up my alley.  Note:  the photo below is not the actual dresser, I borrowed this photo online, but this is the basic style of the dresser and in similar condition.

It was a little rickety, but Mr. Q had Ken over to consult, and he thought we could re-glue some key joints and it would be good as new.  So, we threw it up on some horses and started gluing and clamping.

We left everything to cure properly, and Ken said he would check on it the next day while I was at work.

That day, my phone rang at the office and it was Ken.  He was laughing so hard, he could barely get the story out.  Apparently he was going to move some clamps and add some more glue when he bumped the dresser.  He said he watched it, as if in slow motion, fall to the ground where it came apart into a million pieces.  There was nothing to do but laugh.  And laugh.  And then call me and laugh some more.  Note:  the photo below IS the actual dresser!

Yep.  We’re going to call this one Humpty Dumpty from now on.

I don’t have all of the king’s horses and all of the king’s men, but fortunately I do have Ken.  And he likes puzzles.

He is actually looking forward to the process of putting it all back together again!  He likes a challenge.  It will make a great winter project for him.  So, it may be a while before you see this one again.  And there is always the possibility that instead of a sturdy dresser, we will just end up with some very expensive fire wood.  I’ll keep you posted!

When hinges creak in doorless chambers, and strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls; Whenever candlelights flicker where the air is deathly still – that is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror with ghoulish delight!

Happy Halloween!  I thought this would be the perfect day to share my latest creation with all of you because it’s perfectly bewitching!

Are you scared yet?

Mr. Q and I picked up this waterfall dresser in the dark of night a couple of weekends ago.  The ‘before’ picture is deceptive.  All looks well on the outside, but dig a little deeper and beware of creepy crawly things on the inside.

Seriously, all Halloween references aside, this dresser looked gorgeous in the light from the headlights on our truck, which was all we had to go by.  Even if we’d had more light, I still don’t think we would have looked past what appeared to be a dresser in pristine condition.  Once we got it home and really started to dig in, I realized that this one needed more work than I thought.  The top drawer was very hard to open and close, and there was some veneer damage along the bottom of the sides.  But it was nothing that I couldn’t deal with.

However, the biggest problem was that the seller must have coated this dresser with something to make it look this pretty.  I could feel an oily residue on it.  I suspected that this would be a problem when using milk paint.  So, I sanded it thoroughly, and then just to be double safe, I washed it with a TSP substitute.  Then I totally ignored the little voice in my head that said “maybe you should switch to chalk paint!”, and I painted it with MMS milk paint in Typewriter.

And as the paint dried, that was when I started to get scared.  It was chipping.  A lot.

I wasn’t planning on super chippy, but super chippy is what I got.  Once I got over the intial ‘oh crap, what have I done’ moment, I realized that it actually looked pretty fab.  If you are an afficinado of the chippy look (and I am), this is really a cool dresser.

Let’s just discuss a couple of details before I unveil the dresser in all of its glory.  You may have noticed the little strips of inlaid veneer on the top and bottom drawers.  I thought they were pretty, so I masked them with tape while I painted.  I love how that worked out.

You can also see that I kept the original hardware.  It was just perfect for the dresser.

I also painted the interior behind the top doors black.

That interior space could be a nice way to hide a small TV in the bedroom, if one was so inclined.  It would have to be a small one though.  Aside from a TV, it makes a great space for spare folded blankets, or all of your sweaters.  This would be fun piece for a kitchen though too.  Plenty of storage with a more unique look than cupboards.

As usual, I really struggled with getting any sort of pictures that do justice to this dresser.  It’s just so hard to get good photos of black pieces.  And the contrast between the chippy areas and black paint is much more pronounced in photos than it is in person.  I spent the better part of an afternoon trying to improve my results.  I used a tripod.  I changed my aperture, I played around with my shutter speed.  In the end, this is as good as it got.

So, what do you think of my perfectly spooky make-over?  Who needs a bewitching black dresser?  Anyone?  Sorry, this one is sold.

I sent Mr. Q out to rural Wisconsin to pick up this dressing table a few weeks ago.  There was some confusion about the location and he ended up at an abandoned farm.  He said there were overgrown weeds and rusted out farm equipment everywhere, and since we’ve been watching a lot of Criminal Minds lately, he was kind of creeped out.  It looked like prime serial killer territory.  Fortunately, he figured out he was at the wrong end of the road and was able to find the right house and no harm came to him.

And then he came home with this.

This piece seems older than the hills.  I decided to go with it and try to add even more age to it.  I painted it in MMS milk paint in Trophy.  Then, I added a stenciled pattern to the drawer fronts.  The gorgeous silver drawer pulls that came with the vanity worked perfectly with the grey of the Trophy.

I added another stencil under the mirror, distressed heavily and finished with a coat of hemp oil.

And this would be about the moment where I realized that even though you can’t see that board at the back under the mirror while standing in front of this vanity, or while sitting in a chair in front of it … once you sit on the floor and start taking pictures shooting up it seems like a glaring omission!

So I went back and painted it, and then took some more pictures.  And voila!

A sweet little dressing table.  Or vanity.  What do you call them?  I must tell you, while surfing craigslist today I found one person calling theirs a ‘powdering desk’ and another called it a ‘sitting dresser’.  I generally call these vanities, but if you search ‘vanity’ on pinterest you’ll also get a bunch of bathroom vanities.  So, perhaps vanity, thy name is ‘dressing table’!  I don’t think I’ll go with ‘powdering desk’, although I do find it kind of quaint.

I staged the dressing table with a few of my favorites things.  Some vintage jewelry and buttons, and some crackly ironstone.

Some old family photos.

And of course, Lula, my dress form.  You can read all about Lula here.

I got some great reflections of the photo cottage in some of my shots.

So, how about you?  Could you use a powdering desk of your own?

This one is available, leave me a comment if you are interested.  Sorry, this one is sold.

I had several small farmhouse style tables for sale at my fall Carriage House sale, and none of them sold!  So sad.  I was whining to my friend Sue about this, and she suggested I stage photos of them in all of their potential incarnations and then put them on craigslist.  After all, sometimes people just need a visual.

So, when last Sunday dawned semi-bright and sunny, I decided to put Sue’s idea into action.

I started with the Boxwood table being used as a desk.  You can imagine that vintage typewriter switched out for a lap top, can’t you?

But hey, how fab would it be as a potting bench as my reader Victoria suggested?

Another great use for a table this size?  Use it to add much needed additional counter space as a kitchen island.

Hey, we’re not done yet.  This table would also make a great bedside table.  If you have the space beside your bed, this is a great alternative to a traditional night stand.

And then of course, there is always the obvious use … as a dining table that is just the right size for two.

Once I had all of this done with my Boxwood table, I turned around and did it all over again with the white one.

And then, I took a nap.

Not really.  So … how about you?  Can you think of any possibilities I missed?  What would you do with one of these tables?