q is for quandie

Remember the whole ‘my computer died and I haven’t been able to retrieve my photos yet’ thing?  Yeah, well, I haven’t made that a priority.  With my sale coming up, I am mainly focusing on getting furniture done.  This is further exacerbated by the fact that fall is in the air here in Minnesota.  I know I only have another month or so before my summer workshop in the Carriage House is closed up for the winter.  I’ll have plenty of time after the snow flies to concentrate on indoor projects … like figuring out how to retrieve my photos from an external hard drive (snore.)  And cleaning.

Meanwhile though, that means I don’t have a ‘before’ picture of this project for you.  Let me try to paint a picture.  One afternoon my pal Cathy texted me and said “I have a piece of furniture for you, I’ll drop it off.”  She came by with a little washstand in her car and a tall tale about how she wrangled that thing into the back seat all by herself.  You see, she saw it at the curb with a “FREE” sign on it.  It was in a sad state of affairs.  It had the most hideous replacement hardware ever, one caster was missing, the veneer on the top drawer was totally buckled.

But, Cathy saw through all of that and she knew this little cupboard could be salvaged!  So she manhandled it into her car and brought it to me.  The furniture whisperer.

Where do I even start with this one?  First of all, the hardware that came with it went right into the trash.  This is practically unheard of for me, but seriously, this stuff was butt ugly.  Bad, bad, bad 70’s hardware.  I felt that it was my responsibility to protect humanity from ever having to lay eyes on such a hideous sight ever again.  Fortunately, I had these vintage glass pulls and knob on hand to use as replacements.  Ahhhhh, so much better.

Once the hardware was gone, I made the decision that the top drawer was beyond salvage.  Or at least not worth the trouble.  Instead, I had Ken put a shelf in that spot.  He also cut a hole at the back for electrical cords, thus making this piece functional as a TV stand.

I actually kind of loved the wood top on this one.  It was pretty beat up, and the veneer is buckling on top too.  But I kind of dig the aged, beat up look.  I had to strip the top because it had some paint drips and splats on it from it’s previous life.  Once stripped, I gave it a quick sand and a coat of dark wax.

Next came the paint.  I had picked up a quart of Annie Sloan’s Aubusson while my sister was here visiting.  I’ll be honest, when I first opened that can of paint I thought “what was I thinking?  why in the world did I buy this color?”  But I realized that I must have seen it on something in the store, and I must have loved it.  I decided to go for it.  Two coats of paint, followed by a coat of dark wax.

Sidebar.  When I say ‘dark wax’ I am referring to my own concocted mix of Johnson’s Paste Wax and Briwax in Dark Brown.  When I first purchased the Briwax, I didn’t realize how really, really dark it would be.  I toned it down by mixing it with clear paste wax.  I ended up loving this combo.  Plus it is a great way to stretch the more expensive Briwax with the really cheap Johnson’s (about $6 a can).  However, FYI, the Johnson’s is very stinky.  I never use it indoors.

Anyway, guess what?  I do love Aubusson.  It’s a nice, rich blue.

As a last final touch, I lined the bottom of the cupboard with some vintage wallpaper that matched perfectly.

 I think I will save this little cupboard for my upcoming Carriage House sale.  Hopefully someone there will want to give it a new home.

You gotta love a two for one.  In this case, two dressers, one trip.  I saw the first dresser on craigslist and when Mr. Q and I went to pick it up, the buyer just happened to say “you know, I do have another dresser that I want to get rid of.”  I love when people say that.  Usually it’s a good thing … and in this case it definitely was.

I honestly liked the 2nd dresser even better than the one I drove out for.  But I purchased both of them, naturally.

I started with dresser no. 1.  Mr. Q prepped it for me by removing the hardware, sanding it down and cleaning it.  Then I painted it with a custom mix of MMSMP 2 parts Trophy to 1 part Grain Sack.  Now, I could fib here and say I planned this color, but in reality this was the last bit of Trophy I had on hand with a little Grain Sack mixed in to make it stretch for the entire dresser.  In the end, I think it worked well for me.  The grey is gorgeous.

As I was digging through my stencils the other day, I came across this damask stencil.  I had forgotten all about it!  I just knew it would be perfect for an overall stencil on the drawer fronts of this dresser.  The pattern of the stencil almost mirrors the design on the backboard perfectly.

I used Martha Stewart craft paint in Lake Fog to do the stenciling.  It might just be my own opinion, but I think this sort of stencil looks best as an overall pattern filling in all of the space on the drawer fronts from edge to edge rather than just a centered pattern down the middle.  I feel the same way about the french poem stencil that I have.  In fact … I might just be bringing that one out of semi-retirement soon.

Once the stencil was complete and dry, I sanded everything lightly and finished with hemp oil.

I had planned to keep the original hardware, which is actually quite lovely.  But once I saw the results of the stenciling I knew that I needed some hardware that didn’t visually compete.  These clear knobs do the job perfectly.  They are nearly invisible in fact.  I’ll save the other hardware for another dresser.

 In some of these close up photos, you can see that this was another crackled milk paint finish.  I am starting think my theory about humidity might be right.  It was quite humid when I painted this one.  Have any of you had any experience with MMSMP giving you more of a crackled finish when you paint in humid conditions?

This dresser is more petite than it looks in pictures by itself.  I paired it up with my cane back chair to give you an idea of the size.

This dresser would work well next to a tall bed as an alternative to a traditional nightstand.  Or wouldn’t it be lovely in a baby’s room?  There are so many options for a versatile dresser like this one.

So how about it?  Anyone out there need a lovely little stenciled dresser?  This one is for sale, if interested email me for the particulars.

Meanwhile, stay tuned to find out what I did with dresser no. 2!

It’s official.  I’m addicted to vintage wallpaper.  There is just something about it.  The colors.  The texture.  The very vintage-ness of it.

As soon as I saw this dresser on craigslist, I knew it would be perfect for wallpapering.  I had a bit of this Lily of the Valley wallpaper left, so I painted the dresser using MMSMP in Eulalie’s Sky, which I knew would work well with the background color of the wallpaper.

This dresser has the most charming hardware.

And some fab detail on the mirror base.

I staged the dresser with a vase full of Vanilla Strawberry hydrangea, an old family wedding photo, and my fab new clock.

I don’t know who the wedding couple is in this photo, but the farmhouse behind them belonged to my great grandparents in Arlington, South Dakota.

Anyway, this lovely dresser has already gone up to the Round Barn in Andover.  Pricetag:  $298.  Stop in and see it in person, and take some time to look around at all of the other fabulous things that Lori has in her shop.  I swear, every time I go in there I find some fun little thing to bring home with me.  This time it was Maple Pumpkin Butter.  Yum!  I also stocked up on Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Trophy, Grain Sack, Apron Strings and Linen.  Stay tuned to see what I paint next!

Mr. Q picked up this fabulous little dresser just north of the Twin Cities the other day.  The gentleman that was selling it couldn’t believe he wanted to drive all the way up there for this ‘old thing’.  It was probably about a 50 minute drive.  Not that terrible.  Mr Q had to keep reassuring him that his wife likes ‘old’ things, ‘old’ is what we are looking for.

And this ‘old thing’ is gorgeous.  I loved the big fan detail on the drawer, the curlicue bits on the top drawers, and the hardware is fantastic.

When I first saw it on Craigslist, I wasn’t too sure about that mirror piece at the back.  I also thought I would paint it either yellow or aqua.  Wrong on both counts.  In person, I loved the vintage mirror at the back and I immediately knew I wanted to paint the dresser black and leave the decorative parts wood.  I had seen a similar treatment on pinterest, and I wanted to give it a try on this piece.  Plus, I had been checking out Miss Mustard Seed’s color focus pin boards on pinterest, and her Typewriter board had me sold.  If you haven’t seen these, you should check them out.

Every time I break out the MMSMP in Typewriter, I am reminded of how much I love it.  If you finish it with the hemp oil, you get the most fabulous deep, rich, black.  And it goes on so very easily.  This dresser was an absolute breeze to paint.  I did one coat on Thursday evening, and a 2nd quick coat on Friday evening.  Once dry I gave it a quick sand and finished with the hemp oil.  Easy peasy.

Well, I did do a bit of prep work first.  I filled some areas where the veneer had chipped using wood filler.  I also had to replace some drawer stops.  Little fixes that are a part of the process.  Then I thoroughly sanded and cleaned it before painting.  I did not want a lot of chipping.  As you can see, I ended up not getting any chipping.  I just got some nice distressed edges when I sanded again after painting.

As for the mirror, I had a little fun with that.  When I took it apart to paint the back I realized that some of the silvering was chipping off.  It reminded me of a fabulous mirror that I saw at the Round Barn that had a bunch of silvering missing and you could see some vintage newspaper behind those spots.  Gorgeous.  So, I decided to try to copy that look.

I used my trusty old Swedish bible and added it behind the mirror using a little spray adhesive to keep it in place.  It’s a small detail that makes all the difference on this dresser.  Adding that little touch of something unique that no one else has.

I love the idea of a pop of deep black in an otherwise mostly white room, don’t you?

I wish I could keep every dresser that I fall in love with, but that would classify me as a hoarder and we can’t have that.

So this gorgeous bit of black magic is for sale.  If you are interested in the particulars, leave me a comment and I will get back to you via email. Ooops, you missed it, this one is SOLD.

One final B & A.