q is for quandie

I am often victim to something I like to call the ‘domino effect.’  It’s that thing that happens when you decide to change just one thing in a room and somehow it leads to a complete makeover of the entire room, and often the neighboring rooms as well.  Do you know what I’m talking about?

In this case, it all started with painting the oak buffet.  You know, this one…

I totally love the new color on the buffet, and it sort of works with my olive green striped walls … but gosh, wouldn’t it be so much better if the walls were white and pale grey?

I did the stripes in my living area several years ago.  Here is a picture from when they were brand new.

I love them.  Even though my husband initially said he felt like he was living in a prison cell, he came around when the rooms were finished.  I’m planning to do another horizontal stripe in here, but something just a tad more subtle.

Obviously, if I change the wall color to white and pale grey, the window treatments are going to have to go.  That’s OK, they aren’t really me anymore at all.  The sofa and ottomans are relics from the time before I realized that buying matched sets of furniture shows a distinct lack of imagination.  Unfortunately, I can’t afford to replace the sofa right now, but maybe I can disguise it with a cover of some kind.  And surely I can come up with an alternative coffee table to replace the ottomans.

You see what I mean?  The domino effect.  Stay tuned to see where it takes me.  I’ll keep you posted.

I have collected vintage glass ornaments for many years now.  I find them at garage sales and antique shops.  At first I kept any that I found.  Any color, solid or with a painted design.  But, as my collection grew, I knew I needed to cut down and only keep the ones I really love.

Now I stick with mostly pink and aqua, but I love a little pale green thrown in too.

And recently I culled out most of the solid round ones too.  I love the ones with pretty hand painted designs, or those with a unique shape.

I display my ornaments on a small silver tree.  This is my only tree.  A larger tree would overwhelm my house.  I don’t use any lights or anything else on this tree, it doesn’t need any extras.  It is sparkly and gorgeous as is.  It looks perfect next to my newly painted buffet.

One thing you should know about me, I have a day job.  As an accountant.  For the government.  There.  I said it.  All this means to you is that I have to let my creativity out in other arenas.

Every once in a while, I get a break from the day job in the form of a long holiday weekend.  Four whole days in a row for Thanksgiving!  I give thanks for them.

I gave myself a challenging to-do list for this long weekend.  Here it is:  put up Christmas decorations, paint hutch to be sold at Round Barn, start a blog and paint the oak buffet.  Here is it Sunday morning, and is it all done?  Almost.  I may not quite get the hutch finished, but it’s nearly there.  Everything else is checked off the list.

More on the other items soon, but let’s start with the oak buffet.  My aunt gave me this piece many years ago along with a Swedish spoon carved cupboard and a firm “DON’T paint them!”  So, for quite some time I didn’t.  Then one day I realized that I was living with pieces in my house that weren’t ‘me’ just because someone else didn’t think ‘real’ furniture should be painted.  How long is the statute of limitations on such things anyway?  I had even relegated the poor spoon carved cupboard to storage because it just wasn’t right for my house.  I was considering selling the oak buffet and replacing it with some other painted piece, when I realized how silly that was.  Whoever bought it from me could just as easily turn around and paint it!  Isn’t it better to paint it myself and keep it as a reminder of my aunt?  I say YES!

Thanks to the wonders of Miss Mustard Seed’s milk paint, I was able to finish this project in a day.  With milk paint there is little prep required.  I removed the knobs and gave just a light sanding to all of the flat surfaces (because I didn’t want excessive chipping there).  I mixed up some Kitchen Scale, and slapped it on.  It dries so quickly that I could put a second coat on within an hour or so.  Once it was dry, I lightly sanded the whole thing.  It chipped in all the right places (mostly where I didn’t pre-sand) all by itself.  I finished by applying a coat of hemp oil (while watching Hitchcock’s The Birds in the background.)

Et voila.  The oak buffet is transformed!  And I love it.

P.S.  The fab ink and watercolor drawings hanging on the wall above the buffet were done by my grandfather on the same side of the family.  Consider this area an homage to my paternal side.