q is for quandie

If you’ve followed me for long, you know that I love working on washstands.

These pieces make perfect bedside tables.  And really, they are very versatile.  You can also use them in a foyer, next to the sofa, between two chairs, in the kitchen, add a vessel sink and use it in the bathroom, and on and on.

So when I saw this washstand on Facebook Marketplace I jumped at it.

I think the ad had been up for 27 minutes when I responded.  Lately it seems like I have to be quick to be the first in line.  I inquired on five pieces last week, and I was only able to purchase two of them (you’ll see the other one down the road a bit).  There are plenty of these out there that aren’t selling quickly, but they are the ones priced at over $100, even as high as $200 or $250.  When pieces are in my price range (as this one was), they go fast.

Anyway, the person selling this was not terribly knowledgeable about furniture.  It was listed as “table, with drawers, likely 70’s built”.  Hmmmm.  Not exactly.

I remember the 70’s, and this is not what they looked like.

I wouldn’t exactly call it a table either.  However, it does have drawers.  I feel fairly sure he was looking at those drawer pulls when he decided this was from the 70’s.  In fact, I am betting that the previous owners refinished this piece in the 70’s and added those pulls at that time.  As I cleaned it, I found telltale traces of paint.  So I know that at some point this piece had been painted, and then stripped and refinished.  Don’t you love it when these things go full circle?  Possibly multiple times.  Perhaps 50 years from now someone will strip my paint back off again.

I also love it when these pieces have their original labels on the back.

I like to do a little google research when I have this sort of info, and I discovered that Crescent Furniture Co from Evansville, Indiana went out of business in 1939.  So that reinforces my opinion that this piece was not built in the 70’s.

My first task was to figure out what to do about hardware.  I knew those 70’s colonial style pulls had to go.  So I dug through my stash and came up with a pair of pulls with the right look for this piece.  I wish I had four of them, but I only had three.  So I put two of them on the top drawer and then filled the holes on the other two drawers.

I found three wood knobs in my stash for those two drawers and the door.

After coming up with the hardware, I decided to sand down the top to see if I could go with a lime waxed top.  This was made possibly by my acquisition of a FlexiPort Power Tool Hose Kit from Dust Right (I purchased mine at Rockler Woodworking and Hardware).  One of my favorite customers had told me about this kit (thanks again Susan!) which basically allows you to attach a hose between your hand held electric sander and your shop vac.  You run the vacuum while you use the sander and it sucks up all (well, most) of the dust.  I have to say, it works pretty slick and was only an investment of $34.99.  Now I can sand indoors in the winter, eureka!

I sanded off the original finish, and decided that this was the perfect candidate for a simple waxed finish.  Now, when I say ‘perfect’,  I don’t mean to imply that this wood top is now in perfect condition because it isn’t.

The person who refinished this in the 70’s left some pretty deep orbital sander marks in the top, and there were also some deep scratches.  But I’m OK with leaving those marks alone on a waxed solid wood top like this one.  I think they add character and age.  All I did for this top was sand off the old finish using 80 grit sandpaper, follow that up with some 220 grit paper, vacuum and wipe away any dust, and then rub in two coats of Fusion’s Lime Wax.

Today’s q tip:  when lime waxing (or white waxing), apply your wax by rubbing it on against the grain of the wood.  The wax will get worked into the grain giving you a lighter look.

By the way, sometimes I kind of cheat a little bit when I’m doing a stripped wood top like this with a painted base.  Rather than trying to strip the finish off the curved edge, I just paint right up to the flat top.

It can be a real pain to get the finish out of those crevices.  It’s so much easier to just paint that part, and I think it looks perfectly fine on the finished piece.

OK, so now that I had my hardware figured out, and my top situated, I was left with the decision of what color to paint the base.  I debated a lot of options.  Black?  Putty?  The night before I started painting, I went to bed having decided to paint it green.

But then in the clear light of morning I second guessed that decision.  Why?  Because I wasn’t sure green would sell well.  I wish I could say that marketability was never a consideration for me, and I always just go with my artistic vision, but that would be a lie.  I don’t have a lot of storage space for finished pieces, so I can’t have them sticking around for months on end.

So, I painted it in my go-to warm white, Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  I did go out on a little bit of a limb on the inside though.  In a nod to the actual 70’s, I painted the interior of this washstand in a color from Dixie Belle’s new Silk Paint Desert Collection called Mojave (FYI – these colors are not available on the Dixie Belle website until February 9).

I have to admit, I never would have thought that I would paint something in this sort of goldenrod/dark mustard color.  Who else remembers the iconic Harvest Gold?  That screams 70’s to me.

But everything comes full circle eventually, including Harvest Gold.  Dixie Belle sent this color to me along with a few of the other new colors so I thought I’d give it a try.

And you know what?  I love it paired with the Drop Cloth.

The drawer bottoms of this piece had their share of unsightly stains, so I just went ahead and painted them all.

I really think this color is perfect for the interior of this washstand.

The beauty of the Silk paint line from Dixie Belle is that this paint has a built in primer and topcoat, so it’s perfect for interiors like this.  Two coats and you’re done.

You’ve probably already noticed that I added a transfer to the door on this piece.

This is from the IOD Label Ephemera transfer.

One last detail to note, I added vintage casters to this piece.

This washstand had clearly had casters at some time.  The caster sockets were still in place.  Luckily I had four matching wooden casters in my stash that fit perfectly.

Some pieces just look like they were meant to sit up on casters, while others clearly do not.  Who else remembers this dresser?

That one was definitely not meant to have casters, although it came with four of them.

But I think this piece was meant to have them.  The legs felt a wee bit squatty to me without them.

So what do you think?  I gave this one a little bit of the 70’s on the inside, but the outside remains neutral and firmly ensconced in the earlier part of the 20th century.

This washstand is for sale locally, so be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details if interested.

P.S.  Speaking of the Mojave, I realized recently that being retired means that I can travel whenever I want to.  My mom pointed out that it’s much warmer where she lives, and I was able to get an airline ticket using my frequent flyer miles and paying only the $12 tax.  So for less than what it would cost for dinner out, I’m going to visit my mom next week (she’s in Las Vegas, which is in the Mojave Desert, get it?).  So if any of you locals are interested in this one, be sure to reach out to me by Friday!

Thanks to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint used in this makeover.

Everybody’s doing it.

It was only a matter of time before I jumped on the bandwagon.

I’m talking about taking a vanity/dressing table like this one and splitting it up into a pair of nightstands.

I don’t think there would be much of a market for this piece as is.  It didn’t even have a mirror with it (and I imagine it must have had one originally, right?).  With that step down in the middle, it really couldn’t have functioned as a writing desk.

I called Ken over to help me with the actual splitting.  That center section was held in place with pegs and glue (not screws), so he took a pragmatic approach and sawed right down the middle of that piece first using a reciprocating saw.  Then he was able to use a chisel and a hammer to break pieces free from their glue and pull them out of their pegs.  Then Mr. Q used our Porter Cable Oscillating Tool to cut the pegs off fairly level with the surface.  This process did a fair amount of damage to the veneered surface, but after some gluing, filling, and sanding I think those sides look pretty good after being painted.

I have to mention though, after completing my photo shoot, dismantling the whole set up and moving the nightstands into another area I realized that I photographed the better one.  The patched side of the other nightstand is not quite as smooth.

But how about that color?

That is Dixie Belle’s Burlap.  I recently decided that I should branch out and try some new neutral shades.  So I ordered this one, and also their Spanish Moss and Dried Sage.  I’m looking forward to testing out both of those colors too.  But in the meantime, boy is that Burlap pretty.

My original plan was to use some transfers on the fronts.  However, after going through all of my transfers, and studying the drawer pulls and how they were situated, I decided to rethink that plan.  So next I went through all of my stencils and discovered that this stencil from Jami Ray Vintage actually fit fairly perfectly around those pulls …

And part of another stencil from that set was perfect for the drawer.

Both of these are from their Crock Minis stencils.

They are super subtle, I know, but I think that’s part of their charm.

Speaking of the drawers, they didn’t really need to be lined but I had the perfect paper for them so I went ahead and did it anyway.

The bottom section of each side has a little shelf inside.  I just cleaned that interior up with some of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta in Suzanne’s Garden (a floral, rather rose heavy, scent).

The feet on these pieces are pretty charming.

They were in pretty rough shape though.  Several of them have some chunks missing, a couple of them had split at some point and someone gave them a very sloppy repair job, and a couple still needed to be reglued.  I did what I could with them, and luckily paint hides a multitude of flaws.

I finished these pieces off with some clear wax on the sides and three coats of Dixie Belle clear coat in flat on the top.  Are  you curious why I chose to use different top coats?  Well, the clear coat is more durable than wax and since people tend to put water glasses on their nightstands (or coffee, if you like to read in bed with your first cup of coffee in the morning, oh, the simple pleasures of being retired!) I thought some durability was in order.  But I tend to struggle with drips when using clear coat on a vertical surface like the sides, so I went with wax there instead since the sides don’t need quite as much protection.  The combination of topcoats worked out quite well I think.

So after a bit of teamwork and some elbow grease, this vanity is now splitsville.

Actually, this isn’t the first time I’ve split up a vanity.  I did that once before back in 2017 and I learned a lot about using stamps over paint that time around.

You can revisit that post here.

Splitting this one was a definite improvement I think.

What do you think?

This pair of nightstands is for sale, so be sure to visit my ‘available for local sale‘ page if you’re interested in more details.

Thanks to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the products used for this project.

I was surfing Facebook Marketplace lately and came across this lovely armoire.

Coincidentally, it was being sold by someone I know (in fact, I shared a tour of her lovely home over on the Reclaiming Beautiful blog a few years back).  So I reached out and set up a time to take a look.

I have to confess up front, this piece has some very pretty veneer.  I know there will be those out there who are appalled that I painted it.  So I’ll say two things about that before I move on.  First up, the finish was very dry and even completely worn off on the legs.  It needed to be refinished at a minimum.  Second, it’s only paint.  Down the road it could always be stripped off again when this style of veneer is back in fashion.  And it would be a fairly simple strip job.

In the meantime, I painted it.  Or some of it anyway.  The top was in good condition as is, and it had a lovely warm patina to it.

  So I decided to leave it alone, get the paint on the rest and see if I liked it that way.  Or perhaps more importantly, see if it sells that way.

I can always paint it later if it doesn’t sell like this.

So, I did my usual prep on the areas I planned to paint and then painted them in Dixie Belle’s Caviar.

Once I had the paint on, I really felt like it needed just a little bit more to make it stand out in a crowd so I added a stencil to each door using Dixie Belle’s Putty.

I’m often asked if I know what these foreign language stencils say, and while I don’t speak German, I’m fairly sure those are just names on this one.  The name of a person, Fritz Kohnen, and the name of a place, Roßhaupten, which is a municipality in Bavaria.  This stencil is from Maison de Stencils, and I really love it.  I’ve gotten tons of use out of it.  I may even have to buy another one because I’ve let the paint get really gunked up on this one and am starting to have trouble getting crisp lines.

Here’s my q tip for today; do as I say and not as I do and clean the paint off your stencils.  Especially if they have fine lines and you want to be able to reuse them over and over again.  Although that being said, I’ve definitely gotten my money’s worth out of this one and it would be well worth the price to simply purchase another fresh one at this point.

Next up I used the ‘wet distressing’ method to distress this one.

Wet distressing works really well with the Dixie Belle Chalk Mineral paint.  If you’re unfamiliar with this technique, it’s basically using a wet cloth to rub away paint from the areas you want to distress rather than using sandpaper.

I like to use this method when I just want to carefully remove the layer of paint without removing any of the finish beneath it.  With sandpaper you will often go right down to the bare wood.  It has the added bonus of not creating any dust, which is great when you work in your piano room during the winter.

Just in case you’re curious to know whether I have a fabulous painting studio or not, no, I do not.  Here is where I paint in the winter …

I move that chair out of the way, which creates enough open floor space for most pieces of furniture (although painting a dining room table would probably be out of the question for me in winter).  Then I throw a drop cloth over the piano so that I can use it as a work bench.  On the plus side, this room is really pleasant to work in.  It’s flooded with light in the winter, which is nice.  But it is smack in the middle of my house, so it tends to look fairly messy most of the time.

Anyway, back to the armoire.

After two coats of Caviar, adding the stencil, wet distressing, and a light sanding all over with 220 grit paper, I added two coats of Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat.  To avoid the topcoat looking streaky over black, I added about a teaspoon of the Caviar paint to the clear coat before applying it.

I decided not to paint the inside of the armoire.  Instead I gave it a good clean, followed by a light scuff sanding and then I buffed it up with some of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta in the Orange Grove scent.

Now the wood looks gorgeous, and it smells good too.

There is a bar inside for hanging clothes.  I debated having Ken add shelves, but ultimately decided to just leave this as an armoire for hanging items.  Hopefully there is a buyer out there who needs more space to hang things.  One could use it in the foyer for extra coats and jackets.  Trust me, here in Minnesota we need an entire wardrobe of various jackets.  The spring warm raincoat, the summer lightweight raincoat, the early fall lightweight jacket, the late fall medium weight jacket, the ‘January thaw’ winter jacket, and the ‘omg, it’s 20 below zero out there’ parka.  We need extra space for all of that outerwear, am I right fellow northerners?

This was such a beautiful piece to work on and I totally enjoyed every minute of it.

I’ve already begun work on the next piece I plan to share with you guys …

I bet most of you can guess what I’m going to do with this one, right?

But in the meantime, this armoire is for sale locally so be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the products used in this makeover.