hello old friend.

Published on by Quandie22 Comments

I found this lidded stave bucket at a garage sale last fall.

It’s obviously old, and seems genuine rather than a reproduction sort of piece (although I’m definitely no expert on antique buckets and it could just be one of those 80’s look-a-likes).  It is constructed of wooden staves that are held in place by the metal band that goes around them.

I suspect there will be some of you who think I should have just spruced it up and left it unpainted.  Sort of like I did with the recipe box a few weeks back.

But I really wanted to paint it.  I love the look of an old, worn paint finish on these wooden buckets.  So I headed to pinterest for some pinspiration and I found this …

Isn’t that a gorgeous shade of blue?  There were actually quite a few examples of wooden buckets and/or firkins in similar shades of bright blue.

So I was pondering how to recreate that look, or at least something similar, when I remembered the gorgeous color of Soldier Blue milk paint by Homestead House.

I used this paint on a small chair in January 2020 and I absolutely loved the color.

As I was digging it out of my stash of milk paint, I realized that it has been quite some time since I’ve used milk paint.  I did attempt to use it on a large cupboard last summer, but ended up painting over it with Dixie Belle chalk paint.  In fact, I think the last time I used milk paint was when I painted that chair last January.

I have to confess that I have been seduced by the ease of using Dixie Belle paint.  No mixing required, no clumps of undissolved pigments, no variations in color from one drawer to the next, no worries about whether or not the paint will stick.

All of that aside, I went ahead and mixed up some Soldier Blue.  And you know what?  It mixed up beautifully despite having been stored for over a year.  I always leave my mixed milk paint to sit for 10 minutes or so before using it to make sure that all of the pigments have had a chance to dissolve.  For more tips on using milk paint, check out my milk paint basics post:

While letting the paint rest for 10 minutes, I prepped the bucket for painting.

The metal ring that holds the staves in place slipped off quite easily, and then I taped off the metal base of the bucket.  I wanted to make sure I didn’t drip any paint onto it.

Next I added a bit of the Homestead House Salad Bowl Finish around the edges to encourage chipping and/or distressing.

I’ve shared this technique before, so if you want more details check out this post.  The Salad Bowl Finish is a beeswax finish that is food safe (so you could use it on cutting boards or wooden salad bowls, hence the name).  It’s very similar to the Miss Mustard Seed 100% beeswax (which is also food safe).

Once that was done, I gave my paint another good stir to make sure it was mixed well and then painted the bucket with two coats.

Once dry, I added one of my favorite stencils from Maison de Stencils to the lid.

That’s not white paint by the way, it is Dixie Belle’s French Linen which is a greige sort of color.  I rarely use white (or black) to stencil.  Using a shade of grey gives you a more subtle look.

Once that was fully dry, I sanded the lid and bucket with 120 grit sandpaper.  I wanted a worn look around those edges where I had applied the beeswax, and that is exactly what I got.  I think it looks quite authentic, don’t you?

Ahhh, hello old friend.  I have missed you, milk paint.  You just can’t beat milk paint for creating a worn over time finish that looks authentic.

It was easy to sand the edges of each of the staves before putting the metal ring back in place to hold them together tightly.

I topcoated the milk paint with clear wax.  I had also pulled out my antiquing wax thinking that I’d need some of that to give it a more aged look, but in the end I thought it looked perfectly aged even without it.

The Soldier Blue brings out the pretty blue color in my bluebird china.

Milk paint was the perfect choice to recreate the look from the inspiration piece from pinterest.

Now, I know some of you may still think I should have left this stave bucket unpainted, but I beg to differ.

I think it needed this brilliant pop of Soldier Blue to fully bring out its character.

If you’re looking for Homestead House Milk Paint, you can find it here.

making the most of winter.

Published on by Quandie13 Comments

Although I tend to complain now and then about winter, the truth is, I rather look forward to it.  Mainly because it gives me a chance to slow down a bit.  I can spend a Saturday afternoon watching movies on the sofa without feeling like I really should be outside weeding the garden, or refinishing the deck, or painting furniture assembly line style out in my carriage house workshop.

There is also something really peaceful about the quietness of winter.  The windows are all sealed up, so outside noises don’t invade my space.  A nice layer of snow also tends to muffle sound nicely.

I also think winter is one of the most beautiful seasons.  Especially when there is a layer of freshly fallen snow, or a coating of hoarfrost on everything.

I have to admit though, it took me years to learn to appreciate this season and one of the tricks that helped is to find ways to get outside.

Mr. Q and I walk in our local park almost every day throughout the winter, although I admit we took a pass yesterday when the temp was below zero even at noon.  But for the most part we have had a very mild winter this year, which is lucky because it has felt more important than ever to get outside with this whole COVID thing still going on.

Another way I got outside (well, sort of) recently was to head to the Drive Thru Ice & Snow Sculpture Park that was part of the St. Paul Winter Carnival this year.

Typically this is not a drive-thru event, but to keep everyone safe from COVID this year you were able to remain in the heated comfort of your vehicle as you drove through the St. Paul fairgrounds and admired the sculptures.

I much preferred the snow sculptures over the ice sculptures, I think because you could see more detail on them from the car.

Mr. Q opted to stay home, so I was with my sister and niece.  However, as a huge Lord of the Rings fan, he would have really liked this one called “You Shall Not Pass” …

And I think my bff would have loved this one …

I probably should choose this next one as my favorite, you know … because it’s furniture …

But no, I absolutely loved this next one.

It totally brings to mind Georges Méliès Le Voyage dans la Lune.

In hindsight, I think we probably would have been better off going at night when the sculptures are all lit up with colored lights (and the lights and all of their electrical lines running everywhere wouldn’t have been so obvious).

For you locals, I’m sorry to say this event ended last weekend.  But even if I had posted sooner, the tickets (yes, it was a ticketed event) sold out early.  Maybe they’ll do it again next year!  I’m not sure whether to hope for that or not since the drive-thru feature was specifically a result of COVID.

This coming weekend is going to be another tough one.  Our highs are going to be in the negative digits, and that’s the high.  I’m afraid to even look a what the lows will be, let alone the wind chill.  It might be a great weekend to do some of that guilt-free movie watching on the sofa!

a fresh look.

Published on by Quandie33 Comments

In case you didn’t notice, I’ve changed up my look.  Not personally (although that is well overdue also), but the look of my blog page.

Recently my friend/picker/co-worker/garage sale mentor Sue gently suggested that my blog header needed a makeover.  And she was right, the one I was using was rather dated and didn’t really reflect my most recent work.

I’d added it back in 2016.  Holy cow!  Can you believe it?!  That was nearly five years ago.  Man, time flies.

Here’s the one from before that …

Not terribly different.  Same color palette.  I really loved that buffet painted in Miss Mustard Seed’s Kitchen Scale.

In the very beginning, I used this one.

Once upon a time I changed up my header for the holiday season too.

Hmmm.  Definitely not loving that font/logo.  Ugh.

This past frigid February weekend seemed like the ideal time to sit down and come up with some changes.

This was the first collage I tried.

It features some of my most recent pieces, along with my renewed love of painting things white.  I wasn’t super happy with that center photo though, for some reason it kept ending up blurry looking (even though the original photo on its own is not blurry at all).

So next I switched it up for this …

I like that this one represents the variety of things I do here on q is for quandie.  I’m not just about painted furniture these days.  I was going to stick with this one, but then I thought … hey … maybe I should put one of my painted toolboxes in the mix.

So I came up with this one.

Done.

Next up was changing the background.  I felt like my old aqua and white background didn’t work at all with my new photo collage, so I switched it up for simple, chippy, white painted wood.

At that point, my original logo looked totally out of place with its aqua and coral.

I’d paid someone to design that logo for me way back in the beginning.  Not only did I have the colorful one above, but I also had a black one (and a white one) that I used to watermark my photos for a while.

I gave up doing that because I felt like the logo was hard to read as a watermark.  Here’s an example of a photo with this watermark.

For me, the purpose of watermarking my photos is to help people find my blog (not to mark my territory), so I quit using that watermark and just started adding my blog name in a simple, clean, easy to read font to my photos.

Still, I’d paid good money for those logos so I thought maybe I should try using the black one on my blog header.  Nope, it really just wasn’t working.

So I played around on PicMonkey and came up with a couple of different options to try.

First up was this one …

Again, kind of blurry … or maybe it’s just my aging eyesight.

Next I tried this one …

Ah, a bit clearer.  I love the font and it was simple enough to mesh well with the other elements of my header.

But in the end I went with this one …

Really, mainly because it feels really similar to my original font, so I thought it would be a smoother transition to my new look.  But I admit I’m a little on the fence on this one and may end up using one of those first two down the road.

So everybody, what do you think of the new look?  Was it about time?  Should I switch out the logo to one of those non-cursive fonts?  Leave me a comment a let me know.

adding just a little glam.

Published on by Quandie29 Comments

First up, congrats to Jill O. I drew her name and will be sending her the paint blending giveaway from last week.  Second thing, the toolbox from Wednesday went super fast and I had about 4 more people who wanted it.  Clearly I need to be on the lookout for more toolboxes to paint!

In the meantime, remember a while back when I painted these faux bamboo picture frames?

I have to confess that in the end, the paint was just a little bit too flat.  It didn’t bring out the bamboo-ish-ness of the frames at all.

So when Dixie Belle sent me some of their new gilding waxes to try I decided to dress them back up again.

The gilding waxes come in six colors; gold, copper, silver, bronze, black and zinc and they have a metallic look to them.

Although these are just little bitty pots of wax, a little bit goes a long way with them.  I suspect one pot will last a long time unless you are gilding an entire piece of furniture or something.

Dixie Belle also sent some of their iridescent wax called Chameleon Wax.

The first step was to test out all of the waxes to see how they looked, so I pulled out an old painted board and used a q tip to add a swatch of each wax.

My favorites are the gold (seriously, isn’t that gold amazing?) and the copper, and I really can’t wait to find something to use the zinc on.  You can really see the iridescence of the Chameleon waxes on my sample board too.

The black doesn’t look like much in my photo, but it does have a bit of a metallic look to it in person and reminds me quite a lot of the wax I used on this piece.

All of these Dixie Belle waxes would work brilliantly when applied with a stencil like I did on that buffet.

But for my frames I ended up deciding to go with the bronze.

I used a small artists brush to apply the wax, but you could use your finger, a cloth, or a q tip.  In my case I wanted to wax the frame without removing the glass (pure laziness on my part), so I needed to be precise and the brush worked perfectly for that.

After applying the wax you can wipe it back immediately if you want to remove some of the product (and I did do that).  You need to do that right away, the wax will dry in 30 to 60 minutes and then you won’t be able to wipe it back.  Once the wax has dried for 12 hours, you can buff it to bring out more shine.

I tried to get a good photo of the difference once you buff it (above), but I’m not sure you can really see it.  The frame on top is not buffed, the one underneath is.  It does add quite a bit of shine if you buff it after 12 hours.

Just a couple of q tips on these waxes.  Keep in mind that they are not VOC free like so many of the products I use, so be sure to use them in a well ventilated area.  Also, they are an oil based product, so you’ll have to clean your brush (if you choose to use one) using mineral spirits.  Although in my case I used the Fusion brush cleaner and that seemed to work perfectly fine.

I had debated whether to use the gold or the bronze, but in the end I chose the more subtle look of the bronze.  The warmth of the bronze color works well with my collages of old family photos and ephemera.

Then again, if I change my mind later I could always add the gold over the bronze because these gilding waxes can be layered …

In fact, as I’m writing this I’m thinking maybe I should try that.  Just add a little touch of gold here and there.  Maybe I’ll just go do that real quick …

OK, I added just a dab of the gold here and there, mostly at the joints of the faux bamboo.  It really brightened things up, didn’t it?

If you’ve never tried any of these metallic waxes, I highly recommend giving them a try.  They are perfect for use on old metal hardware, or in this case on old picture frames.

What do you think?  Would you have left the frames in the flat black paint, or left them with just the bronze wax added?  Or do you like the brighter look with the gold added?

Thank you to Dixie Belle for providing me with the gilding wax used on today’s project.

 

another sales pitch.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

I hope no one is too disappointed to realize that today’s post is nothing more than a thinly veiled sales pitch.  Well … for that matter it’s not really even veiled at all.  It just is a sale pitch.

Remember the tool box that I shared back in October?

It was snatched up right away by one of my local readers.  There were a couple of additional readers who expressed interest in buying it, but they were too late.

However, I just happened to have more toolboxes on hand, so I told the 2nd interested party that I would paint another one for her.

As you can see, it’s not exactly the same.  I used some different sections of the IOD Label Ephemera transfer on this one.  But it’s very similar in style.

I also used a different color on the inside of this one.

This time I used Dixie Belle’s Flamingo to add a pop of color to the interior.  Last time I used Peony.

Once again I also lined the bottom using one of re.design by prima’s decoupage tissue papers.

So, you must be wondering at this point, why is Q calling this a sales pitch when she already has a buyer lined up for it?

Well, my buyer didn’t follow through.  I’ve reached out to her a few times but, as you can see, I still have the toolbox.  I’m not complaining, I know full well that people get busy, life gets crazy, etc.  The best laid plans and all … especially these days with COVID running rampant.

But I think it’s time for me to stop beating a dead horse, move on, and see if someone else wants to purchase it.

The price is $38 and the toolbox is 20.25″ wide x 8.5″ deep by 9.75″ tall.  Quick update:  I do have a buyer!

As you all know, I don’t like to ship things (I’m just not set up for it and so far haven’t found that I need to be) so the potential buyer will have to be a local who can pick it up.  If interested, you can email me at qisforquandie@gmail.com, or leave a comment here on the blog.  First come, first served.

If there aren’t any takers, it will go in the pile of things I’m putting together for the next time I take a load of items to the shop that sells things for me, Reclaiming Beautiful in Stillwater, MN.  I’m sure that eventually this piece will end up going to a good home!

faux flour sack towels.

Published on by Quandie26 Comments

The other day my sister stopped by with some flour sack dish towels.

She had a pack of 10 for me, and a pack of 10 for herself.  We ended up going shopping and doing some other things that day, and I never did get around to asking her what her intentions were for these towels.  But she did leave them all with me, so I was guessing that she wanted me to dress them up a bit … both hers and mine.

It seemed like a no-brainer to use my mini-stencils from Jami Ray Vintage on them.

I really wasn’t sure how well paint would withstand the frequent use and washing that dish towels experience.

But what the heck?  My sister bought them, so no loss to me if it didn’t work (I’m smirking as I’m writing that, sorry sis).

I decided to use acrylic craft paint for this project rather than chalk paint.  Since chalk paint doesn’t have any sort of built-in top coat, I felt fairly sure that it would mostly wash out of the fabric.  As you may remember, I have used chalk paint to dye fabric and quite a lot of the color did wash out (although setting it with heat helped with that).  I suppose the ideal medium to use would be fabric paint, but I didn’t have any on hand.

I started out with washing the dish towels in hot water first, then drying them in the dryer.  If they were going to shrink (and since they are 100% cotton I was guessing they would), might as well get that over with before painting them.

I chose a navy blue paint and the more ‘American’ of the stencil designs for my sister’s towels …

And I used grey paint and the ‘French’ stencil designs for myself.

They looked fantastic freshly stenciled, but that’s not saying much is it?  The real test is whether or not they’ll hold up to washing.

Before washing them, I decided to heat set the paint in the dryer.  When I did that with my dyed linens it made a huge difference.  However, my online research says you don’t have to heat set acrylic paint.  Well … I did it anyway.  Better safe than sorry, right?

So I ran them through the dryer on a high heat setting, then I threw them in the wash on a medium heat cycle and dried them on high again.

As you can see, the dark blue (left above) fared better than the grey (right above).  So the lesson learned here, stick with dark paint colors for stenciling flour sack towels.

Of course, I suspect the designs will continue to fade away over time with multiple washings, but these weren’t expensive towels to begin with and they definitely won’t last forever anyway.

Let’s face it, nothing can beat the quality of vintage flour sack towels, they just don’t make ’em like they used to.

But still, this was a fun craft project for a January afternoon and I’d definitely do it again.  In fact, I’m going to do it again.  I saved 10 of the towels to experiment on with the new Dixie Belle Silk paint that is coming out soon so be sure to stay tuned for that.

One last thing I want to mention before ending this post, if you are struggling to perfect your stenciling skills I highly recommend stenciling on fabric to practice.  Because fabric is very … what should I call it? … rough? textured? toothy?  None of those words seem exactly right, but basically fabric is not as slippery a surface as painted wood, so you can easily get a clean, crisp result stenciling over it.  So give it a try if you want to work on improving your stenciling technique!

a ReStored bed.

Published on by Quandie76 Comments

My sister and I popped back into the ReStore last week and this time I picked up this bed.

Sorry for the poor quality of that photo.  As you may be able to see, my driveway was pure ice that day and it was really cold out.  I took a quick snap and called it good.

Anyway, I’m not especially trying to find beds these days.  I was actually hoping to come home with a dresser or a buffet maybe.  But, I didn’t find any of those sort of pieces that day, so another bed it was.

Compared to the gorgeous details on the bed I shared last week, this one seems a bit plain in comparison doesn’t it?  I’m afraid that bed is going to be a hard act to follow.  Still, I liked the fluted legs on the foot board of this one as well as the curve to the top of both pieces.

Lately I have been binge watching YouTube videos by Crys’Dawna at Bella Renovare.  I became familiar with her work when I was a brand ambassador at re.design with prima.  I also see a lot of her work on the Dixie Belle sites.  Now, any of you who might also be familiar with her work are probably thinking to yourself that Crys’Dawna’s style and mine are drastically different, and that is absolutely true.  I’ve seen her use as many as five or six colors on one piece, and we’re talking the brightest colors available.  For example …

I’m pretty sure that you’ll never see me painting a piece quite like that (although I’ve learned to never say never).  But that doesn’t mean that I don’t admire her work.  Her blending of colors is flawless.  Even though I probably won’t ever copy her exact style, I can still learn from Crys’Dawna’s videos and possibly modify her techniques to suit my own style a bit more.  Or that’s what I was hoping anyway.

So I thought I’d give blending a try on this bed.  The first step was to gather my supplies.  I decided to go with shades of grey, so I pulled out Dixie Belle paint in Gravel Road, Hurricane Grey and French Linen.   I also needed a brush for each color, plus a brush for blending them, and finally a spray bottle.

You can get a spray bottle like this from Dixie Belle Paint Co.  It sprays in a continuous fine mist which works well for blending paint.

Now, let me stop here and say that this post is not going to turn into a tutorial on blending paint for two reasons.  First, you’d be much better off just watching some of Crys’Dawna’s videos to learn how to blend paint.  And second, as it turns out, I kind of suck at it.

Crys’Dawna makes it look so easy.

I spent half a day painting, spraying, and then blending, and then adding more paint, and spraying, and blending, and letting it dry, and then deciding it was awful and adding more paint, and spray, to try and blend it, and then letting it dry … you get the picture.  No matter how much I sprayed and painted and blended, I just never liked the end result.  It just looked like a splotchy paint job to me.  And for the life of me, I could not get rid of the obvious brush strokes.

So why am I sharing this failure with you?  I’m just keeping it real.  Sometimes things just don’t work out for me.  I definitely don’t have the patience to keep working at a finish like this.

After giving up on being able to achieve anything even closely resembling a smoothly blended look, I decided to go back to techniques that I’m good at.  I re-painted the bed in a solid coat of Gravel Road (the darkest gray) and then I pulled out the French Damask stencil from re.design with prima.

I placed the stencil horizontally, rather than vertically as shown above, and I used the Hurricane Gray to do the stenciling.  I just wanted a hint of the pattern, not something that was totally in your face.  Using a color that is just a bit lighter or a bit darker is perfect for creating that look.

I added a faint ‘1902’ to the bottom of the foot board as well.

I was going for a very faded, imperfect look with the stencil so I wasn’t too particular about thoroughly painting every little detail.

Once the paint was dry, I sanded over everything and then added a coat of clear wax.

So what is the moral of our story?  I’m not really sure.  Of course we should all try new things and push ourselves outside of our comfort zone periodically.  But at the same time, every technique out there isn’t for everyone.  In this case, Socrates was right, “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.”

Sometimes you try something new and realize it’s just not for you.

How about you?  Have you tried this blending technique?

Well, if you’d like to give it a shot, I’ve decided to give away my gently used spray bottle because I’m pretty sure I’m never going to use it again.  To give you something to blend, I’m also throwing in a couple of shades of green that I think would be lovely blended together, Kudzu and Palmetto.

Who wants to give it a try?

The rules:  I’m going to make you work for it just a little today, so to be eligible to win today’s prize please leave a comment telling me about a failed experiment of your own and what you learned from the experience.

Your comment must be left on this blog post, not on Facebook or Instagram.  You are not required to follow my blog, although it would be awesome if you did!

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Sunday, January 31, 2021 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).

The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $54, if the prize is not claimed by Friday, February 5, 2021 another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle for providing the paint I used on this bed as well as the items I am giving away.

In the meantime, this bed is for sale.  If you are local and in need of a twin bed, be sure to check out the details on my ‘available for local sale‘ page.

the recipe box.

Published on by Quandie24 Comments

Well, you guys spoke and I listened.  When I posted the little wooden recipe box that I thrifted recently, I asked you guys if I should paint it or not.

I have to confess, I was rather surprised that almost all of you said don’t paint it.

Well, OK then, I’m willing to give it a shot.

What isn’t super apparent in that ‘before’ photo is that the box was filthy dirty.  Like … totally gross really.  So the first step was to clean it well.  I used my spray Dawn dish soap for that.  I scrubbed it with one of those plastic scrubby pads and the soap, and rinsed it with warm water.  You should have seen the dirt that came off it!

Once clean, I let it air dry.  Here’s how it looked after that cleaning.

Definitely not an improvement, right?

But don’t be put off by this step, this box is still salvageable without totally refinishing it.

Next I sanded it lightly all over (except over that Recipes label) with 220 grit sandpaper.  I followed that up with some of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta.

Ahhhh, so much better.  Isn’t it fantastic what that stuff does for old, dried out wood?

Several of you also suggested that I paint just the inside of the box, so I took that advice as well.  I painted it in Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road and then I added a little bit of the decoupage tissue paper from re.design with prima.

I love the way the dark grey works with the wood tone on the outside.

I just happened to have a set of index cards that fit the box perfectly.

I don’t suppose one typically uses alphabet index cards for recipes though, do they?  You’d probably more likely find cards that say ‘salads’, ‘appetizers’, and things like that in a recipe box.

Well, personally, if I was keeping this box I think I’d use it as a scrapbook instead of using it for recipes.  You may remember that I have done that before …

So I’m going to leave the alphabet index cards with the box and see if it inspires anyone to do something similar.

At this point, it just remains to be seen whether or not the box will sell.  I’m going to price it at $18 and see what happens.  I’ll keep you posted!

the st. paul hotel bed.

Published on by Quandie24 Comments

I recently saw the ad for this twin bed on Facebook Marketplace and I just knew I had to have it.  Just check out those curves …

My sister and I headed out on a gorgeously frosty day to pick it up.  The seller shared a bit about its history with us when we got there.  Apparently her grandmother purchased this bed when a hotel in St. Paul was selling off their old furniture.  Unfortunately, she didn’t know which hotel.  Later, the seller herself used it as her bed as a child.  Eventually it ended up in storage because no one had a use for it.  The seller was hoping that when her own kids grew up one of them would want to restore the bed, but no such luck.  None of them were interested.  So she decided there was no point in continuing to store it.  It should go to someone who would put it to use.

And that’s where I come in.  I’m not actually going to put it to use myself, but I am going to refurbish it so that someone else can put it to use.

I started out by giving it a light sanding, vacuuming away the dust and then giving it a good cleaning with some TSP substitute.  As I was wiping away the cleaner, the water was slightly tinted orange.  That’s always a clue that the stain is going to be one that bleeds through your paint.  So once again, out came the Dixie Belle BOSS.  Over the years I’ve learned that it’s just easier to be safe rather than sorry and go ahead and use BOSS when I even slightly suspect the stain will bleed.

So, everything got a coat of BOSS and I let that dry overnight.  The next day I added two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Once that was dry, I sanded the edges lightly to distress, once again vacuumed away any dust, and then went over it with a clean microfiber cloth.  I followed that up with a top coat of Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat (and if you’re wondering, yes, I did add the clear coat before applying the transfer).

Have I mentioned yet how much I love that foot board?  The curve!  The scrolly legs!  The perfectly framed space for a transfer!

IOD’s Le Petit Rosier transfer was practically made for this bed.  It was just a tad long, so I cut about 4″ off the bottom that I’ll save for another day, but the width was perfect.

And the top section of the transfer looks gorgeous on the headboard.

I have to tell you guys, applying this particular transfer is not for the faint of heart.  Because each little letter is a separate piece you have to be sure that you’ve got each one rubbed on individually.  I really thought my arm was going to fall off after finishing that foot board.

But it was absolutely worth the effort.

The bed does have side rails and slats.  I really don’t have enough space in my house to get good photos of complete beds, but I gave it a shot so you could see the full effect of the bed put together.

This bed feels super sturdy to me once assembled.  I think having four feet on the foot board adds a lot of stability.

I think I’ve given this bed a totally fresh new look.

What do you think?

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint for providing the BOSS, paint and clear coat used on this bed.  If any of you locals need a fabulous twin bed, check out my ‘available for local sale’ page for more details.

a thrift store haul.

Published on by Quandie39 Comments

My sister and I were out the other day and just happened to be driving past the Goodwill, so we decided to pop in and see what they had.  We had actually been in the same Goodwill store about a week earlier and didn’t find a single thing.  But this time I managed to fill up a shopping cart with goodies.

Nothing earth shattering, but I did find some simple things that made for fun small projects that I’m going to share with you today.

First up, the chicken box.

You’re probably wondering why in the world I picked that up, but what you can’t see in that photo is that it’s really just a simple box made out of old barn wood with an ugly chicken on the front.

I cut off the broken rafia handle, sanded down the chicken and re-painted just the front of the box in Dixie Belle’s French Linen.

Then I added just part of the Farm Fresh Honey Bee stencil that I purchased from Wallcutz.

My q tip for today is to always remember that you don’t have to use a stencil in its entirety.  You can tape off sections to fit on a smaller item like this little box.  Stencils have tons of versatility!

Once the paint was fully dry, I sanded to distress and added a clear wax finish.  Then I used some decorative cording to replace the handle.

And as I was writing up this post I realized that you still couldn’t see the barn wood that makes up the rest of the box, so here’s a shot that shows it off a little bit better.  Sort of.

Next up is the blue box.

The very flat finish on this box makes me think it was painted in either chalk paint or milk paint.  The color reminds me quite a bit of Miss Mustard Seed’s Flow Blue, or maybe Dixie Belle’s Antebellum Blue or Annie Sloan’s Aubusson.  Although I really like all of those colors, I felt that the color wasn’t really working on this box.  However, the real problem for me was the hideous black wrought iron handle more than the color.

OK, maybe ‘hideous’ is too strong a word, but I really didn’t like that handle.  So much so that I tossed it in the trash as soon as I removed it and I never really got a good photo of it.

Anyway, after removing that handle, I painted the entire box, inside and out, in Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy.  Once dry I added one of the Classic Vintage Label transfers from re.design with prima to the front.

To jazz up the inside of the box, I added some of prima’s decoupage décor tissue papers to the inside of the lid.  This one is called Floral Wallpaper.

I luckily just happened to have a scrap of this tissue that was the perfect size leftover from another project .  It’s always good to hang onto those scraps!

By the way, I really do love these decoupage tissue papers.

They go on beautifully using Dixie Belle’s Gator Hide (check out this post for more details on that).  They don’t wrinkle or get bubbles because they are made out of a porous material, and at the same time they are really strong and don’t tear when wet.  Now that I’m no longer a brand ambassador for re.design with prima, I am totally out of the loop on new designs that come out.  However, I happened to do a little googling, and I found some new ones to purchase online.  I’ll keep you posted on those when they arrive and I find something to use them on.

Finally, I pulled out this pretty distressed mirror knob that I had in my stash of singles and added it to the top of the box.

I have a whole jar of single knobs.  I used to buy a lot of knobs when they were on sale at Hobby Lobby.  You know, sort of on speculation.  I figured I’d eventually have a piece to use them on.  But what I discovered was that nine times out of ten I would need 8 knobs for a piece, but I’d only have 6.  Or I’d need 6 and have 8, so now I had two left over.  It rarely seemed to work out perfectly, and as  I result I have a whole pile of single (or maybe a pair of) knobs.  Now I’ve sworn to only buy the knobs when I need them, and when I know exactly how many I need.

Still, it’s always a good feeling when I find a use for one of those singles!

You can see that a little of that original blue color is peeking through my distressed edges.

OK, the next makeover was the cold, black heart of love sign.

I really shouldn’t make fun.  The person who created this could very possibly be a reader of my blog, in which case, I apologize.  The bones of this sign were fantastic, but I’m just not sure about that big black heart.

Not that I have anything against black, because in the end I repainted the entire sign black.  Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky to be exact.

I added a stencil using Dixie Belle’s Putty and then sanded to distress.  Unfortunately I can’t share a source for this stencil because I purchased it on Etsy from a seller that isn’t out there anymore.

It looks pretty good hanging in my piano room, but I won’t be keeping it.  It’s going in the pile of stuff to sell.

Next up, I always debate picking up these reproduction-ish decorative watering cans.  To me they always look just a bit too faux.

This one has an antiqued copper paint job that I didn’t particularly care for, but I liked the shape of it and the  style of the spout.  Plus the price was right, so I grabbed it.

Paint doesn’t always want to stick to a surface like this metal, so I usually spray paint something like this.  That was the plan here, except I didn’t have enough spray paint on hand.  So instead I gave it a quick base coat of spray paint, and then topped that off with some of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  I really prefer to make do with supplies that I already have rather than buy something more.

If you’re wondering how I spray paint in the winter in Minnesota even though I don’t have a heated workshop space, here’s my trick.  I take the item outside in a big cardboard box lid with low sides, spray it quick, and then bring it all back in.  It’s probably not ideal, but it does seem to work and my house doesn’t end up filled with spray paint fumes.

Once the paint was dry, I sanded to distress and added another Classic Vintage Label.

Then I added clear wax as a finish.

A bit of an improvement I think.

Alright, so out of the six items I picked up at the Goodwill, I’ve made over four of them.

That leaves the little rocking chair, which I’m going to save for another day.  I purchased that chair because it has awesome, authentic, chippy green paint.  However, it’s filthy dirty.  Rather than try to clean it up in the house, I’m going to wait until I can give it a good bath with the hose out in the yard.  That’s gonna be a while.

And last up is the little wooden recipe box.

I purchased it fully intending to paint it up (like this one or this one), but after I got it home I started to second guess that.  It has that fab vintage decal on the front, and although it’s a little beat up, the patina on the wood is quite lovely.

So now I’m torn.  Should I paint it up, or should I just clean it up and otherwise leave it alone?  Let’s take a poll, what do you think?

And what do you think of the rest of my thrifted item makeovers?