q is for quandie

I hope that all of you are surviving the pandemic.  We had my sister and niece over for a game night on Saturday.  We did our best to practice safe socializing.  First off, I thoroughly cleaned the house including using sanitizing wipes on all of the door knobs and handles.  Next, I used individual plates and small bowls for the game night snacks so that no one was sharing from one bowl.  My niece refrained from tasting my Jose’ Cuervo Cherry Limeade Margarita (although normally she would have).  No hugs were exchanged, and my sister and niece stayed on their side of table and we stayed on ours.

Naturally we played Pandemic.

We’ve been playing this game since before it was trendy.  If you aren’t familiar, it’s a co-operative game, which means that everyone works together for a common goal.  In this case, saving the world from diseases.  Either we all win or we all lose.  Each player takes on a role such as Quarantine Specialist, Medic or Researcher and has specific skills to use in trying to defeat four diseases before they multiply uncontrollably.

Sadly, we aren’t that good at the game.  We lost every single time on Saturday.  I hope that’s not a sign.

Earlier on Saturday, I worked on a bed that I brought home from a garage sale last summer.

It was a freebie.  I had considered having Ken make it into another bench but the foot board is too short for that to work.  So, it stays a bed.

I started by sanding it down, cleaning it with TSP substitute and then painting it with two coats of Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy.

Once dry, I sanded to distress and then waxed the foot board with clear wax.  I held off on waxing the headboard so that I could add a transfer.

Always remember, don’t try to apply a transfer over freshly applied wax.  You’ll end up with a sticky mess as the friction from rubbing the transfer heats up the wax.  You can wait until the wax cures (about 30 days), but that’s not terribly practical.  I prefer waiting to wax over the entire piece after the transfer is added.

Next I pulled out re.design with prima’s Cosmic Roses transfer.

The full transfer was a bit too tall for the headboard, so I decided to just use the floral bunches in the two opposite corners.  I’ll save the middle cluster of flowers for another project.

I simply trimmed around them before removing the backing paper.

I also changed the placement of some additional segments, like the Spring Flowers above.

Always keep in mind that you don’t have to use these transfers exactly as they come out of the tube.  You can get creative with trimming and re-arranging them to customize them for your piece.

Unfortunately this bed did not come with its side rails.  I have two pair of spare side rails in my carriage house (left over from beds that became benches), and sadly neither one of them fit the existing slots on the bed.

I’m going to try and sell it without the rails first, but if that doesn’t fly I’ll order a set of bolt-on rails from Amazon (like this one which is only $34).  I know some people will only purchase an item that is ready to go, while others are OK with having to add the rails themselves.  I’ll just have to see how that goes.

By the way, remember the bookshelf I shared last week?  Wouldn’t it be a great companion piece for this bed?  The Antebellum Blue on the bookcase works beautifully with the blues in the Cosmic Roses.  Plus, both pieces have a touch of gold.

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint and to re.design with prima for providing the transfer for this project.

If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

If you’re looking for re.design with prima products you can find local retailers here, or online sources here.

And if you are local and in need of a twin sized bed, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page.

I’m continuing to pull old pieces out of the pile in the carriage house.  A friend of mine passed this bookcase on to me a while ago … dare I even say, it was probably a couple of years ago.

It was pretty in the existing white, but the paint that was used was a little too shiny for my taste.  Also, I snapped the ‘before’ photo above after I sanded it to prep it for painting.  So it wasn’t really distressed when I got it either.

Because this is a smaller piece, I decided to go big with color.  I’d recently ordered Antebellum Blue from Dixie Belle Paint Co and I was dying to try it out.

It took two coats of the Antebellum Blue to cover the white.

Once I had it painted I wanted to add just a little something extra inside the bookshelf.  I considered using a transfer, but I didn’t have one that was a good fit.  So instead I decided to add a stencil.  I had a feeling that a metallic gold would pair beautifully with the Antebellum Blue, and I had also recently ordered the Moonshine Metallics paint in Gold Digger (also from Dixie Belle).

By the way, I used that Mini brush shown above to paint the bookcase.  It’s so much easier painting inside a bookcase with a short brush like this that let’s you get in there without knocking the end of your brush into the underside of shelves.

But back to the stenciling.  I hadn’t used the Gold Digger before, and I wasn’t sure how it would work for stenciling so I decided to do a test board first.  I always recommend doing this when you’re trying out a new product or technique for the first time.

So I painted a piece of board in the Antebellum Blue, and then stenciled it using the Gold Digger.

So far, so good.  You’re going to see that test board again in a minute.  But first, I went ahead and added the stencil (the stencil is from Maison de Stencils) …

I then left everything to dry for about 24 hours.

The final decision I needed to make was what top coat to use.  I was debating between hemp oil or clear sealer when I remembered the Easy Peasy Spray Wax (also from Dixie Belle).  I’d forgotten I had that in my arsenal.  So I pulled out both the Spray Wax and the Dixie Belle flat sealer and once again grabbed my test board to try them out and decide which one I liked best for this project.

What I discovered was that the Easy Peasy Spray Wax smeared the Gold Digger just a bit, so I was glad I tried this on the test board first and not directly on my bookcase.

And remember, this was after 24 hours of dry time, so it was quite dry.  It’s just something to keep in mind if you are ever using these two products together.

Despite that, I still decided to use the spray wax because it really is easy peasy.  Simply spray it on, let it sit for 10 – 15 seconds and then wipe with a clean cloth.  I just avoided wiping across the gold stenciled area with my cloth so as not to smear the metallic paint.

I really love the pairing of the gold and the Antebellum Blue, don’t you?

This shade of blue also pairs beautifully with the Sawmill Gravy that I used on the chair I shared last week.

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the paint and the Easy Peasy spray wax, and thanks to Maison de Stencils for providing the stencil for this project.

If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

The stencil I used can be found here.

And if you are local and in need of a petite Parisian bookcase, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page to see if this one is still available.

You’ll remember that recently I mentioned how much I procrastinate when it comes to upholstered pieces.  Apparently that’s even true of pieces that just require simple upholstery, like this one.

 My friend/picker Sue found this bench quite some time ago.  And actually, she was going to give this one a makeover herself.  Her husband had already cut a sheet of plywood to make a new base for the seat.  But for whatever reason, she gave up on it and offered it to me.

As you can tell by the ‘before’ photo, that was some time ago.

I painted it in Miss Mustard Seed’s milk paint in Farmhouse White way back last summer.

I was hoping to get a little chipping out of it, but I really didn’t.  I did distress the edges though, and am very happy with the end result.

I top coated the paint with some clear wax, and then … well … I ignored it for the next 7 months.

I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to make it comfy enough to sit on without spending a fortune on upholstery foam (that stuff can be weirdly pricey).  I kept thinking I’d run across some sort of over-sized cushion while out garage saling that I could re-purpose for this bench, but I never did.

But then I got inspired by a piece I saw on Instagram and decided I could just use a king-sized pillow.  And while out shopping with Mr. Q one day, I found a cheap one at Target for just $10.

All I had to do was ask Sue to sew me a cover for it out of drop cloth fabric, and ta da!

Well, technically there were a few more steps in there.  First of all, I covered the plywood base with some batting followed by drop cloth fabric.  Then Sue sewed the drop cloth pillow cover.  Once I had that back, I added a stencil to it using Dixie Belle paint in Gravel Road.

Then I stuffed the pillow in and tried it out.  It was way too puffy.  So I pulled it back out, ripped open a seam and removed about half of the pillow stuffing.  That helped a lot.

It was about this point that I realized I didn’t like seeing the uncovered pillow inside the drop cloth cover.  So I sent it back over to Sue’s house and she sewed a ticking stripe cover for it.

Ahhh, much better.

This bench is quite petite at 36″ tall x 40″ wide x 24″ deep, so it wouldn’t work well at a table.  However, it would be adorable in a small foyer or maybe at the foot of a bed.

If you’re local and have the perfect spot for it, be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page to see if it’s still available.

You may notice a bit of a theme to my posts over the next couple of weeks … or at least I hope so.  I’m really working on clearing out that pile of stuff up in the carriage house and today’s piece also came from there.

I picked up this chair at a garage sale many, many moons ago.  I loved the shape of the front two legs, and that union jack design of the chair back.

Somehow it got stashed upstairs in the carriage house and I forgot all about it though.

So last week I pulled it out and took that quick ‘before’ photo on our deck.  FYI, since then all of that snow on the deck has melted, and you can even see patches of brown grass out in the yard.  I think spring is coming early this year.

Anyway, I cleaned the chair with some spray cleaner and then painted it with two coats of Dixie Belle’s Sawmill Gravy.  I’m really loving this color.  So much so that I just ordered the large size jar.  It really is just a barely-there grey.

I generally tend to avoid buying things to paint that have already been painted, but you know my motto, ‘never say never’.  If I really like something and the price is right, I will make exceptions to that rule.

So, here are a couple of tips for painting over pre-existing paint (without stripping it, because that is a nasty, messy job).  First, keep in mind that the durability of your paint will be dependent upon the durability of that pre-existing paint.  If it’s peeling, your new paint will just stick to the peeling paint, not to the surface under it.  Also, if there are lots of drips, you need to sand those down before you paint or you will still see them.  I always prep pre-painted pieces a little more carefully before painting over them.  Sand it well, preferably using a mask just in case the old paint has lead in it.  Then clean it well before you begin painting using a product like TSP.

And finally, remember that if you are going to distress your piece, the old color is inevitably going to show in layers.  So if you’re not OK with that, either don’t distress at all or paint a base color first, then use a wet distress technique to allow only your base color to show through.

I ended up really liking the layering of colors on this chair.

To play off that union jack design on the back, I added just a snippet from the re.design with prima Everyday Farmhouse transfer just under the seat of the chair.

Perfect, right?

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co and re.design with prima for providing the supplies used in this project.

If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

If you’re looking for re.design with prima products you can find local retailers here, or online sources here.

And if you’re local, and you need a chair with some British flair, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page to see if this one is still available.

I sent Mr. Q to pick up a dresser from someone selling on Craigslist a few weeks ago, and while there he texted me to ask if I wanted a second dresser that the guy had for sale.  There was a bit of miscommunication and after some texting back and forth, he ended up buying the 2nd dresser without my having seen a photo of it.

On the plus side, he only paid an additional $15 or so for it because that was all the cash he had on hand.  On the minus side, it’s a fairly cheaply constructed piece of furniture.  It also needed a few repairs before I could paint it, and it’s fairly nondescript.  Definitely not my usual style.

But, what the heck, Mr. Q bought it, so I may as well do what I can with it, right?

First I called up my favorite handyman/neighbor, Ken.  He was busy counting his hockey pucks (no lie, he collects hockey pucks and has been working on rearranging them in his custom made display rack lately), but he was willing to take a break from the pucks and help me out with this dresser.  We worked together on shoring up the drawers that were falling apart, replacing missing drawer stops, grinding down stops that were rubbing on the drawer bottoms and adding some glides that were missing.

The rest was easy.  I sanded it lightly, vacuumed away the dust and wiped it down with a damp rag.  Then I painted it in two coats of Dixie Belle’s French Linen.

French Linen is one of those chameleon like colors that totally changes depending on the lighting and the colors around it.  It’s a muddy grey-brown with a tiny hint of a lavender undertone.  I didn’t see the lavender while painting the piece in the artificial lighting of my piano room after dark, but once I pulled the piece in front of my white wall on a bright, sunny day I could see it.

Once the paint dried, I added re.design with prima’s Carte Postale transfer.

It was the perfect fit for the front of this dresser, and I also love how it looks over the French Linen.

As for the knobs … well, I thought about replacing them with glass knobs.  That certainly would have been pretty.  But I would have needed to order them (I usually order them by the dozen from D Lawless Hardware).  Plus, there are 10 knobs on this dresser and I wasn’t sure I wanted to invest any more money in it.

So instead I cleaned up the original wood knobs using Dixie Belle’s No Pain Gel Stain in Walnut because that didn’t cost anything.

After I took that photo above, I made a small mistake.  I started to wax the knobs before they were fully dry.  The wax ending up taking off some of the stain giving me a lighter color as you’ll see in a minute.  I rather liked the result, so I went with it.  But this is something to keep in mind.  This is an oil based product and takes longer to dry than the typical products I work with (6 to 8 hours according to the label).

The wooden knobs give this piece a totally different look than glass knobs would have, don’t you think?

I suspect this decision will have a polarizing effect on you guys.  Some of you will love it, some of you will hate it, but there probably won’t be many in between.

So, here’s the thing about this dresser.  Although it has been repaired to make it as functional as possible, and I have done what I can to improve the look of it, in the end you know what they say, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

No matter what I do to it, it won’t become a high quality, well constructed piece of furniture.  I can’t charge top dollar for this piece no matter how pretty it is.

But it definitely is pretty.

So is it worthwhile to spend 6 or 7 hours on repairs and finishing, add a $30 transfer, plus another $15 or so worth of paint and wax on a piece like this?

Well, it can be.  In this case it will work out because I only paid $15 for the dresser.  My handyman Ken works for wine and some occasional profit sharing, and I have nothing more important to do with my time (although Ken could have been counting hockey pucks instead).  In addition, both Dixie Belle Paint Co and re.design with prima send me their product for free.  So yes, for me this piece was totally worthwhile.

But for you that might not be the case.  My advice is to always try to find higher quality pieces of furniture to work on.  They are out there, and you may pay a little more than $15 for them, but they will be more worthy of your time.  In the end you’ll have a beautiful piece of furniture that is also well constructed.

Then again, if you’re on a budget and just want something pretty for the kid’s room, or the laundry room, or the potting shed … this dresser might be perfect for you!

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co and re.design with prima for providing the supplies used in the attempt to turn this sow’s ear into a silk purse.

If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

If you’re looking for re.design with prima products you can find local retailers here, or online sources here.