A wedding gift

My brother-in-law and a good friend of mine got married this past Friday. My friend had been talking about wanting a new dining set because the one she had was pub height and she didn't feel it worked for their space. I knew then that that is what I wanted to get for their wedding gift! I was super excited because their taste is electic so I could have a lot of fun with it. I decided on an Alice in Wonderland type theme and went to town. This is what I started out with.

And

Just a plain old oak table and some chairs that actually came from a different set.

So I wanted the table to have black and white stripes and then I got a lazy susan to paint checkered. The stripes weren't too bad but let me tell you, you'd better want those checkers if you're going to start because it is painstaking! Tape and cut and touch up, and touch up again! But it turned out awesome and they love it. That makes it all worth it!

Here are a few pictures of the process.

As you can see when I pulled the tape up it also pulled up some paint so don't worry that you're not perfect because it can always be touched up!! It's still frustrating, though. After I finished all this up I antiqued it with black paint and the dry brush method and them saturated it in poly! I wanted this baby smooooooth. The chairs were easy. I just painted them black and poly'd them and voila!

Pretty cool, right? I think it might be my favorite I've done so far!

Vintage Americana

I've got some catching up to do and I've got so much to show you that I'm going to turn this into two posts. First off I have a three piece Dixie set. It's been sitting around for a while because 1. I had originally planned on taking it with me to the fair I did in September but when I got around to moving it into place to paint I realized that I'm stupid for thinking I could take the long MASSIVE dresser on a road trip. Secondly, I couldn't really decide how to paint it. I was going to settle for a distressed white for the fair but that obviously didn't work out. I'm so glad I waited, though, because I got a buyer! She was wanting to put it in her boys' room but didn't know what color to paint them. She told me what the theme was, Americana/vintage sports so I suggested an antiqued red. She liked the idea and off I went to paint. I haven't done any red pieces up to this point so I was really excited and also a bit nervous, but they turned out really wonderful! Sometimes I want to keep pieces for myself, or in this case for my husband. He loves red. So anyhoosers, here are the before pics.

I painted them red and was going to glaze them with antiquing glaze but got a message from her saying they'd had a death in the family and a bunch of family would be in their home. Her boys had no storage for clothes so she wanted to see if I'd finished them. I hadn't and glaze takes a week to cure. I really try to accomadate my clients as best as I can so I spent that day (Saturday) finishing them up. Instead of glazing I used black paint and a dry brush technique. It's a little more tricky than glaze because it's not as easily workable but I wanted her to have these dressers. She had enough to deal with and the less she had to worry about the better. After it all dried I applied polycrylic in semi-gloss (I've been using Satin but I'm switching to semi-gloss. It just looks nicer to me.). Her husband picked it up that same night, in the dark. Poor guy. He didn't even get to see them before he took them home! She sent me a text a little later saying she loved them. I can't even describe how relieved I am to hear that my clients love what I've done. I get so nervous they're going to hate it!

Ok, so enough talking already, right? Here are the afters!

I had actually forgotten I had the mirror to go with it so they got a free mirror! What do you think? It's bright but I think it's going to look perfect in her boys' room!

It's like a Fairy land!

This bedroom set I'm about to show you is so awesome! My client wanted her bedroom to feel like she'd stepped into a world of Fairies! After a lot of back and forth and lots of pictures we decided on what she wanted done and the colors. As she was dropping it off we talked a little more and she mentioned that some glitter on the hardware would rock her socks! I was so thrilled. Let me tell you about how awesome my job is. Everything I paint may not be something I'd like in my own home but it's certainly always fun to try new things and this particular one definitely brings out the little girl...you know the one that wears her princess costume around any time of the year, with the tall cone hat with sheer fabric flowing out of the top. Yeah.

This furniture had been her mother's and was then hers when she was younger. Now she's married with a child of her own and wanted something new and more her style! I used four different colors on it. Three I bought at Lowes and the fourth I custom mixed from the blue and green.

Ready? OK, here are the befores.

 

She actually did not already own the two nightstands. She found them at an antique store the same day she dropped off the furniture. Truly meant to be. Alright, enough talk and on to the after pics, right?

Disclaimer: These picture (OK, all my pictures) are taken with my iphone 5 and although pretty good it really doesn't pick up details like I would like. Hopefully you can still see all the pretty colors.

How perfect are they! I wish I could have picked up the gorgeous sparkle on the hardware but ya know. You'll have to use your imagination for that one. I have more furniture coming up VERY soon! Thanks for stopping by!

If you have a moment please stop by my Facebook page and give me a "Like". Word of mouth is all I've got, friends! I appreciate it so much! The Painted Cottage

The fair and look at all this furniture I have!

The fair was a lot of fun aside from the pouring down rain that happened about two hours before it was time to pack up and head home, and lasted until...oh, some time after I fell asleep. I packed up my furniture as best I could but it still ended up getting wet. I have some touching up to do unfortunately. Rain was forecastes, scattered thunderstorms it said. No, more like torrential downpours for several hours! If I'd known it was going to rain like that I might have passed on the fair and waited for better weather for the next. Oh well. Here's a little look at it. First pic is my little set up.

I refinished several pieces for the fair so this post is going to be loaded with befores and afters! And here we go. :)

First up we have a legged side table. A little beat up she still had a lot of character. The key for a great piece is to pay attention to nothing else but the bones. Color and hardware can be changed. I painted her teal and aged the hardware in TSP for several days. It added a nice green patina. I wasn't happy with the color so she ended up taking a back seat for a while. A few months later and I was inspired. So I painted white over the teal and then heavily distressed it to show the teal through it. Now I'm happy with how she turned out.

 

Next up is a vanity. Yes, you see a mirror in the before picture. I have cats that like to go into the garage and climb on things so one of those buggers knocked the mirror off of a dresser and broke it. :( Ah well, it works just as well as a small writing desk or someone can add a pretty little mirror they find somewhere. I painted her Symphony purple, antiqued and then white washed a little. I sprayed the hardware silver, distressed it and then glazed them to age them and distressed the vanity some.

I might actually have a buyer for her so perhaps she'll be going to her new home on Friday.

Next, I've had this night stand for a while but again was not inspired. I guess sometimes it takes some time. I finally decided on Blue Lagoon. I painted the body and the hardware and then lightly distressed to show the white underneath. It has a beachy vibe now that I like.

This tiered table is a new acquisition. I painted her a custom mixed blue and then stenciled a quatrefoil design on the top middle tier in white.

This dresser set was a nice score. Here is a Craigslist tip. When I called about the tall dresser I didn't know about the other dresser that the same seller had listed. They told me there was someone coming to take a look and they'd get back to me if they didn't buy it. Once I saw the other listing I texted back immediately and said that I'd take both. That changes peoples' minds because they are obviously trying to get rid of these pieces and the less time they have to deal with calls and texts the better so they told me to come on and I got them both for about $20 less than they were asking for both separately. They both needed a little work before I could paint them (as most pieces do) but I got a great deal on them. I painted them both Regatta Blue and then distressed very lightly and antiqued them. I also sprayed the hardware silver and glazed them to antique them a little.

The long dresser was actually missing one of its pulls so I replaced two with pretty glass knobs. It looks really nice.

Alright, last but not least is a large nightstand and boy is this thing heavy. This is such a beautiful piece! I'm seriously wanting to keep this one but white furniture in my house? Eh, I have three large dogs, two black labs and a husky. They might as well be children. That and I don't know where I'd put it. We're full right now. At some point I do want to switch out my furniture to match our style a bit more but we've been busy and we're saving up so my husband can get braces. Yeah...OK, so here she is! :)

Such pretty details on this one and she distressed beautifully!

There's a closeup, sort of. I just cropped one of the pictures. I wish I'd taken a better one but I actually took this at the fair.

Well, that's all for today. Ha, not bad, right? Now I've got to sell all this to make some room because I'm packed!