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!