Great Gatsby!!

I was so sure I had blogged about this piece months ago but apparently NOT! Life has been busy busy. My husband and I downsized and moved into a smaller house, I've been helping my mom with yard sales galore and so much more! I still feel like I'm moving in nearly two months later but I guess that's the way it goes. I need to go through my stuff desperately and have a yard sale soon.

Anyway, this cabinet. I saw it at Goodwill one day, in the back as the door was closing behind an employee. I stalked this piece for 5 days until I finally just asked if someone would bring it out. Then I bought it on the spot! I knew this was a special piece. I honestly didn't have a clue what I was going to do with it but I knew I had to have it. Two weeks passed before I had my epiphany. I had been thinking I'd just paint it white and distress it. It's really hard to go wrong with that but it just didn't feel right for this one. It needed to be the center of attention. It was special! Then BAM! I realized!! Roaring 20's baby! And boy does it fit! Hand painting the gold and silver accents was painstaking but it turned out so amazing! I loved it so much I nearly decided to change my whole home decor to Art Deco!

So here it is before, already gutted for me.

And here we are after! I saw a dry bar but it could be used for any sort of storage and display.

Gorgeous, right!! It's for sale, too! Go to Facebook.com/ThePaintedCottageSC and send me a message if you're interested!

Broken coffee table into cocktail ottoman!

Well...I'm just tickled about how well this turned out. When I went to the store to get everything I needed to transform this broken table into an ottoman I had a completely different idea in my head. I had planned to paint the frame white and distress it with a map fabric on the cushion. Instead I came home with a spa blue damask fabric and ivory paint...and I didn't distress it. I'm in love! If it doesn't sell quickly I may end up keeping it!

Here is the not so lovely before.

Not only had the glass been broken but the X bars had been destroyed. I considered repairing them but why make life difficult? They would have been too brittle and I don't want a piece breaking in a client's house. That's just bad business. So I removed them and sawed off the pegs that they attached to. I painted the whole thing in Madison Avenue by Valspar and then added a cushion top with the GORGEOUS spa blue damask fabric I found at Joann's. I have so much left I'm seriously considering reupholstering my dining chairs with it. I don't care for the current fabric and I just love this SO MUCH! My set is black, though, so I need to put them together to really see how it looks. Anyway, here are the after pictures! She's for sale!!

Isn't she gorgeous!? And comfy, too! That's 3 inch foam!

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!

Well, this will just have to do!

I finally have the after pics of the 1930's Typewriter desk! Ain't that somethin'? Took me long enough, right? Yeah, OK. So when I bought this desk is what pretty beat up. I mean you try living 70 or so years without a few scars, right? Once I started working on it, though, I realized that it was in worse shape than it seemed. I had my hands full and spent several more hours than I projected to have it done! But I did it and I learned some things along the way. One being that wood filler is great but you may have to apply and sand two or three times to get the results you want. Also, do not buy the wood filler in the tubes. It's just not the same even with the same brand name. Buy a tub because you're probably going to use it eventually. Also, I suggest getting "paintable" AND "stainable". They're right next to each other...do yourself a favor and get them both.

Here he is before:

And here he is after:

The body is painted Royal Navy, the top was restained in Cherry, and I gave him some new hardware. He was missing a knob and the client who bought this likes vintage with a modern twist and I thought these were perfect. I also reupholstered her old chair to match the desk. Here are befores and afters of it.

 

It's amazing how paint or new fabric totally transforms!

I've got a BUNCH of new stuff coming soon that I'll be taking to the fair this coming Saturday so be looking out for them!! I'm so excited!