Happy Spring!

Well I'm back. I've not been lost in the winter void...or was I? OK, maybe I was a little. I have a few makeovers to show you today and hopefully you'll like at least one of them. ;p

Alright, so I guess I'll go backwards because that's how my memory is working today. This desk was neglected. Oh so neglected. It was covered in mold and was grimy and gross. The poor woman that owns it had sanded her heart out to try to get rid of the mold but all she needed to do was call me. Well, she did, but not before she wore her arms out, I'm sure. It just needed a litle TSP...or A LOT of TSP and A LOT of paper towels. Cleaning pieces is not my favorite part. Here is the before picture of the poor thing.

Some of the not white parts you see is wood grain but most of it, folks, is grimy white. Yeah...it was kinda bad. So she decided she wanted a Chinoiserie style and that's what I did. I painted the whole thing red, then black on top and distressed so that the red showed through. The hardware, which is obviously not shown, was painted gold. Now I do not normally like gold anything but it really popped against the black and I'm quite fond of how this desk turned out. Of course, I'm biased I suppose. I did paint the thing.

The pictures aren't great. It was too sunny, I think (aww, for shame). Great for painting, not for taking pictures. Anyway, you get the feel for it!

Let's see, this next one is pretty straight forward. We have a plain cedar chest and a side table. The side table had been painted previously and even looked like it had been antiqued but it looked more like a lot of stuff had been spilled on it and didn't get cleaned from the crevices. Yeesh...it looks much better after. She just wanted a clean, simple yellow for both.

OK, this last one was some work. I should have known better but apparently I didn't. It is a mahogany vanity. What does mahogany do? It bleeds. It bleeds like no other piece of furniture has bled before in the history of furniture. So I painted it white, la di da. I come back an hour later and the whole thing is pink. I go about things the stubborn and hard way and paint it white again. There, that should do it. Nope...it's just a little less pink. Oooooookkkkkk, fiiiiiiiiiine! I guess I'll get in my car and trek five whole miles to Lowes to get some shellac...what a burden!! So I do and then I shellac it, and then I paint it white. Lord knows it was better but gosh dang it if there weren't a few places with a delicate shade of pink. So I shellac it again....paint it white....again........and then put the poly on. OK, finally, it's white. The whole thing....Oh, and I gave it a new cushion and upholstery job. :) OK OK, here is the before and after.

I antiqued it a little bit to bring out the details which were lovely.

That's all folks! Now that I'm back in the game I'll be posting much more regularly. Hopefully weekly if business gets good! See you soon!

Me time

I actually took a weekend and did something for myself! I had a little break in between clients so I found myself a $20 table, used an old hutch that had come with a dresser I purchased (I knew I'd end up using it for something), and spend $15 on a 10 foot pine board at Lowe's. The hutch had a mirror in it so I removed the mirror and the corner shelves (useless) and replaced them with the cut pine boards. I used corner braces to screw them in a few places since the shelves would be holding lots of paint. They needed to be sturdy. I cleaned it all up well, primed it and then painted it Turkish Tile from Valspar. I wanted a BRIGHT and RICH color to keep me happy while working hard out there in that sad, blah garage. OK, so here are all the befores...

The next two are in between pictures of the hutch. I had removed the mirror and corner shelves and then installed the new shelves.

Primed...It looks better already, doesn't it?!

And here it is put together and then all set up with supplies!

I'm sooooo happy I had time to get this done because I'd already been so unorganized for a while and it was only getting worse! I still haven't gotten everything in order but this is a big start. I think I'll get some storage bins or hey, maybe even a cheapo Craigslist dresser for more storage underneath at some point. I am so proud of myself! :)

I have another reveal coming up in a day or two of a 1930's Typewriter desk and a chair the client brought to go with it. She wanted the top of the desk stained the same color as the chair and then the seat reupholstered. It looks amazing! It was A LOT of work, that desk. It was in rough shape, much more so than it looked but it's done (whewf!) and I'll have pictures by Wednesday. Then I have another small nursery set in the next week and it's NOT white! So that's going to be fun. Alrighty, I'm off! See you all soon!

FINALLY!!

I know it's been a while since I've posted but I have been a busy bee! I've been working on two nursery sets, a dresser and nighstand set, and a chair makeover. I have the chair after pic for you today (I forgot to take a before! :( ), and one of the nursery sets is complete and being picked up today.

First off I'll show you the chair. It was a Craigslist find by one of my clients. The entire chair was the same color as the seat to give you an idea of the before. I asked her to pick out a paint chip from Lowe's so we would know it would match and she dropped it off! She told me she wanted it lightly distressed but that her decor wasn't really cottage chic so not too much. I'm not much of a fan of heavy distressing myself, but a little light distressing really brings out the details sometimes.

I really love how it turned out! I do my best to only distress in areas that would naturally wear from use. I feel like anything more than that looks strange.

OK, now on to the BEFORE & AFTER of the first nursery set! Yay! I've not ever done this much furniture at once before and feel truly blessed. This client has a lot of future work for me and I can't wait to help her make over her home!

Before: It was a new set of furniture with some slight wear (her little girl is 11 months old) but she originally bought it thinking she was having a boy. When they discovered they were having a little girl she felt like this wasn't fitting. She wanted a super girly room for her princess. She actually found me via one of my Craigslist ads for a vanity I'd refinished and was selling and asked me to redo the rest of the furniture. Here are the before pics. The dresser and crib matched but she had a random side table she wanted painted so it fit better. I didn't take befores of the crib but you can get an idea.

She wanted me to paint the set white but didn't want it too white so I used a single layer of dark wax to darken and add some dimension. She also wanted more girly hardware. I knew EXACTLY what I was going to use. As a matter of fact I had already purchased a few for when I redo my own furniture...which is lucky because Hobby Lobby didn't have enough for this job so I ended up using them. Rest assured I will be getting more for myself when the time comes. ;) Anyway! Here are the after pics!

I love these knobs even more now getting to see them on a piece of furniture! That's all for now! But I will have another nursery set for you on Saturday or Sunday...or Monday. It's my husband's birthday weekend so I'm not sure how much time I'll have to blog but I promise it'll be less than a week! Later Gator!

MIA

So I have been a bit MIA lately and I apologize for that! We have been dealing with the strangest weather this summer and our old house (seriously, it was built in 1900) isn't adjusting well so we've been doing a lot trying to keep this house above water. I almost mean that literally! So to tide you over until this Friday when I should have a chair makeover I'll give you a partially completed Union Jack dresser in honor of England's new prince. Congrats to William and Kate!

 

I've already painted the rest of the showing wood white and it still needs to be antiqued and waxed, plus I'll be finishing a matching side table when the customer gets it in. It's going to look amazing! And I guess I can say this is my first Ikea hack! Check back in this weekend for more updates. I'll be working on TWO nursery sets over the next week or two so you'll definitely have something to look forward to for next week. Until then, Cheerio!