It's been a while

Well, I realize it has been a while since I've posted but I haven't forgotten! I've just been so busy that I took some time off of refinishing furniture to get some stuff done around the house. That is the beauty of my job...gosh dang I love it. Anyway! I just finished a dresser yesterday for a customer who wanted to do an Americana theme in her boys' bedroom. She wanted a dresser to go with that but didn't want it to be something that would grow outdated too quickly. I suggested blue because you can change your decor to just about anything and it still work and she took my advice. I really love this dresser. If it hadn't already been promised to someone I would have brought it straight in the house last night and loaded it down with my husbands clothes!

So here is the before. Just a plain old dresser, although the details are nice, and mismatching/missing hardware.

I used Valspar Indigo Streamer and made my own chalk paint, distressed it a little, then put two coats of polyurethane on it and updated the hardware. And here we are!

I'm going to get more of this color because I like it so much! Oh, and one more thing! I finally got some business cards and I'm just so proud and plus they are super pretty so here is a picture of that!

Yay! Ok, see y'all next time! I'm going to try to get several pieces done by next Friday so I might post a lot next week. Just keep checking back. And have a look see at my Facebook page HERE! And do me a huge favor and "Like" it. Word of mouth is my only real life source so I depend on people such as yourself to spread the word. I appreciate it and have a wonderful weekend!!

It's a redo redo!

So the grey and blue striped dresser sold except that now it's grey and sage green! The lady who was interested in it said that she liked it but her colors were more muted and chose the sage green to refinish it in. Because I had waxed the top really well I chose to just darken it with a dark wax and only paint the body. So here is the first after...

And here is the new after! It has a totally different feel to it. It still amazes me what a coat of paint can do!

From what I understand it will be moving to Texas very soon! Ah well, that's all for now. I'm going to hopefully be working on two new pieces this week if the weather will work with me! See y'all Friday, fingers crossed!

Missed a week but...

Making up for not posting a reveal last Friday! I've got TWO for ya! I'm working on trying to up how much I can get done in a week and it seemed to work. Ok, so this first one was a Craigslist Curb Alert, missing a drawer. I even picked it up in the rain! But it turned out well. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do but once I noticed the handles had pineapples on them I knew I wanted a Charleston feel to it. I bought some cute baskets to go in the bottom. They don't fit perfectly...who knew that would be so hard to do but I've decided to sell it with or without in case someone has their own baskets or doesn't like the ones I purchased. This one gave me some trouble with the second drawer but with some help from my husband I remedied it and now for the reveal!

Before, old, worn, missing a drawer...

And that brings me to the next one! I am seriously proud of this piece! It was actually the first piece I acquired on this new journey to refinish furniture but I had been too scared up until recently to even attempt what I wanted to do with it. I loved the ornate drawers and the fact that it had the original casters. Not a bad looking vanity to begin with but I feel like a breathed a whole new life into it!

Before, just stained but in different colors so you could actually see the details.

And after! I created a custom blue and added antique glazing then did the hardware in oil rubbed bronze.

I LOOOOOVE IT! I would love to keep this piece but I'm far from having my dream bedroom just yet. I hope someone loves it to death! Thanks for looking!

Friday reveal! Scratch that...Saturday reveal!!

I started this post yesterday but for whatever reason I could NOT get my pictures to upload. I had the same problem last time but it remedied itself in the same day. Oh well...so here it is.

I did it! I figured out what I wanted to do with the nightstand AND it's finished on time (Fridays are my self given deadlines). Ok, so it's not bad looking before, pretty good shape except for a random sticker here and there and those came off quite easily! So here she is before...

See? Certainly not a bad looking nightstand and I love her lines! OK OK, here she is after. :)

Such a lady! I love the drawer pull! I had it posted on my Facebook shop page for only a few minutes before I had someone contact me about buying it. She's coming this afternoon so if all goes well this sweet, ladylike nightstand will be going to a new home today!

Here's my Facebook page (again) if you're interested in taking a gander. https://www.facebook.com/ThePaintedCottageSC Go ahead and "Like" it while you're there! I'd certainly appreciate it! Thanks y'all!!

Ooh la la!

Well this one didn't take long at all and I think it turned out too cute! This sweet little bench has been hanging around with me for more than 10 years. I never knew what to do with it but kept taking it with me when I moved. I finally found it's calling!

I want to apologize for the millionth time about forgetting to take before pictures. I'm just terrible at remembering but here's an "Oops, I already started painting it but you kind of get the idea" shot.

And here she is all finished!

What I did was make my own chalk paint with some unsanded grout and white latex paint I had lying around. I then printed out the French Typography on freezer paper (I'm thinking it would work find with wax paper but I haven't tried that yet, although, they are the same?). I printed it backwards because I was going to be pressing the ink into the wood. I tried a mod podge technique before and apparently you have to have a laser printer. I only have an inkjet. And Voila! At first I was thinking it was a little too white but it's starting to grow on me. Now I just need to wax her up to protect the typography and off she'll go to a new home!

I have one more project I'm going to try to finish by Friday but we'll see because I'm having a hard time deciding what to do. So, maybe I'll see you Friday! Fingers crossed. ;)

Better late than never

So I'm a smidge late posting this one. I finished it the Friday before last but have been soooo busy I just didn't have the time or energy to write a new post. Anywho, the last dresser I posted about and this one I'm about to show you I bought together. They were both older dressers and showed it. This one was interesting to say the least. Here's the before.

It  doesn't look terrible but the white paint was matte and uneven and scratched up, yadda yadda. It needed to be stripped, no doubt. I started with the sander but realized that even with electricity it just was going to be too much work so I caved and bought chemicals. The upside to that is that I used Citristrip which is greener than the typical strippers so I didn't feel too bad about it.

By my count this dresser has been painted at least 7 times. And if you look at the picture below you can see that on the very bottom of all the paint there were graphics on the dresser. I made one out as a rocking horse and another was children, which I couldn't tell until I was actually scraping the paint off. I always think it's neat when you get a little bit of the history of a piece.

Can you see the rocking horse?

I actually had to apply stripper more than once in a few places. The paint was stubborn in some places.

 After stripping off as much of the paint as I could I went back to sanding and FINALLY painting! I cleaned the original glass knobs and she was finally ready for her closeup! Yay!

I've got several pieces I'll be working on over the next few weeks. I think this week's reveal is going to be an old bench I've had for at least 10 years and a night stand I picked up for free on Craigslist. You can see the other pieces I've worked on on my Facebook page. Head on over there and "Like" my page! See you again this Friday!