French Stencils

I found this pretty pie crust table which was top coated in "I don't know what"....some super glossy but easily removable stuff.

Me's got some pretty hands, huh? And two hair ties on wrist in case one just isn't enough. I took a small paint scraper to it and it literally just peeled right off. See those little flecks on my arm?

That's about as good of a before pic as it's going to get. Picture pretty pie crust table with shiny, easily, yay me, scrape away crap on it. Now, let's fast forward....

A couple of coats of ASCP in Old White which I'm still skeptical about. Mostly about price.....is it really worth it? I will say this though, this piece distressed beautifully and waxed amazingly to a super smooth finish. Will I use it for everything I paint? No, I think you can acheive a beautiful finish with latex too. If I'm going to distress then ASCP would probably be my first choice.

It looked a little plain when I was finished so I used a French stencil to give it a little something extra. I bought this one and a couple of others here...

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtisticStencils

Tell her I sent ya, maybe I'll get a freebie :) After all, I'm the cheap Mom!

Happy Tuesday, Sue

Linking up here...

Aren't ingerie chests are hard to come by? This is the first one I found at a reasonable price via CL.

I listed it in my Etsy shop and custom painted it for a woman who lives in NYC. She chose my favorite color...blue/gray. I find it hard to do custom pieces when I'm not feeling what the buyer is. Please don't make me paint it that way a little voice in my head says.

Amazing how lighting can skew a color. I used the exact same paint on this but you would never know it.

Happy Painting and stay cool. This weather absolutely sucks for painting!

Glazing VS Dark Waxing

I'm a glazer. How about you? I'm sure there's a learning curve with dark wax, one I haven't been able to master unless I add mineral spirits to liquify the wax. Then I must clear wax first, add my liquified dark wax then clear wax again. With the price of this stuff and time involved, I prefer the tried and true glazing. Whenever I come across a piece that is carved and calls for glazing or dark waxing, I always forgo the chalk paint and wax. I just go with latex and a custom mix glaze.

I found this on CL. A very happy find I might add. Look at those legs!

She had some veneer issues which were puttied up with Quik Wood and smoothed out with my orbital sander.

After sanding and priming, I went with one of my favorite colors, Behr Light French Gray followed up with glaze mixed with charcoal acrylic paint. You know, the small tubes you can buy at the craft store for $1.99. I like to use 3 parts glaze to 1 part paint.

 

I have a whole tub of dark wax and would love to hear your tips on making it work for me. I find it's a really hard product to work with. Any advice?

Thanks for popping in!

 

Vintage Suitcase Turned Nightstand

They're all over Pinterest. Just so happens my daughter had one laying around that she found at a thrift shop a couple of years ago. Just so happens it was collecting dust in her closet and it also happens we're redoing her room and it's her Birthday in a few days.

 So I got this idea to make one for her for her Birthday. I grabbed the legs off of this curbside find.

I removed the legs plus that wood thingie they're attached to. 

The legs had screws in them so I jabbed them into the box for easy priming and painting.

Sorry no more pics but after I was done painting the suitcase and legs, I flipped it over and attached the "wood thingie" to the bottom of the suitcase using the same screws and then screwed the legs back into it.

I painted it white with a couple of coordinating stripes that are the same color as her room I painted last week. This was the first time I used Pratt and Lambert paint and it blows Benjamin Moore away as far as consistency and coverage goes. Plus it is way cheaper.

Happy Sweet 16 to my Julia!

 Another Pinterest project scratched off the bucket list!

Linking up here.....


 

Show Me the Money

So, I picked this up at the flea market. 

And I find this stashed away in a yellowed envelope behind one of the drawers.
What would you do???

We'll get back to the money in a little while.

I painted her in a mix of ASCP Louis Blue and Paris Gray with accents of Old White. Distressed quite a bit and applied clear wax.

French Provincial pieces are my favorites especially when there's a wad of cash hiding in them.

Dry brushed the hardware with Old White. Yeah, I'm getting to the money.

      So, I pull out the money. Honestly a million thoughts are running through my head....cha cha cha ching! This is what I found.....

                                           

30 Two dollar bills.........60 bucks.....exactly what I paid for the dresser! So the dresser was free for me. Got me thinking though, if I really did find a significant amount of money what would I do with it. What would you do? Finders keepers, pay it forward, try to find the original owner?

Happy Weekend, Happy Finds!!!

Linking up here....

 

Lace and a Hot Mess

This just might be one of my favorite redos. Minus the spiders, their eggs and a whole lotta cob webs. Besides the spiders and their soon to be babies it came with a rotted leg which I fixed using this method.

Here's a pic after I scrubbed her with Clorox Clean Up and sanded down some peeling paint. Yup, this is after I cleaned her up.

And here she is after....

The drawer fronts were done by laying a piece of lace fabric over them and then spray painting. I taped off the edge of the drawers first because I wanted to keep them white. I used Rustoleum Aluminum in a matte finish and sprayed the pulls as well. Make sure to use a fresh piece of lace for each part you spray...trust me on this!

 I loved doing this one so much, not to mention it sold super quick, I did another.

Happy Weekend and Happy Painting!!!

Linking up at these parties..

Amazing Legs!

Would you walk away from those legs even if one was broken and her veneer was a hot mess? Me either.

Here she is partially stripped of her veneer. A drag of a job!

The broken leg getting repaired.

I wasn't kidding when I said hot mess. I used the iron and wet towel method to loosen the glue from the veneer. Then took a putty knife and slid it under the veneer. Whacked the heck out of it and sanded down the rough spots. Prepping this took far longer than painting her. But I knew that before getting myself into this mess.

She did clean up super nice though!

Look at that beutiful back plate. I was completely bummed that two were cracked so I used glass ones on the top drawer.

I chose French Gray which is one of my favorites and tends to sell  quickly. Stripped and stained the top dark walnut and charcoal glazed in the carved areas.

Happy Weekend!!!!

Linking to these parties...