Just Ducky!

The first time I heard of Annie Sloan's Chalk Paints was reading Miss Mustard Seed's Blog.  Man was I excited to read about it's almost magical qualities of adhering to almost any surface sans priming, sanding or stripping.  Yeah, double yeah even!  The price was a bit daunting, but then the price of primers, strippers, etc. aren't exactly cheap either, and then there's the extra time involved.  It's a labor of love, but it's still labor!  It didn't take me too long to jump on the bandwagon and place an initial order for a couple of quarts.  My first project with the chalk paints was a pretty three drawer dresser I found.  It was actually in pretty decent shape, so I elected to keep the stained top and just refreshed it.  I also happened to love the chunky wood knobs that were original so I kept those and restained them also.  I chose to use the Duck Egg blue paint on this piece. 

Isn't she cute!  I will join the countless others who have blogged about the joy of Annie Sloan's chalk paints.  They are quite simply fabulous and worth every penny.  I have nearly run through my first two quarts and am waiting on some new colors to arrive this week so I can work through the pile of furniture in my workshop. 

Aren't her little feet cute?  I actually only needed one coat of paint on this piece since I knew that I would be distressing it.  It was finished up with a good coat of clear wax and a few highlights of dark wax.  The chalk paint reminds me a lot of the old "milk paint" I used at my grandmother's house when I helped her repaint a building.  I have to say I do love the results a lot.  This piece is ready to find it's home.  If interested email me for the particulars.
Happy Memorial Day everyone!
God Bless America and God Bless our Troops!
Deb



Family Resemblence

She's beautiful even with all her imperfections.  Look. At. Those. Feet.  In her magnificent sturdiness I told the Mr. that she reminds me so much of my Great Grandma Ethel.  GG Ethel crossed the prairie in a covered wagon, she was strong, but sweet, soft and oh so good natured.  She would have loved this piece because of it's bountiful storage and practicality, but also because it was lovely.  Ethel the buffet came with more than a few blemishes.  A project left long forgotten in a workshop, she showed years of use and neglect.  Her top was in a sorry state from it's practical use in the workshop with burn marks, small divits, and warn off finish.  The first thing we did as we cleaned her up was replace the extremely rain warped back.  Ethel was missing her backboard and that needed replacing.  Her pulls were somewhat mismatched and a few were broken, so we elected to replace all of those.  Once she was structurally shored back up and well sanded I primed her and gave her a couple of quick coats of SW Sea Salt.  It's a nice green/gray that in some lights reads blue/gray.  

I decided to do a stain/antiquing process, light distressing, and buffed her up with a couple coats of wax.  I love this piece.  She's a large presence of beauty in any room. 

Drool over these lovely feet.

Here's a close up of her new pulls.  My 5 year old actually insisted, and goofy me I initially resisted since the advice was coming from someone who is currently obsessed with lions.  ("I know I'm a girl, but I'd really rather be a lion.")  Then I stopped and looked hard and wondered why I can be such an idiot sometimes.  Lion pulls are PERFECT for Ethel!  Ethel has many admirers now with her paint job, perfect hardware, original velvet lined drawer, and original birdseye maple drawer bottoms.  She is looking for a lovely home to join, if I can bare to let her go!! 

Thanks for stopping by to meet Ethel. 

Happy Memorial Day everyone, please remember to thank our Service Men and Women, both past and present for all they do!

Deb

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

This is Madeline, I found her on CL with the description, "primed and ready for painting". Well, who can resist that, and of course her very pretty little feet. My Mr. picked her up for me and sure enough she was primed, very heavily primed, primed so that her drawers wouldn't even close or were wedged shut and needed to be pried back out! And when I thought I could just sand back some of the primer and soldier on I found that under the HEAVY prime coat were 2 or 3 other equally heavy coats of paint. You know what that means right?? Stripper, and lots of sweat to remove all those layers. Not my favorite part of reviving furniture, but there were those cute feet, and nice trim and solid, dovetailed drawers, etc.

I'm pleased to say that Madeline cleaned up so beautifully with a few coats of SW "Creamy", new hardware, and a nice wax polish. It's funny, but after all the work stripping her down to bare wood, and then 3 nice even layers of paint I just couldn't take a sanding block to her and shabby her up. It will just have to happen naturally now, I thought she should start out fresh, clean and neat! Madeline went home with her new family last night where I know she's going to be well-loved and taken care of! Seriously, a nice, solidly built piece like this will stand the test of time and be around to pass from generation to generation for years to come. So, for all the whimpering and groaning I did through layer after layer of paints and stains, it is so, so worth the time it took.

Many more reveals to come this week! Despite how attached I get to my furniture, most of my pieces are for sale to folks in the greater Omaha area. Contact me for more information.

Thanks for letting me share Madeline today, hope you are having a wonderful Monday!

Deb

Lane Cedar Chest Reveal

This Cedar Chest was completed well before Miss Mustard Seed introduced me to the joys of Chalk paint. This means she was sanded, primed and painted in the lovely "Creamy" by Sherwin Williams. To highlight all of those lovely panels on the front I lightly distressed and applied an Antique Glaze. The cushioned top was reupholstered in a Linen blend fabric "Shadow Damask Patina" to complete her new look. As I said before, the interior cedar lining is in pristine condition. This will make a lovely storage piece for someone. So, ta da...

And I'm still having difficulty with moving my photos around in here. So pardon the messy layouts!

Have a lovely day!

Deb

New Beginnings

Hello to new friends and old! I'm slowly getting myself set up for a new adventure. For many years I refinished antique and new furniture for our home. I've always loved picking through antique and vintage treasurers for something to use in our home. I was lucky enough to inherit a few family pieces, and the Mr. and I collected more during our military travels. Now I'm looking a little harder for those pieces (and wishing I'd stocked up more 20 years ago!), and I'm refinishing, repurposing, and upcycling those things to sell to others. It's funny how things begin sometimes, but during the month of February no fewer than 4 of my friends mentioned in casual conversation that "we should go together and start a business". It literally rang around in my head virtually NON-STOP for several weeks before I fianlly believed that maybe it was possible. We're all individually working on our "thing", but together we will be hosting an amazing sale sometime in the near future. I'll keep you posted on those developments. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by some of the most talented friends! We feed off of each other creatively, and I am so grateful for their support, input, and huge talents. I'm equally blessed to have a Mr. who is patient and forever my biggest supporter, as well as my children and family that are taking this huge leap of faith quite happily. I probably should have called this blog Lucky Lady!

Now, I'd like to share with you one of the first pieces of furniture that I refinished. Hopefully, this piece will find a new, loving home sometime in the future. As you can see from this before picture, this sweet little Lane Cedar Chest was stuck in the 70's...not that there's anything wrong with that. So much going for her right? Well, until I can figure out why blogger won't let me move my pictures around easily you'll just have to wait for the new grand reveal! So welcome to my new blog, Twice Nice, where all sorts of vintage things will get a new look or purpose!

Have a great day!

Deb