It Takes Two

Bad news, I'm still using my cell phone as my primary photo taker.  Good news, these are a bit better because they weren't taken in my workshop!  I'm givin' you something to stick around for folks!

Picked up the furniture that was part of the decor for a Spring Parade of Homes house this morning.  It is always so fun to see your creations living (temporarily) in these gorgeous new homes with all the latest 'gee whizz' cool stuff.  Well I picked up most of it.  The two little side tables I had restyled so quickly for them at the last minute were purchased to permanently continue their work as designer house decor items.  

I have searched everywhere for my original before pic of these guys, but can't find it anywhere.  I'll give ya the written visual:  two Ethan Allen square side tables with a dark, dark stain and hard finish on them.  The gals had been asking for a coffee table for one of the houses.  The decor was very California beach home.  This house sits on a sand pit lake, common here in Nebraska for the non-local readers, and I wish I had thought to take some photos of the house.  It is gorgeous and just sold.  (The Builder was Absolute Custom for the locals.)

I never did find a coffee table, but when my 'picker' husband shot me a cell phone photo of these two tables to see if I wanted him to get them I knew what we could do.  And I say we because my picker even volunteered to be my stain stripper because he knew we were on a time crunch.  So, when one good coffee table is difficult to find, how about 2 nice smaller tables side by side??!  You betcha!

Ethan Allen uses a good quality stain and poly I will say, and curves are always a challenge.  It was difficult to remove every trace of that almost black stain, but we both tried hard.  And eventually got it to the point where we could see that it would work.  I applied a couple of coats of Minwax' Weathered Oak stain to begin, and followed that up with a couple of white wash coats of ASCP Old White.  Paint fast, wipe it off fast, with 2 or 3 layers depending on the spot.  The tops had stripped off easily and were easy to power sand so they ended up just naturally lighter.  

(Isn't that rug under the table gorgeous?)  Squirrel!

The design team totally styled the pieces after we dropped them off and the room was so lovely.  I love knowing my little tables are going to be help people see a nice big house as a possible home.  It's a good gig if you can get it little tables!  

To end this post I would just like to add my continuing prayers for the people in Oklahoma who were affected by ALL the tornadoes this week.  It has been difficult to watch all the destruction that was left behind and reported on.  Your strength, faith, and spirit have been so apparent in the stories we continue to hear.  It's humbling.   Please everyone, consider giving to one of the charitable organizations that will continue to provide aide to these folks as they heal and rebuild.  

God Bless everyone!

Deb

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Tried to anyway, it just wouldn't take. :-(


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Parade of Homes Buffet

You have been warned, more crappy cell phone shots, in the workshop no less!  Still from the series of, ahem, lovely photos taken in the workshop, totally unstaged because things were moving so fast.  Here is a wonderful Bassett Buffet that I refinished.

And, even stranger this is apparently the only photo I have of this piece.  I promise to take fresh photos when I get this picked up from Omaha's Spring Parade of Homes that it is visiting the past 2 weeks.  This particular buffet (for you locals wanting to see it in person) happens to be at a a home in the Valley Shores neighborhood.  A lake community just west of Omaha.  

I really wish I had a photo of the inspiration art work for this piece.  If you go the double canvas art work right above it was the inspiration for the color and treatment on this buffet.  I started with a ASCP Duck Egg base, then layered on a hit and miss dry brush of ASCP in Provence.  On top of that hit it with a scattered dry brush of ASCP in Old Ochre and a metallic paint in Silver Sage.  Lots of layers on this one!  The last was a light dry brush in metallic  antique copper and metallic bronze.  It was waxed to finish it off, and the original hardware was sprayed in Oil Rubbed Bronze and replaced.  

She is one heavy lady so we added some wheels for mobility and I re stained the top and finished it with a wipe on poly.  

There is also a pair of Ethan Allen side tables down at the show in another home (same neighborhood) that I did not even get their photo taken as they were literally completed the day before we delivered.  I hope to introduce you to them when we pick them up as they are quite fun in white-washed bleached wood look for a warm California beach feel.  Fun to do!  They were planning to use the 2 tables side by side as a coffee table.  

This week I have been working on a couple of custom orders and trying to outfit my growing children for summer.  Amazing how fast they grow up!

And I can not leave without sending out a HUGE Thank You to Three Mango Seeds for featuring my Birds on a Branch Dresser.  That was so sweet, and the best part was I found a new and very inspirational blog to follow!  WooHoo!  Go check Three Mango Seeds out and see for yourself all the cool projects they have going, and what looks like some neat parties to visit and link to!

Our weekend will include a baseball game, soccer game, several graduation parties, and some grace from worship! May your weekend also be filled with Fun and Grace! Deb

Get a Number!

Somewhere in last week's frenzy I managed to complete another piece that I had in the works for a while.  This was one of the saddest, OK the second saddest, pieces that I've ever picked up.  We actually did pay for it, but not much because not one. single. drawer. piece. was put together.  It was just a shell of a cool looking dresser, with drawer pieces that "just needed the fronts put on".  Oh, and maybe it would have been better to say needed drawer fronts for 2 of the drawers.  Plan B:  pull out the drawer runners on the bottom drawers and even up the floors of those spaces and paint them out.  Baskets.  Plan B is for Baskets.

Disclaimer:  More bad cell phone photos because this flew out the door to NJ & Co. as soon as the wax dried.
Remember this piece?

Well I still haven't gotten over my fixation with numbers apparently...or green.

I actually left the original black paint finish on this as my base and then painted over with a custom mix of paint.  1 c. Versailles Chalk Paint mixed with a 2 ounce sample jar of Benjamin Moore Dill Pickle.  This horrible photo does not do the color justice.  And to be honest it really turned out similar to MMS Luckett's Green Milk Paint which I've used a couple of times and loved.

I actually have to say that I was kind of excited that the drawer fronts were missing, which my husband totally did not get by the way, just so that I could buy some baskets and create a unique storage piece.

So here she is, a new and versatile piece saved from the landfill and ready to go in your home.  She's fun, she's sturdy, and she's useful, ah a match made in heaven!

Have a great weekend, and hope all the Mothers have a wonderful day on Sunday!
Deb
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Ready, Set, Go!

As I said last week, I am still here just busy as a crazy woman can be!  The weekend was wonderfully productive, mostly because there were deadlines to meet by Monday on a couple of the pieces.  Nothing like a deadline to keep me in line!  So, in between the normal weekend activities of soccer games, church meetings and activities, and a band banquet I managed to totally wrap up 6 pieces that had been in the works all last week.  I'm tired and a bit surprised I am even thinking about heading out to the workshop today to maybe work on a small custom order.  We'll see.

I'm hoping to get better staged photos of all these pieces later, but for now all I have are cruddy cell phone snap shots of some of them.  I'm going to call this piece, The Jane.  Jane is the J part of NJ & Co. where I consign many of my furniture finishes.  She is a lovely woman who appreciates pretty furniture and styles my furniture so it looks so lovely in the shop!  Jane loves her bird accessories too, and she brought me a photo of a bird dresser that she thought would be a wonderful idea for a piece.  I have pinned many inspiration pics and saved magazine clippings for quite some time of bird inspired pieces too, so I decided this was a sign it was time to do one.  It helped that I found the perfect dresser that same week!

Remember, non-edited cell phone photos.  The dresser is actually painted Annie Sloan's Cream, so it doesn't look as "greenish" in real life,.  The wide expanse on the drawer fronts make it easy to free hand a dark branch on here with a couple of birds traced on also.  Just very simple lines with some subtle shading which you can't see in these crude photos.

The top was so pretty, but there was one small area that had been damaged that just didn't take the stain well again.  No worries, we just continued the design on the top.  Several nice coats of wipe on poly seals it up nicely.   I kept the original hardware, just spiffed it up in oil rubbed bronze.  It fit the piece and was it great shape other than being dingy.

We delivered 'The Jane' to NJ & Co. yesterday afternoon.  I'm betting that the real Jane has her looking fabulous by now.

Many more reveals to come this week!  Hope you'll keep stopping by so you won't miss them.

Deb
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Fallen off a Cliff??

I haven't....really.  I have been on a marathon of completing a few long over due projects.  Hopefully I'll actually be able to get some  photos of the new creations to share with you soon.  Hopefully it won't snow again too.   This weather has been stinkin' crazy and keeping my tiny little heater in the workshop working overtime.  I'm thankful it is not so frigid that it can't keep up, because I am so ready to move my painting operation out of the dining room!!!

The Prairie Market ladies met and set our new dates for the Fall sale.  Yes, we decided to forgo a Spring sale this year.  It was just so stressful to try and ramp up with such little nice weather to work in.  And boy did we get that right this year!  We've also added two new vendors as of now and there may be a few more join us.  I'll write more on that later and get my side bar and buttons updated soon.

I do have to come up for air, sleep, and to feed the family on occasion!  And while I was writing this my "picker" aka The Mr. texts me photos of more goodies.  I've "miles to go before I sleep..."  Gotta run!

Have a great weekend!
Deb