Sittin' Around

I finished this chair ages ago, but simply kept forgetting to take any beauty shots and share her.  Does that mean I'm really getting old?  As long as I don't get "funny" too, because I have a promise with the Mr. that we can not get old and "funny" acting both.

Look at her 'Queenly' curved back, lovely!  She's pretty with her Old White paint and indigo and off white fabric cushion.

It does not get any better than comfy and curvy both.  Love this one a lot, she makes me happy.  Just shabby enough to be interesting.  She actually looks kind of lovely in the garden.  Hello purple cone flowers. :-)  They make me happy too.

And if her curves are not enough for you, she has pretty little claw feet too.  She's for sale, just let me know if she belongs to you next!  I'm warning you though, the longer I sit and look at this piece in the workshop the more likely I am to move it into the house and find a spot.  Just sayin'.
Have a super week and enjoy these last few days of summer.  Here we go August!
Deb
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Falling in love with Waterfalls

I have to say that I was never a big fan of waterfall style furniture.  Yes,  they almost always provide GREAT storage with deep, deep drawers and they are plentiful in the market place.  They lacked the curvy aprons, and lovely turned legs that make my heart skip a beat that other dressers possess.  Not to mention the scrolls and wood decals.  I have been prodded by the Mr. to purchase a few, and much to my surprise, they have become finished favorites.

This little vanity would be one, that I ended up absolutely loving.

It helped that it had a perfect full moon mirror with it.  

I also had another waterfall dresser that I was able to make a 2nd Omaha Subway dresser out of.  The photo has gone poof, but it would have had the look of this on it's big, deep drawers.

So, when the Mr. said "good condition, clean, good price buy it" I might have whined a minute about how it had 2 layers of badly done 'faux wood' paint on it, or how hard it is to make them look "pretty".  In the end I caved and boy am I glad now.  I was inspired by some artists who had taken vintage paint by numbers and blown them up on feature walls.  How cool!!  Why not try it on a nice flat front dresser?  And guess what, I had one of those.  Sweet!

I will say this is not for a piece if you want instant gratification!  I had to sand off the old 'faux wood' finish, fill in where someone had added hardware (actual hand pulls are built in under the drawers),prime the front and top, and hand draw from a picture of a vintage paint by number piece to begin with.  

As you can see by the detail photo there is a lot of color changing and squiggly lines in a paint by number.

I used primarily craft paints for the detail work, and yes if you look closely you will see all the 'texture' that I remember getting when I used to make a Paint by Number master piece!

It really was rather soothing work, and completed off and on in between other commission jobs.

I pulled the design up and over the waterfall top.  Because I love teetering on a step stool while balancing a paint tray, brush, and water!  Actually I'm glad I did so I could capture more sky and tree top.

The drawer fronts and top were coated with protective poly coats.  The sides and trim are painted Old Ochre and finished with a wax coat for a neutral vintage look.  Talk about a statement piece in a room!!

When I catch my breath you will likely see some more paint by number effects on some pieces.  It's an addiction I tell you!  And I have to say, that I'll never turn my nose up at another waterfall piece again!

Have a great weekend!

Deb

P.S.  Forgot to add the "in progress" photo, but thought some of you might enjoy seeing it.

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Lovely Side Tables and Lovely Daughters

I'm just popping back from a nice little family reunion break.  Good to see all the extended family and make some new memories and retell a few old tales!  The work never ends though, and I'll be back at it strong by Monday after I wade through the mounds of laundry and enjoy some of our small town "Gretna Days" activities.  Just had some time for a quick share of a project finished last month, but never shared.  A friend found me an amazing side table at a Garage Sale and I had a chance to give it a makeover towards the end of June in between other projects.

It has a wonderful sculpted cut marble top!  Beautiful colors in it and pretty little brass caster feet.  I left the brass hardware as they were perfect for the piece.

The paint color is ASCP in Old White with light distressing.  

Whoa, that orange bowl casts a wicked glow I'm now seeing.  Anyway, it's a wonderful piece for someone who needs an awesome side table in the living room or bedroom and is for sale.  Let me know if you want first dibs!

Our Summer is going too fast in some ways, and too slow in others.  I think there have been enough school activities (band) for the girls not to become too bored, but enough dead time that they'd rather be in school with their friends.  One of our must dos this summer were Senior portraits for my oldest!!  I know, it freaks me out too that she grew up that darn fast!!  We ended up having a lovely young lady from our church take her photos a few weeks ago. Laura had just begun her photography career, Laura C Photography,  and did a gorgeous job with my lovely daughter!  I highly recommend her for those of you in the Omaha area.  Here are a couple of the photos.  I can't even say they are my favorites as I honestly can't choose my favorite!  So many were wonderful.  

And one of all 3 of my lovely young ladies!

I know I don't normally talk much about my life outside of the furniture business, but these gals are my greatest blessings!  They make life fun and full of love.  They sparkle!!  I am so proud and honored to be their Mother.  And while it kills me to think of them leaving the safe little nest here at home, I am happy to see them excited about all life has to offer.  Love you to the moon and back Michaela, Madison, and Ellarie!

These ladies are my most fabulous reveal of all!!

Deb

Triple Treat

I met a couple of great ladies several months ago.  It all started with the nail head buffet which Libby bought. And then we moved on to a red buffet/console piece for Libby.  After that I painted another office console piece for Libby's friend Lynne, and then...  You see where this is going?  These gals are my kind of people!  They appreciate fine vintage furniture and love to see it brought back to life.  Which brings me back to Lynne who called to see if I could paint 2 super nice pieces she found at an estate sale.  Lucky Lynne!  Both of these dressers are true stunners, though the one had been handled a bit roughly and needed some kwik wood to fill a rather giant missing leg part.  I wish I were better at that.

Here they are now, all painted and stained anew!

Lynne chose ASCP in Cream, and you can't see it up here, but we stained the very top of the dresser after some sanding.  Sorry for the workshop photos.  I only had time to snap these as we were getting ready to load them for delivery.

Here's the sister piece.  Isn't she dreamy with all of that cool detail?

The top turned out so nice.

Legs, gorgeous!

More pretty little detail.  Good eye Lynne!  I was quite sad that I didn't own these, if even for a little bit!
While we were talking details for these two pieces Lynne spied another dresser that I was just prepping.
She decided to have it finished for her daughter.  And Lynne went bold!  Yeah!  Coral.  Wow!

This new color is a chalk and clay based mix from American Paint Company.  I love their colors, and I liked working with the paint a lot, though I need to get used to the coverage.  I probably overkilled on this one because Lynne preferred no distressing.  And I like to try and please.

Not sure why this pic is so hazy, but I wanted to show you how stunning the coral is with the crystal knobs.  Behind the right hand door we drilled a hole so that her daughter can turn it into a charging station.  The little drawers are perfect for jewelry or other girly treasures.

I hope Lynne will send me a picture when she gets her daughter's room all put together with the new dresser!
Thanks Lynne!  And Libby...well lets just say the story continues.  ;-)

It's another busy week with a large custom project and I've been piddling with a very intricate piece in between orders.  VERY vintage...

Deb
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New Things

New Things are very, very good sometimes!  I needed a blog change up, yes I did.  And because I have never been able to figure out how to make my header shrink to fit, or how to add a pretty background, etc. I needed help.  Thank the Heavens above that there are folks out there that understand how to do all this blog prettifying.  And I'm sure that prettifying is a word.  After seeing Rita's blog Curbside Creations get a makeover I knew just who I would contact.  Hubby Jack from Hubby Jack's Blog ATTACK saved my blog from it's sad little self!!  Just look what he did!  SHAZAM!  I love it, love it, love it, and I'm quite sure I'll recognize it as being mine pretty darn soon.  I highly recommend him if you are looking for a spruce up of any sort.  (This is not a paid endorsement, just a very satisfied customer sounding all happy.)  Happy, happy, happy, that's me!  Cruise around a while and see what you think too.

I have been busy here.  I sent a chair on it's way to NJ & Co. with nary a pic.  What is wrong with me?  Trust me, it's cute and you want to buy it.  To help you in that buying endeavor I will tell you that NJ & Co. is running a sale on all furniture, in addition to some other wonderful deals in the clothing and home decor departments!  BOOM!  It's worth stopping by to check out!  And if you buy my chair would you take a photo of it and email it to me so I can get it up here on the blog.  You will have bragging rights for having the wisdom to snatch up said unadvertised chair!

I also worked on some of these babies last month.

My little wooden totes with my old leather handles.  Love me a good tool tote.  These are must haves in my mind.  But I have a serious addiction to wooden boxes and trunks for storage.  These will be for sale at the Prairie Market in October.  (See the button up above for more info...and isn't it cute?!)

Any old worn leather strap looks great with them, but I love these tooled leather belts...when I can find them!

Even better when you can find one with a name on it, which is almost never unless you want to spend $$$$.

This is a team project with the handy dandy Mr.  He builds what I tell him to, I paint it and then he nicely attaches my handles.  I like to think of it as quality time together.

Life is good, I have cute boxes just waiting to be filled up, and an AWESOME new blog look!  I will not be wiping this smile off my face for quite some time.

Happy Belated 4th,  hope it was sparktacular!  And every day we should be thanking our lucky stars to live in this wonderful country, and thanking the proud men and women who serve so unselfishly to make sure we continue to enjoy our freedom!  God Bless Them!
Deb