State of the Store!

Ok, I know it's not an actual store but just wanted to give a quick shout out that the booth at The Brass Armadillo has been restocked with Paint and Brushes.  I have more product on order and am excited about some new paint coming during the next few months.  Keep your eyes peeled here, on my Facebook page (Twice Nice Furniture and Decor) and now, big gulp, on Instagram (Twice Nice Furniture)!

There are most of the new quarts in stock.  Voyage, a gorgeous new blue; Sackcloth, a beautiful neutral that I think I am going to be using a lot this year; Cannonball, the new black; Leather Boots, the name says it all and it makes such a great base color; Crushed Tea, a darker taupe, yum; and more of the colors ordered for us to play with this year!

I'll try to get this post updated with some of the colors here later today.  Right now I must run to play with the children home from school.  Because these are the days that pass so fast, and I love these kids!  Happy New Year!  Can't wait to see what you all have planned for 2015 and I can't wait to show you what I have planned!

Deb

Belated Christmas Wish & a Peek into 2015

Merry Christmas friends (if any of you are still around)!  I hope you had a time of creating beautiful memories with those you love!

I would apologize for the long break in posts, but honestly it was just what I needed at the time.  Some of you may have jumped over to Facebook to find out what I was up to, and if you haven't you need to find the link in the sidebar and visit and like away!  I'm also learning to use Instagram with the help of my teenage 'assistants'.  Technology and I are determined to be friends at some point.  

Twice Nice Furniture had a marvelous 2014 with the annual Prairie Market Sale in October, quickly followed by Junk Stock two weeks later.  That was a busy, but rewarding month.  November and December were devoted to my family and friends.  A couple years ago my word of the year was "Balance" and I really do need to keep that one up on my bulletin board permanently.  It is easy to get lost in a lot of this as you try to build a business and/or brand.  Not that I'm aiming for the top of that ladder like some of the super successful  DIY Ladies out there...Salute!, just make my mark in my tiny little part of the world.  

Selling the APC paint line and teaching classes has been so very rewarding.  I now carry a line of brushes, Vintiquities, which are fabulous with Clay/Chalk/Mineral based paints.  The wax brushes are fabulous too!  My booth at the Brass Armadillo, Omaha continues to do well as a place for people to find my paints.   We continue to explore our options and growth will most likely be in baby steps, but you never know what new opportunities may present themselves.  

I hope to have more news and some photos of some finished products back up here again soon.  I promise it won't be 2 months before my next post.  I feel recharged and ready to get back into this world of Blogs and Facebook, and Instagram (heaven help me)!  Join me in all or any of these places, it should be a fun ride!

Enjoy your family, count your blessings, and dream big for the upcoming year!

Deb

Back Burner

I have to say I am sorry for having neglected the blog for so long.  It's never intentional, there was no thought.  Shoot, my brain is so scattered I'm lucky to get shoes on most days.  The Prairie Market was a wonderful success.  So many wonderful, supportive customers that have followed us year after year.  And there were lots of new faces to visit with this year also.  My house is still a disaster though.  I moved right from production for the Market to preparation for Omaha's Junk Stock!  Which is a huge venue with many vendors and many, many shoppers.  I am excited and nervous, and exhausted, but I think I have so fun new things ready to go.  If you visited me at the Prairie Market, don't worry, you won't be just looking at my same old pieces.  Some of those will come to Junk Stock, but I had made and stashed plenty of new pieces to sell at Junk Stock.

I'll also have the American Paint Company paint line with me.  Some paints are being retired so I have stock with special prices on them!  The new colors are gorgeous and I can't wait to start debuting those the end of October.

If you don't follow me on Facebook you should. :-)  I seem to be a more faithful poster on FB.  At least, I post some fast little bits and pieces.  So don't forget...This weekend is Junk Stock!  Come shop, listen to the bands, enjoy a bite from the food trucks and find some peace, love, and junk!

Deb

Rescue Me

I do feel like a Rescue home for poor neglected and abused furniture on many days, and this piece is a great example.  Observe...missing legs and feet, what to do, what to do?!  I actually looked into adding some height back to it by attaching a footed bottom, but my handy man Mr. talked me out of it.  Instead we gave her wheels and then a makeover.

It ended up being nearly the perfect height for several possible uses.

Love the detail work on this piece.  That's Home Plate accenting those.  Inside those little doors was...

lovely wood in really good condition.  It always amazes me how horrible a piece can look on the outside and how untouched the inside appears to be.  I just renewed and sealed the interior drawers.  What use do you see here?  Dresser, Bar Cart, Paper Craft organization?

As bad as the top was it stripped down and refinished beautifully!  The wood is just such a pretty contrast to the paint.  Love this one a lot!!

And when a girl gets wheels she sometimes needs new "jewelry" too.  I love these knobs so much.  It makes me sad that they were being clearances and I might not be able to find more!

A definite improvement!  The main body is painted in Smoke Signal.  Waxed in a 50/50 mix of clear and dark wax.  I can't wait to take her to the Prairie Market or Junk Stock!!

Painting Workshop classes have been updated for the rest of 2014.  Check out the dates by clicking on the button in the top bar!

Deb

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It's that time of year again...

  That time when I disappear for weeks at a time as I frantically try to finish some projects for our upcoming Prairie Market Sale!  It is a crazy, fun, mad dash to the finish line.  I never have much time for posting this time of year, but on the upside I will eventually get all these painted finishes out here for you to see.

Here's a quick little post and some eye candy for you to enjoy.

This ginormous chest of drawers was painted in American Paint Colors, Born on the 4th of July, Peacock and Desert Cactus, blended to give it some movement.  The stencil and pulls are straight Born no the 4th of July.

I can not say enough good things about the rich pigmentation of APC's paints.  They are so rich and have so much depth.  I sealed with clear wax, but I think it would have been cool to have added another color mixed in the clear wax to add another layer.  Soon I will have to try that!

Very light distressing this time.

Some pieces are just so easy to do and easy to love.  This was one of those lucky ones that matched exactly what I saw in my mind before I began.

Wishing you that kind of luck this week with your projects!
Deb

America

America, America, God shed his grace on thee...

How fun it was to work on a dresser for a wonderful lady named Willie.  Willie wanted a dresser done for her grandson who shares her love of Country.  She said "Americana" themed and turned me loose.  

In order to keep it more masculine I decided to use the same process as the Subway Art Dressers and substitute  patriotic words and graphics.  What do you think?  Did it work?

I used American Paint Company's 'Fireworks Red' over 'Born on the 4th of July'.  I used my Silhouette to create the stencils and lots of different fonts to add some interest.

The dresser was a fun one and came together quite nicely.  The top was sanded and re-stained, the knobs were cleaned up and polished with dark wax.  The body of the dresser was finished with clear wax and buffed to a nice sheen.  Love my buffing brush!!!

And Crown thy good with Brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.

Have a great week!
Deb

I shall call her Pumpkin

A fellow American Paint Company Retailer shared her 'recipe' for making a burnt orange color on our  Facebook page a week or two ago.  I mixed it up last week and brushed it on a dresser.  Tell me what you think of Pumpkin!

I'm rather smitten with her if I dare say so.  I think I am looking forward to those cool Fall nights and the crisp sunny days.  

It is a super rich saturate color!   It kind of made this very simple styled dresser special in my opinion.  Well that and those drawer pulls!

I mean, those are pretty special too, right?  Yes, they are, and I so love it when the original hardware can be kept with a piece.  This dresser, as many of these do, had a lot of texture in the old finish.  I suspect that storage in a hot garage or shed causes much of this.  I wet distressed and took advantage of it to give it a shabbied up look. 

Oh, and in case you are interested in creating your own Pumpkin piece.  You use APC's Orange Grove in a roughly 5:1to 6:1 ratio with Saddle.    It really depends on how light or dark you want it.  I just mixed enough to cover my piece without having to recreate it, but I promise that when I make it again I will let you know an exact measurement.  You can bet I'm looking for new pieces to use it on!

I have both Orange Grove and Saddle currently in stock at The Brass Armadillo in Omaha.  My booth is on Montana Avenue. Booth 208.  There is also a flyer about upcoming paint classes and tips for painting with Chalk/Clay based paints in the booth!  Stop by and check it out!!

Have a fabulous week!
Deb

A little Boho

Getting things photographed when you are working at warp speed presents a challenge, but I am super excited to show you this next piece.  I've been loving me some stencils lately.  I've also been having some fun mixing paints to make some new colors.

Meet the Bohemian Side Table which isn't quite this orange in person.  I think I amped up the saturation a bit in Pic Monkey.  Anyhoo, this is a sweet Thomasville side table that was worn out and needed some oomph!

I mixed some of American Paint Co.'s Orange Grove with A-Maize-Ing and a little bit of Shining Seas and a drop or two of Fireworks Red and ended up with a color I call Marigold.  It is bright and cheery without being neon.

My stencil color is a pretty Pumpkin mix another APC retailer came up with by mixing Orange Grove with a bit of Saddle.  Brilliant!  I had been wanting to mix a Pumpkin color and I love what she came up with.

Don't you think the stencil and color gives this piece a definite Bohemian vibe!  I love it and wish I could talk one of my kids into a Boho Inspired room!  Maybe one of you will need this for yours?

Have a great weekend!
Deb

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Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

Well, I must say coming up with titles in the middle of the night is not my superpower.

You know the Prairie Market Gals sale is coming up soon right?  I don't exactly get into a panic, but about this time every year I start looking around and thinking I better kick it into high gear if I'm going to get through the pile of 'want to do for the sale' pieces.  So, you'll either see a bunch of reveals flying at you, or radio silence.  Since I like reveals, that's what I'm going to try to do.

Here's a recent finish for you and she's a Grande Dame!  We found a beautiful heavy oak buffet recently with a tag that had an added "last chance" sticker.  Seriously, would they toss something this gorgeous in the landfill if it didn't sell fast enough?!  It makes me sad.  But fear not, she has a chance to be useful again!

Meet Liberty.  Catchy right since that is the color name for the paint I used?  I used American Paint Company paint in Liberty on this piece after my mother suggested a sagey green when I said something about painting her black.  I am ever an obedient child.

Liberty has oodles of personality and details.  Look at this drawer!  The hardware is the same as "the sorority dressers" and they were stamped by the manufacturer 1940's so I'm going to assume this one came from that same time period.  It has a Creston, IA stamp on the back.

This photo really caught the color well.  What do you think of the the color?  It is really in nice shape for a piece that was sitting on death row.

Oops, look what I found lurking in the flowers during the photo shoot.  It's a cute Lion!  She would correct me and say it's a FIERCE lion lurking in the flowers.  Rally Sunday at church, good times!

At any rate, I am happy to say that Liberty has many more years ahead of her.  She'll be at the Prairie Market sale.  October 3 & 4, see the button at the top of the page for more information.  Come say Hi in person!!

It's going to be a fabulous week!
Deb

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Custom Colors/Custom Work

Happy Monday all!  I have had a busy weekend and first couple of weeks of August.  Thanks for all the prayers you sent for our Ellie.  She is doing well with her recovery and we thank God for that!

I was able to complete the sweetest little drop leaf table and 2 old oak chairs last week.  Thanks to the Mr. we were able to re-glue the top and rebuild the frame for the table.  It was such a clever design.  That's what I love about Vintage pieces that you just don't see with the mass manufactured.  The table top was stained and the base and chairs were painted in Home Plate.  You are probably noticing that I am just rambling on describing this to you instead of flashing lovely photos up.  That is because it went straight from the workshop into the van for delivery instead of out for a quick photo shoot first.  Imagine that, I do seem to do that with custom work more often than not!  Maybe Kelly will see this and shoot me a photo to insert in here at some point.  Trust me it looked fabulous in her new kitchen!

Never fear though, I will show you one more that I was able to finish last week and since I still own it there are photos!

This is my all time favorite style of dresser.  You might notice that it lost it's doors somewhere along the way.  No worries, I actually like it better without them!  This is a custom color, Liberty mixed with Surfboard.  I saw this on another American Paint Company retailers dresser and wanted to try it myself.

It makes for a lovely blue green or green blue depending on your paint to paint ratio's.  And I have to say that APC's paints blend so well together and make it easy to expand your color options by combining paints!

With the absence of the doors I went ahead and painted the inside and outside of these drawers although they were in great shape.  That's pure Surfboard inside, though this photo is pretty color saturated and it's not quite that bright in real life in my opinion.

Look at the lovely hardware that this one came with!  I cleaned it up and slapped it right back on.  Too pretty not to use again.

This was a fun piece to work on. And since this photo shoot I got the very simple, pretty backboard put on and it will be ready to go for our Prairie Market Sale on October 3 & 4!  Hope to see you there!

Be good to each other this week!
Deb

The Middle Child

Thank you for the prayers for Ellie's surgery!!  It went well and we are hoping and praying for a successful outcome, though we won't know for a while.  Before the surgery I managed to grab a piece I had purchased for my middle daughter and get it base coated.  Stress management painting, it works for me!  A couple of brief work sessions later it is finished.

My middle daughter is a lot like me when it comes to decorating and color and changing things up.  She and I like to 'redo' perfectly fine rooms.  Hers is just getting a bit of a tweaking since she finally seemed ready to part with the Hot Pink bedding and zebra striped accessories!  Yes (insert fist pump here)!  I had already painted her room a neutral color a soft beige.  Her bed is an antique iron headboard painted black, it will stay, and for now so will the black desk, though she has managed to beat the front to death with her rolling office chair so it will eventually get a tweak too.  We are just beginning and until we get "Oldest child" off to college  and the Prairie Market and band commitments out of the way it won't be finished.  One of the big changes is replacing her old dresser with something new.  New being a relative term in our house, right?!

I am notoriously bad at remembering 'before' photos, but that's OK this time.  It's not hard for you to imagine a blond mid-century modern oak dresser right?  Everyone's parents or grandparents had them in the 50's and 60's.  The best part about them is that they were usually made to last forever!  They are heavy and well built for the most part.  This one had a few veneer chips out of some drawers that were easily filled since I planned to paint.

Other than that, it was clean as a whistle.  Maddie chose Beach Glass, which is such a pretty teal/turquoise color.  She was torn between coral and teal, but I think she made the right choice and she will be adding in some coral with accent items.  The room will have an eclectic gathered feel, because that's how all my other rooms are and it is what we do around here.  Nothing too match, but hopefully somewhat cohesive in the end.

The nice thing about mid-century modern pieces are the flat, simple lines.  These flat drawers were the perfect place for some stenciling.  This is a floral lace furniture stencil.  I love how it has an almost batik feel to it.

I kept the original hardware which was kind of funky cool.  I resprayed it as the old finish was 1/2 worn off so it is nice and shiny now.

I think this will be a nice piece that will serve Maddie well for a long time to come.  Or until she talks me into another room makeover...

Have a peaceful end of the week!

Deb

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