Re-do the Re-do

Not every piece is going to be easy to transform.  Some days you are more inspired than others.  Some times the inspiration turns into a fabulous new creation, sometimes not.  I have those moments and most of you have had them too.  Here's my story of one of "those" days.

I have a nice Ethan Allen long, low dresser with a worn finish outside, but super clean and in good condition otherwise.  Simple right?  I thought so, and no I did not take a before photo because I just never seem to remember them these days.  My apologies. :-)

I chose a deep dark brown base of American Paint Company's Wild Horses.  Love that color for a base.  On top I painted a couple of coats of Smoke Signal on the body and Limoge on the drawers.  New hardware and voila`, finished right?

Not bad, but kind of blah, drab, and boring huh?  It just didn't inspire me.

I had tried a new (to me) technique to get a linen look to the drawer fronts.  It felt and looked cool in person, but the effect is totally lost when you look at it like this.  Then I messaged a fellow APC retailer, Shelly Andrade of Shizzle Design and whined about my blah piece.  Shelly was kind enough to quickly throw up some photos of dressers she had painted with plain flat front drawers.  They were fabulous, and inspiring!  If you have never followed Shelly you MUST check out her blog.  She and her sister Cathy do the most amazing things with their projects...Shizzle!

So back to work and here is what I came up with using Shelly's projects as my muse.

Now, there will be some of you, hello Mom, who probably won't like this any better than the first result.  Or maybe will like the first result even better.  But for me, it is heaven to see so much depth on those drawers now.  I have not mastered that technique by any means, but it was so fun to try it out.

Now you can see the linen patterns I had created on the base coats.  In addition to the Wild Horses, Smoke Signal, and Limoges I now have Freedom Road, Desert Cactus and more Limoges on the drawers.  I hit and missed painted I dry brushed, and sanded, I washed and I wet distressed.  I probably could have played for another week on these.

So which version do you prefer?  I wish I had some nicely styled photos for you, but the workshop is too full to set it up, the weather is too cruddy to take it outside, and my house is in full winter dark (with Christmas Decor still up, the shame of it all) to take a proper photo.  I will sit on this for a while and then decide if I want to change the body color a bit or maybe just layer on a different coat of paint.  You might get to see the Re-do of the Re-do of the Re-do.  It happens.

Have a super fab weekend!!
Deb

Every Piece Tells a Story

  My friend Lori and her friend Patti commissioned a special piece for some young newlyweds, and I was happy to do so.  Lori's Mom was my preschool Sunday School teacher so I've known her for a loooooong time.  Good thing too, cuz the piece they picked needed some 'splainin'.  The piece they chose, and no I forgot to take any before photos again, looked pretty decent on the outside excluding a dark stain or two on the top.  What we failed to notice at first was that the drawer bottoms were all patchworked together because the glides were all messed up.  The holes for the old, but not original, hardware were drilled at extremely odd angles and not level...at all.  And the legs had been cut off at some point in it's life.  At least they seemed level as it does not rock at all.  Well, all old pieces tell a story of sorts, and I loved finding an old political sign tacked up as a make-do drawer bottom.  I did not like that all the tiny nails someone had added in the feeble hope of keeping sketchy bottoms attached, but they missed the support wood completely and were lining the back of each drawer to make lock jaw seem like a given.  What I did think, once we removed all the tiny nails was that someone really loved this piece enough to try, despite maybe limited furniture repair skills, and hold this dresser together and make it last.  So to the young couple who receives this dresser, may you share many joys and, if there are rough spots, scratches, and dings along the way, may you use whatever means necessary to patch things up!  The truly good things are worth the work, the stories they tell are more interesting and appreciated.

When Lori and Patti commissioned this piece they gave me a lot of freedom.  Because this piece was quite old and had some oily spots that even my best primers couldn't quite kill I chose to blend 3 different colors for the base.  The movement would disguise any "freckles" that still wanted to bleed through.  And the oak was a bit rough and the graining opened up in some spots.  I used American Paint Company paints in Rushmore, Smoke Signal, and Plymouth Rock.  Just dipping and blending as I went.  It really seemed to soften up some of the rougher areas.

There was a lot of back and forth discussion on what kind of graphic to use on those nice flat drawers.  With the help of the Bride's Mother we were able to access some inspirational pins from the Bride's Pinterest Board.  Such a great idea!  Here is the one that I chose to use on this piece.  With some tiny pops of Peacock and Fireworks Red and Freedom Road for the lettering it all started coming together.

It's always a process with client pieces.  They wanted something bright and graphic and my first attempt didn't quite get it, but you just can't go wrong with Chevrons.  Especially chevrons in a nice happy yellow.  It's called A-Maize-ing, and it is!  We repaired all those wonky hardware holes and added new simple black pulls.    Sooo much better!

It's a good feeling to see this old but wonderful dresser writing a new chapter with a young couple writing their own new chapter!  Congratulations!  Wishing you all the Best!!

Deb

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