Bohemian Blue Buffet

The Bohemian Blue Buffet, B3 for short, was a fun gal to repair and restyle.  She did have a lot of veneer damage on both sides at the bottom.  It seems so many of these pieces, as they are moved through the generations, show some damage.  I imagine it is where people grabbed them to lift, and loose veneer doesn't need much encouragement to come off completely than a touch.  And once they start tearing off watch out!

One of the few that I grabbed a snapshot of for a blurry before photo.  We secured a piece of trim board on the bottom of both sides as they were ragged and sawtoothed from all the missing wood.  There was also damage to the corners of many of the drawers and on the lower front piece of trim.  The top here has already had all the water rings sanded off and is restrained and finished.  Hey, it was almost a true before photo.

But she cleaned up nice didn't she?  Don't you just love that original hardware??  Oh my gosh, I get so excited when I can keep the original hardware, and this stuff though the brass was worn and peeling in spots was so cool.

I added some copper mica powders to Aqua Clear Top Coat (an Heirloom Traditions Paint product) that I carry.  Brushed on a couple of coats and the hardware is nice and shiny again.

The top was a worn out mess, but turned out beautiful!  That dark wood top looks gorgeous with the teal like Bohemian Blue from my DIY Paint line.  Debi Beard knew what she was doing when she created this color!  It is so soothing and subtle and will work well on so many different types of furniture.  I just love the classic lines from this Art Deco period piece.  

And look, those damaged sides ended up looking pretty darn good thanks to that little trim board that covers up and resupports that broken and thin edge.  Sweet!

So, how about you, what fantastic redo's are you working on this weekend?  Happy Friday everyone!

Deb

To purchase the DIY Paint:  Bohemian Blue or the Aqua Clear Top Coat visit my booth at the Brass Armadillo, Omaha #43 or use the Affiliate Link shopping button in the upper right hand corner of my website.  Thank you!

Born on the 4th of July

Yes, I know it is February.  At the time my heart was looking for red, I craved a deep, rich blue.  Like this...

So pretty with a snowy backdrop.  This is APC's 'Born on the 4th of July'.  It is a lovely, lovely Indigo blue with great, deep pigmentation.  It dresses things up like a classic navy blazer, or dresses them down like your favorite pair of jeans.

The original brass hardware is gorgeous against this color.  It looks elegant and sophisticated even with some gentle distressing.  Underneath a bit of Desert Cactus peeks out.

Up close you can see the subtle color movement.  It reminds me of the depth of the seas and light plays so beautifully across it.

I have one like this already or it would probably stay and live with me for a time.  But, as with most of the pieces I work on it is for sale and will move along and grace someone else's home.  What do you think of this grand French lady?

Have a lovely Valentine's Day with the ones who hold your heart!
Deb

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

Linked to:

Go Big Red!

In my neck of the woods you could be in a group anywhere and yell, "Go Big Red (dragging out each word)" and immediately someone from nearby would return the cheer.  We love our Cornhuskers out here.  It should be no surprise then that red is a favorite color in decorating.  I loved having the chance to paint something red.  It's one of my favorite colors, and this piece was perfect for it.

A customer/client that purchased the nail head buffet several months ago contacted me to see if I had anything mid-century modern in black, gray, or red.  At the time I had a couple of possible candidates in my hoard /stash.   She opted to wait and sure enough one day when I was thrifting the clouds parted, the angels sang and there was her piece just waiting for paint.

A few dings, and scuffs and what looked like a "puppy corner".  You know where that darn adorable puppy you just got insists on cutting it's puppy teeth on the corner of all your furniture.  Best of all, the inside was really clean and SMOKE FREE!  I hate it when smoke ruins (practically) a nice piece of furniture.  I did end up needing to refinish the top completely, took care of "puppy corner" and gave it the coat of paint as requested.  Look how fun this turned out!

To match her existing home hardware we resprayed the original fun, square pulls with a satin silver and gave it a silver pedi to match.

Once sanded the scratches and water rings disappeared and stain and antique oil had the finish looking and feeling fabulous again.

The paint is Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Husker Red Emperor's Silk, finished in AS Clear Wax only for a nice bright saturated finish. The stain is Minwax Jacobean, topped with Minwax Antique Oil for a satin, hand-rubbed finish.  

I think this will make a gorgeous buffet/side board/console table in her family room!  What a fun piece this was.  I just love furniture!!!

Great blessings to you all this week!

Deb

Linking to these Fabulous Parties!

Big Blue and Ceiling Fans

So, it has been a busy week here in Nebraska.  Lots of fun, lots of family time, and lots of work too.  I'll have a couple of last week's project reveals later this week, but I FINALLY got around to a piece for me!  Woo Hoo!  I laughed hysterically when a sweet gal recently said, "Your house must look so gorgeous with all you do with furniture..."  Sadly it seems that my own house is the only thing that doesn't get touched very often.  In the 3 years we've lived in our current house the girls rooms have been redecorated, the kitchen has been painted (though it will be changed up once we get the time to work on painting the cabinets), and a lot of the oak trim will go as we work our way through the house.  The main rooms have all had a paint touch, but that's it.  The Master is in desperate need of a makeover that I am determined to tackle this winter!

Anyway,  in October I sold the buffet that I had loved, but had found a replacement for.  I painted the replacement, but the old one didn't sell right away and I needed some pieces for NJ & Co. so I took the replacement buffet down there.  Wouldn't you know it, they both sold about the same time.  I had another buffet, but it was too tall and I really wanted to place one on the backside of my sofa to use as a sofa "table".   I finally found another one I loved, but had so many custom pieces in the Que that I had to put it off for quite some time.  Now it is finished.  I decided to try a new (to me) ASCP color, Napoleonic Blue to pick up some of the dark blue in our area rug.

It is a lovely not quite navy/not quite royal blue.  Much fun to paint on this big oak piece!  

The top was stripped and stained in Minwax Jacobean, and finished with Minwax Antique Oil.

I kept the original brass hardware because I think it looks great with the blue.  And I keep reading how brass is coming back in vogue.

Some distressing a coat of clear wax and viola!  I toyed with the idea of adding some dark wax, and I may at some point, but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out and will take my time to decide if I want/need to tweak it!

Now for ceiling fans, a point of constant debate in my house.  We only have 2, 1 in the Master BR and 1 in the main floor LR.  I totally appreciate what they do, cause heaven knows I get plenty hot these days and we have a Golden Retriever who also gets hot...and stinky at times...and sleeps in my bedroom and this Living area all the time.  It's good to move the air around.  However, I am stymied as to why every light kit has to have such limited wattage and be so darned boring (and occasionally ugly)!  If I were a lighting designer that would not be the case.  As I am unable to persuade my Mr. that we would indeed survive without the aid of ceiling fans moving air about I challenged him to help me find new lighting solutions to use with our fans.  Here is what we came up with for 1, the MBR fan will be part of that reveal if we ever when we complete it.

Here is the LR fan, oops he had already removed the "boob" light kit that lit the room with a dim golden glow.  Here was our compromise.

We found a Chandelier type of light that would mount to the current fan light base.  With the fan on our normal low setting it does not move a bit.  And, oh my, what a difference those 6 lights make when we need a bit more light in this room!

   Feel free to weigh in on this little compromise.  You won't hurt my feelings...much ;-).  Just kidding, I do not claim to be a decorating guru or a decorating blog by any stretch of the imagination.  But I do know that lots of people would love a prettier/more pleasing  light but have a hard time giving up the benefits those ceiling fans provide.  I'm one of them!  There are some options available, I believe, if we think outside the box!  For the record, one of my teens (who considers herself an expert on coolness) does not like it, the other teen remains (wisely) non-committal, and the 7 year old just wants us to get the ladder back out so she can continue to climb it.  Life is good!
Have a great week!
Deb
Linking to:
http://elizabethandco.blogspot.com/2013/01/be-inspired-features-and-link-party-44.html
http://missmustardseed.com/2013/01/furniture-feature-friday-favorites-a-link-party-17/