Alive and Lively

So, blogging has definitely taken the back road as we've adjusted to moving into our new [rental] home. It's still a mess and we've been here half a year, but we will get there one day.

The last few pieces I've painted have been semi-custom pieces. I bought the furniture and someone claimed it and chose the color.  But the most recent piece I did was truly a custom piece (her furniture, her color choice) and I really just wanted to share and show it off!

The buffet was covered in an awful peeling veneer...so I ventured into the task of taking it off. Never again, I tell myself, will I try to take off veneer! It took a solid week between work and household chores to get the veneer on the top and two end sides off.

But really....it was worth it. Underneath was a piece of knotted up wood, and when stained...had so much character. I was in deep love with it. 

I met the owner at her house a week beforehand to get a feel for her decorating style and color scheme. We originally chose to go with Miss Mustard Seed's Shutter Gray, but after showing her it in person, it was a bit too blue.

So I got creative. ME?! CREATIVE?! I'm a color inside the lines kind of girl, so this was a bit daring for me. I whipped up some Miss Mustard Seed Kitchen Scale and Shutter Gray and then mixed them! GASP! I ended up with about 2 parts shutter gray to kitchen scale. Not sure if you can really tell, and if you can't, don't let me know about it.

The piece chipped pretty well and finished it off with some Honey Almond Glaze Couture then coated it with Flat Finish Couture. The Paint Couture collection is new to the furniture painting world and was created local to me. I am in love with the stuff for finishes!

We finished it off with some beautiful glass knobs the owner picked out. I think she was in love when she saw it tonight.

Do you remember your first custom?

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Miss Mustard Seed

rain is a good thing

Well, apparently, Luke Bryan was right - rain is a good thing.

I know many of us have been getting hit with a lot of summer storms lately. And where does that leave the furniture painters? Some are fortunate to have a basement, or a garage...I used to be one of those!

Now that we've moved though, my space is the sidewalk in front of the house. I have a feeling you can tell where this is going.  I painted, I sealed, left the piece outside to dry, and it rained overnight. Ruined...I ran outside trying to save it. Revive it, bring it back to life. Too late, the water had gotten under some of the paint. 

I pulled it up onto the covered porch and left it. Left it for work, left it for later repair, another sunny day when I had the motivation to fix it back up. This is what you get when you use a chalk based paint - left digging your heels in the dirt.

But, what happens when the sun comes back out? The piece dries? You get this.

Perfect, authentic chippyness. The good kind. The kind like lead paint left to weather over the years. The kind that peels back to reveal another color. The kind that no amount of sanding will ever create.

All of this, without the health concerns of lead paint. I think I'll take it.

Now, unfortunately, this wasn't my plan for this piece, so I have sanded the flakes away for repainting. But, I'm going to give it another shot. Does twice make it time tested? Can I say this method really works then?

Have you had any crafting accidents with happy results?


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Miss Mustard Seed

beauty and the beast

This is the piece my mom told me to throw out. It was sitting in her garage. It wasn't good junk. It was bad junk. It wasn't old. It was someone's cast off attic item, just absolutely disgusting.

But, I saw more. I saw the beauty. I knew what it could be. I gave it a second chance. I loved it. Happy Valentine's Day little beauty.

And I hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day as well!


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Miss Mustard Seed

I need your help!!

 

A few years ago I was lucky enough to pull out this piece of furniture from a barn - for $3!! The only problem was the top wasn't attached, and it was a terrible color of pink. Just terrible. But, I thought I'd paint it and make it into a cute bedside table.

I'm sure that was about 3 years ago, and until a few days ago it still was that terrible shade of pink. 

To give you some background, as much as I love painting furniture, there is only one piece that is painted in my house, and I didn't do it. My style is changing from dark primitive colors. My goal is to end up with a mixture of white, wood, and rust (and some color mixed it - like red in the kitchen).

So, after attempting to strip the paint off, I decided there was no use. The top of this furniture is NOT wood,  but instead plastic veneer (is that what's its called, I don't know...) Anyways, its hideously white and I hate it because I really wanted to stain the top of this piece wood. So now I'm stuck.

I went ahead and painted the piece, but didn't like it. I really didn't like the distressing job I did and I thought maybe white isn't what this piece needs (and this is my favorite white paint, I'm so let down), so I painted some blue on it to see how that would look. And honestly, I don't think I like the blue either. Maybe it just needs to be a funky color, maybe that's what defines this piece. I have really been wanting to buy Ce Ce Caldwell's Destin Blue.

Then I thought, maybe I'll get rid of the real top and make a wood top. 

***And here's where I need your help! Let me know your input, blue or white (or a different color), chicken wire sides or the original sides (as seen on the pink piece), wood top or original top, or any other ideas that you think would make this piece amazing! 

My husband really misses his night stand, so I need to fix it soon.  Your opinion is so much appreciated!!


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Miss Mustard Seed

Lovely White

This is my favorite piece I've done so far. This is the piece I would have kept (if I had room). This is the piece that I sold in a day!

By the time I was done, it didn't look like this anymore. But first, I took her apart to make the job easier.

 

Then, I got to excited and forgot to take pictures until I was done. But the process was sanding as much as I could. The varnish was peeling off in most places, so I brushed it off as much as I could, but the remaining would help make the perfect aged effect. The apron and legs were painted with brown primer and my favorite white paint that I talk about so much. I got the idea for brown tinted primer from a mixture of my experimenting with tinting primer myself with my paint and from reading Sweet Pickins Furniture. The table top was sanded and stained with walnut stain. The table was distressed (a lot of it was done only 30 minutes after the white paint was put on, it created a really cool effect), waxed with clear and brown wax. I sealed the table with medium gloss polycrylic. And now, I'm in love and she's gone.

Have you ever parted with a piece that you love dearly?

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Miss Mustard Seed

Chippy Stool

My father-in-law gave me this little stool a few months ago. He's always finding this and that to pass on to me - I love it! I absolutely loved the top, so I knew right away it would not be painted.  I decided to start working on it at night, so I brought everything inside. Mistake, see that little dog? He had other plans for my paint...like, knocking it over and leaving a nice blue stain on our carpet.

 

I grabbed this blue paint at an estate sale. What you don't see here is that I painted white over the blue, didn't like it, and painted it back blue.

Come on, I can't be mad at that sweet face!

After heavily distressing the stool, I coated in polycrylic.

  
I love how this one turned out because it really looks like the paint is chipping off.

And wow, that top. I just love paint splatters. See why I couldn't dare mess with it?

Have you had a pet mishap with a project?

Yellow Fall Sidetable

Hello! I'm attempting to create a more "mature" look in my painted pieces. I think I achieved that with this one!

Of course, I almost forgot to take a before picture! It was late when I started working on this one, so below is what I got. After this, I went to sanding the top off. I didn't bother with legs, since I was using ASCP in Arles. I'm pretty sure I put about 3 coats on this before the table was yellow enough to satisfy me.

I then distressed around all the sharp edges and decorative parts of the leg. I stained the top using Cabot Dark Walnut Stain and used a cheap foam brush. Have you tried this yet? I used to use a rag for wax, but I'm never going back. You have so much control with a foam brush. I used the same brush to lightly apply the wax all over the yellow paint. And then, just because I love foam brushes so much now (Really, I am a HUGE fan, converted for life), I used a clean foam brush to apply Minwax Satin Polycrylic to the entire table. 

This one looks pretty in my apartment, but will be making its way to the booth soon! Thanks for checking it out! Have you got a special fall table?

 Linking up to:
At The Picket Fence 
Miss Mustard Seed

Blue Over Brown - A Wax-Distressed Sidetable

My creativity is running low tonight - I couldn't come up with a better name for this piece other than Blue Over Brown. I think it's because I'm writing my post out of order. I usually edit my pictures first, copy them into the post, and then write. That way, I can look at them and know what I'm writing about. But, my trusty eye for editing pictures is out walking the dogs.

As usual, I forgot to take a true before picture. This was your standard wooden piece, with a glossy finish. It was a bargain at goodwill, because the drawer slide wasn't attached on the front end. I'm pretty sure they would have sold it for twice as much or more, had the drawer slide been in place. All I did was tack it down with a finishing nail and it was as good as new.

So, my first before picture is the brown base coat. I mixed Valspar (a brown color and I painted over the label for some reason and I can't find my sample card, so I can't tell you the name) with Zinnser Oil Based Primer. After letting that dry for about 2 hours and sanding it, I painted back over it with just the latex paint (no primer mixed in). This helped deepen the brown color since it was mixed with white previously which made it more creamy.

Next, I grabbed a candle from the Dollar Store and sliced out the wax with a knife. I've never tried the wax distressing technique, but I've read about it so much I had to try it! Honestly, I couldn't see where the wax was on the piece since it was clear and the paint was already kind of shiny. I just went with it, though and waxed to my hearts desire.

Then, came the coat of blue. (Valspar - Beach House  WV37008).  I used the dry brush technique, as I did on the Picket Fence and 30 Minute Chair. For this, you get a small tiny tiny amount of paint on the brush (you want your brush to stay dry, not be wet with paint). Move over the piece quickly, you can repeat over areas if you need to.

Paint dries quickly using this techniques, so I was able to take a rag and wipe off the wax almost immediately. I love the wax technique, I think the distressing looks pretty natural. I may have over distressed. Also, there were a few places that definitely looked like a finger had run across it. So, to fix the places that I didn't like where brown was showing, I dry brushed the blue back over.

I wasn't done there though. I wanted to give a shot at the painted drawers too, so after debating between the same blue or white, I painted the inside and outside of the drawer white. Mistake, it looked terrible. I painted back over the outside in the Beach House Blue, left the inside white, and the look was complete.

Final step, was to coat the piece in waterbased polycrylic. 

Recap
Primer - Zinnser Oil Based mixed with Brown Latex Paint
Base Coat - The Brown Latex Paint without Primer
Top Coat - Valspar Beach House (WV37008)
Distressing Technique - Candle Wax
Protective Coat - Minwax Waterbased Polycrylic 

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Picket Fence and a Farm Table

So, the gate I posted about here on last week's Saturday Junkin', is now this.

 I used the same yard sale find paint and technique that I put on my 30 minute chair. Now, I think this can of paint has the recipe for it on top. I really need to get that to y'all because this color is AMAZING! This fence is just another piece I'm in love with. I think I have a thing for white.

 

Speaking of white, I bought a farm table! I have been searching and searching for one. I don't know why, I have one waiting for me in my grandma's shop when we move into a house and I really have been trying not to by stuff for this apartment. But, it was calling my name.

 The lady was selling it with three ladder back chairs, but I'm pretty sure I have about 25 chairs in between my garage, my house, and my mom's. I'll have to show you the chair wall I made in the garage. I should have learned this table wasn't meant to be mine when I got a reply that the lady's inbox was full. I was persistent though, this table was mine.

It, of course, would not fit in my car. So, we broke it and pried two legs off and one of the aprons. Part of the top is split and the legs are slightly rotted on the bottom. Well, looks like we have another fun project!

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A Diamond in the Stuff 
Miss Mustard Seed

Baby Blue

Well, I actually finished these Baby Blues awhile back - even before the green with envy side table. They've just been sitting on my work table in the garage. I think I'm in love with this set, I'm pretty sure its my favorite that I've done so far.

I grabbed this set at a yard sale. The wood is cherry. Have you ever sanded cherry? Well, it of course turns even more cherry. And even when you prime it, the red shows through the white. You can't hide it. I tell you what, even when you paint it, the red shows through the blue. And even when you cover the piece in dark wax, the red still shows through. But, to tell you the truth - I like it. It's me. I love red and blue, can't get enough.

The first time around, these babies look like leopards. The distressing was forced (David's words), but it did look terrible. So, I primed over those parts and repainted. I went for a lighter sanding on the table tops and heavier on the legs. Love it. Did I say that enough?

Speaking of baby blues and love, I'm also in love with this sweet song Scott Avett wrote for his daughter.

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Miss Mustard Seed