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Applying a Simply Said vinyl design to chalk painted furniture

When I was painting a lot of furniture, I loved putting designs on them. Chevron was very popular. So was anything french, Paris or script-inspired. It still is. The problem for me, was that I was relying on stencils to achieve the look. With stencils, I always had a little paint bleed-through and could never achieve the crips, clean edges I desired. Transfers were another option (using tracing paper to imprint a design onto a painted surface), but they took forever to fill-in with paint. And again, my hand wasn’t steady enough to get the crisp edges I wanted.

BUT NOW – there’s a solution to the edge issue. And a big time-saver. It’s vinyl designs. I just applied my first Simply Said design to a little side table and I LOVE it! It took a whole 3 minutes to apply!

Here’s the easy steps to applying the design:

1) I applied it over a piece that was painted with Annie Sloan’s chalk paint in Old White, with clear wax.

BEFORE

 I ordered the design in a grey color that looks a lot like Annie Sloan’s Paris Grey. Look how pretty it is!

Next, I laid it grid-side facing up and ran the application tool across the entire surface to rid it of air bubbles.

 Then I began in the top corner and slowly pulled the grid paper back and down to remove it.

Next, I laid it over my table.

Then I used the application tool again by running it over the whole surface to remove air bubbles and flatten it to the table.

I started at the top left corner and pulled the paper back and down to remove it slowly.

And there she is! Pretty!

It really looks like its painted on! I couldn’t be happier with it!

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A Nelson Matter Dresser Makeover

I picked up this dresser and mirror several months ago at an auction.

As you can see, it was a mess. The lovely crackled finish would have been nice to leave as is, excerpt there were places on the top, front and sides that had huge areas of damage. The top had cup rings, the front looked like a tire tread over the paint, and the side had business cards stuck to the surface!

After inspecting the inside when I got it home, I discovered this medallion in a drawer.

It belongs to The Nelson Matter Furniture Company, which had been established in 1844 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After a little research online, I discovered this company went out of business in about 1910. So, you can see that this is an old piece of furniture! And that would explain its sold wood, dovetailed construction, as well as the state of the mirror, which is quite cloudy. However, it certainly doesn’t deter from the beauty of the piece, but gives it more character in my opinion. I loved the bail pulls, even though it was missing one. I loved the keyholes, the swiveling mirror and gorgeous legs. I loved it at first sight, and waited through 4 hours of bidding to get it!

After giving it a quick clean-up with mineral spirits, I decided to paint this with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I used Graphite with dark wax, as well as Paris Grey with clear wax (the two-tone look is so hot right now). And while I had hoped to find a drawer pull to match the existing ones, my search came up empty-handed. So, I ordered 6 new solid brass rosette bail pulls, that were a close match.

And here she is…

I love painting dressers – especially old ones. They always please me to no end with their dramatic transformations! I hope this beauty finds a well-deserved new home!

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The Joy of a New Color

My latest custom paint project was pure joy! The main reason is because I used a color I haven’t tried before and OH. MY. GOD….it made me giddy after just one coat! Take a look. Tell me this transformation doesn’t make your heart sing!

BEFORE
My client, Lauren, was in the market for a vintage buffet, and I had spied this beauty from a fellow furniture guy on Facebook. I directed her to his site, and the rest is history. She had me over to take a looksy at the piece in her home, and we decided this baby was going to make a statement!
AFTER
 Painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Aubusson Blue! (do you hear that, angels are singing)
The inside was done in a 50/50 mix of Old White and Old Ochre. There was a ton of bleed through on the inside, as the original wood was stained but unfinished. So I had to use clear shellac to block the bleeding and used a few more coats of white than I normally would. But, I gave it lots of texture, and really aged the inside. I love that look.
Everything was sealed with soft clear wax and aged with dark wax. Seriously, what doesn’t look better with dark wax!

This is the original hardware, believe it or not. I tried to clean the dark stuff that was on each pull with Brasso, but it revealed a dingy silver color under the muck. So, I pulled out some gold gilding paste and gave them all a little bling. 
I have been out in the garage swooning over this buffet. Craig’s List has been up on my laptop all day, so I can find a buffet of my own to paint in this color! When the right piece comes along, I’m telling you, I might just redecorate my living room so I can have something big and gorgeous in Aubusson Blue!!
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Crafting Beaded Hearts for Valentine’s Day

Our neighborhood craft club got together last night at my home for our February meeting. We worked on beautiful pearl and beaded wooden hearts.

I found this project on Pinterest, and it was originally done by a stylist named Heather Bullard.

Finding small wooden hearts at craft stores proved to be more challenging than any of us expected, especially with Valentine’s Day just around the corner. We were searching for a cut-out with a little lip along the edge. But, we came up empty-handed. So, I reached out to a friend, who edits a woodworking magazine, and she hooked me up with a lady who does crafts with a scroll saw. She made 20 of these babies for us! Thank you Linda Helgerson!!

The STEPS for MAKING A BEADED HEART:
We got started by painting the wood hearts. We used craft latex paint or Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Then we dark waxed them for some rustic patina. When they dried, we drilled a little hole in the top to thread twine through to hang them later. The next step was to apply white craft paint (I used Elmer’s Quick Dry, which dries clear) to the inside of the heart. Then take a handful of pearls or beads, and pat them down onto the glue. You’ll want to use a variety of sized beads, so you can insert tiny beads in the spaces between the bigger beads. Let it dry for a good half hour, before you pick it up, or the beads could roll off. If any do fall off, just apply more glue and put it back in. When its dry, thread twine or ribbon through the hole, and if your “heart” desires, add a charm. You’ll see I used an antique style key, a bird wing, and a little bird cage (you know I love me some birds). Use any trinkets you have at home that may have come from old jewelry, or you can just buy little charms like these in the jewelry aisle of your local craft store.

Here’s the hearts all of us made. You can see some ladies got really creative, by using yarn, ribbon, multi-colored beads, and even wooden hearts that were picture frames!
Don’t they look romantic?
It was a really easy craft, and we had fun eating, drinking and crafting!

Laura’s hearts were very intricate and beautifully unique!

Here you can see Meredith applying the white glue to the inside of her heart and spreading it around. You want a pretty thick layer of glue in there, so the beads have something to adhere to. Otherwise you might find they don’t stick so well if the glue is spread too thinly.

Gail used this cool picture frame and applied the beads to the center where the photo would go. Now she has a nice Valentine’s Day decoration for a table top! (love that big brass key!)

Even my son got in on the crafting action!

Natalie used a large flat wooden heart, and to create the lip around the edge, she wrapped the backside and the edges in a pretty script piece of scrapbook paper! Way to find creative solutions!

Heather’s string was glam! (and wait until next month – she’s hosting our next craft club and you’ll be super excited to see what she has in store – it will be pretty and functional for the home!)

Jackie’s hearts featured beautiful glass beads!

It was a great evening of friendship and crafting! Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

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Stacked Burlap Tree Tutorial

Recently I received a catalog to one of my favorite home decor retailers. It included gorgeous holiday items, like it does every holiday season. And every year, I sit, turn the pages, and day-dream about decorating just like the pages. (enter the loud, shrieking sounds of a tractor-trailer braking here) Why – because the stuff in this catalog is salty! I mean, geeze, why does everything have to be so friggin expensive?

When I spied their cute stacked burlap trees, I knew I had to have one. But wait, wouldn’t they look much more adorable in a little grove of trees – yes! However, each tree was nearly forty bucks! Damn, to get the three trees I really wanted – I’d have to spend the kind of money I spend on crap like, oh I don’t know – groceries!

So I made them…

Here’s how you can make your own stacked burlap trees, too.

Materials (all purchased at Michael’s craft store):
-Unfinished wooden plaque – I used small oval-shaped pieces – $1.49
-3/16″ wooden dowel (one dowel will make 3 12-inch trees) – $.39
-Wood beads with a hole through the middle – about .10 each
-Burlap – I got 2 yards of the red for $9.99 and a roll of the natural for $7.99 (You can get about 3 trees per yard)
-Paint, if you want to paint the wood base and bead

First, I painted the bases and beads white. After they dried, I drilled a small hole in the wood plaques, which became the tree’s base. Use a 3/16″ drill bit. Then I used a hand-saw to cut the wooden dowels down to 12 inches each. I inserted a dot of hot glue into the hole and inserted the dowel.

Grab your scissors and start cutting! You’ll be cutting and stacking strips of burlap that gradually go from about 4 inches in length down to a half inch. There’s no exact science here, in fact I never used a tape measure. As usual, I winged it.

Find something to make a small hole in the center of each piece. The tip of a pencil would work perfectly.

(okay, my finger nails are really not crusty, I swear – this is white paint!)

Slide the hole down over the dowel.

Start stacking your pieces of burlap. You want to turn them so that they are angled differently with each layer.

Get a good base going, and then start working your way up the three by cutting the strips a bit shorter in length. I used the previous layer’s length as a guide – I laid the last strip against the burlap and just cut the next row about a half inch smaller.

You will cut a lot of strips! While this is an easy and inexpensive craft, it does take time.

By the time you get to the top, your strips will only be about a half inch in width.
If you feel like the tree isn’t graduated enough, take them off and go back. I did that several times!

When there’s about a half inch of dowel left, it’s time to put on the bead.

Insert a tiny dab of hot glue into the hole.

And slide it on the top.

There ya have it!

I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out. They look exactly like the pricey-retailer ones. Next I want to find white burlap and make a few more. Enjoy making your trees!

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Vintage Cigar Stand Turned Planter

My dear neighbor, Karen, recently moved and gave me a few pieces of furniture to paint. One such treasure included a vintage cigar stand. If you don’t know what a cigar stand is, its a piece that men would literally use to ash their cigars into. It once held an ashtray insert that could be cleaned out and reused. Her stand no longer had the ashtray insert. But, it was interesting nonetheless. However, the question became – what to do with this piece – as smoking cigars indoors has kind of gone out of fashion for many.

Before I had an answer to the question, I painted this piece with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in a buttery yellow called, Arles. I love this color when it gets a healthy dose of dark wax. It has such a pretty aged appearance that says, “I’ve been around for a while.” Perfect for vintage furniture!

So, it hung out in the garage for a while whiles I was considering it’s new purpose, until my mother in law gave me this pretty little pot of violets – which fits perfectly into the ashtray opening! Of course – a plant stand!

I love the bright blue-purple flowers against this yellow color – what a gorgeous contrast!

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Graphite French Country Tables

I have someone interested in having a dining set painted in Graphite, the Annie Sloan chalk paint color that isn’t quite black, but a lovely charcoal color. The shade deepens to nearly black with layers of dark wax. I have been dying to try it out, and gave it a go with two french country tables I acquired recently.

These Bombay coffee table and end tables were in need of repair – both had damaged surfaces, but were otherwise in great, sturdy condition. (sorry, I forgot to take a photo of the coffee table in the BEFORE stage)

First, I sanded down the table tops to remove most of the damage and smooth out the surface. This convinced me that I really need to invest in an electric sander! Using sanding blocks and manually doing it was a you-know-what! And I was doing this in my garage, on a friggin 90 degree day, when the humidity was high enough to drown a duck in its own sweat! No fun.

Next, I painted each with a coat of ASCP in Old Ochre – a sort of antique white color. Then I painted the tops in Graphite. It went on a bit blueish. A very pretty color indeed! I made sure to paint in every direction – left to right, up and down – purposely giving it texture. After it dried, I began waxing it with several layers of dark wax. Each time it got a little darker – and more beautiful – because the wax settled into all of that texture. The color is spectacular – aged and beautiful! Then I clear waxed the legs. Next I distressed the edges of the tops and just a bit on the bottoms of the legs. I went over all distressed areas of the tops with another layer of dark wax. The bottom distressed areas got clear wax again, and I finished by putting just a tad bit of dark wax on select areas of the legs to age them a bit too.

Here’s the finished pieces:

Charlotte can’t resist a photo shoot!!

These pieces are for sale: http://leopardandblackinteriors.com/2012/04/items-for-sale.html

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A french coffee table named after a special friend

You may noticed on the page where I’ve listed my items for sale that they’ve all been given a name. Why? I thought it might help me keep track of the pieces I’ve completed in years to come, when they’ve all found homes – and – sometimes I can’t help but think of someone I know when I discover a piece of furniture.

Like this coffee table. When I laid eyes on her, I saw elegance. Those curvey legs, the delicate drawer pull, the beautiful carved shells and finials – they all said, “this old girl may be down, but she’s not out.” And after a paint job, her vintage glory shines. And so she is named after one of my very dear friends – a woman who is a tremendous fighter, when the odds have been against her – and a true class act. She is Ann, and so this table has been named, The Annie.

Here’s her before photo and several images from various angles to admire her…

The entire piece was painted with Annie Sloan chalk paint in Paloma – a grey/taupe color with a hint of lavender. It’s a beautiful French-inspired color that I thought would be perfect for this table. I dry-brushed Old White all around the legs, base and top edges. The top of the table features a damask and vine accent. It’s been distressed and the legs, base and edges were aged with dark wax. The top was sealed with clear wax.

Dry brushing with the white paint allowed the paloma to show through.

I painted this in my driveway on a hot day and some of the paint started to crackle. I quickly took it inside, fearing that I had destroyed the paint job. But, once it dried completely, I was in love! The little bit of texture provides so much antique-factor!

I know what you’re thinking…so many photos! But, I couldn’t stop snapping the camera. There’s so many beautiful sides to see. Just like the real Ann, she is named after!

I hope you you like her!

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DIY Lamp Makeover

I bet you all have an old lamp somewhere in the attic or basement that isn’t being used because you think it’s outdated, ugly or doesn’t match your decor anymore. I had one of those. In fact, it sat by itself for so long, I almost forgot it was even there. Today that lamp got a face-lift, with a technique I’ve been dying to try – stenciling!

Here’s how I did it:

Oh, can’t forget the “Before” photo. Plain Jane cream-colored shade, and gold. Gold. I don’t even know why I ever bought this.

DIY Lamp Makeover (1)

I chose to use ASCP in French Linen. I used a small brush and quickly painted a base coat over the entire black base and gold center. Nothing tricky here – just slapped it on. No primer, no prep beforehand. Just paint.

DIY Lamp Makeover (2)

While that was drying, I moved on to the lamp shade – the part I was most excited about, yet still a little nervous to attempt. I hadn’t stenciled before and worried that if I screwed it up, that was all she wrote. There were no other lamp shades to take its place. But, my worries quickly faded as I discovered how easy it was.

First, I taped the stencil in place on the lamp.

DIY Lamp Makeover (3)

Next I dipped the flat end of my stencil paint brush into the paint. The directions on the stencil said I should wipe the excess paint off the end of the brush onto a cloth. That is an important warning – too much paint and you’ll see it spread underneath the stencil. So take heed – less is more here!

After you’ve dipped and wiped, then start dabbing at an open section of the stencil, applying the paint in a circular motion. I had to dip and wipe several times just to complete each swirly shape.

DIY Lamp Makeover (4)

An important note to bear in mind as you are working – gently keep your stencil in place with just the tips of your fingers. If you apply too much pressure, you’ll inadvertently move the stencil. I found it slid around easily.

DIY Lamp Makeover (5)

Once I painted the sections of the stencil I wanted (in this case, the whole thing), I removed it and marveled at how good it looked, and thought, “dang, that was easy!”

 

DIY Lamp Makeover (6)

My next step was to turn the shade slightly and start working my way around. I chose to slightly turn my stencil, so the swirls would not all be facing in the same direction. And in some sections of the shade, I had the swirls running off the edges.

DIY Lamp Makeover (7)

You can see a few of the places where the paint was too heavy (I got lazy and stopped wiping the excess on the cloth) and it spread under the stencil border. But, I was so anxious! I had to tell myself to slow down. Once I got one side of the shade completed, I set it aside to dry. Then I went back to the lamp again.

I applied a second coat of French Linen. Once it dried, I started to distress lightly. Since I was working with metal, I chose to not use sand paper, but instead used a wet rag. I lightly rubbed the rag over the paint, until the metal beneath showed through. Like the edges on the base here.

DIY Lamp Makeover (9)

 

DIY Lamp Makeover (10)

See the gold peeking through in spot…

DIY Lamp Makeover (14)

After that was complete, I went back to the shade and finished stenciling the other side.

DIY Lamp Makeover (8)

And here it is all done! Doesn’t it look pretty nifty on top of the dresser, which just so happens to be in the same shade – French Linen!

DIY Lamp Makeover (11)

 

DIY Lamp Makeover (12)

 

DIY Lamp Makeover (13)

Talk about an easy way to give an old Home Depot lamp new life! Doesn’t she look all custom, boutique-chic now!