Yep, I’ve painted another chair.
I also have a chest of drawers and small table prepped and ready to cover in colorful patterns.
Hmmm, how many can I paint before I stop saying, “This really isn’t my typical style or work”?
While I always love pastel, cabbage roses and a softer look, I’m very into these bright, cheery designs. And maybe they are my style?
At least they are my latest fun hobby.
Among many others!
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The chair I’d painted for Sissy a few weeks ago, had been a lot of fun to do. So I thought I’d play with the style again.
Her aesthetic was very Scandinavian, but I added some of my own personal slant. This piece is similar, with even more of my own taste. Just a bit more cottagey?
This whole type of painting has been around forever and goes many directions. You see folk art-ish pieces done up in Pennsylvania Dutch, Swedish, Taiwanese, Indian, and many more variants on the same genre.
My thought is to incorporate all of those ideas into my own designs and spiff up some old furniture I have around. Yesterday I painted a chest in the most soft, soothing, aqua blue and it’s now ready for its brushwork.
Photos to come!
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This cabinet was a bit of a steal, it’s big and spacious, just what I needed for my studio makeover. Sturdy, but needed some love.
Inspired by all of the period tv shows I watch about kings and queens of Europe, I wanted to use Marie Antoinette colors on it.
And to age the brand new blush, soft blue, and gold I’d just added.
I add grout to my paint, and use a crackle medium sparingly, not all over. This is a piece of furniture not faux gator skin, I sincerely dislike overly fake crackly paint jobs.
And when I “distress” the paint, I go for it heavily with a sander to save my poor, old, tired hands. Daintily roughing up corners with a scrap of sandpaper is hard on the finger joints.
So I give it a blast of the sander, which of course, leaves a trail.
That is a simple fix. I touch up the zigs and zags with a rough brush dipped into the paint color that I just sanded.
Much better, no tell tale marks from the sander, just some skips in the paint that show the underlying wood.
After that, it gets a coffee colored glaze painted on and wiped off.
I still need to find two knobs for the drawer. And I will rub a bar of soap or a candle along the drawer runners to make it slide easily.
After it was done, it reminded me of something….
I remembered that I had some gorgeous old wallpaper in these colors!
Perfect!
I didn’t even care that I’d already gone to the trouble of painting the interior. I was happy to cover up that work with this pretty paper.
And I am looking forward to seeing it in place in my newly redone studio.
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I took a bit of a tumble, and have spent the last five days in a darkened room, trying to heal my poor, jiggly brain that had wacked against the cement floor in my studio.
So I haven’t been doing much. And I am supposed to be avoiding screens. This is just a quick post, popping in to say hi and to show you my latest trick that I’d been playing around with before I tripped over a lamp cord while carrying a big, fluffy, tule and lace bundle of vintage gowns.
I think this calking in a mold to make trims to add to furniture is going to be a wonderful addition to the fresh “old” paint I’m adding. A much better trick than the one where I bounce my head off stuff and get concussions all the time. ( At least I am not getting a black eye this time)
Well, this is about long enough for me to be online without my head spinning and my tummy rolling. I need to rest up, Good Juju is Friday! I’ll be back to show you what I’ve got ready for it.
Man, am I ever glad that I always insist on being set up early, because if I were a last minute type, I’d be in trouble right now.
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This was previously an unattractive, not to my taste at all, chest of drawers. I’d brought it into the Good Juju sale last month to sit it in the parking lot area to get rid of cheap.
Then the day turned drizzly. I wondered if it would matter much if the ugly guy got wet, who cared? It couldn’t get worse.
But a nice dealer brought it inside for me. I quickly made space in my booth and then had to stare at it for the rest of the sale. After a bit of looking, I got past the finish ( which was so bad, I thought it was veneer, but it’s not, this is real wood) and thought, hmm, those are nice lines. And look at the pretty hardware.
So, while setting up for next month’s sale, I thought I’d leave the poor thing and maybe someone else would notice it’s possibilities too.
After arranging the furniture, I always take lots of photos to look at once I get home, to rethink areas and plan the smalls that I’ll be adding. When looking at this picture, I decided that this center area just looked sad and blah.
Instead of fetching the brown, ugly duckling chest and bringing it back home to give it a glow up, I packed up my paints and thought I’d do a quick turn over there.
Things did not go as planned. Maybe the warehouse was too cold? The temperature only stays warm enough to keep the pipes from freezing between shows. Maybe it was me trying to rush it? Maybe I didn’t bring enough color options or supplies with me to do what I wanted?
Whatever it was, I just kept getting murk. The duckling was turning into a toad, not a swan and I was turning into an obsessed, and unhinged painter. Poor Beth was working next to me in her space and had to listen to the whole dilemma as I was verbally assaulting my design decisions.
Here is what I learned. Well, I already knew it, but in this case, between the cold and rushing the situation the lesson on chalk paint was amplified.
Dried chalk paint will return to a liquid state if it gets wet, even more quickly if it is barely dry. Which is why most people use wax, not glaze over it. I was trying to use an umber glaze over a buttery cream chalk and what I was getting was a flesh toned blend of the two shades, not layers.
I tried many more layers and fixes, but the ugliness just became stronger. A quick project turned into an all dang day disaster.
At the end, I worked it out, slowly but surely by purposely blending the umber, cream and some white, over and over and over, building up incrementally during breaks of working on the rest of my space. While telling myself I should just take it home and start over
My stubbornness prevailed and I stayed till I got it right, then clear coated the piece so the chalk would never murk up again. Looking back, I realize that I could’ve used the water based clear coat over my cream color, then done the glaze over that, and clear coated again.
But that would’ve been too easy, and honestly, I didn’t think of it at the time because I kept trying just one more thing, then one more thing, on and on.
But now, I really like the lovely lines, hardware, and many, many blended coats of paint that nudged this ugly duckling into, well maybe not a swan, but at least an attractive duck.
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I have been painting some furniture.
This piece was picked up along the side of the road and looked like someone started to strip it and gave up. I decided to keep the original blue and just touch up with a matching color, leaving a lot of the bare wood.
When it dried, I lightly sanded it, and topped it off with dark oak stain and poly. I used that combo over the gray table too.
I’m also experimenting with “salt wash”.
So far, so good, I think I’ll like it.
It involves a lot of steps, but is interesting to play with, so I don’t mind the extra work.
First, a base coat of chalk paint or primer.
Second, the salt wash. Instead of salt, I use unsanded grout mixed in my paint until it’s as thick as brownie batter. It messily gets dabbed on.
I let it dry over night, then add a coat of another color of either chalk or regular paint.
After that dries, it gets sanded.
Sometimes the sanding can look great, other times not, it often needs touched up with some of the top color.
After done, it needs sealed with wax or Polycrylic. Personally, I am not a fan of using wax, but it does look good. Polycrylic is easier.
On this, I did one more step.
Before the clear coat, I mixed some umber acrylic paint with glaze, brushed it on and wiped it off.
I used the salt wash technique on this table too. Along with three colors of taupe and cream.
Big change, huh?
I am really enjoying the texture that the grout creates.
There was a bag of charcoal colored grout in my supply stash already so that is my background so far. I bought some sand colored and will try that next.
Although the dark gray seems to do well under different shades of paint.
This new trick has been so fun! I am on a roll repainting everything.
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I’m so excited to announce that I’ll be setting up my pretties at Good Juju, starting next Friday! It was a rather quick decision, and pretty bad timing because I’m dealing with the after effects of my doodle running joyfully at full speed across a field, straight into my head.
Yep, concussion time again.
I have not felt my best. But because of this head injury, I had to cancel a trip, knowing that I couldn’t do the long drive. Joining the Juju family has been on my mind, so when Pam welcomed me in, I thought I might as well go for starting right away in time for the next sale since I wasn’t going to be traveling after all.
So, I have been combing through my stash, sorting my jewels, stringing banners, and tying up papers to prepare. I’ve had to take a lot of breaks, then stop by 4-5pm because of my eye strain and headache, but I have managed to pull together even more than I expected to.
I will have a small spot, so it wasn’t too hard to fill, even with a headache. And as I feel better throughout this week, I hope to craft more items to bring in.
I’m also doing something new, a sort of “Charm Bar”. I’ve made some sweet charms/pendants with a mix of vintage, crystals, and pretty bits and pieces. Each is ready for a chain, or to be clipped onto a leather or silk cord that I have ready to go, clips added. I love them, and think they will be excellent Mother’s Day or graduation gifts.
Since I am a bit confused now and then, I will not be working at the desk for the sale. But I will be there to visit, please stop to say hi.
https://www.goodjujukc.com
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Recently I had a mini redo of the bedroom. (It felt like a huge redo, that was a lot of painting, and I keep forgetting that I’m a senior citizen now). Some things were moved around and we had a nice, big open space by the door.
hahahahaha
That open space didn’t last long!
But I don’t think it is over crowded now with this new cabinet there. Plus, I really needed it. Really, really!
I might’ve been a bit rude to Rich when he complained, I told him that his office and the hearth room were both filled with nice and open spaces, he should go enjoy those.
It could be that as I get deeper into my senior years, I get crankier. Plus I feel like I know what I am doing, and have a good concept of design. I knew it would fit just fine. He needed to trust me.
But yes, before it was painted it did seem to take up more space than after I lightened it up.
I chose a few neutral wallpapers to line the interior, and used a French vanilla paint on the rest.
The top half holds my jewelry. I have so many pieces that don’t get worn, because they were packed away in a dark chest. Now that they are out in the open, I’ll bet I wear them more.
These jewelry store display boxes started out black.
I dry brushed them white and added lace across the front before filling and stacking them up. I might make pretty labels too.
The lower shelves have my lacy sweaters, scarves, and tops. I’m thinking that having them where they can be seen will also remind me to wear them more often.
And it might remind me not to buy any more cream colored lace pieces of clothing because apparently I have quite a few.
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Well, I forgot to get a before photo, but I’m sure you can picture this dresser in brown. Add a scuffed up top to complete the picture and you’ve got it.
Nice lines, solid, and well made, but past its prime.
After using Goo Gone to clean off some mess left behind by stickers, I started with a coat of Michaels’ brand of chalk paint in gray. It dried streaky (one coat is never enough, is it?)
Next, I put white and gray chalk paints together on a plate and dipped a brush in both at once, then started pouncing it on. When dry, I lightly sanded here and there for mild distressing, and topped coated it with Polycrylic satin.
While my paints were out, I covered the old wooden box in the gray, and the hand towel holder in white, and finished both off with the Polycrylic too.
With these pieces, I actually remembered the befores!
This shot is way before, back before I broke off one arm. Dang it. The old metal it is made of, was too pliable. I hope the other arm lasts, this is being used as a mask holder by the door. I feel like hanging up my mask to air it out is better than laying it down.
Well I guess this is a sorta before shot. I caught myself as I started to paint it. This is a perfect little cabinet to keep by the door, the deep drawer holds things that I don’t want cluttering up the top of the dresser.
The two, small containers of paint went a long way, neither is empty. I’m typically not a fan of chalk paint, but it can go quickly for a project since there is no need for a primer and it dries so fast you can rapidly start on your second coat. And if you don’t mess with wax, using a clear coat instead, it is a pretty easy way to go.
And talk about drawers! Wow, this new (old) dresser holds so much, I still have an empty drawer to fill up yet. So far I am using two for dog supplies, leashes, etc, one for clean masks, one for garden gloves, mittens, and winter hats.
Oh, that’s right, I still have TWO to fill.
Yea, I know it isn’t meant to be a kitchen piece, it should be in a bedroom. But it works in this spot so well, that didn’t matter to me. It is exactly what I needed for right here.
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When I fell in love with this hutch, it was despite the yellow, goldish color it had been painted. I thought I could live with it as is, but it grated on me, until I finally had to neutralize the piece and make it this classic white.
The original hardware was gorgeous, but too dark for me, so it got painted too.
See what I mean? It is a magnificent hunk of furniture, but just didn’t go with my house as it was. Maybe the tones were more Mediterranean instead of romantic cottage?
Ahhhhhhh, much better!
And a much more simple project than you’d think. I bought a quart of white chalk paint at JoAnne’s with a 50% off coupon. (There was a lot of paint leftover)
No prep needed, I just brushed it on. I didn’t take out drawers or remove hardware, I just carefully painted them in place, watching out for drips as I went along. After painting a drawer, I’d leave it open a crack so it didn’t stick shut.
I considered doing a glaze over all of it to accentuate the carvings and details. Then decided against it, because they showed up nicely in the solid color. Plus, other items in the room were painted that way, and I don’t like things too matchy.
The handles got the treatment, though. They looked odd in plain white, like they were unfinished.
The brass was turning a little green through the white paint and I kind of liked it, but didn’t want too much of it, so I used a clear coat on them, then another coat of white, barely leaving the green patina to peek through.
After that, I brushed on umber paint and wiped it off.
Then the whole cabinet got a satin, water based clear coat. Not wax! That stuff would have been soooooo much work to apply and buff on something like this! The clear poly worked just fine and was done in a fraction of the time.
Chalk paint dries quickly and covers well. It took one coat plus touch ups. The entire project was done in three hours, start to finish.
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