A Bumpy Start

These past few weeks have been busy ones. I have been working quickly so I can finish all my pieces on time for customers. I had a local customer call me to have one of my dressers for sale custom painted. She had seen the Old White and Paris Grey antique hutch I painted about a month ago and loved it. She wanted the dresser to be similar but she was going to be using this dresser to hold her T.V. I love when people use furniture for something other than it was intended for. She gave me free reign to paint my own interpretation of the hutch as a dresser. I had a lot of fun but also some unexpected bumps in the road.

The sheen on this dresser beforehand was amazingly shiny. I don't know what was on it but it was slick. I cleaned it off as usual with Simple Green since it wasn't too filthy or grimy. I used my air compressor paint gun to paint the base coat of Old White. It just wasn't sticking the way ASCP usually does, it looked like the paint was separating in some places and when it dried it would flake off in huge chunks. I like the peeled paint look, but it wasn't the "look" I wanted for this piece. I thought maybe I should break out the brush, maybe it would stick better or at least it wouldn't blow off the dry cracked paint. I ended up having to sand down the peeling spots so when I painted over it it would be a smooth surface. The brush seemed to make all the difference. Bump one, conquered.

The second bump in the road was the hardware. I don't know what it is but for some reason every time I plan on using original hardware, one breaks in half. I had some cute knobs that I bought at Michaels that I just have been dying to put on something. I thought I might be able to pull off the non-matching hardware. I thought it worked out nicely with the light blue and black songbird.

Once I saw all of this together, the last and final bump presented itself. I don't always have a clear picture of what exactly I am going to do, it just comes a little step at a time. After I saw the hardware on, I felt like we needed to tie in some more black. I was envisioning a beautiful stained ebony top. I love a good stained top. I would sand every top and stain it if it was up to me. It's just so much more durable and I love beautiful wood. I proceeded to sand down the top that I just painted (Argh... money in paint down the drain, I really need to have a clear picture before I paint). What was under the paint and crazy shiny layer of poly? Composite wood. That's right, really smooth composite wood. I decided I'd break out the ASCP graphite and do the next best thing: paint the top.

So there you go. I added some clear and dark wax for protection and patina. I put on several coats of polyurethane on the top for protection and called it beautiful. I also talked my customer through a little tip or two about painting with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint since she is planning on painting one of her own dressers. ASCP is so easy to use, anyone can do it. I can't wait to see how hers turns out. Good Luck!



Here's my cute daughter. You can't see it but she's taking a picture of the dresser too. She loves to get out her camera and do a little photo shoot of her own.

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Louis Blue Buffet

Happy Presidents Day! I hope everyone was able to have a nice three day weekend. I took a little time off from furniture this morning to get out and go on a much needed hike. I had a great time with great girls and my dog. Now that I'm back and refreshed I'm ready to show you what I've been working on.

A local customer here in Vegas is looking for a few pieces of upcycled furniture for her home. We went through some craigslist ads and found this one-of-a-kind art deco style buffet. She chose a sweet Louis Blue Annie Sloan Chalk paint. She wants to do her kitchen in a vintage type feel so I went ahead and hand distressed it, followed by clear wax, and some dark wax for added age and patina. I then added some new hardware for the final touch. Beautiful. I hope she loves it.

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Small Coincidences

Today I finished a beautiful buffet table for a dear client of mine. This client I met in kind of a unusual way. I had posted an ad on craigslist for one of my finished armoires and her daughter happened to see it, and was hoping I could refinish a dresser for her soon-to-be-born son. My husband noticed her e mail address and said, "Hey that address looks familiar". We looked into it and figured out that we had bought our couches from the daughter on craigslist when we first moved in to our house. This daughter had first gotten these couches from her mom. What a small world it can be here in Vegas at times. Anyway, her mom came with her to pick up the finished dresser, and she ended up seeing the armoire in my garage and bought it. She then cleaned me out by taking a look at the buffet and had to have it as well. She had it custom painted to match other pieces the she already owned. She said she will send me a picture of it in her home, I can't wait!

I was so excited to paint the buffet for her that I completely forgot to take a before picture. I have been kicking myself ever since. I actually thought the piece was already beautiful unpainted, it had aged just right. Unfortunately, the corners had been banged up after all the years and there was no way I could fill them and find a stain to match. The wood veneer on the top of the buffet was also peeling, so my handy husband replaced the whole top, then painstakingly sanded the edges to be perfectly flush. This piece was painted in A.S.C.P. Old White and then a mocha glaze and finished off with clear wax.

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