Weathered Armoire with Vintage Paper

Hi everyone, here is my latest piece!  NOW. Before I go into details I first want to say that this is the first piece that I took pictures of against my new 'staging wall' which is in the garage.  I love taking pictures against my black and white floral wallpaper, but Mr Chuckle's and I were getting a bit weary of brining every single piece into the house to take pictures of..So, I thought I would try something new.
 

 
I am not particularly happy with the outcome of these pictures.  I tried a couple of different approaches to how much light I was letting in, but it still isn't an ideal result.  I will have to keep playing and trying to tweak a bit with future pieces.  So I apologize for the less than amazing pictures (not that my previous pictures were that much better! - they just had a prettier backdrop).
 

 
I don't usually work on armoires because they are not my favorite style of furniture, but I came across this piece as part of a matching set with the piece I finished in navy and gold (here) and figured I may as well take on both.
 

 
I knew I wanted to do something using my vintage Eaton's wallpaper which I have used on the inside of a few pieces, but I haven't really used on the outside of one yet.  I just love this paper - both the colours and the design are beautiful.   It is a pre-pasted wallpaper (yay!) so it was so easy to apply.
 

 
I custom mixed up a blueish green to match one of the colours in the wallpaper.  In the jar it looked more greenish, but surprisingly it came out a little more blue on the piece.  I know this because my good ol' neighbor caught sight of it and said ' now you can't tell me that one isn't blue!'.  If you have read this blog for a while, than you have met this neighbor before with some of the funny blunder comments he has made (I still like him despite this).
 

 
I knew I wanted rustic with heavy distressing on this piece because I haven't done a piece like this in a while and felt like getting a bit whimsical.  I have done a similar piece (here) many months ago, but I was ready for another turn.
 

 
I distressed heavily and wonderfully the wood grain poking through has a great 'orange' colour to it which ties in perfectly with the orange on the paper.  I also highlighted with light blue, mint, white and yellow.  A whole wash of colours mix up to make this piece special.
 

 
I wanted some extra height, so I added the legs - not the most traditional on an armoire like this, but they are removable, so if they aren't to everyone's taste, they are easily removed.
 

 
I used chalkpaint on this piece, and I sealed with polyurethane as I have been doing a lot lately.  The original hardware was spruced up with a dab of rub n buff!
 

 
I did a lot of heavy distressing, as well as some whitewashing on the side.
 

 
 Here is a close up of the great paper!

 

And the before!

 

 

 

Teal and Antique

I bought this little antique gem along with the one I refinished in mint from the same ol' English lady who was moving house.  This is the one I asked Mr. Chuckles to help me fix the missing piece of veneer on in my previous post.  His methods may be a little unconventional (erm. just a little), but he sure did come through with the goods, because you can't even tell there was ever anything wrong with it.

I opted for a teal-blue colour which I custom mixed.  I knew I was going to do some heavy distressing which looks great with the really dark stained finish poking through on the sides

I accented with some of the mint I had left over from my previous project which I really like as it adds some highlights and moves your eye around the piece a lot.

I also painted that neat little recessed detailing in mint as well. Initially I was going to do it a dark colour (black?), but Im glad I decided to go with a lighter colour as I think it keeps it elegant and fresh.

I did some really heavy distressing on this one, more so than on the mint to really make it look rustic and antique.

I enjoyed working on these little dressers, it was a nice change from the big-bertha's I usually do.  Speaking of big-bertha, I just returned home with a massive 9-drawer dresser.  Stay tuned for the transformation!

Have a great weekend.  Im off camping - again!

Distressed Turquoise Buffet Dresser

UPDATE!  I was grumpily sipping on my coffee at 7am yesterday when my bleary eyes turned on 'Candace Tells All'.  A double take was in order because I thought this dresser below was making its new home in one of her clients living room.  It took me a good 3 seconds to determine if it was in fact my dresser.  It wasn't. Sigh. How neat would that have been.  The dresser she was using was so similar in both style and colour. Good taste Candace!

 

 

You know it's a good day when you stumble across a piece of furniture you love, only to find out that it is.....FREE!!  I scored this gem at my favorite re-store just when she was about to be loaded onto a truck bound for the dump.  Naturally I flapped my arms about and gestured over to the my trunk - open, willing and spacious.

I have been missing my turquoise lately, having been doing a lot of whites and other colours.  So this was my chance to dust off the lid of my favorite shade of turquoise and work some magic. 

 I did a couple of base coats and then I brushed on some yellow and cobalt accents.  They don't come out too wonderfully with the poor quality of my camera phone - but they are there.  I assure you. ;)

I love the legs on this dresser.  Very grand and statement making.

You can see a bit of the cobalt and yellow in this picture.  If you squint your eyes.

 A bit of the heavy distressing can be seen in the close-up shot below.

That's all for today.  Have a nice one.  

I remembered to snap a before shot of this one.  

Turquoise End Tables

Ah Turquoise.  My favorite colour.  Sigh.  I was lucky enough to find these guys a couple of days after I found their big sister (see my earlier post).  I finished them in my favorite colour :) and distressed and let some of the wood poke through.

I made a custom chalk paint for these, and finished with clear wax.  It buffed to such a lovely sheen.

Triple Dip the MCMD

Ok, if you have seen my earlier posts, you will definitely recognize this look!  I love turquoise, I love two-toned, and I love MCM dressers!  Those three loves saw me create a very similar dresser to one I did before.  

It is actually a different colour than the previous one, but it only by a shade or two.

I decided to keep the original wood pulls, but just paint them out to match the rest of the dresser.  I opted for white so that they would blend it rather than draw too much attention to themselves.

It looked too plain after I painted the front all white, so I added the three racing stripes to give her some more interest.  I affectionately refer to her as 'triple dip'.  Mr. Chuckles thinks its funny that I give all of my pieces names.  I like to assign a personality to them based on their attributes, and it helps keep me organized when I store all my pics in folders under their 'name'.

And here is the before!

Turquoise Again!

I fell in love with this Sklar-Peppler dresser as soon as I saw it.  It was in fantastic condition, but the brownish colour was pretty uninspiring.  

I decided to pull out my favourite shade of turquoise and make her over.  

She also features small highlights of various shades of blue and some yellow to accent with the hardware.  

The oak grain is still visible through the paint which is something I really love about oak.  It adds a depth and almost gives the furniture a stained-like quality.

I love the swirly detailing on her drawers and cupboards.  I gave her a mild distressing.

Here is a before shot, you can see how lovely she was in her original state too.  It was almost a shame to paint her.  
Almost.  :)

Superbly ornate 6 drawer dresser

I fell in love with this piece when it cast its sad eyes in my direction.  Located in a dusty old used shop, it was brown, dirty and old,  it was instant chemistry.

I gave her the usual overhaul, and I just love how lovely it turned out.  So big and so bold!  I think the hardware is so cool. She is a blue turquoise and features some distressing to show the awesome wood through.  I love the texture of these pieces (Spannish Style?) and snap them up whenever I find one.  The vertical hardware is so unique.