Regal Navy Blue with Custom Legs

I love this piece!  I think her colour is so regal, rich and inviting - you just want to pull up a throne, finger snap to the butler and feast on your roast pork and cognac. Add  the stunning gold hardware (all hail thee rub-n-buff) and Queen Elizabeth may as well pop round for some tea and scones.  Im hearing trumpets in the distance and I think I just saw a unicorn trot by saddled by an armoured knight.

 
This piece started out life in pretty good condition but was bland and boring. No one would pick her out of a lineup, that's for sure.  She needed love.  L-O-V-E I say!
 

 
I have had this tint 'blueberry twist' sitting on the shelf for a while now, and I finally blew the dust off the lid and decided to give it a go.  I mixed the tint into my dulux diamond and turned into a chalk paint. 
 

 
It got pretty decent coverage which sometimes dark or bright colours can be temperamental about.  Ive had some bad luck with reds that take about 7 coats to convince you that they are in fact paint and not stain.  Three would have been enough, but I decided to go for four as I wanted it to be perfect, plus I accidently mixed up too much chalkpaint and figure I might as well use it up as I find the DIY stuff doesn't have the longest shelf life.

 
Mr. Chuckle's was called in to lend some expertise and help me add the custom legs which I painted out gold prior to attaching.  The difference is amazing.  Those legs are little tools in a magician's kit.  I always marvel at how remarkable a transformation is when you add legs to a stumpy piece.  It stops looking like a 'dresser' and starts looking like a piece of furniture; fit for any living area in the house.  
 

 
These new stilettos take the piece to 37" tall now.    Whistle whistle.

I didn't use wax, instead I finished with satin polyurethane which makes for a wonderful finish.  It has a great sheen without being cheap looking or showing every little blemish.

 
I used some chevron paper in navy and turquoise and modpodged it to the inside drawers for a bit of whimsy.

 
Rub n buff was conscripted into action and used on all of the original hadware.  I love gold at the moment, I know it isn't for everyone (or every piece) but I think it is catching and making a comeback.

 

Moving this piece was backbreaking even with my backbrace on (yep, I wear a backbrace - safety first boys and girls).  I do my refinishing in the workshop (garage) and we bring pieces in to the house to photograph, but Im in the process of creating a staging wall in the garage because the constant shifing of furniture is starting to take its toll.  The garage won't be quite as flashy as the walls are not in perfect condition, but Im hoping that I can swing it somehow.

 

And to end on a bright note, I saw a flower today while out on my run.  A real live one!  I had to do a double take because for a second I thought someone stuck a fake one into the ground.  Spring has finally sprung!

 

And the Before!

 

Camera fail and a two-faced Hollywood Lady

Well don't I feel like a tool.  After finishing my latest project, I brought her in for some staging and carefully unzipped my new camera from its little bag and starting taking snaps.  I usually shoot in A.  So I control the aperture and I let the camera choose the speed.  I figure this is a good way to wet my feet into the world of shooting in manual mode.

Several minutes into the little photo shoot, it became all too apparent that Ansel Adams I am not.  I could not, despite all my fiddling and experimenting get a picture with a decent light balance.  I metered here, I metered there, I metered just about everywhere.  But unlike the little golden haired girl in the three bears, I could not find the bowl that was 'just right'.

 Im ashamed to admit this..my head is hanging low and Im dripping with self loathing...but I got so fed up I grabbed my phone and used it to take the pictures in the end.  After all, it has taken reasonable photos for me since the beginning of my blog's existence.  It is awesome because it has a 16mm lens (wide angle) which allows me to fit the whole girth of those big beasty pieces I like to paint into the shot.  My high tech studio also doubles as a hallway. Hallways can be big, I know.  In proper grown-up houses they can even inspire words like 'grand' and 'magnificent', but in my little abode, 'narrow' and 'squishy' might bet more appropriate adjectives.

Anyways, so here are the pics taken not with the $XXX camera that is practically brand new, no here are the pictures taken with the three year old, been dropped too many times, phone camera.  You enjoy them, and feel free to teach me how to use my camera proper. Ill be in the shower trying to scrub away the shame if you need me.

This piece was a great find though!  Solid wood and in excellent condition.  The top did have some marks, so I stripped and sanded it back to the bare wood and re-stained in dark walnut.  I topped with three coats of polyurethane in a satin sheen, it looks wonderful! Yep, a little pat to myself there.   I applied the poly with a sponge roller and than quickly went over it with long brush strokes to cut out all the bubbles.  Worked great, narry a bubble left behind. A nice smooth even finish...something I always struggle to get with a wax.

I wanted to incorporate just a hint of chic off-white, so I painted out the three middle drawers as well as the framing and legs - also in a satin finish.  It all turned out really well and I am enjoying the temporary home she is making in my hallway.

That's it, that's all folks!

Miss Frenchy Wears Teal

Isnt this a lovely looking french provincial dresser.  I drove a ways to pick her up from a slightly odd man.  It was dark and dreary in the room, so I was happy to get out of there quickly.

When I got home, I learned a valuable lesson.  Don’t let odd men in dingy dark settings deter you from really ‘checking out’ the piece.  Because it wasn’t until I got this beast home that I realized it was….eeek…laminate. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I have painted laminate in the past, and I will paint it again no doubt, but I certainly avoid it unless the dresser is either free, or a super-duper steal.  This thing was neither of those.  I didn’t overpay, but I don’t think I would have handed over that much had I known it was laminate. So lesson learnt!  Always check for presence of laminate.

.

  

Anyways, onto the fun stuff.  I sanded (lightly) and made sure not to go through to the MDF.  I primed with a good adhesion primer which I tinted to a similar colour as my top coat. 

When I came back a couple of hours later I realized I had left the garage door open, and apparently someone had stopped in for a visit because there were some strange markings in the finish.

I was able to apprehend the culprit pretty quickly though.  Blue paws tell no lies.

After priming, I did two coats of a colour I custom mixed.  I was inspired by a piece by Estuary Designs and wanted to mix up a similar colour.  In real life she is more teal-green, my camera favours the blue tones and I can't quite capture the colour accurately.

I gave the hardware a subtle spritz with some gold spray paint just to refresh them a tad.  

And here is the before.  Looks like real wood, or at least wood veneer, doesn't it!

Coral Hollywood Regency Dresser

Coral strikes again!  Kapow!! I have only been brave enough to try coral once before (here)and I loved it!!!  Look all those exclamation marks!  Its obvious I love it!  Apparently coral was the colour of 2012.  So what if Im a year behind. Meh. No biggie

This beauty is a vintage Kroeller dresser and was in ship-shape condition.  I used a white primer as I have learned the hard way that coral gets paltry coverage. The lady at the paint store gave a good analogy when she likened it to the coating on a candy apple.

After priming 2 coats, I painted about 3 or 4 coats of the coral.  It took quite a lot of coats. I also sealed with two coats of satin wipe-on-poly. I distressed all over the front and sides, but opted to leave the top undistressed.  I mixed things up a bit by sometimes distressing through to the wood, and other times going through just to the white primer. 

I also discovered by happy accident, that distressing super lightly actually revealed a burnt yellow colour.  So all up, there about four different layers of colours on this girl.

  

I modpodged some leftover coral and white contemporary paper I had from a previous project.  I love modpodging paper onto drawers, adds such a bit o’ fun!! 

This paper is a medium thickness, and goes on fairly well.  I have used it before (here) and really loved how it looked with the coral.  I distressed it lightly to take the 'newness' out of it and help blend better with the rest of the piece.

I like chunky hardware, and these ones were super cool. But they were so dark and dirty and dingy looking.  I thought about spraypainting gold, but didn’t want them to be perfectly solid.  I tried rubbing Brasso over them, but it didn’t work that well, and it really stunk. Im not sure that its related, but I noticed that Miss Do-As-I-Please passed out for about a ½ hour after one good wiff of the stuff. Hmmm, better than catnip?

In the end I tried a trick that worked before (here)by sanding them.  It kind of works like a buffer, and it shined em up good.  I sealed them with a spray-on acrylic clear coat to help prevent future tarnishing.

***UPDATE

I wasnt quite happy with the hardware, I wanted it a bit bolder, so I decided to add the little backer plates for some extra ooomph!  I gave them a blast of gold spray paint as they were not responding to my sanding technique, and then I actually sanded off some of the gold paint randomly to make them look aged.

What do you think?  Plates on, or plates off?

Big Bertha Dressed In Turquoise

I promised a ‘big bertha’, and now I present Big Bertha!  My word, this ol girl almost embarrassed herself by not fitting into my Mazda 3 hatchback.  I had to give her a subtle lecture about diet and nutrition, because she is... big and chunky!  Almost 7 feet long and definitely over 200lbs (sorry Bertha, but disclosing your weight is for your own good).  Eat some lettuce.

I clearly love this shade of turquoise/teal, because I have used it a billion times now.  I use it so much that my neighbor stopped by for a garage-chat the other day and asked ‘are you still painting that dresser?’ I paused midstroke and threw him a puzzled look before stammering, ‘No, I finished that one months ago, this is different one.’  I was too ashamed to tell him I had done about five other ones in the same colour in between the one he was referring to and this one. 

He is also the same neighbor who when I told him I rescued a beautiful credenza that was bound for the dump (this post), asked me if that was the colour I received it in (I had painted it the same shade of turquoise) implying that I hadn’t done anything to it yet!  Men.  They just don’t appreciate a nice shade of turquoise.  I did take a dose of pleasure a week later by complimenting his turquoise shorts and quipping that he matched my furniture.  He may or may not have blushed.  He may or may not have got my point. But I had a little inward swell of vindication. 

But back to Bertha!  She was in great shape for such a hefty girl.  I custom tinted some primer before covering her up in my favorite colour. 

The hardware was beautiful in it’s grandness, but it was very dull and dark, so I blasted her with some gold spray paint to really amp up the contrast with the dresser.

 I did some heavy distressing to reveal the lovely dark wood – a little peek-a-boo.  I also accented with some light blue piping and a touch of yellow to tie in with the gold.

The cupboard opens up to reveal three more drawers which I finished in a turquoise/navy chevron paper for a pop of fun.

I love big-bertha, but it will take a big room to handle a statuesque woman like her.  She is too much women for my little hallway, indeed!


Linking up to party with:

miss mustard seed

Turquoise Distressed Dresser

This piece was so much fun to work on.  It had so much character with all that ornate detailing, and the hardware is simply swoon worthy!

I felt really lucky to find this piece because a few months ago I responded to an ad for the same set and tried to get the seller to just sell me the dresser (and not the rest of the set).  My offer was refused and I remember I was so upset because I had such a vision of what could be done with it.

Fast forward 4 months, and I found the same dresser, for sale all by itself!  Thank you furniture gods!

I confess I was going to use emerald.  In fact I had behr 'precious emerald' colour matched in my dulux as I was inspired by this piece by Pam at 'Simple Details' .  My emerald turned out much more 'forest green' than this one though, and I was a little reluctant to try it out.  So instead I played it safe and opted for my fav shade of turquoise (again!).

I painted the insides of the recessed detailing two shades lighter than the  turquoise body, and again accented with some blue and yellow.  Everything got a good distressing to 'vintage' it up a bit. As usual, the detailing is hard to see in the pictures. Sigh.

I just can't get enough of the hardware.  They are little works of art all by themselves!  They are like butterflies, all set to flutter away.

linking up to:

missmustard see.com

http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/