Little bit o'mint

This is the third piece from the French Baronet set.  I really loved the way my previous mint and white dresser (here) turned out, so I decided to go for the same combination again.

I primed the dresser first with primer tinted a mint colour. I then painted on my dulux satin sheen in mint (two coats).  I distressed back revealing some of the original white finish and some of the wood beneath. 

I also painted the recessed trim with white to add some visual interest, and I painted out the hardware white on this one as well.

I topped it all with an oil based poly, and voila!  A cute little piece of French goodness!

I think she would look great as a little entry-hall catch all, or in a nursery too.

The shot below captures the colour really well.  It is a lovely soft mint with just a touch of vibrancy.

Stay tuned for my next piece..Im trying my hand at something red for the first time!

French Baronet in Charcoal

I picked up an adorable solid wood Baronet french style set the other day.  And it was FREE.  Yay!  It was painted in that off white that would have looked adorable in a little girls room 40 years ago.

I picked up a tall 4-drawer dresser, a nightstand, and a six drawer dresser.  I thought about repainting them white and keeping with the little girls theme.  But I just didn't feel like it.  Nope, I wanted to do it in a deep charcoal.

Well, I did the nightstand and the tall dresser in charcoal, but I did the six-drawer in mint and white (pics to come soon). I had low expectations of what was going to lie beneath that old white finish, but I was pleasantly surprised to see it was solid wood!  Nice!

I left the inside of the nightstand white to add a little contrast with the charcoal gray.

I painted out the hardware white, it was originally a two-toned white/gold finish, and I didn't mind it, but I wanted the contrast of the white.  

This charcoal gray I used is a flat paint, and it just doesn't accept wax well.  The wax doesn't absorb into it the way it does chalk paint.  I knew I wanted to top coat with wax on this piece, not poly, so I did two coats of my regular gray flat paint, and the third coat I turned into DIY chalkpaint using PoP.  I worked perfectly!

After the chalkpaint coat dried, I sanded it down to smooth out the roughness and applied the wax. The lustre is perfect, a great hand-rubbed sheen.

Here is the pair of them together.  Aren't they handsome!

Here are a couple of before pics.  Although they look like they are in great condition, the finish was chipping and scratched.  In short, they looked their age (and not in a good way).

9-Drawer in Gray and White

Keeping with my recent gray and white theme, I decided to refinish this lovely mid century dresser in.....you guessed it -  GRAY and WHITE!  

This solid wood dresser was in very good shape apart from a few things.  All of the plastic drawer runners needed replacing because the wobble of the drawer had them bonking all about.  I needed to do some planing on the middle door as it had swelled and was scraping when it was being closed, and the top needed to be sanded very deeply in order to remove some very deep scratches.  Other than that, it was in great shape.

I used a very similar shade of gray to the little antique dresser I just refinished (here).  It is light and fresh and is versatile in its ability to blend in to any decor.

How about this awesome gray decorative paper!  Sha-zam!  I think it makes a great addition and contrast having the dark gray beside the light gray.

As usual, I used modpodge to attach this contemporary paper. I love adding paper to drawers behind cupboard doors, it has such 'wow' factor when the door is opened. 'come on in and play with my drawers!' it screams.

Because I didn't distress this piece, I primed the entire thing with Zinsser BIN.

For the middle door, I highlighted the recessed detailing with white, I also painted the hardware white and added a white square trim detail around both sets of outer drawers to add a more chic feel to it.

Im not sure why these pics all came out so blurry, but hopefully you get the idea!

Charcoal and White Dresser

I knew as soon as I saw this little gem what I wanted to do with it.  I have been wanting to do a charcoal gray with white highlighting for a little while now, and this dresser was the perfect candidate for that vision with its great trim work on the drawer facings.

I love the low streamline look of it, and I knew it would be a great modern-contemporary piece with crisp lines and no distressing.

I also really like the original hardware, squarish and blocky, it reminds me of campaign dressers.

There was two pieces of trim missing which the original owner had lost, so Mr. Chuckles helped me source some new trim and cut it to size.  I also decided to go with four circle pulls across the top, original it only had two in the top middle drawer. I thought it would look more consistent if they went all the way across the top.

I have used this colour before (here) and love how the dark gray looks when it is topped with wipe on poly. It offers a great low lustre hand-rubbed sheen.

Painting out the trim was the most time consuming step.  I had to tape it, because I couldn’t get a clean line freehanding.  I taped all the drawers, then I did a base coat of the gray to seal the tape line, and topped it with three coats of white.  Unfortunately I did get some bleed through in a few places, but it was easily touched up by hand.

I love the legs on this piece.  I really love furniture with legs, so it was nice to get a piece with them already attached!

Happy Sunday everyone!

The Before!

Antique Dresser in Grey

I love this style of dresser!  I do a little tap dance every time I see one at a reasonable price.  Ratta-tatta tat! They are so delicate and airy, and those little turned legs just warm my heart.

This gem was in pretty good shape.  She was missing a few pieces of veneer here and there, but it was nothing that a little bit of wood filler couldn't fix.  

I custom mixed up this grey using some darker grey and white paint.  I knew I wanted it to be a fairly light, almost pastel type grey.  It can be hard to eyeball it when mixing your own colours without a chip or sample to go off, but in this case, I am pretty happy with the shade.

The top was in wonderful condition apart from a few water marks.  Because of this, I gave a light coat of zinsser BIN to the top only, just to lock in that water stain.

I did three coats of the grey all over, two probably would of sufficed but just to be safe I did a third.

My grey paint is a flat, and the white was a satin, so together these two paints made the perfect sheen.  It looks a bit like chalk paint with the wax applied, a lovely, yet very soft sheen.

I love the original hardware, ornate and delicate.  Plus I LOVE ring pulls.  I decided to paint them out white though as I wanted a super romantic and soft feel.  The white contrasts great with the grey.

This is my first piece of furniture with casters.  Kinda neat, but those little suckers like to sneak away from you when they aren't planted on top of a carpet.  Miss Do-As-I-Please keeps jumping up on it for fair-ground rides.  If she wasn't a cat she would be screaming 'Yipeeeeeeeee'.  Nothing beats furniture surfing!

Here is the before, the light patches are wood filler.

All from me!




linking up to:
missmustardseed
http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com
http://www.redouxinteriors.com
http://www.domestically-speaking.com/2013/09/195th-power-paint-party-popp.html

Brutalist style mcm beauties!

Oh Lordy, am I excited!!  And no, it isn’t because the men’s US Open Tennis final is just about to begin.  Ok, it is a little bit.  I am a die-hard tennis fan and I love a good match up, and this one between Rafa and Djokovic should be soooooo-perb! Painting furniture is my number one addiction, tennis is my second (wine is my third :))  But no, I am over the moon excited about this absolutely fabulous furniture I picked up at the weekend!

Initially my plan was to paint it out a two-toned original wood/ ivory white (similar to this post here), but it is in such amazing condition that I am going to leave it original.  The colour and the finish on these pieces is as en-trend as Lady Ga-ga perched a-top an apple ipad wielding a whole-wheat vegan wrap.

I only have pics of the nightstands at the moment, but the entire set (headboard, longboy, armoir, mirror) are all equally amazing.

I did some research and this style of furniture is themed as BRUTALIST in the style of Paul Evans.  Im lovin’ it! It channels a real gothic vibe to it.

Here is a pic of the lovely matching mirror. Oh, and ladies, as an added bonus, the gentlemen I picked this wonderful set up from was not only extremely patient as I wrestled with my stubborn tie-down straps, but more than just-a little handsome as well.  :)

Ornate + Mint + White = Yum!

This solid wood dresser was in fantastic shape when I picked her up.  She was a lovely dark wood and had been taken well care of over the years.  I hesitated for a moment before breaking out the paint cans.  But like a good addict, I conceded in the end!

I wanted a break from turquoise, thought about a nice dark grey, but in the end I went with a mint/white combo.

This piece has fantastic hardware!  Large, solid and very curvy.  They just don't make hardware like this any more!

I bought some new paper about a week and a half ago and got to put it to good use!  This is a floral mint/white paper and it goes perfectly with the theme.

I used modpodge to attach it - easy peasy!

I used my Zinsser primer again and tinted it a similar shade of green.  I used my favorite dulux paint in satin for the body, I custom tinted using some green tint I got from the paint store  

I painted out some of the trim in white, and then distressed it a bit to age it up.  I also distressed the entire dresser lightly.

I think this piece would lovely in a nursery, or a room featuring neutrals or soft pastels.

And here is the before - quite the looker in her original duds, wouldn't you agree?

Linking up to:
missmustardseed
http://www.flusterbuster.com/
http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com
http://www.redouxinteriors.com