Antique cabinet

Isn't this piece cute.  We were given this by a relative who had it stored in their musty basement.  I didn't snap a before, but trust me, it was brown, boring and dingy.  I knew I needed to brighten her up.

I has a great time playing around with the colours and think it turned out beautifully.  It is certainly much nicer then where it started from.

Antique gray and white

Mr Chuckles and I moved into a new home recently and I had so much fun painting lots of new pieces of furniture for it.  This little antique dresser came with a matching headboard which got a similar look and is in one of the spare rooms.  This one takes pride of place in the master bedroom and it compliments the tufted headboard that Mr Chuckles made with (for) me.

I painted a base coat of white, and then had fun with some gray accenting. I also added these cute turquoise and silver knobs to the top.

Looks perfect under my moms typewriter.  :)

Watercolor French dresser

I have been having a love affair with watercolor over the past few months and have completed several dressers that have a watercolor feel to them.  With this one I went a little more bold using blues and greens, and I just love it.

This piece was originally going into our living room as a couch backer, but I won the most beautiful French armoire at an auction, so this piece has been given the boot.

I added some cream knobs with a gold metal overlay, very chic.

This piece is for sale on my ETSY shop RetiquedByRaeBond

Steampunk Ornate Dresser

 Isn't this dresser cool?  It was absolutely huge (like almost 8 feet) and I loved the raised detailing and the angled doors.  Super unique. I used a very dark charcoal chalk style paint on this one as I wanted it to have an imperfect mottled look to the finish.

It had really cool little feet, they looked very steampunky to me, which is why I'm calling this my steampunk dresser.

The light catches the angled doors so nicely.  This piece was so big it completely took up my staging area, I could barely get the whole thing in the picture.  Don't you love those little insect-looking legs peeking out the bottom.  I kind of expect it to lift its heft and start tip toeing away.

I did a light distress on the edges to complete the look and I clearcoated the top and waxed the remainder of the piece.  Hardware is original but updated with gold.

Soft Green and Silver Set

This was a four piece set I picked up.  I absolutely adore the way it turned out. So many pretty details, and the custom added legs lift it up off the ground giving  bit of airiness.  

 

 
I actually picked this colour up from Benjamin Moore in their mistint pile.  It is such a lovely super soft shade of mint.  I love it.  I still have half the gallon left and will definitely be using it again.

 
I decided to keep the look soft by doing a silver hardware.  I prepped the hardware by sanding as well as wiping on a coat of liquid sander before spraying it and then glazing it.

 

 Isn't the raised detailing lovely?

 

Here are the cute matching nightstands.

 

 

 

And the tallboy as well.  I don't always paint matching sets in the same colour, but I loved this colour so much I couldn't resist.

 



Cobalt and Gold Nightstands

These little beauties are stunning.  I picked them up with a matching dresser and opted to give them a cobalt/gold outfit.  So much cute detailing on these and lovely legs. Whistle whistle.

 

 

 
The before pictures look pretty good, but they were quite beaten up!

Green and Gold Bohemian Dresser

I walked by this piece for several weeks before buying it.  Mr. Chuckles said I should buy it and paint it an aged white with a wood top.  I wasn't quite sold on the idea, but I did eventually decide to buy the piece.

 
I had just picked up a great shade of green that I wanted to try out.  It looks really teal on my monitor but it is a true Kelly green and it is complimented with some cobalt blue layering.

 

The top was super warn and weathered.  I decided to embrace that instead of covering it up.  Its suits the bo-ho element of the dresser, I think.

 

 

It was certainly a fun piece to do, and although I don't like the way these pictures turned out, she does look pretty cool in real life.

 

 

Gray and Gold

I'm loving grays with Brilliant gold at the moment.  A quick scan of painted kitchens on Pinterest will show just how popular this combination is at the moment.

 

I have painted a few gray/gold combos at the moment and just love them!

 

 

This is a solid heavy oak piece that is in great condition.  It was a bit short though, so Mr. Chuckles and I added the legs to bring it up to counter top height of 36".  I find in a larger room the added height make it feel more contemporary and the legs add an airiness.

 

 

I love the contrast the gold has with the gray.  The colour is called Raccoon Fur by Ben Moore.

 

 

I personally love being able to see heavy oak grain through the paint, it just adds one more element of interest.

 

 

 

And a cute pair of nightstands painted in the same colour combination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No before pics.  Apologies!

 

Navy Blue and Bright Gold Dresser

Hi guys, its been awhile since I updated, so I thought I should get into gear and show a few of the pieces I have been working on lately!

Im still loving me some blue at this moment, and now with so many different paints and tints in my stock, I have a great time mixing up my own colours!  I was aiming for a grayish navy with this one and Im happy with how it turned out, especially with the hardware painted brilliant gold.

 

I have almost exclusively been using Zinsser BIN as my primer for the last year now.  It costs a pretty penny, and the fumes will get you high if you don't use a respirator, but it is hands down the best primer in terms of blocking stains and bleed through as well as giving amazing adhesion.  Plus it dries super quick allowing you to get a primer coat followed by a first coat of paint during a single episode of Downton Abbey.

I did my usual sanding, vacuuming, washing, wiping, drying.  Followed by a tinted coat of Zinsser and then two coats of the navy in Dulux Diamond Pearl.  I also did a topcoat of acrylic poly on the top for added durability.  Lots of work, but I don't like to skip steps as it usually results in a bad result that won't hold up.

 

Back from the dead

It felt pretty strange hitting that 'new post' button.  Wow, it has been months since I have done a posting.  I have no excuse, life has just been rolling along as per usual, I have been painting furniture, I guess I just haven't felt like blogging about it.  But I'm sitting here and have finally found the motivation to do a post...although apart from my mom - Hi Shazza - there probably aren't too many other followers left! 

First up, France was great.  The picture above is me navigating a map on the way to Mount Saint Michel.  Mr. Chuckle's and I biked our hearts out and I thoroughly enjoyed the countryside and sleeping in our little tent every night.  So simple, so serene, so peaceful.  We didn't get through as many KMs per day as we thought we would, but usually averaged about 60 which wasn't too bad given we were riding our regular mountain bikes, nothing too fancy.   It is really such a beautiful country, and Paris is a gorgeous city, its so sad to hear what is going on there at the moment.  Such a mad mad world.


I have been painting furniture since we have been back and rather then do a lot of separate postings, I am just going to post a few of my most recent pieces together to save some time.  The piece below was such a stunning and high quality piece.  It stood at 36" and was so grand (and heavy). 

This was also a gorgeous piece and super well built.  I painted it in a soft cream with a taupe overlay.  It looked so much better in real life, I just couldn't get the camera to capture the beauty.

Mr. Chuckles was given this piece by his uncle.  It has great medieval strapping on the corners.  We opted for a rustic teal look.

I love this dresser.  I bought it from a couple from Cuba who were living in Toronto but were moving out east to New Brunswick the morning after I bought it.  It was so ugly in its original wood state, but that gorgeous raised detailing came out a dream in this rustic teal look.  Great oversized hardware!

When Mr. Chuckle's brought this piece home I was like 'meh'.  But I think we managed to make it look more unique by adding the bun feet and new middle section hardware.

You know I love a good two-tone MCM, this highboy was in great condition.  The drawer facings are original, I just needed to two-tone the wrap.

Ive done this combo of cobalt and gold so many times that I don't even want to post about it anymore! lol.  But I really like the legs and hardware on this one, so I thought, why not.

A couple of vintage mirrors, I painted matte black, distressed and a touch of wax for an instant update.

Another two tone, but I opted to paint the bottom drawer as well for a slightly different look.  I don't usually love hardware on two-tones, but this original hardware is pretty cute.