Wallpaper and Gray Dresser

 
A new piece to share!  This is part of a trio set which is solid wood.  Great vintage furniture. I love it.  I was very indecisive about what to do with this piece. I knew I wanted to do something a little more unique, but I wasn't feeling all that inspired.

 
During this time of quiet contemplation, Mr. Chuckles and I repainted a good portion of our house.  We went with a soft gray and also updated a geometric feature wall we have with some new colours.  It all turned out great (although it took the better part of a week).  One night, exhausted on the couch I was admiring my living room wall paper when I Eureka'd that it would look great on the dresser.

 
I still had a little bit left over from wallpapering the living room and decided to put it to use.  I first sanded and primed the drawer and then cut the wall paper so that the pattern was continuous over the three drawers.

 
I painted the opposite side of the drawers with a mid-tone gray that would pull the gray out of the paper.  I used chalkpaint as I wanted a soft romantic feel.

 
I painted the wrap of the piece in a soft gray, it pulls a little white in the pictures, but it is a very soft gray.

 
The original wood hardware was painted in the same soft gray as the wrap and protected with satin sheen polyacrylic.  I hand buffed the metal fastners to a soft gold.

 
The gray lines on the wallpaper has a lovely soft metallic reflective sheen which isn't remotely visible in this picture.

 

This is a before of the matching tallboy as I forgot to snap a before of the six-drawer.

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!

Two-toned Hollywood Regency Dresser

I picked up this dresser a while ago and it has been sitting dejected in the corner of the garage ever since.  I wasn't neglecting it out of spite, it was just that I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with it.

At first I thought gray, but than I reconsidered because the wood grain was just so lovely.  I didn't want to paint out the entire thing and cover it up. 

Than I thought 'hey, how about a 2-toned!'.  But again, I didn't want to cover up that grain on the top..so at last, after much deliberation, I decided I would do a reverse 2-tone.  I decided to paint out the drawer facings in white, and re-stain the body of the unit in dark walnut (I usually do it the opposite way).

The finish came out great.  I protected with tung oil, followed by a few coats of wipe on poly.  the result is a nice low-sheen finish.

I really love this piece, I think she looks very chic and has that great retro feel as well.

I left the inside of the cupboard original wood (it was in great condition) to tie in with the body of the dresser.

Here is the before.  She was in excellent shape.  There were divots and nics though, so it did warrant a strip and re-stain.