Canoeing in the Cold

This little lady is down and out! I went on a canoe camping trip with Mr. C and some friends this past weekend and it was frigid.  The nights went down to minus 5.  Brrrrrroni.  Our friends were nice and warm in their posh winterized tent, but Mr. C and I were trying out a little lightweight two-person tent (read coffin) that we are (were) thinking about taking on a cycling trip to France in the summer.  

 

It was horrible.  I'm usually an avid late night pee-er, but this tent was so impossible to get in and out of that my bladder had to hang on, and my eyeballs were floating by the morning.  I had more ease crawling in and out of the VC tunnels in Vietnam a few years ago then I did this 'tent'.  We couldn't even lie straight in the thing as the toe area was fully taken up by the air mattress, so we found ourselves contorting at odd angles to try and squeeze our skin into the cocoon.  Good thing neither of us are that tall.

On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give this tent a zero.  And to top it off, it had no heat retention.  I was a shivering mess come morning.  Fortunately the rest of the trip was a success apart from the colds Mr. C and I both lugged home with us.

 

But onto some furniture!  This tallboy dresser is a great solid wood 1960s piece that was part of a 3-piece set I picked up.  It came with a desk which I painted mint HERE, and a 6-drawer lowboy I finished in gray HERE with a wallpaper accent.  I actually wanted to carry the wallpaper over to this piece as well, but I didn't have enough left.  In fact I am running low on a few of my favorite papers, so I decided to use this IKAT style paper which I have used before HERE, but I opted for a distressed finish on it this time.
 

 
The top of this piece was in a very cracked condition.  The old finish was about an 1/8th of an inch thick and took about two hours to sand off!  Because I went down to the bare wood, I made sure to prime with Zinsser BIN before painting to stop the dreaded bleed through in its tracks. The wood grain is thick and very visible through the paint still which looks awesome.

 
I painted out the body of the piece in a light gray chalk paint, distressed lightly around the edges.  I painted the top drawer white, and then I modpodged the distressed IKAT paper onto the drawer facings.

 

The original vintage wood pulls were finished in the same gray as the body, and the metal hardware was buffed to a soft silvery/gold.

Definitely a whimsical piece, but I think she looks adorable!

Bedset in Coral

I leaped out of my comfort zone with this colour!  I picked up this contemporary bedroom set.  The Longboy and the Armoir were so lovely and en-trend, that they escaped my paint brush altogether.  The nightstands however, were in pretty rough shape.  And the headboard, well, it was kinda bland.

I found this lovely paper a few weeks ago and had a vision to use it on a headboard and nightstands, so when I caught a glimpse of this furniture I decided to put my matchmaking skills to the test.

I thought about painting the furniture gray and having the paper ‘pop’ off, because I think coral goes with gray nicely.  But I have painted things in gray before.  What I haven’t done is paint things in coral!

Everything got a good distressing to ‘age things up’ a bit.

I love the original hardware on these cabinets.  So unique.

I think I will definitely be using coral again.  Very happy with it!


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ASCP Florence and Mint French Dresser

I was originally going to go for a charcoal and white combination for this french dresser, but I am really feeling colour at the moment and so I decided to go with this emerald/mint combination.  The body is Annie Sloan Florence and the drawer fronts are a custom mix. 

I did some light distressing to age the piece.  I also painted some white underneath the mint colour on the drawers to provide a romantic layered look to the finish.

I gave the original pulls a small blast of gold spray paint because I love the way emerald and gold go together.

This colour scheme gave me the perfect excuse to use this vintage wallpaper I found at an op-shop.  It was from Eaton's and the original sticker price was $2.99 for the roll.  Bargain.

 I usually wax the top of my pieces, but I decided to try a poly this time.   I sanded back and then put a coat of wax on top of the poly.  The result is a soft sheen, and is very durable!

Here is a before shot

Grey Midcentury Modern Buffet

Midcentury pieces are getting harder to find due to their increasing popularity.  When I came by this one I tossed around several different ideas for refinishing it. I gradually settled on the idea below in my head.

I liked the idea of restaining the top because it was in such good condition, and I thought I would try a gray/yellow combination seeings its so trendy at the moment.

I modpodged this leafy grey and white paper onto the hidden drawer as well as lined the drawer with some gray and yellow fabric I had.

I used a flat paint for this; 'diamond' by Dulux in a deep charcoal colour.  I finished with clear wax and buffed, but the sheen did not come up the way it does with chalk paint, so the piece is still very flat.