Weathered Armoire with Vintage Paper

Hi everyone, here is my latest piece!  NOW. Before I go into details I first want to say that this is the first piece that I took pictures of against my new 'staging wall' which is in the garage.  I love taking pictures against my black and white floral wallpaper, but Mr Chuckle's and I were getting a bit weary of brining every single piece into the house to take pictures of..So, I thought I would try something new.
 

 
I am not particularly happy with the outcome of these pictures.  I tried a couple of different approaches to how much light I was letting in, but it still isn't an ideal result.  I will have to keep playing and trying to tweak a bit with future pieces.  So I apologize for the less than amazing pictures (not that my previous pictures were that much better! - they just had a prettier backdrop).
 

 
I don't usually work on armoires because they are not my favorite style of furniture, but I came across this piece as part of a matching set with the piece I finished in navy and gold (here) and figured I may as well take on both.
 

 
I knew I wanted to do something using my vintage Eaton's wallpaper which I have used on the inside of a few pieces, but I haven't really used on the outside of one yet.  I just love this paper - both the colours and the design are beautiful.   It is a pre-pasted wallpaper (yay!) so it was so easy to apply.
 

 
I custom mixed up a blueish green to match one of the colours in the wallpaper.  In the jar it looked more greenish, but surprisingly it came out a little more blue on the piece.  I know this because my good ol' neighbor caught sight of it and said ' now you can't tell me that one isn't blue!'.  If you have read this blog for a while, than you have met this neighbor before with some of the funny blunder comments he has made (I still like him despite this).
 

 
I knew I wanted rustic with heavy distressing on this piece because I haven't done a piece like this in a while and felt like getting a bit whimsical.  I have done a similar piece (here) many months ago, but I was ready for another turn.
 

 
I distressed heavily and wonderfully the wood grain poking through has a great 'orange' colour to it which ties in perfectly with the orange on the paper.  I also highlighted with light blue, mint, white and yellow.  A whole wash of colours mix up to make this piece special.
 

 
I wanted some extra height, so I added the legs - not the most traditional on an armoire like this, but they are removable, so if they aren't to everyone's taste, they are easily removed.
 

 
I used chalkpaint on this piece, and I sealed with polyurethane as I have been doing a lot lately.  The original hardware was spruced up with a dab of rub n buff!
 

 
I did a lot of heavy distressing, as well as some whitewashing on the side.
 

 
 Here is a close up of the great paper!

 

And the before!

 

 

 

A Tall Frenchman in Green

This dapper dresser was in dire need of some love when I picked him up. 

He belonged to a young girl who had a fascination with graffiti, named Brittany.  I know this, because she practiced those graffiti skills all over this poor dresser. My powers of deduction tell me Brittany liked The Back Street Boys, was in love with a boy named Brandon, and the stickers plastered all over the side indicate she enjoyed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

 Needless to say, a lot of prep work was involved in making a blank canvas and undoing some of Brittany’s, (ahem), art skills. 

 I had mentioned in my previous post that I wanted to paint in green.  I custom mixed up this colour and admit that I tweaked it a bit with each additional coat to get a shade I was happy with. It was a bit of an evolving process to get the tone just right (not too bright, not too rustic) It reminds me a little bit of ASCP 'Florence'.

I topped with a touch of black glaze and did a light distressing because I felt it needed to be ‘aged’ up just a touch.

Here is a glimpse of just some of the creative flair young Brittany possessed.

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!

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!

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

Bermuda, Bahama, Come On Pretty Mama - MCM again!

Im gonna be blunt here.  Bahama did not live up to her name when I first cast eyes on her.  She was ugly, she stunk like a cheap hooker who smoked too much, and she was scattered in pieces.  Literally. She was on the floor of some guy's garage all shewn about in smelly disarray.

It didn't take me long to figure out why.  Her drawers were a maze, all nine of them.  She was one of those finicky little pieces that was designed in such a way that each drawer only fit into one slot (despite the fact that they all seemed to look the same).  Mr. Chuckles, the owner, and me, all spent about 10 minutes crawling over each other like a bad game of twister trying to fit Bahama's bits back into her chest so we could pack her up in the hatchback.

If I had been handing over money for her, I most likely would have politely said 'no thank you', turned on my heel and quickly scuppered off, but she was a freebie, so I just couldn't say no.  We strapped her into the car and brought her home to my salon for the big makeover.

Having a stamp on her backside that said "Bahama" inspired me to paint her a bright, tropical colour. I settled on a turquoise blue (suprise, suprise!) contrasted with pure white.

I like the way she turned out, for some reason she makes me want to go bowling. She definitely has a 1950s vibe about her.

Miss Shabby

I was inspired for this piece by Mak & Jill's website and a piece they called Shabby Shabby.  I named mine Miss Shabby.  She was a curbside find and had a bunch of gunk stuck to the outside of her, but structurally she was pretty good.  

  

I opted for some heavy distressing to create a really country-rustic feel.  She is two-toned white and turquoise.  

I changed out the hardware, buying these cute vintage pulls.  I did a light dry brushing with white.

I think she looks lovely and is now being used in a young fella's room.  I guess we should call him Mr. Shabby now. 

Ariel the Mermaid

I love chunky bold colours and use a lot of teal, turquoise and shades of blue and green in my work. 

 I found this dresser and absolutely loved it, I used a custom mix of green and white to get the colour(s) desired. For the casing, I used ASCP in Florence, and for the drawer facings, I mixed some pure white into the mix to make it a bit lighter.  

Discovering it was too low the ground to be functional, I had Mr. Chuckles help me put these ornate and very delicate gold feet to add some height.  I love the result!   I call her Ariel the Mermaid because she reminds me of the deep sea.

I highlighted the facing trim with cobalt blue, some white and a bit of black as well.  It created a beautiful, time worn patina.

I love the contrast of that big sturdy dresser being held up by those delicate little feet.