Free, I like Free, Desk

Yes I said free!!  I rarely get those offers and when I do well its the "Happy Dance" for me!

Here is the before, oh yes it was poorly painted black over blue.  The black paint was peeling off like you wish wallpaper would.  But only in spots SO I had to strip it!!  AHHHH haven't done that in about 20 years.  It hasn't changed much.  I used an Eco friendly stripper called Motsenbocker's Lift off paint and varnish remover.  It didn't smell and it didn't bother my hands although I did use gloves, and it worked better than I remember stuff working in the past.  But... it still took 2 days, off and on stripping and washing off and sanding, to get it down to bare wood.  Amazingly enough it was really pretty underneath.  I chose to keep the top a natural wood.  I also changed the handles so I had to fill the old holes and drill new ones in the center.

I really liked the blue underneath the black but there was no saving it.  I also am putting this in the store to sell so I had to stick with a more basic color, one I hope would appeal to more people. So it was painted an olive green with a glaze over the top.

 

I added small brass colored knobs from Hobby Lobby.  (The knobs were on sale this past week and let me tell you I bought a bunch!!)  The top was stained a provincial from Minwax. 

We will see how she fairs at the store for sale....But quite a difference from the BEFORE

To the after

My Thrift Store find

I found this lovely desk at the thrift store.  I figured she had potential .

She was a heavy one being solid oak and all. There were some nasty rubber bumpers on the edges where the chair would slide in, I had to take those off for sure.  But take a closer look at those drawers ....hmmmm

Do you see what I see?  Those round centers?  I bet those curved wood handles could be taken off and just leave the round centers....AND

Take a gander at the carving above the center drawer....Oh yeah this one will be purdy ;)

Do you see what I was saying about the center with out the curved handle?  Oh yes getting better.

Had to fill in those holes from the handles.  I have found that filling them with wood putty THEN the pink turns to white wall Spackle works really well cause the Spackle doesn't shrink like the wood putty does makes for a nicer finish and quicker too.

She got a coat of a green/gray that I had from my dining room.  I was not real happy with that so I dry brushed my Crisp linen over the whole thing.  Which for some reason turned the green/gray to a blue.  I liked it lots better.  I scratched it up a bit and put a glaze over it. 

I found some Crystal knobs from Hobby Lobby to add to the drawers.  I thought they looked like flowers.  The knobs had to be rather large cause the round centers were a bit concave so anything smallish you could not get your fingers around...

 Just look at the center carving now!

Notice how she is standing on her tiptoes.... rather a cute detail I thought.

Once again BEFORE

 And AFTER

  She has taken up residence at Treasures Upscale Consignment Store where I volunteer.  Hope someone buys her and has a beautiful spot just perfect for all her glory.

Thanks for checking out my blog. 

Linking up to:

Chairs to match the Table

I have a client that has a wonderful table with 6 chairs.  Unfortunately the chairs are black and she wanted them to match the table base.

Here is the Table base:

I am trying to match a white to the existing white.  We picked Dover White from Behr.

Here is a picture of the Chairs:

First I had to paint them red, (two coats)  note the back legs almost forgot to take a before picture.  Then I had to paint them white (two coats again).

Then they needed to be distressed did you notice the table base?  Here it is again.

THAT is a different type of distressing than I am used to doing.  I was a little nervous doing this, of course I could only distress down to the red paint not the black...........  whew... it was stressful. Oh they also needed a colored wax on them to tone down the white a bit to match the table base.

Finished Product. 

With the cushions on they looked really nice.

I was pleased, Client was pleased all is well.


Linking up to:

Designer Garden VIP Party #18l

Chic on a shoestring decorating  

Friday Redoux 


Miss Mustard Seed Furniture Feature Friday 

Funky Junk SNS #85 

A Friend in Need

My daughter has a friend, who has a blog.......you can find it here.  She is redoing one room in her apartment and really likes birds.  I had a small canvas maybe 12X16.  I thought I could replicate her blog header on the canvas for her apartment.  So I gave it a try.......

It wasn't to terribly difficult.

First I painted the canvas with Gesso because it had another painting on it.  Then I painted it with a mix of blue and grey blended together. 

  I enlarged her blog header to an 8X10 as you can see in the picture below.   Then I used my favorite transfer method.

 

Gray Graphite Paper

Found here.  (I am quite sure Michaels has this as well.) You can make your own with tracing paper and a no.2 pencil.  By rubbing the lead from the pencil all over one side of the tracing paper you would then have graphite paper.  You have to be very careful when you first use it because it will be very dark so you must not press really hard.  It can be used over and over and it just gets better with use.  

You take it and place it graphite side down on your canvas or board what ever it is you want to have a pattern on .  Then you place your pattern over the top of the graphite paper and trace around the edges of the objects in your pattern using a pen or a Stylist found here which is what I did here around the bird and the branches.  You then lift off the pattern and then the graphite paper and your pattern in now on the canvas or board.  

The next step was to fill in the pattern.  here I used Charcoal Acrylic paint Deco brand, and filled everything in.  I had to improvise because as I said the canvas was bigger than the 8X10 pattern.  So the branches had to get longer. 

Here is her finished project.  

A lovely Thank You Card followed.  She is very sweet and I am glad I was able to make this for her.

Linking to Feathered Nest Friday
Flaunt it Friday