Arles Side Table and Garage of Good

   Huge announcement!  I will be selling my pieces Saturday, May 26th at Garage of Good near the Pearl Brewery!  Garage of Good is a sale features local artisans and I am thrilled to find a venue that fits my needs.  The Pearl Brewery is awesome - you can come buy my furniture, go to the farmer's market and eat at La Gloria, one of my favorite restaurants! Click here to read more about it.

     In gearing up for that, I am starting to work on the furniture Crystal gave me in return for helping refinish her kitchen island.  This is a little side table, approximately 30 wide.  I say approximate because Blake "borrowed" my tape measure a couple of hours ago and I still can't find it.  It's probably up a tree or something.  The finish on the table was flaking off and there was a ton of water damage on top.

I sanded down the top, made some minor repairs, and stained the top.  Then I painted it with Arles chalk paint, a creamy yellow that I just have been itching to put on something, and distressed and dark waxed it.  I finished it off by putting a cute knob on it! 

A close up of the knob:  Got it at World Market, by the way.

Avery's Vanity

I snagged up this vanity from Goodwill with Dawn in mind.  I knew she was moving and her daughter needed some new furniture, and sure enough, she wanted it.  Look how hideous is was, though!  

I nicknamed it "The Beast"  Because it was so hard to strip.  I don't usually have to strip things when I use chalk paint, but when there's peacock feathers decoupaged all over the place you do.  I would get so annoyed I'd work on something else for awhile and come back to it.  It had such potential though.  I forgot to take a picture of the inside after I finished, but I painted the inside grey.

 Here's the after:  I used Old White over Paris Grey.

It turned out so soft and feminine!

Beachy Blue Table

A family friend, Karen, gave this white table to me through my mother-in-law.  It sat for a little while before I decided what to do with it.  It looks like just a plain white table, but this went through college with her son, so believe me, it was gross.  

I decided to use Aubusson chalk paint on it, with Paris Grey underneath.  Here it is with painted bottom and stripped top.  For the top I used a gel stripper and sanded the rest off:

Then I pickled it to age it quickly, then used whitewashes of both grey and blue:

I liked the end result but decided it was too cool so I decided to slap on a coat of dark wax over the entire thing.

Here's the final result:  

             

The picture really doesn't do it justice, but the top is a beautiful blend of warm and cool tones, with occasional hints of blue:

This piece will actually be for sale as soon as I decide on a price!  I actually have two chairs I could do to go with the table.  Should I do them matching or something different but coordinating?  What do you think?  Should I chuck the whole chair idea?

Old White Armoire

It started out as a big, solid oak TV armoire.  Very nice, but they got a big flat screen and decided to repurpose this as a liquor cabinet.  She wanted distressed Old White with a bit of stenciling on it.  Here is the after:  It was so big I couldn't really set up a curtain around it.  So just pretend this is staged beautifully.  When I edited this pic, I realized the stencil on the right was a bit heavier, so I went back and fixed that (On the furniture, not the pic...)

Once again I was so eager to start on a piece that I forgot to take a before pic.  I prefer to put the before pic before the after pic, but then the thumbnail on facebook shows up as the before.  Make sense?  Anywho, it was really similar to this:

 Love the hardware she picked out!  Goes perfectly with the paint color!

Cedar Chest with Green Accents

This was a really fun project!  Do I always say that?  Well, this time was extra fun.  For starters, it was the most work I've done with Annie Sloan Dark Wax.  I am so sad I didn't get a before picture!!  Just picture this whole this the exact color as the table it's sitting on: Golden.  And flaking.  I painted it French Linen, a cool khaki color, with went over it with dark wax a few times.  I custom mixed a green color and then distressed and added lots of dark wax over that, too.

This was the most fun part:  the top.  The top had an inlaid design that I hated to paint over, so I stripped it and then pickled it.  So FUN!  You can find numerous tutorials on the web, but essentially you stick steel wool in vinegar for a day and then paint the vinegar on.  Within an hour the raw wood looked aged and slightly gray.  I then put the dark wax on top and I am in love :)

I liked the end result so much I've decided to pickle the top of a blanket box I am working on to sell.  Pics of that next week!

Telephone Bench

My sweet friend Jean has a phone bench from her childhood home she wanted me to refinish.  She wanted it lighter, but to still be able to see remnants of the original piece.  So, we chose to use Old White and dry brush it on.  Here is the after:  I would rather put the "before" first and then the "after", but facebook always shows the first picture as the thumbnail, so I do it backwards...

 And here's the before:

I used clear wax and then went back with dark wax and highlighted the spots that were worn on the original piece:

I think Jean was pleased the seat back was still so worn looking, just like it was originally.  Even though it's been made new, the bench has a sense of history!

 I added a few pops of grey and red just to give it some contrast:

Grey Table

This is the table that matches the grey hutch I just completed.   Can't wait to see what hardware she puts on it!  I also finished a black armoire for Jacqueline and completely forgot to take after pictures!  It turned out great, but it wasn't distressed, which is really the fun part about refinishing to me, so I think it just didn't occur to me to take pictures until it was too late!

Here is the before pic:

 And some close-ups of the after:

The only difference between the table and the hutch is that it was originally red instead of bare wood.  I primed it with BIN Zinsser, which I am liking better than Kilz, so that it wouldn't affect the color.  I chose to expose it in a few spots, though, and I really love the character it gives the piece.

Partying here: