Not just Idea

 

Another beautiful summer weekend gone, but enjoyed immensely.

I finished a few projects and started many more over the last few days.

Summer days are so darn long I can work for hours.

 

 

One of the finished items is this Seaside bookshelf.

I painted it in a beachy aqua then in a vintage white. I also added the sea shell motif to the base.

 

 

George helped me with photos for an upcoming spray tutorial on these next chairs.

He is great at some things but not so great behind the camera so far.

We are going to work together to teach this old dog some new tricks and maybe youll start

to see Georges photography featured here.

 

 

I bought six of these solid maple chairs and painted them aqua.

While painting I started to get some really great cracking in the finish on each of the chairs.

 

 

Crackling usually happens when there is some oil on the surface under the paint.

Not so much the paint wont stick but trace amounts, enough for it to reach with.

In this case most of it is on the upper back rest, front and back.

This oil is probably from hands grabbing and moving the chairs over the course of the last 40 years.

 

 

I do prefer to go over my projects with soapy water before painting but sometimes think ahead about

 the finish you want, the older it is the more likely you can expect some paint reaction on the surface. 

 

 

I absolutely adore this dresser and loved working on.

It also has beautifully lined drawers.

A link to how I won this Historical French Floral Birds Victorian can be found here.

Supplier is D. Marie Wallpaper Interiors.

Shes another piece available at this years Mothers Day

 Spring Show in South Surrey this Friday May 6th

 & Saturday May 7th full information can be found here

 

Ive been having a devil of a time lately finding good pairs of bedside tables to work with,

but I do have a couple of singles sitting around here so I got to working on them.

 

 

Nicknamed Princess Dogwood because this is the ultimate little princess bedside table

 

and for the Dogwood styled handles I stole from Georges Etsy Shop. 

 

The legs are straight off a rotten chair, and I mean rotten!

 

 

The legs were already falling apart and had to be repaired before I could think about using them. 

 

I needed a new top and unfortunately my new silverware drawer had the perfect piece.

 

 

 

The scalloped detail was popped of an MDF coffee table,

the back plate is an old door handle embellishment, and the detailed trim is from an old picture frame.

 

 

The inside of the drawers also got painted.

 

 

 

 

A good bar stool is hard to find!

These were labeled made in California, anything that was made domestically has my vote.

The steps I took while painting these stools should help convince you to get yours redone.

 

 

Always turn your painting projects upside down before you start, especially chairs.

I use the chain link fence to rest my chairs legs against and a make shift bench below.

If you are using a spray can it takes at least 1 whole can to do one whole chair.

Once all the undersides are coated turn the chair over and finish spraying.

DO NOT HOLD THE NOZZLE DOWN WHEN USING SPRAY CANS,

short bursts offer better control, less waste, and you do not get runs as easily.

 

 

I planned on painting these white and distressing back to the black

but you can stop at this point and have a nice new set of black bar stools.

Let an oil based spray dry for 24 hours before using or painting over.

 

 

I do the same steps with the next coat, turn the chairs upside down, coating all the bottom surfaces.

Then flip them over and finish with your white. I sprayed these chairs with a 50 - 50 mix of ASCP

OLD WHITE and PURE WHITE.

 

 

The seats were upholstered with this waverly numbered print.

 

 

Some upholstery tips can be found here:

http://blogspot.ca/p/how-to_9274.html

 

 

I distressed and waxed the white to show the black and a bit of the wood.

This can be done with fine sand paper (220) or wet distressing.

 

 

This whole process is an excellent method to deal with dining chairs that dont hold ASCP very well,

but for those who want to use it to achieve that silky velvety finish we all love so much.

 

I get asked often where I get the appliques I use on my furniture projects.

There is no one answer other than everywhere. 

This fabulous piece above was bought at a yard sale last summer.

It is a flat backed picture frame.

The hanger was unscrewed and the cardboard that was in it was removed,

then simply screwed to this door panel from the back side.

I customized this door panel for this vintage sideboard, it seems someone had an accident with

the glass that use to be there.

Minor repairs where needed from top to bottom on it but it is was a great find.

With my refined taste (wink) the interior of the full length drawer just wasnt going to pass muster.

Ink stains on plywood to the right and red felt sheading on the left, it was gross!

Never mind the large number of leftover sewing pins wedged in the corners,

that I did get attacked by.

I told George it was a rattle snake bite but he didnt buy it.

But when this is the finished result Ill let the snake bite fade away in my memory.

All the doors went from flat to fab with a bit of simple molding trim

and perfectly placed appliques.

The 2 side door appliques were found at a local RE-STORE.

 

 

The back was falling off so I decided to take it all the way off to line the interior.

Much easier this way.

I was having none of it this time.