More Before and Afters, The Power of Paint

I have been neglecting the blog a little, but since the booth is up and running, I hope to get things on track again (hopefully!) I've gotten my skirted desk in the works and continuing in the bedroom so be looking for that soon.

I wanted to share a few more projects that really show the power of paint and I hope it inspires you!

As you all know, I love a good lamp....so while the color on this one is far from my choice, it has a fantastic shape. I liked the gold base, so I masked it all off, including the cord and went to town with spray paint. Clean metal primer strikes again, I started with that first....then on with the paint.

Didn't she turn out fab? I've been cheating on Blue Ocean Breeze (Krylon) with Exotic Sea (Valspar). Shame on me. :) Exotic Sea is one of the great colors in spray paint at Lowe's. If we had been going into Spring, I might have chosen Ocean Breeze....but this deeper, richer (and exotic:) color is great going into Fall. New fluted lamp shade, I usually go for drum shades, but it just didn't work for this lamp.

Next, a couple of the dressers we repainted....sorry the pictures aren't straight shots, I wasn't thinking about proper 'afters'.

This baby dresser was actually Keegan's, I bought it before he was born for his nursery. It's not very big at all. Later, when Keegan was going through his Spiderman phase, I let him chose the paint color...red and black. Lord.

I've already started sanding here:

After, I've turned it back into a baby dresser with a gender neutral green with sweet little painted knobs. Sorry, not a full on pic.
(Lettuce Alone from Olympic.)

This dresser was another one of Mom's, actually really well made and solid wood. A deep top drawer and three standard, really great size too. Someone had done a horrific faux treatment on it. I don't mind faux, but this was a bad job. Also, it didn't match the style of the dresser either....the handles are clearly art deco in style, which just does not go with faux. Bad, bad faux.

Here are the original handles that I kept. They were looking their age, so I freshen them up with rub-n-buff (antique gold). That stuff is awesome.

I painted it glossy white and did a bold stripe in green. Again sorry, I should have moved that tapestry....I love the handles against that green! (Asparagus from Olympic) Now, I think she is showing her true colors!

I couldn't resist adding this picture (or on my new fall banner)! A colorful friend hanging out while painting, luckily he landed on dry paint! Can a grasshopper be pretty? :) He looks great on blue.....

The weather has really wonderful here, it's really got me in the mood for Fall! Can you believe Summer is over?

What I've Been Up To

Well, it's time to spill the beans about my absence lately. I figured that if I didn't start sharing now that I would have too much to share, to many pictures and then end up not sharing at all. I'm not really sure how this all happened, I'm definitely filing it under 'The Snow Ball Effect' because seriously friends, it's been happening fast. I've looked into getting a booth at flea markets and antique malls before, but either they were all full or the price was too high. However, about a month ago, I noticed this sign and a number to call if you were interested in vendorship (is that a word?): I called, I went, I rented. Ha! It wasn't that easy, it was more like: I called, I went, I looked, I pondered, I thought, I hem-hawed, I walked around, I called husband, I called MIL, I left, I came back, then I rented. It was a serious process people. :)

For the next two solid days, my MIL and I filtered through my storage unit in the sweltering heat. It was full of furniture and cast offs from me, and what I brought back from NC after my parents passed. It wasn't easy, it was actually hard to go through my mom's stuff, but what kept me going was the fact that this stuff shouldn't be in storage. If I'm not going to use it, then I need to let it go. I kept everything that I absolutely loved and let go of things that I didn't.

Of course a lot of things didn't even make the cut for the booth and those things were donated.

Fast forward through all of that and two doctors appointments in St. Louis and here I am in my 10X10 booth. It of course has three walls of peg board, which is not my favorite thing....so in comes my backdrop. These are salvaged boards that we turned on the side and screwed up. When I asked my FIL if he could help me put the boards up he said "Sure, I can screw anything up!" :) Funny man.
I decided to create a trellis pattern on it, I wanted a real eye catcher. I drew out the pattern on paper then transferred it to cardboard. I traced around the cardboard starting from the middle and worked my way out. I'm not sure you can see the pencil lines here or not:

Then began the painstaking process of painting it out. And the the painstaking process of the second coat. :) Please don't laugh at me in my grubby work clothes.

So while the process was slow, it certainly added a lot of appeal to a pegboard booth! I will show you the progress as I go. The Antique mall will be open for business on September 1! I've got a lot to do!!

Living Room Changes

I told you yesterday how excited I was to have found a vintage painting of the ocean. I decided that I wanted it to be featured on the mantle, so a little rearranging was in order. You know how that always happens...I'm a perpetual accessorizer (is that a word?)

Of course since I only dust biannually, I had to do the cleaning that goes along with the rearranging. ;)

It had all started with the bookcases anyway, so the end result was a nice and tidy room that lasted ohhhh, about the length of time that it took to take the pictures and it was back to normal. But at least I have documented proof that it is capable of looking nice. :)

I found a nice and simple black frame in my thrifted frame stash, I just left the glass out of it and the painting looked great.

I changed out the vase, simplified the flowers, added thrifted candle holders and placed the painting. I immediately loved the look.

Whoever the artist is, they did a great job, it's hard to capture crashing waves correctly in paint. I know, I've tried!



Daisy decided to go sleep somewhere else, so I put one of my favorite pillows in the chair. Yes, that's the same chair I showed you months ago that I have yet to chose fabric for. Shame on me.

Next, I accessorized the coffee table. I love having a round coffee table in front of the sectional, it seems more natural to me, but sometimes round tables can be a challenge. Here I used a round bowl (with shell balls), a round mossy ball, and for height a round cylinder vase. I know you've seen me use my vases 101 thousand different ways, and here is the 102nd. Three little taper holders take on a whole new look placed together inside a vase. To anchor them and keep them from wobbling around, I used river rock.

I don't know if you can see it well enough or not. Books always make sense on a table, the square shape offsets the round shapes. Finally, something organic, like my tigerlillies. While these are permanent botanicals, they still make a great statement.


I love how my new old painting looks and I will definately be on the hunt for more. Thanks for stopping by, I hope your inspired!

Want to see a few more pictures? Check out my photostream HERE.

Look What I Found!

I couldn't wait to show you what I found this past weekend! An unframed original piece of artwork of my favorite subject, the ocean. I have been enamored with vintage paintings for quite some time. I have NEVER EVER found any until this weekend!

I also found a smallish watercolor and grabbed it up too. I think it is so fantastic!
They are both signed, by some unknown artist. I just love how both the paintings feel, some story that I'll never know, some cast offs from a painters sketchbook. I love to think there is some mysterious and sentimental story attached to each one. I wonder what it is! :)

I can't wait to find a frame to put my new artwork in. I'm quite sure I will find something in my stash of thrift store frames to fit it.
I will probably have to go get some matting cut for the watercolor.

Do you like to collect old paintings?
Did you go thrifting or Antiquing this weekend? What did you find?

Progress on New Chairs

Remember the chairs I scored a couple of weekends ago?

I have been missing in action for days, so I thought I would take a minute to share some of what I've been up to. All of it's good, don't worry. Not only have I been working on the new chairs, but the master bedroom is in the works too, Lord help me. I'll probably show you that progress on the bedroom soon too, and hopefully a reveal not too long after that. But anyway, I'm talking chairs tonight. I finally narrowed down my fabric choices.....and they finally arrived yesterday (I ordered online). This linen in oatmeal was in the running along with a turquoise linen. Then I found this green and it finally hit me what I wanted to do.

The chairs are all primed and ready to be painted. I hope to paint tomorrow, and these beauties will be a glossy white. Even in the primed state I was happy with my decision to go white. The existing foam is in great condition, but I wanted to beef it up a bit, I found the beefy foam at Hobby Lobby. Oh, and I took off the metal doo-dads and instantly knew they are not going back on...filled the little nail holes, and it's as if they never happened!

I wanted the chairs to be very tailored. They are a little fancy (for me), so I wanted the fabric to be fairly modern and fresh looking. I didn't want them to lean on the french side either, that's definitely not my style. So instead of rushing into anything, I took some time to find exactly what I wanted. So here is my idea, use the oatmeal linen and then some how trim it out with the green. Remember now, that I am not a seamstress, so I had to figure it out. It's taken all evening to figure it out, but I finally did.



I recovered the seat in the linen.




It looked pretty good, especially with the added foam.




Then I made the green fabric into trim/piping...I cut it on the bias and everything, although I had to look up how to do that! :) I used the cotton filler cording from Wrights. I think it's generally used for pillows, but it worked like a charm for this too.

Finally, I stapled it all around, right along with the linen, flipped it over and it looked great. Surprisingly, what was in my head actually came out. So I've done the first one and now I have five more to do. I've got to get some additional fabric on order (since I finally made a decision) and then I will be all finished with my Goodwill chairs. I'm so excited! I have one other little idea about painting, I'll be doing a test on that tomorrow!

Thanks for sticking around and reading, I know my postings have been erratic. I hope you'll come back and see how these turn out!
On a side note, did you watch the first episode of Design Star? Luckily the full episode is on the HGTV website so I am able to watch.....That's the only thing I miss about not having cable, HGTV! I think the designers will give us something to watch this season!

Kitchen Facelift: Questions Answered

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the great comments on my kitchen facelift! Thanks to Jen and Stephanie Lynn for featuring it too. I suppose that with all reveals and transformations, come a wave of questions. So, I'm going to take a step back and answer the questions that I've been getting. If after this post you have any more questions, keep the emails coming.

How did you change the counter tops?

A little confusion occurred with the how I updated the counter tops. I didn't get new counters, I just changed the existing counters. This is how I did it.
The counter tops are run of the mill laminate with oak trim. The oak trim is what I painted and the laminate stayed the same. I taped off everything, the wall and the laminate

Just like the cabinets, I primed with Zinsser 1-2-3, two coats.

Next, I used semi-gloss latex paint in a very similar color to the laminate and painted two coats.

I was so happy how it turned out. It was really a shot in the dark, but getting rid of the oak was number one priority, and it actually worked.














Did you paint the inside of the cabinets?

The cabinets have melamine on the inside, so no, I did not paint the inside. I taped off everything and just painted the oak.












Can you see the wood grain through the paint?


Yes, but in a good way. I think it looks great and it lends itself to a more high end look, rather than a perfectly smooth white (or black) door/cabinet.





What paints did you use?


I used the paint line from Martha Stewart found at the Home Depot.

Upper Cabinets: Tailor's Chalk MSL001

Bottom Cabinets: Silhouette MSL280

Wall Color: Bedford Gray: MSL246

Primer: Zinnser 1-2-3

I had all colors mixed in semi-gloss. So far, I haven't had any problem with chipping or sticking. One reader mentioned a sticking problem on the doors but I used those little bumper pads made for cabinet doors to avoid that. If it starts to be a problem, I will consider a coat or two of poly, but so far so good.



What was your painting process?

I washed the cabinets with an ammonia and water solution and got everything really clean, I mean really clean. I used the Zinnser primer, formulated for slick surfaces, and sanded in between each coat. I did two coats of primer, two coats of paint. Sanding between each coat was a pain in the butt, but the final finish is so smooth, I'm glad I took the time. I let the paint dry for approximately 2 days before I put doors back on and drawers back in. According to the reading I did on the Internet, latex can take weeks sometimes months to fully cure, so I am being a little extra careful here in the beginning. Really though, I am so happy without the oak, any maintenance I have is worth it.

Do you have regrets painting wood?
This is an age old problem that is always a sore issue. No matter what your style, or taste, painting wood is typically frowned upon. For me, painting oak cabinets from 1990 is not the same as painting an 18th Century sideboard. I would feel strange about painting an antique but cabinets? No way. I admit that I felt more nervous painting the uppers and lowers a different color than I did about painting the oak. Not to mention in such contrasting colors, it was a leap for me, but I am so happy with the end result (have I said that too much? :)

Thanks again for all the love I've gotten on this project, and really, if you have anymore questions, fire away. Thanks for stopping by.

If you would like to see the posts leading up to here, check out these links:

Kitchen Progress

More Kitchen Progress

Kitchen Facelift Reveal