Re-Furbished & Re-Loved

 

I bought this a couple of months ago from a 2nd hand shop, I thought it was 'quite nice' and would be a good piece to paint.  As I was loading it into the car I noticed it had a really badly damaged leg at the bottom of the back left hand side, which I must have missed when giving it the 'once over' luckily I did mange to talk the guy around to giving me some money back.

This is the before pic:

I  got it home and left it in the hall for a day, then moved it into the lounge til I was ready to work on it.  That evening we were sitting in the lounge and my hubby said - "I really like it, we should keep it" and funnily enough I was thinking the very same thing, the colour and the patina of the wood was absolutely gorgeous and I can't believe I hadn't noticed this before, this inspired me to keep some of the lovely patina.

The damaged leg looked like this:

  

Pretty bad - hey? So I cracked open the wood filler, and after a couple of days of gradually building it up I painted it, and it ended up looking like this:

  

 Not perfect but a zillion % better! 

 

I painted the framework and legs with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White an waxed it with clear wax, distressed the edges a little 'here & there' and left the beautiful patina on the top and drawer fronts.   I changed the knobs, to new ceramic ivory coloured ones, and this brought it all together.

Its now settling nicely into its new home in my bedroom.

Bye for now.

CJ

Saved From The Tip

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was presented with this by my neighbour a few months ago, with a big grin he said "I've been to the dump and I've got something for you" - most people would be horrified to hear this - not me I was so excited to see what it was, and very grateful as he brought it out from his porch to see that it was not too big, as the house is already groaning with the amount of furniture in it.

Anyway, it was this cute little bureau unit with shelves, the back board was badly warped and hanging off and although the original key was in the lock it was very difficult to turn.

The first thing I did was to get out the WD40 and give it a good squirt, left it for a few minutes and hey presto! it was like new.

The back board came off easily and I was going to replace it, but in the end I was able to slide it back into its grooves and tacked in place, no problem at all.

I mixed Annie Sloan Chalk Paint French Linen with Old White 50/50 for the outside of the cabinet and the inside I painted just in the French Linen so it gives a lovely contrasting tone with the inside slightly darker.  I picked out the edges on the outside with the old white and I heavily distressed the outside only, waxing with clear then dark wax.

The 2 panels on the front were crying out for something and in the end I plumped for the good old faithful sheet music which is always effective.

Although its not my favourite project to date I am pleased  with the way it turned out.

Bye for now

CJ

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Turquoise Chest of Drawers

 

I  have fallen in love with turquoise! This is the first piece I have painted in turquoise and I decided to heavily distress this piece too,  I love the handles and her pretty legs, she was in good condition so it was a relatively easy job.

This is what she looked like before:

I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint 1 part 'Provence' mixed with 2 parts 'Old White' this is the first time I have mixed the Annie Sloan colours and I am very pleased with the result I just poured the measured amounts into an old glass jar and screwed the lid on tight and really shook it up for about 5 mins until I could see it was all mixed together.

I distressed it using a dampened kitchen scourer, which gave a nice smooth distressed effect without scratching the surface underneath.  Afterwards I waxed using clear wax then brown wax and finished off with more clear wax.

I  have a little more of the mixed paint left over and so I will use it up on a sweet little footstool I have been meaning to renovate for some time now, so I shall look forward to sharing it when its done.

I have a feeling there may be a lot more turquoise pieces to come!

Bye for now

CJ

 

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Duck Egg Piano Stool

I got this cute piano stool a few months ago, and it looked like this...

I think it was the pretty shape of the legs that drew me to it.

I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Duck Egg, and waxed it with clear and brown wax after lightly distressing it.  I reupholstered the top with some beige linen and then using a Graphics Fairy graphic I transferred it onto the Fabric using 'Citrasolve', you can see a  tutorial here on 'You Tube' from Gail Schmidt At The Shabby Cottage Studio.  Afterwards I lined the inside with old sheet music, I thought that would be a novel idea for a 'piano' stool!

Such an improvement on the original piece - I love Duck Egg its such a lovely soft shade.

I'm mixing up some Provence & Old White at the moment for a chest of drawers, I am hoping to share very soon.

Bye for now

CJ