Little girls dresser

A couple weeks back I was asked to 'do' a dresser for a 3 year old girl.

So armed with that info, and the fact that she is referred to as a princess (and what little girl doesn't like to be called a princess!) I was immediately on the lookout for a 3 year old suitable dresser.

Thats easier said than done! I also went searching for vanities just in case but old mother hubbards cupboards were looking a tad sparse :(

Luckily someone contacted me and said they had a dresser they were getting rid of, sent me pics and I was relieved. Well sort of. It was a dresser, with 3 drawers (so shorter than the standard ones) - awesome. But the shape was a bit - well - in need of love!

See what I mean 

However some severe sanding and priming - turned it from this

Into a dresser fit for a princess

How dya like those crowns on the front? Aren't they cute :) Actually they are balsa wood photo frames (the type you can buy at Walmart / Dollar store etc,) I just removed the hardware from the back and glued them on! And another cool little trick to get the painted graphic on top, is the old "Mod Podge Transfer" technique.

Basically you print out a picture (it's supposed to be on a laser printer, but my normal one worked fine) and let the ink dry. Cut out the picture and put a coat of Mod Podge on the picture side and stick it face down.

You're supposed to let it dry for 24 hours, but I left mine for like 3, impatient minnie that I am! Then you get a damp sponge and start wetting the reverse of the paper  - it pulls the paper off but the print and Mod Podge remain like a transfer on the furniture. I then painted it in and hey presto!!!

If you are going to try this heres a better video, granted they have done this on fabric (which is waaaay cool anyway) but it can be done on pretty much anything :) I'm now off to find other things I can transfer things to!

Take one old sewing machine from the dump .........................

Awww doesn't it look all sad and so on (and dirty too!)

But holy smokes look at that beautiful sewing machine in there!!! How could anyone dump this :(

And the drawers were kind of - well actually the were - falling apart

And the less said about the veneer on the front the better!

Now I'm not by any means a carpenter. If Bob the Builder were to come a knocking and say "can you fix it?" I'd probably say "Um no, but I can paint it if that would help????"

So originally it was patched together, gaps in the veneer filled and the whole base painted in cream. But the bubbling in the veneer stood out like a sore thumb. So now it cam to doing a nifty paint technique called "oh cr@p I now have to make this front but look like wood"

I think it turned out OK!!!!

The front sign was painted to match the patina of the original handles that were still on the drawers!

I also attempted to stage this one for the photo using seasonal pumpkins and so on!!!!

While wire brushing the base ready for spraying I noticed the lettering was originally picked out in gold. So as luck would have it - I have gold to hand - so back to original went the base!

Who doesn't like a rear end shot!

And thats it. It's only going to be used for display purposes (which is good due to my carpentry skills ;) ) but the lady who this is for absolutely loves it. I hope you do too :)

I'm running out of nautical things to say :(

It was my birthday at the weekend! And after finishing an interior repaint of a lovely ladies house on Thursday, I was right back to the furniture finding / painting.

So Friday saw me out and about on the lookout for more bits and pieces. I found the two pieces used on the makeover below SCORE - and also a set (6 drawer long dresser  with mirror / 5 drawer tall dresser and a double headboard) about a 3 hr drive away for a steal of a deal. So I called the guy up and spent my Saturday birthday morning on a furniture run! Yay happy birthday hey!!!

The ship / sea themed dressers are going down a storm. I promised a customer a while back that if I did anymore, she would get first refusal on them. So when I picked up the mid century modern dresser and the little side table (from different places) I thought I'd do a set.

You know I'm really beginning to fall in love with this style of furniture, almost seems a shame to paint it.

Almost!

Yes yes I know the before isn't the same as the after, but I did it again with the whole "being too excited to take a before picture" but it really is what it looked like (with a few more scratches and felt pen on it!)

Luckily the lady that expressed an interest in the nautical stuff that I called and sent pictures to, loved it - so I didn't even have to advertise it for sale!!!! 

So now while I'm pondering on what to do with the 'set', the owner of the house I painted, asked me if I would redo an old sewing machine table that her son in law had found at the local dump??!!!!!!!

Sure, says I, I can paint anything! - it's not in great shape, and she's fully aware of that - however the person who dumped it - also dumped all of the bits that had fallen off! (backs of drawers / handles etc) with it. Makes me sad people would throw something like this away! So at least there's bits to put back together

Well when I say 'this' you can't see it yet - it's still in my truck! I'll start it tomorrow. It's going to be refinished purely for decorative purposes and I hope I can do it justice :)

I must have a thing for stars and flags!

Remember a couple entries ago, I told you that my luvverly mum in law had donated a coffee / side table set?

Well in between painting the interior of a house this week, I managed to refinish them too! Don't panic too much, my hubby works away a lot, so I have't chosen furniture over him - moreso that it keeps me occupied of an evening!!!

Now unfortunately I didn't take any before pictures :( like the idiot I am - however when I was hunting around the interworldweb for inspiration on what the heck to do with glass topped / inserts coffee tables, I found a blog by a lady that had the exact same set and had posted her makeover.

So you can click here to see the pics of how my tables were before (and also it's great to see 2 sets of tables with 2 completely different makeovers!)

 And here's how mine turned out!!!

Close up on the table tops! This, believe it or not really is the glass inserts still in them! I sprayed them with Rustoleums Universal spray - which adheres to glass. Then primed with an oil primer with a brush to get the stroke marks in it! Top coated with an off white of Benjamin Moore advance, and then added the faux wood / star / grain effect using acrylic craft paint. Last step was to top coat with 2 coats of urethane!

 I also decided to add a little barbed wire detail to the front - you know - just cos!!!!!

I really really love them :)

Another flag??!!! Really

Yup - another flag!

In the interests of balancing out the continental divide - I thought I would pay homage to my adopted home country - and more specifically the province  live in!!!!

Well with those clues it's not tough to figure out what's coming eh!

So here's the before (unsurprisingly!) When friends get to hear that you 'makeover' furniture they tend to see you as a great place to offload all of their unwanteds! This was an unwanted that I definitely wanted!

 Et voila!!!! I don't know what made me paint it in the airforce blue? Maybe cos when I looked at it, it seemed a 'masculine' shape. And blue's for buys right?!

Another view!

Close up of the Alberta flag on top. this was my first try at 'painting' (I mean masking off shapes!!!) with various stain I love how this turned out I really do

Western style tables!

Soooooo I picked up these tables last week. (Aside from doing a full interior repaint on a property!)

Theres 2 of the side tables btw. They aren't actually that bad anyway (well weren't should I say). 

But what is a good wannabe furniture refinisher going to do? Keep them as is and say "I think i'll leave them as is". No most definitely not!

As I live in rural Alberta, the country vibe force thing is very strong, so instead of fighting it, I went with it!

(Hmmmm I must do a better job of taking pics and staging the furniture instead of immediately getting the camera out and posting pics right away!!!! - while i'm at it i'll also get around to making this blog better. I'm not too good with the layout design techy interweb stuff ;) )

I love how the black and off white go together, and - fortunately for me so did a few other people with 2 very interested people wanting to buy them. That is until my sister in law saw them for sale online - told my mum in law, who asked for pictures, came to see them that afternoon and left the proud owner of a new set of tables lol.

Now obviously you can't charge family - and I especially wouldn't my inlaws as they are so awesome, so we struck a deal! I get their old coffee table and 2 side table set, plus an old dresser - they get the western ones!

Thats a pretty good deal in my book - especially as I have a custom order for a little girls dresser to fill :)

Check back in a couple days - I have a doozy of a desk refinish to show you! 

If you liked it then you should have put a flag on it!!!!!

I don't think I've mentioned that I'm English! I married a wonderful Canadian and now live in Canada. Rurally - with donkeys and land and stuff!!!!!

I adore my life here, but for some reason one day hankered for a touch of something 'me' in the house. (Not like there aren't lady me touches everywhere - errrrr yeah sorry bout all the throw cushions babe!)

So I found this desk online

Beautiful and sturdy, just needing some luvvin! But unfortunately too big for the space I had pictured it in at home. Heck I bought it anyway!










I've seen tons of Union Jack makeovers, some are awesome, some (and this is a personal thing because it's my flag!!!) are - not so awesome. So I wanted to do one, but not a standard one. I'm anything but standard you know.

This Vivienne Westwood print was the inspiration!

                                                                                                                

So after a few nifty paint techniques, this is how it turned out in the end!










I really loved it, and so did the lady that eventually bought it for her British hubby :)

It was also featured here on the amazing Better After blog. (Seriously awesome makeovers and great inspiration for anyone wanting ideas for their furniture!!!)

Shedding light ............

That was a dire heading right?

Like the radio DJ that does the cringey link between stories. Anyway - it's all I got right now!!!

These two dressers totally didn't start out meaning to be like this. (no I mean really really)

The first looked like this

I mean, um what do you do with it! It sat in the kitchen looking at me. I returned the favour. We had coffee, chatted, exchanged small talk. Nothing. So like most of my stuff I dove, dived? divered??? in and started painting. Now I like off white, but the shape of this didn't call for the "french provincial court of Louis the 500th" style. 

I haven't used milk paint btw, not yet. In my day job as a 'normal' house painter / mural artist - I use the standard acrylics / latex / alkyds. It's what  know. So my furniture (for now if it's painted) is always primed / coated with at least 2 top coats of a cabinet grade finish, and then lacquered for protection.

So anyway, I painted it cream and then decided that the outside would be nice in a charcoal grey, with some or other oldy worldy image in the middle. You can see the vision hey! No - yeah I couldn't either at that time.

So I grabbed what I thought was a colour chip for a charcoal grey, paint store mixed it, and when they checked it - it was a really really deep navy blue. OMG really?

But being the pushover I am I said "don't worry I'll take it anyway" and drove home thinking I should have said something.

Fast forward to the finished article (because I can talk like forever) - after the blue went on - the penny dropped. That's it!!!! Eureka (cept I was neither naked nor in the bath). Its nautical colours!!!!!

I loved how it turned out, so it was advertised for sale, and fortunately so did a few other people!!!!! So much so that one lady (who collected lighthouses) custom ordered another one. Now - I did have a dresser set that i'd purchased to refinish as a set, but the lady saw the tall one and fell in love with it, so again I caved and agreed to separate it from it's bigger, longer, sleeker brother.

It went from this

To this.........

It turned out awesome. On a real happy note, the people that bought the first dresser, also saw the second one when they came to collect theirs, so have custom ordered the other half of the above set, so this.....

will be done in another nautical theme (with pirate ships / anchors and all that fun stuff)!!!

So i'll be updating with the progress of this one as it happens!

Hope you enoyed todays visit to the seaside :)

It's another makeover blog!!!!!! Yes Jim, but not as we know it......

Hullo!!!!

Well I suppose it IS as we know it. I mean tbh a makeover blog is pretty self explanatory right ;)

Let me give some background here! I'm a 40 -ahem cough- something self employed paint contractor. Nooooooo unfortunately that doesn't entail swanning round in a posh SUV carrying clip files of colour and design schemes - it means I'm the one that gets called AFTER the posh SUV visit has happened, and I turn up looking all workman (woman) like, with ladders / power tools / paint brushes / rollers etc etc etc and make the vision of the aforementioned person a reality ;)

In my spare time I like to mosey around and find things I can paint, anything will do. Wood / cream cans / small children - I'm not fussy!

The furniture thing started quite by accident. My awesome youngest daughter - we'll call her Blob as that's her nickname lmao (she'll kill me for that!) and I were at the dump, dumping some garbage (unusually enough) and we found a dresser. Older 1960's - great solid condition. So I'm all like "quick help me haul this into the back of the truck. 

That night as we were having a mummy daughter stay up late and eat chips and watch junk on TV in the holidays night, Blob says "um, shall we paint that dresser?"

"It's 11pm babe???? Hells yeah lets do it"

And so it began :)

Now I love all the finishes and effects that people do. They are awesome clever and creative. I like to add a little something extra to mine. Luckily I suppose - as one of the strings on my bow as a painter, I paint murals. So I started doing little things like that on furniture.

And whaddya know. People seem to love it.

Maybe one day I can retire from hauling ladders and scaffold, working 10 hour days an then coming home to refinish furniture hahaha

At this point I would like to doff my cap to my amazing husband. He constantly comes home to all manner of alien things (no not like green men, or weird entrails or anything) in the kitchen in various states of undress (I'm talking furniture in case it wasn't clear) and has stated to build a shop which will eventually house a corner for me and my whims :)

So that's the background! I'll start adding some pics of the obvious before and afters. The stories behind getting the furniture - the mistakes that made the finished article what it is. (I'd totally love to say everything is intentional but you know what - sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it works, sometimes I want to kick a large rock)

So um - thanks for reading, hope you come back and see whats been occuring, ad what the next project is!!!!

By for now
Moo