Oh how I wish we had time for a before picture of this one! But here is the after. We found this sweet gem being sold by a guy who cleans out houses after he buys them. Apparently the owners had left a bunch of stuff in there. This one had great bones, but was messed up just about everywhere, and the drawers were a nightmare to open. It was a typical piece, typical stain, typical use marks by someone who did not care about it, and rather boring.

So D sanded the top for me, and didn't it turn out pretty! We had thought is was a veneer, but got surprised by a beautiful wood top underneath all the grime and stain.  

I primed and fixed all the drawers after removing the hardware.

Then I opted to go a very different route than usual for me. I had seen an idea, and wanted to try it! I enjoy the juxtaposition of paint and wood together, and this piece was the perfect guinea pig. Why? Because honestly, I did not think the drawers would ever be righted, so I saw this as a practice piece. Yes, even those of us that do this often sometimes run into pieces that drag us down! I drew a design in pencil on the top.

And then went with multiple layers of stain to create this! I love hoe it turned out. And so, it made me work even harder on the drawers. They were not going to beat me! It was such a lovely shell, that the inside had to match in my opinion. 

And so after finishing the top and sealing it, I painted the bottom white to contrast the dark top and really show it off. 

After much frustration, the drawers now glide like a hawk in the sky. It will make a wonderful entertainment center, buffet, dresser or changing table. One person that saw it is even considering it for a bathroom double sink vanity. That could be cool!

These were custom jobs that I did for a couple for their bedroom. I previously did a black set, but they moved those into the new baby's room. So, they were in need of a different set. 

They found this sturdy set second hand and brought it over to me after they picked out a color.

No matter how many times I took the picture, none of them were "true to life" on the color. The turqoise is much deeper in person. It also has a black glaze over it after the distressing was done. Then it was finished with a protective coating.

The handles were spray painted with primer and then a silver high performance enamel. 

It turned into a beautiful set which they were very happy to place in their bedroom. Looking forward to seeing pictures of them in their new space!

From wood to wood

I refinished this little guy this week. I originally bought him to paint, but something kept holding me back. I didn't really want to paint him. We got it over the winter, so everything looks a little dead and washed out.

But he had been through a lot, and was in need of a few things to reach his full potential. I had to sand off all the old finish which was flaking off. I also sanded the top, so that all the paint drops would come off. I then used one of my favorite tricks that my Grandmother taught me: Oxalic Acid to remove black spots in wood. She learned it in an old book on refinishing (when you could get Oxalic Acid in the pharmacy.) Now you have to purchase it online. I buy it by the pound, but a little bit goes a long way. Wear gloves and an eye mask if you use it! You mix it with water (paste consistency), spread it over the area, and let it dry. Oxalic Acid is a bleach, and it bleaches out the black spots on wood. I then vacuum up the particles that have dried. Then rinse it several times. Once it has dried, you can then use a cloth to wipe it down even more. 

I then stained and put a protective coat on the wood, used steel wool between coats of protective sealer, waxed it down with a furniture wax, and this is what we got!

The wood just shines and there is such a depth of color to it. 

See how well that top turned out?

I did put new pulls on it, since one was broken on the old ones. I will save them for a piece that needs 8 drawer pulls. These had a nice vintage look to them and matched the key holes on each drawer. 

Finished another chair this weekend! Turned out to be quite a beauty. I really thought about keeping it, but wanted to see if we could sell it. 

This is how it started out! The material was very worn out, showing holes in many places. So, I took it off, fixed the stuffing, and painted the wood.

The carving on the wood was absolutely beautiful!

I had to cover the bottom twice, because it wasn't straight the first time. Thankfully, I had ordered an extra yard of fabric (ordered 4 yds total).

Turned out pretty well and sold it within 24hrs! We like that! Made my decision of keeping/not keeping rather easy.

Modern Vibe

We bought this chair after we had seen an ad on Craigslist that cracked us up. Its funny what challenges you to buy something. The ad listed a chair in similar style for almost $800. (YIKES!!) Then it said it was "All original" and "Recently reupholstered". For some reason it cracked us up to read that.

So we came across this beauty and decided we could do a little switch-a-roo with it too. D thoroughly enjoyed the duct tape seat.

I took all the layers off, re-stuffed the bottom and then recovered it with a lovely modern material. Loved the result!

This last week, we decided to go look at houses. We are ready to move out of our cramped quarters and to look for some studio space for our work. We don't know how soon we will be able to make it happen, but the wheels are turning!

We found this little gem at our buddy Tony's storage unit. Tony buys storage units that have been abandoned and sells the contents. Occasionally we go for a visit and see what we can pick up.

 Today we went and looked at the perfect house. It was built in the 1840s. And yes, when you imagine a house from 1840s, it really is that cool. Its way beyond what we can really afford though and still keep us in the range where I could be a stay at home mom one day.

 

 So, that means we just need to keep working away at our little items and hope for the best!

We ran outside to take these pictures the other day. Cincinnati has decided to be awesome and SNOW. It is one of those places, where you can never be too sure about the weather at any given season. You will know that there will be four seasons... You will know that the summer will be HOT and HUMID... You will know that tornadoes will come, blizzards will come, flooding will come, and glorious spring will come. 

But we are not yet sure when spring will come. Normally, it is here by now. The fat Robins say it is close. The daffodils are popping up their heads (but not actually coming out in the cold yet.)

I am ready for flowers! I am ready for warm weather! I am ready to be able to get outside to sand, paint and be creative out in the open. 

No. 85

A friend of mine was looking for a different looking entertainment center. She was going back and forth about whether or not to go for a painted piece or not. 

When I found this piece at Goodwill, it needed a lot of TLC. But, it had potential. So I sent her a picture, told her it was $20, and asked if she would be interested in it.

 

 It had character, and was structurally in pretty good shape. The handles and metal pieces were quite neat. The finish was just kinda wanting.

 

When I started to work on it, I decided I had to sand the top. At first, I thought I had probably shot myself in the foot. Being veneer, I wasn't sure if it would sand well or not. But, it was worth a try. I ended up with the two tones you can see above. The top is sanded and re-stained. The bottom has the original finish.

 The grain that showed through was absolutely beautiful!

So I sanded the whole piece and re-stained it. We had talked about how to add a pop of color to the piece, without painting the whole thing. Since she wanted to use it under her tv, the top two drawers were going to be taken out. I added wood to make a flat surface and then painted the inside to make it pop. I can't wait to see it in her house!

There are many things people can do to pieces of furniture. Some of the good, and some of them not so good. I hope that what we do can be considered good.

This is what this dresser looked like to begin with. The top had a lot of problems, and had not been taken care of.

We glazed over the paint and primer, finishing it with a protective coat of wax. I was using polyurethane to finish pieces, but for some reason, it kept having a yellow tint on the white pieces. Therefore, I changed to wax. It does a beautiful job!