painted furniture |

Furniture projects in progress…

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Amy

Hi! Its pretty crazy around here, its finally the last week of school here and we have a new puppy {you can see her on our facebook page}…on top of that the stomach flu is making our way through our house. Such fun!

So there you have my excuse for why I am posting the “in progress” rather then any completed projects today. Terry and I have been very busy bees scouting out the local thrift stores of late. Our hope is to hold an “11 Magnolia Lane Vintage Market” at the end of the summer, so I have accumulated some amazing pieces I am in the process of transforming. Here is the current state of my dining {aka my “painting”} room…

First off, I scooped up this mirror at a thrift store in our little town. I practically snatched it out of Terry’s hands {sorry girl!} but it had such amazing potential I just had to have it. I am not going to share the bargain price I got it for, since it will be for sale shortly, but it was a very good deal.

However, painting it has taken years off my life–I learned the hard way that the detailed nooks and crannies will be beautiful when all painted and waxed up, but painting each of them will make you more than a bit crazy.

Janet showed me this fabulous french gilding wax she has. It goes on, as she says, like liquid make-up over top of the light wax. I bought it in the silver finish as I wanted to glam up the mirror a little. I am still perfecting the final look but I think I like the silver sheen over the old white, do you?

And drumroll….this is by far my favorite find. Even my husband has asked if we really have to get rid of it. I feel in LOVE with this china cabinet because of its french country styling. Here is the before…

I could just see it it would be stunning with a coat of Paris Grey Chalk Paint. It has a very Restoration Baby & Child vibe to me, so if you know anyone in the DC area who might want it for a baby nursery email me asap, I am dying to paint the inside pale pink! If not, I think it will just be all gray, even inside, as it has glass shelves and would be lovely in a dining room, a kitchen or even a bedroom…. if I can stand to part with it! And, OH–wait for it– when I got it home I realized it was made by HENREDON, truly a quality heirloom in the making. She still needs to be waxed up, the inside painted and some detail work done, but here she is “in progress”.

Last but not least, I also have purchased a new dining room set. I was tired of the style of my old table which quickly sold on Craig’s List, and that sale financed the ‘new to us’ set. Terry and I are both completely obsessed with caned furniture, and Christy is as always on the same page with us–you saw her chairs here–so I was thrilled to find a table I loved with six caned chairs on Craig’s List. We are actually using the new chairs in our kitchen since now I have six chairs instead of four, a long overdue upgrade since we are a family of five! The new table will go in our dining room with our current slipcovered chairs so it worked out perfectly.

I haven’t started painting it yet but my plan is to use Annie Sloan Pure White, similar to Christy’s dining room set makeover. First off is to recover the chairs, the “vintage” green velvet {seen above} needed to go.

So, I will be back with the “afters” hopefully sooner rather then later. Thanks to Janet for her sage chalk paint advice, it really is such an easy product to work with. And, let me know if anyone wants first dibs on the cabinet or the mirror {11magnolialane@gmail.com}, and, check back they will be for sale soon.

Thanks for stopping by,

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Posted in DIY, Furniture, Kitchens, Real Spaces | Tagged cane chairs, chalk paint, french cabinet, Furniture, gilding wax, mirror, painted furniture, paris grey chalk paint | 10 Comments

Cane Chair Update With Gray Chalk Paint

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Christy

A few weeks ago, one of my decorating clients (also a great friend!) sold me this pair of cane chairs that I’ve been admiring for months:

These girls had great lines, but you know that I love my painted furniture. I decided to give them a coat of Annie Sloan chalk paint in Paris Grey. Or is it Gray? It took one coat, and I opted not to wax them, although I might change my mind. Here’s how they turned out:

I love the matte finish of the paint, and I was impressed that one coat covered the wood (I just used a brush, even on the cane). When I painted my dark dining room table with Pure White a few months ago, it took two coats. You can read about that process {here}.

I borrowed the gray chevron pillow from the dining room, and used a small plant stand in between the two chairs to make a conversation area in a corner of our living room.

I’m sure some of you are still gasping that I painted them to begin with, but I’ve decided that lighter colors make my entire mood happier, so slowly but surely I’m going to paint the entire house white!! Stay tuned for more, and thanks for stopping by.

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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Annie Sloan, cane, chairs, chalk paint, painted furniture, Paris Grey | 2 Comments

Kitchen Hutch Makeover {Craig’s List Find}

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Amy

I am jumping right to the “After’ for this, but after months of searching, I finally found the perfect piece for my kitchen on Craig’s List. It was perfect in size, look and best of all–price, it was only $30!!! It had been donated to a church, and it was even relatively close by, I couldn’t get there fast enough to pick it up.

I have been looking for something like this since before Christmas, so #1 Craig’s List lesson learned– have patience and the perfect piece will eventually appear-and maybe even for a bargain price of $30!

Once I got it home, I unfortunately discovered that it had an unappealing odor (perhaps even from smoke) as well as the lovely, typical, thrift store/mildew smell. After some google research, I tried every tactic I found that would supposedly eliminate the smell–leaving it in the sun for a few days, cleaning it well, wiping it out with vinegar, using odor blocking primer and sanding it very, very well.

It smells perfectly fine now, so something worked.

I chose the paint color Benjamin Moore’s Silver Bells, a nice pale gray. I wanted to coordinate the hutch with my white cabinets but have it still feel like a furniture piece. Ideally, I would have used chalk paint, but there aren’t any retailers here at the Beach, and unfortunately I completed the project just before my visit to Janet’s store. Chalk paint would have certainly saved quite a bit of work.

I also wanted to use chicken wire to add interest, which was one of the reasons I was happy to find a cabinet that already had glass doors (and easy-to-remove glass at that). I wasn’t sure where exactly the chicken wire would go, until my son accidently broke one of the glass inserts for the side. I may even eventually replace all the glass with the wire because I love how it looks.

The hardware on it was already perfect, and its even has a light in the top section if I ever want to use the fixture. It adds some nice (and needed) storage to our kitchen, and for $30 plus some paint, I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

Thanks for stopping by! I am finishing up the workroom today–stay tuned, its coming along great!

XO,

Sharing at~

Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, At The Picket Fence, Savvy Southern Style, Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Miss Mustard Seed Furniture Friday

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Posted in Before and After, Home Inspiration, Kitchens | Tagged chicken wire, kitchen cabinet, kitchen hutch, painted furniture, storage | 8 Comments

A New Coat of Paint for an Old Entertainment Center

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Christy

This post could also be appropriately titled, “How I Broke my Husband’s Heart with a Quart of Paint,” as he was never fully behind this redo. I tell you, not everyone “gets” my vision. One day, my kids will be stripping paint off of everything I ever touched, and cursing my name the whole time.

We bought this cherry Ethan Allen entertainment center in 1997, to hold our big, huge, 35″ TV. Remember those big old monsters? Almost everyone has a flat screen now, but you used to have to have a big entertainment center to hide your big old TV when you weren’t watching it. My husband talked me into buying the TV right before he deployed to Bosnia (so I can watch the Superbowl on the big TV before I go off to war, baby), but the entertainment center was one of my requirements.

It was great in the ’90s, but all that dark wood (however pretty) is looking kind of dated in my light and white house. My husband suggested giving it to Goodwill or selling it on Craigslist, but I figured, if I’d buy something like this at Goodwill just to paint it, why not paint what I already own? This is where he just didn’t see my vision…but he went out of town and I just went for it.

I’ve already taken the hardware off here, but you get the idea. I decided that I was going to paint the armoire so it could hold the kids TV (it’s connected to the Wii) in their playroom. Our colors in there are blue, green and white, so I chose an apple green. My inspiration piece was in Pottery Barn Kids this summer…

If you’ve never painted furniture before, it’s a breeze. Here are the steps: clean the piece of dust and dirt, sand all surfaces, wipe the sanding dust off, apply primer, sand lightly and wipe down, and apply at least one top coat (I brushed this instead of rolling it). I used latex paint on this piece, but I also don’t mind the inevitable nicks and dings that you get with latex. We move every couple of years, so none of my pieces are perfect, anyway. I used oil when I did my kitchen cabinets, but those have to hold up forever because I will NEVER paint them again!

Finally, I added pulls that I bought at Hobby Lobby on their 50% off week. *LOVE* Hobby Lobby’s pulls and knobs, if you haven’t been there yet! These are a cheerful multicolor polkadot pattern.

Now that we’ve moved from North Carolina to Tennessee, this armoire is in my guest room instead of the playroom/schoolroom/bonus room, because all of our TVs are in different rooms. It doesn’t match at all in the guest room, but we’ll be moving again in less than two years, so I’ve just got to be patient and everything will change again soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Posted in Before and After, Home Inspiration, Real Spaces | Tagged diy, guest room, paint, painted furniture, playroom | Leave a comment

Nashville Flea Market–my favorite finds from last weekend

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Christy

Last weekend was the Nashville Flea Market, held monthly at the fairgrounds. When we lived in Clarksville for nine years, I often made the drive down with my friends, Carolyn and Andrea, and now that we’re all in the area again, we’ve reinstated our tradition.

We went last Saturday, which is different for us (normally we go on Sunday morning–the bargains tend to be better on Sunday). But my hubby was playing in a golf tournament and I didn’t want the kids to miss church since we’re just getting situated in our new Sunday school classes. So, Saturday morning it was.

My first find was this darling lampshade. The woman who made it took long strips of bright and cheerful patterned fabrics and wove them on a wire lampshade frame, then just tied them on the frame. I’ve seen tons of old wire frames throughout the years and know that they’re cute on a lamp all by themselves, or they can be re-covered…but I never thought of this technique! Yes, I could have done it myself, but since I don’t have a bunch of cute fabric scraps sitting around and I needed to find the right size frame, I figured the $20 she wanted was going to be well worth it. We’ve just re-done my daughter’s room–it’s aqua, pale green, and white now (all pink has been banished–sigh!), so this was a perfect inspiration piece for her desk. Love it!

(By the way, I’ve seen these done with ribbons before–also cute–and embellished with flowers, ribbon rosettes, and beads.)

My second fabulous find was also for Annabelle’s room. She was really the big winner here, wasn’t she? I bought a black nightstand for her room for $20 and of course forgot to take before pictures to post. I am getting better at taking pics of “before” but I am usually in such a rush to get to “after” that I still sometimes forget! I sanded that baby down, removed the yucky drawer pull, and spray primed and painted it aqua blue. I finished with a crystal drawer pull, which I already had, and a little light sanding to distress it. Now it’s her new nightstand. She’s been asking me for a nightstand with a “junk drawer” which cracks me up–how many eight-year-olds need a junk drawer?! Come to think of it, probably most of them. Can you say plastic Happy Meal toys?