Coral Beauty

It's a good thing that I live in a pretty big house cause ever since I started my business, my home has become a storage space for all those pieces that won't fit in the storage shed out back.

Sometimes they end up in the dining room and some in the living room.

  Sometimes those extras even spill over to my covered patio.  That's what happened with this vintage dresser that I got at a thrift store, over a year ago.

This was my first shot at repairing a piece in some major ways.  Like the veneer was coming off in sheets, one leg was damaged, the drawers didn't close properly and the list goes on.  I turned to the blogs I follow to figure out what to do about the veneer.  It came off the sides pretty easy but in my zeal to remove it from the tops I guess I went too far. Following the instructions I got I placed wet towels on the tops to loosen the veneer and this seemed to be working pretty well.  However, I continued to place wet towels on it till all the veneer came off - and until the tops were so warped they had to be replaced.  Lucky for me my husband has a friend who is a wood worker and he replaced the tops for me!!!  Thanks Ben!

After that fiasco I left that dresser sitting on the patio for another 6 months before I got the nerve to touch it again.  Every once in a while my husband would ask me when I planned on finishing it and I always told him  "it's on my list".  He helped me fix the drawers and some other minor things until finally I drug it into the house, back to my workroom.  And it sat in there a while too.   I just wasn't getting any color inspiration

Bondo to the rescue 

But that changed when I started retailing Junk Gypsy™ Chalk and Clay Paint.  The vibrant colors spoke to me and I finally had a plan for the dresser.  I had done a workshop for a friend of mine and a couple of the ladies wanted a coral color, which JG doesn't have but we knew we could mix colors to get what we wanted, sorta.  We mixed a little of this and a little of that till we had the coral they wanted.  Problem was, I wasn't taking measurements and chances were I would never match that exact color again.  Luckily I mixed enough for their projects.  


After seeing those coral pieces I knew I wanted that for this dresser.  And this time I did things a little more carefully.  Like I measured the paints and made samples for all kinds of variations till I got one I liked.  And believe me I will hang onto these paint sticks for future      reference.  The paints I used were American Dream,        Granny's Cornbread, and Dreamcatcher.                                                                                                                  




 All you have to do then is add more red or yellow or white to get the shade you're after.  All of these samples were fine but I really liked the one that had 2 parts of the red to one part of the other two.  So I mixed it up and started painting.









 The drawers were done in Buttermilk Biscuit, a creamy, dreamy white I just love!

Remember I told you the veneer came off the sides in sheets and I wasn't sure what to do after that but glory be to Pinterest, I found my inspiration in paintable wall paper.

It went on easy and added just the right look.  And it really is paintable!  After painting the whole piece I decided to leave the wallpaper portions with the chalky finish - it seemed to add a little something.

I love the look of the painted wallpaper!

  Clear coat on all the rest and now she's in my booth at The Antique Gallery in Lewisville.

There's a new piece on the patio; it got moved up from the shed and is waiting on it's space in the workroom.  It has peeling veneer too but I'll try the iron method this time.  Till next time!!

Doing What I Love!

When I first started my business all I wanted to do was paint furniture!  It has always given me great pleasure to paint an item and see how it could be transformed into something beautiful.  And even more satisfying is doing that for an actual customer!  But I tell you I read a lot of blogs and have seen some real nightmare stories about unhappy customers and honestly this scares me more than a little:(

So I decided early on that I wanted to treat my customer the way I wanted to be treated.  I would be honest and upfront, attentive and easy to reach.  So far so good.  Being great with customer service is a lot easier when it is modeled for you by others that you work with.  I have found this to be the case with Websters Chalk Paint Powder.  These guys set the bar pretty high when it comes to customer service and I have truly benefitted from that many times.  ( I know they must cringe sometimes when I call or email - I am pretty high maintenance!)

So when Websters decided to feature some of my work on their blog I was thrilled.  Now mind you, they do this for ALL Websters retailers but I felt pretty special when I saw one of my projects on their site.  And in one of their videos!  If you are into painting you really should check them out on youtube for tons of tutorials and inspiration. 

They asked me to share 'my favorite piece' and I knew exactly what piece it would be.  I bought this dresser from a friend who was making room for new stuff, lucky me.  This dresser had seen better days!  The legs were all gone, trim work was hanging by a thread, and the top had been abused beyond repair.  

I had seen lots of examples on Pinterest of painting only a portion of a piece and leaving the natural wood in others so that was the plan because the drawers of this dresser were beautiful. 

The Turquoise Heirloom

There are not many things in this world that I won't paint, but there are some that I don't like to paint!  For starters, chairs. And you can guess why.  I know I don't like to paint chairs because I have painted a ton of them. Many times when I host a chalk paint demo at the Antique Gallery I will paint a chair because  you can paint, distress and wax one in about 2 hours.  Here are some examples.

Bearing in mind that I don't like painting chairs you can probably imagine my reaction when my husband announced  "Dean wants you to paint a chair for Kylie".  So what's the big deal with that, you might ask?  Dean is a coworker.  Ok, maybe he's more than a coworker - he is actually my husband's boss.  Kylie is his beautiful, super talented daughter who is about to start her new career in teaching.  And the chair?  Well, the chair has history.  It's a family heirloom.  Belonged to Dean's great grandmother. And it has about a zillion spindles.  No pressure here! 
 



 

I agree to paint the chair with a zillion spindles because that's what I do, I paint furniture for people!  Of course I want to do a good job cause I like these people and who doesn't want to make a good impression with their work?  You can see that I forgot to take a before pic.   Did I mention a zillion spindles?  Sherwin Williams used to carry a curved roller made just for painting round things like spindles but when I inquired about them at the store the kid behind the counter gave me one of those 'what an idiot' looks.  No curved roller to be found.

 
When painting spindles you kinda have to go at it from every possible angle with every tool you can find.

 

Some how I managed to get two coats of paint on and decided the color was perfect!  The coast is not clear though - I still had to distress it.  They wanted light distressing, which is normally what I do, but I had this fear that I would overdo it and have to paint the chair all over again.  And all those spindles.  The best places to distress are the ones naturally aged.

 

 

 

 

Much to my surprise the distressing came out perfect!  This old chair has so much character it's almost like it was painting and distressing itself!  The project I was most concerned about getting right was probably one of the easiest I have ever done.  Enjoy Kylie!

Something old, something new at the Antique Mall

It is hard to believe it has been a year since I dove headfirst into my painting/picking business when I opened my first booth in an antique mall.  My spot was way in the back of the mall which suited me just fine.  I figured nobody would see what a novice I was if I hid in the back!

Six months in and I needed to make a decision - leave or stay.  You see, I wasn't selling an awful lot and my rent was beating me up. I had become a retailer for Websters Chalk Paint Powder (check it out here) but couldn't sell it in this mall because they have an exclusive with another chalk paint retailer. Sales in my Lewisville booth were going well, mainly because of the Websters. But our new manager had a solution: move my booth closer to the center of the mall, and start working the desk in exchange for rent.  Perfect!

So here I am, six more months and still sales aren't good.  I've learned a lot from the staff here and I enjoy working and getting to know the other dealers. I've made friends here.  My booth has never looked better, thanks to Cathy Lee!  But that hasn't changed my sales.

I have always heard that when one door shuts another one opens.  And that door swung wide open for exactly what I was looking for, a boutique.  More on that later!

So today I will sadly say goodbye to my first booth ever and adios to all my new friends.  But I will be back, because The Antique Gallery in Denton is one of my favorite places to shop! You should check them out sometime soon!