Curliques & Bin Pulls

Oh, those gorgeous bin pulls. I just love 'em. They are generally so expensive, but I lucked out when I found these at Cripe Distributing: 25 oil-rubbed-bronze bin pulls for $14. I ordered them before I even knew what I wanted to do with them...but then I saw this desk at The Frosted Gardner:


Isn't it pretty? And wouldn't you know it, I just happened to have a similar desk just waiting for me to do something with it in the garage.

Alas, I didn't remember to take a "before" picture...yet again. It was a run-of-the-mill brown desk.

But now...


I like it much better! I found a quart of "oops" gray paint at Home Depot: $1, baby! Gotta love that.

The desk has this pretty "curlique" embellishment around the top. I flirted with the idea of filling it all in with wood-filler, until I took another look around the garage and saw this chair:


"Hmm..." I thought to myself. "Curlique on the desk. Curlique on the chair. Must be fate!"


So naturally the chair had to be painted the same as the desk. And of course all of the yucky gold pulls were replaced with beautiful bin pulls!


I glazed them both with black to make those curliques pop! Getting glaze in all those indentations is actually a whole lot easier than trying to paint them neatly! (Like I tried to do on this desk...don't look too closely!)


I love that the back of this desk is as pretty as the front. It doesn't have to sit next to a wall. The recessed panels on the sides and back are so pretty. In fact, even the knee space is pretty (not that anyone will be seeing that)!

An Award for ME!!

I am beyond thrilled that Suzanne of Thrift Store Junky chose *me* to receive a Lovely Blogger Award!

Thank you, Suzanne!

If you haven't visited her blog yet, I suggest you start here, where she created a wall-hanging shelf from an unwanted hutch!

Now I get to pass this award on to some other talented and inspiring bloggers. In no particular order, I am passing this award on to:

• The Frosted Gardner. Mike & Melanie Gardner adopt old, tired furniture and give it a new lease on life! Their renovations are gorgeous, and always manage to preserve the unique flair only an old piece of furniture can have. Sometimes she shares things that she uses in her own home, like this huge window that I am completely jealous of! (of which I am completely jealous??) I saw it in the classifieds myself (and loved it), but she had the vision to snatch it up! This beautiful desk has inspired my own desk makeover, which is (hopefully) going to be finished later this week!

• Design Love. Cynthia is a new blogger (like me), and she has an eye for the beautiful, the unique, and the fun! Wait until you see her spider-themed front door! Plus she has made a garden bench that surrounds on old tree that's to die for!

• Vintage Revivals. Mandi can sew, she can paint, and she can decorate...a truly intimidating combination! I love her knobby wall and her truly amazing wall of mirrors.

Hope some of these amazing blogs provide you with some Monday inspiration.
Have a great week!

Gathering table

I am still on my quest to get enough of my garage cleared out for my husband to park in the garage before the frost hits! And I may just make it! :-)

I finished one of my more ambitious projects to date. Although I have finished two tables (here and here), and even eight chairs for one of those tables (here and here), I didn't tackle them all at once. This time, however, I found a bargain I couldn't resist, in the shape of an oak pedestal table (with leaf!) and six pressed-back chairs. They've been sitting in my garage for about a month now.

Yes, I already had started sanding when I remembered to take a picture! But not too much.

I love love love these chairs!

And I am still in love with the walnut top/creamy bottom combination. Sorry. I promise my next project will be something different than that (coming soon!).

I used Minwax Dark Walnut stain again. It is gorgeous on oak!

I know I put at least two coats of stain on. It could have been three! Then I gave it three coats of polyurethane.

Next I tackled the base of the table. I used a brush and gave it a coat of Zinser 1-2-3 primer. I am liking this brand better than Kilz, I think. Then I chose NOT to use Rustoleum Heirloom White spray paint for this project. It would have taken a LOT of spray paint. Instead, I invested in a gallon of Sherwin Williams Creamy and brushed and sprayed it on.

Here's what the leaf looked like with the apron painted. You can't see any of the pretty pressed pattern, and you know what that means....

Time to do some glazing!

I chose not to use stain as my glazing medium this time, but instead I used diluted burnt umber craft paint. The color is a great match, but more importantly, I had more control than I do with stain. (You can wipe stain off to a certain extent, but not as easily as paint.) I brushed the diluted paint on liberally, waited a few minutes, and then wiped with a damp rag to remove the excess. In the picture above, the left leg has been glazed, while the right leg has not.


The difference really shows in the chairs. Above, the left chair is un-glazed, compared to the right glazed chair. I had to use the brush to get all those little crevices saturated with color, and then wipe off the flat surfaces. Certainly glazing of any kind does darken the overall color of the chair, but not nearly as much as stain would have--in fact I don't think I would have been able to get the contrast I wanted with stain in this instance.

Doesn't the table apron look better now?

Lastly I distressed the chairs and the table base. I didn't really do anything to the pressed pattern; it stood out well with just the glazing. But all the spindles and corners and curves got worked over. It just seems more practical to me to distress a piece--and that's probably because I am the mother of six! Things are going to get distressed whether I like it or not...so it's just less traumatic if it looks like it's on purpose!

So here are some "after" shots...

Four chairs with no leaf...

A shot of some great legs....

And six chairs with the leaf inserted.

I was so tempted to bring it in my house to see how it would look. But my 13-year-old and 11-year-old house slaves groaned at the prospect, and I caved to unpopular demand!

I have been searching and searching and searching the classifieds for a table of my own to do this with. I have seen a couple that would be perfect (for example, a HUGE Pottery Barn table that was sold for seventy-five dollars), but I have been too late each time!

So...if anyone comes across a likely prospect in the Salt Lake area, let me know! I need something that can easily accomodate eight people (about 78"), with leaves that can handle up to twelve (96" or more). I dream of chunky turned legs and a plank-style top. Cross your fingers for me!

Imitation

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"...I hope!

I saw this adorable candy corn at Chapman Place:

I have a candy-corn-loving sister, so I knew I had to try to make some for her. My version is considerably more "rustic" looking; obviously I haven't mastered the use of the jigsaw yet! But they still turned out pretty cute.

I hope she likes them!

The beadboard I had on hand from another project. The 2x6 board was from the cull bin at Home Depot. I had to buy three new colors of craft paint ($1/each), but the other stuff I had on hand!

I cheated on my diet!

I have been trying so hard to be good...but a trip to DI last Saturday ruined my furniture diet! And it's all my daughter's fault... I wasn't actually going to go inside, except she wanted me to look for something specific for her!

And no, I didn't find what she wanted!

But I found something for ME!!

Yes, it's a cedar chest. I have a well-known weakness for cedar chests (shown here , plus there's one that hasn't been shown!)


It was in reasonably good shape, although there was some water damage on the top.


The paneling on the sides of the faux drawers could pass for beadboard, although there were weird circular indentations at the top and bottom of each panel. I filled those in with wood filler, as well as the holes from the original (ugly) hardware.


The top I sanded down to bare wood so it could be re-stained. The base just got lightly sanded, then primed.

And now its all prettified! I re-stained the top with Minwax Dark Walnut.

The base I painted with Sherwin Williams Creamy, then I used the Dark Walnut stain to give it a little character.

I replaced the handles with oil-rubbed bronze bin pulls.

I think it looks a little "Pottery Barn"-ish. It's going home to a young woman who just got married, so she has a place to store her wedding memorabilia! I couldn't think of a better use for it!