I have bad ass taste.

I have spent the last 3 days in my studio working on several different pieces.  And as I work in my little space listening to my ipod play the same playlists over and over because I can’t be bothered with stopping what I am doing and pick a different list.   I wondered about my style and if the folks in the spaces next to me were tired of Mary J. Blige yet. I looked around and tried to put a finger on it.  (My style) What it was I liked buying, rehabbing and eventually selling.  Well, I liked everything I looked at in my space.  Then I thought about what is also “stored” in my garage.  I have pieces from every time period, every value, every stage of needing love.  Personally, I love mid century right now, but also shabby.  And any given day will find me buying primitive …  I enjoy working on anything that I think is interesting or that I can make MORE interesting.  So to sum up my style, I decided I could call myself eclectic.  But that word is really over used.  Vintage redoer?  My husband calls me Fred Sanford (really only when I pack the truck without him).  But none of those pigeon holes seemed to hit the nail on the head. Well,  not to me.  And then just like that, I knew what my style was (hopefully you have already guessed it!)

BADASS BABY.  My style is totally badass.

So I hope you guys enjoy taking my journey with me, as my style gets even badassier! 

Okay, enough of talkin’ the talk.  Let me walk the walk.

Most of this week I’ve been working on this hutch.  I think it’s from the early 80’s.  Maybe before, but the 70’s were all heavy dark wood.  But this is just all light and sweet and well, darling.

I used General Finishes Milk Paint for the first time on this piece. (Buttermilk Yellow)

 

I am unsure if I liked working with that brand.  It was runny to start, lots of dripping – then – I realized I didn’t follow the directions and shook it – shook it ALL up  – and like James Bond’s martinis – it didn’t work, per the directions on the back  – it should STIRRED not shaken.   I wasn’t a big fan of how it sanded either, but that could go back to the bruising it suffered from the shaking.  I think I’ll  try to use it again, you know, but use it correctly.

The color is stunning!  The hutch still needs handles, but I  am really struggling with finding what I think will work.  I’ll find them eventually, just need to be patient.  I have two of the chairs  so I think the three pieces will be adorable  when they’re all done and hopefully sell quickly.  In addition to the yellow in the fabric, there is gray and a light turquoise.  Making them very versatile.

Thanks for stopping!  Take care.

 

An end to the radio silence!

When I started this blog, my goal was write a little something 3 times a week. You know, just so you could keep up with my projects. Well, I haven’t been in my studio too much so haven’t had too much to share. But today I made my way down to 400 West Rich and got busy. Prior to starting though I had lunch and a couple drinks my SIL and my plan almost got crazy derailed! But I went ahead and got busy, and boy am I glad! I finished up this footstool which I had started last week. I added the gold detail after hearing/seeing multiple comments about the new Cinderella story and how amazing the furniture was. I haven’t see the movie yet, buy wanted when I just knew Cousin Rose from Downton Abbey was Cinderella, then hearing about the furniture I know I will for sure be making a Monday morning trip to the theater to see it! Back to the stool -> I do think this little footstool would be adorable in a little girl’s room.  I used home made chalk paint for the blue, then used Martha Stewart’s gold metallic paint for the accent.  You can see in this photo the top where I was laying out the plan for the top detail.  I used regular old chalk for this.  It took 3 designs before I was happy with the result.  NOW, the end result isn’t as totally awesome as I would like it to be, but for my first time free hand painting, it’s okay.  I think I will also be purchasing some small detail brushes instead of using the tiny one’s from Easter egg décor boxes!  Here is the final outcome.  Now you will probably notice that the picture quality on these two are MUCH better than what I have exposed you to thus far.  My friend Emi helps me out with photos frequently – meaning – she takes them then emails them to me.  We do a little business together that I’ll talk more about another day.  I also painted two chairs, a hutch and another footstool today.  More to share later!!

 

 

And some days, you hope Karma is ignoring you.

Friends frequently let me know when they see a piece of furniture they think I will like or could really make an impact on. I love when that happens! I love that people see random things and think of me. On Saturday I got a text from Kate showing me this little gem at the VOA in Grove City. It has a match, but that isn’t part of the story.. It was marked $69.99. The thing about VOA is they hold items for 45 minutes while you think about it, but once purchased they won’t hold at all and once purchased, they won’t help load it up. Saturday was too busy for me to head down there to look at it and Sunday was a snowy mess. No way I wanted to ruin it like that. So today was my day off and I decided to head down to the far southern reaches of Franklin County and see if the dresser was still available. I get there, head to the back and YES IT IS!! It’s meant to be right?? And then *** IT’S MARKED WAY DOWN!*** I call the hubs, tell him it’s here – it’s cheap – it’s MINE! (He has to come down and help me load it because remember, VOA won’t load) So I wander around the joint looking for other deals as he is driving from Bexley to the far southern reaches of Franklin County. I finally go up to pay for it and have it brought to the front (VOA will bring outside??) And then the loader guy says – that’s on hold – WHAT? It wasn’t when I got there!! Long story short, the only reason I got to drag this lady home was because I paid for it. It was a bit of an argument between me, the loader guy and the assistant manager. Then the girl who had it on hold showed up with her dad and I felt horrible! I offered to let them buy it back from for the same purchase price but they said no. Then I realized, oh drat that karma, it’ll come back to bite me. So I really hope Karma was busy elsewhere today!
In closing, I found this planter last week. I absolutely love it! It is vintage NAPCO and there is not a chip on it! It looks so springy now with the tiny fern addition. I wish it looked springy outside.

Cows and butcher block

I found this treasure at Goodwill a couple weeks ago.  I believe it is a 1940’s cabinet base that someone put a butcher block top on and added casters.  IT.IS.AWESOME.  Or at least I thought it could be.

Once I had it in the studio, I washed it down with TSP and thought about colors. Repainting it white or cream would have been fine. But I noticed on Pinterest that most islands are a complimentary color to the cabinets, not the same color. So I decided on a blue. The original blue I choose was way too light, so I added some turquoise to my homemade chalk paint and tried that. LOVED it. For sure it turned into a beautiful spring color. (which Central Ohio is super short on at the moment)

The final addition were the cow pulls. Which I have had for awhile just waiting for THE project to use them with. The butcher block was filthy. I first washed it down also with the TSP and then took a paint scraper to the top and scrapped away years of use. Years I say! 3 coats of mineral oil and I am pretty sure it is ready to use now.

The casters are really the crowning glory on this lovely. I really wish my kitchen was bigger and/or I had more of a country esthetic, but as neither of those apply to my life, she is for sale.

If only blogging were as easy as painting

Usually I’m building pieces of furniture, but today I decided to build the internet.

Each day is going to bring new learnings to me. But I’m excited to bring new pieces of reworked furniture to you.

Follow along. Every and all pep talks appreciated.