Bread & Butter

I think I have said previously that I am not a fan of custom work.  I get so nervous.  I want the customer to be happy, but all I can see are the less than perfect quarter millimeters of paint. So I know right off the bat  they won’t be happy with the finished product. Or they wont’ be happy on how something isn’t exactly even, or wobbly, or maybe not as smooth as I think they would want. But then I ask myself.  Who the hell is running their hands ALL OVER A PIECE OF WOOD FURNITURE?Because lets face it.  That is not normal behavior.  They will touch the part they need to touch.  Move it where they want it and then most likely not touch for a couple years.  (I have been told not everyone moves furniture around frequently nor in and out of their homes on the regular.  I believe this may be an urban legend.)

This week I have been working fervently on multiple pieces of custom work.  Graduation is coming up, summer might be close, mostly just  things customers have put off for awhile but have decided to have done. And I am grateful for it!  I have learned some big things on one, had fun with another, and experimented (fyi, it’s National Honesty Day) with a new paint on another and lastly, almost finished my friends vintage secretary that I promised to paint two years ago.

This is what I had fun with.  It’s salmon now, or light orange, or coral.  Depends on who you talk to.  The pulls are amazing!

This is where a learned a TON!  12 year old outdoor furniture.  This took some research.  And my dad.  He has a power washer and I needed it.  Using the right wand tip was imperative.  AND in a totally off hand way, while explaining how to use the power washer Dad said the soap dispenser was not working, that I should just pour the deck soap onto the table and chairs. HUH?  My research just said clean it, not deck wash soap it.  GLAD HE SAID THAT!  Made  a huge difference. As evidenced by:

I mean, come on.  The difference is obvious.  Today I sanded all the pieces down and I swear to you, it is almost like new.  Tomorrow is supposed to be warm and sunny so really REALLY hoping to get the stain/sealer on it and delivered!

Lastly, I am painting a cabinet/oversize bookshelf that was painted a colonial red.  WHITE.  I guess she doesn’t read my blog. She does not want it shabby.  she wants it smoothly painted.  She wants a traditional white.   This one is making me sweat. And wash my hair.Ideally tomorrow all these pieces get dropped off.  And I get my bread and butter.  All the other pieces I post and sell, are just the jam baby!  And I am A.OK with that!  Here is the coral/salmon/light orange piece. Really jealous it won’t be living at my house.

Why I’m not really a white girl.

Paint, I’m talkin’ paint here folks.  I have tried and tried for years to paint something – anything white.  It NEVER works out.  That does not mean I don’t keep trying.  Like I did on this piece.It doesn’t look horribly dark here does it?  A couple coats of white paint, some sanding and BOOM.  Awesome chair.

HA!! JOKES ON YOU!

4 YES 4!!! Coats of paint later and it still looked awful.  Wood coming through in bad places.  Brush strokes I could not sand out.  That white paint was just against me.  Me and the chair.  So,  I did what any self respecting furniture fixer upper would do.  I got out the gray. HA AGAIN!!  Jokes on you white paint!!!  The gray actually looks better with the fabric I intend to use on the chair, but I didn’t know that at the time.  I was just sorely irritated with the white paint’s refusal to finish like I see so many other folks accomplish.  So now it looks MUCH better!  Not sure it will be as versatile as I was hoping, but oh well.  Someone will love the chair!Hopefully I’ll get this finished today and be able to show you pictures of how white lost the war.

On a separate note.  I occasionally do some interior work for people.  It isn’t my favorite thing to do (like I thought it would)  because don’t ya know – home owners have their own opinions.  I was actually a little surprised about that.  So it isn’t as fun as I thought it would be and doing someone’s rooms is really stressful.  But my friend asked me to help with her kids rooms and we started in her little girls room.  And I actually SUPER enjoyed it.  Of course it helped that the friend had some loose ideas and didn’t really care.  And all I really did was organize, move things around and hang some photos.  But it is so cute.  SO freaking cute.  I still have 2 more things to add, but overall, I left with such a joyful feeling!  And isn’t it adorable?

There were A LOT  of stuffies to deal with.  So I tried spacing them out.  This is the “library nook”, I envision the little dear reading to her babies here.  And it made me really happy to think about!

I posed all the dogs, not sure you can tell here, but I did.

So – that’s a recap on yesterday.  Coloring eggs with 13 year old boys today.  Another surprise that they all wanted to, but tradition is tradition I guess.

Again, thanks for stopping by!