I'm in full force furniture painting mode lately...recently I took a break from rehabbing things I want to sell at the November Fig Twig Market and refinished some pieces for granddaughter Madison's room. She's starting Kindergarten next week!
I might not be so inclined to share the results if the before pictures weren't so hideous!
Here's the bed before.
Specifically, the headboard. It has a matching footboard. You can imagine Melissa's face when I drug this to her garage a year or so ago for Maddie's bedroom. "Uh, no thanks Mom!" ;)
Here is the nightstand.
Pretty ugly, huh? I painted it to match my daughter Melissa's bedroom 10 years ago--it seemed to work with the decor at the time (you'll just have to take my word). This nightstand has been with Melissa most of her life so it seemed apropo that we continue it's use with her own little girl.
And finally, here's the dresser.
This came in a build-it-yourself box from KMart when Maddie was first born almost 6 years ago. The handles broke within the first year and since they weren't a standard/easy to replace size I just made do and replaced them with ribbon. (Hey--It worked for nearly 5 years!)
So that was a whole bunch of ugly I had piled up in the garage, waiting to be transformed, huh? Guess I better hurry up and show the 'afters'
(The white Avon bunnies collection belonged to Melissa when she was a little girl in the 80s)
I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Pure White and then went over pretty heavily with dark wax.
I also used the method of embossing a design that I wrote about here a few years ago. You'll see it in the center of the headboard and again on the bottom two drawers of the dresser.
I'm pretty pleased with how it all turned out. When I was dark waxing the drawers in the garage I was putting them back into the dresser and John happened to pull in and remark how striking the dark drawers in the white 'box' were. It made me look closer and I realized it really did need to stay that way, for contrast as opposed to ALL the pieces being ALL distressed dark.
I'm glad that happened because he was right and I may very well not have figured it out on my own.
I have a couple of tips to share re the Annie Sloan painting and waxing. Specifically as it relates to the cost and the availability.
Ace Hardware now puts out an all in one paint/primer called Clark+Kensington. The last two Saturdays they've actually been giving away a free quart in your choice of color to whoever walks in and asks. (Like Ace on Facebook and you'll be notified when it happens again). It's about $15/qt as opposed to $39 for the ASCP, so I use the cheaper Ace paint as the first coat and then the AS as the top coat (I like the way the ASCP takes up the wax). The AS waxes are said to last *forever* but my can of the clear wax didn't last long at all. There are no Annie Sloan stockists within a 200 mile radius even if I DID want to pay the high price..and I was in the middle of a project! So I did a google search for a replacement and found people mentioning Minwax rubbing paste. I went to the local hardware store and bought a can and it was SO HARD that I could only use a fork to get crumbles out. Certainly not a nice replacement for what I had gotten used to. So I grabbed some Howard's Feed and Wax from under the kitchen sink, swirled some over the Minwax chunks and crumbs in a bowl, and started mashing it all together with the back of a fork (like making refried beans, or mashed potatoes without a mixer) and I am pleased with the results. So most of these pieces were first gone over with a coat of my homemade wax, then gone over again with the AS dark wax. Saved $$ on both the paint AND the wax, but got the same results as if I'd used all AS products. yay!
I still have a small mountain of furniture pieces waiting to be transformed, so for now I better get back on schedule. :-)
til next time...
Maddie's room looks terrific. Sounds like a lot of work but worth it.
Posted by: Peggy Siemer | August 15, 2013 at 12:32 PM