Vintage Teacher's Desk

One day, while shopping at our local thrift shop, Mr. Rubbish and I spotted this rough looking, old teacher's desk outside with a five dollar price tag.  It may be hard to tell by the pictures, but this desk is gigantic and I was not sure if we could find a place for it to fit at Loot.  For five dollars we decided to give it a try!

The finish was really beat up, but I love the school house look.  I work at an elementary school and the day after I bought it, I saw this same desk in the computer lab.

This desk is oversized and masculine, so I picked two colors that would complement these features.  I painted the top with Graphite Chalk Paint and the base with Chateau Gray.  I painted the wooden handles with Graphite too and left the tiny, metal feet brass.

This desk is not meant to be against a wall because the back is finished too.  Mr. Rubbish helped me on this piece by waxing the massive surface area of this desk with Annie Sloan clear wax.  I applied dark wax over everything when he finished clear waxing.  

I never did find a spot in the shop for this desk.  It actually never moved out of our storage container until it sold.  I listed it on craigslist and a local high school teacher bought it for her classroom.  I am happy that this discarded, old teacher's desk made it back into a school!

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Whitewashed Gray Dresser

My friend stopped by the shop recently with this beautiful dresser in the back of her car and asked if I wanted to buy it. It is so nice when people bring furniture to me and especially when it is a fine piece like this one! I love the fancy scrolling details and the turned legs on petite caster wheels. 

The front looked like it was missing something on the raised center, so I added some wooden appliques that I acquired a while ago from a yard sale.  

This dresser is really wide and has a divided drawer at the top, so it could also be used as a buffet or sideboard.

I painted two base coats with French Linen Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  Then I dry brushed Old White over all the details.  

I wanted the color to be more subtle and chalky, so I mixed some Old White Chalk Paint with water to make a wash and painted that mixture over the entire piece.  I whitewashed one drawer at a time and wiped it back with a cloth to leave a thin layer over the gray.

I love the way the French Linen looks with the whitewash over it.  I also whitewashed the lovely hardware on this dresser.

I finished the dresser by lightly distressing here and there.

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Coco and Duck Egg Dining Table

I picked up this boring, light wood table with a matching bench at a yard sale.  I see this kind of table everywhere, but I decided to buy this particular one because it was so cheap and it came with the bench.

Before

I painted the tops of the table and bench with Coco and the legs with Duck Egg blue Chalk Paint.

After

Because this is a dining table, I applied two coats of clear wax to the tabletop for extra protection.  I distressed and applied a little dark wax along all the edges of the tabletop and bench.

I painted the legs with Coco before painting Duck Egg as the top coat. Then, I heavily distressed the legs, so the Coco base coat and natural wood showed through.  I finished the legs with clear and dark wax for an antiqued finish.  

This was an easy way to transform a plain and inexpensive kitchen table and bench into a stylish set.

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Chalk Painted Horse

I love horses and incorporating anything equestrian into decorating, so I could not pass up this old horse statue with three broken legs.  I picked it up off a table at a yard sale and before I could say anything the woman said, "you can just have that."  I would have paid at least a dollar for it, but it is always nice to get something for free!

I glued and clamped all the broken legs and filled the cracks with wood filler before painting.

 I wanted the horse to have an aged finish and antique look.  First, I painted it with Graphite Chalk Paint and then I mixed Old White with water to make a wash and painted it over the Graphite.  I left the hooves dark brown for a little contrast with the Graphite.  I applied Annie Sloan clear and dark wax over the paint to finish up the aged patina.

It was really funny because the weekend I set the horse on display at Loot a woman came in that looked really familiar, but I could not place her, until she mentioned that she just got rid of a horse almost exactly like that one.  I instantly recognized her as the woman from the yard sale and she could not believe that was her horse because the legs were not broken anymore.  I explained how I had performed the horse surgery and repaired the broken legs. 

The horse sold that same day to a young girl decorating her bedroom.  She picked up the horse as soon as she saw it and would not put it down until her mom agreed to buy it for her.  

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Emile Dresser

This simple, little dresser is another yard sale find.  It had faux wood grain contact paper stuck to the top.  The wood grain looked so real that I did not notice it was paper until I was just about to start painting.  I peeled it off and it left a very sticky residue in the center of the dresser.  I used Citra Solv on a rag and it dissolved all the old glue quickly.  I love using Citra Solv because it is natural and it works so well.  I use it all the time to remove stuck on labels, tape, etc. and it just softens and removes adhesives so easily.

Before

After

I did a two-color distress technique on this little dresser.  The base coat is Graphite Chalk Paint and the top coat is Emile.

Before I waxed this dresser, I used 220 grit sand paper to remove the top layer of paint and allow the Graphite to show through.  

I used the last of my vintage, bin pulls that I originally ordered for this desk and used on this other desk too.  I kept the original knobs for the small, top drawer.  We (as in Mr. Rubbish) spray painted all the hardware in oil rubbed bronze. Luckily, the bin pulls lined up with the previous hardware holes, so it was an easy swap.

After distressing the dresser all over, I applied clear and dark wax. Emile Chalk Paint turns into a beautiful, rich color with Annie Sloan dark wax over top of it.

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