Wall Sconces on Old Shutter Doors

I love the synergy created when two pieces of rubbish come together to form something greater than each part could ever be on its own.  That is how I feel about these vintage, louvered closet doors and this pair of scrolling iron, wall sconces.

I really scored when I found this pair of wall sconces at the local Santa Cruz Flea Market.  I got both sconces for twenty dollars! When my upholsterer was picking up some of my other projects, she mentioned that she also did rewiring, so I had her take the wall sconces to rewire them.  She is a jack, or rather, jill-of-all-trades.

I salvaged the shutter doors from the Last Chance thrift shop at a local landfill. I got nine of them at only two dollars a piece.  They are really heavy  and solid, old closet doors. Perfect for this project!

I flipped them upside down, so the shutter portion of the door is now at the bottom and mounted the wall sconce to the flat panel at the top.

 It seems simple enough, especially when my brother happened to be in town.  He is really great at taking things apart and putting them back together again.  I remember his vast lego collection and his intricate lego designs. His skills came in handy for figuring out how to mount the sconces to the shutter doors.  He used a drill attachment that drills large holes to feed the, newly rewired, cords through to the back side.  Then, luckily, the wall sconces came with mounting brackets and all we needed to get was longer screws to attach the brackets to the doors and the sconces.

Voila!

I left the original, weathered patina, that only time can create, on the wall sconces.  For the shutter doors, I painted one coat of Coco Chalk Paint® followed by a coat of Old White Chalk Paint® that I thinned with water.  I wiped the white back as it was drying, so the Coco showed through more in places.  Then, I sanded the whole door to make it look like a rough and weathered, old shutter.

I placed my new lighting fixtures on either side of  my french doors in my new apartment.

They look so lovely when they are lit and add a lot of old world charm to the room.

This simple and inexpensive project is one of my favorites of all time.

Pure White Chalk Paint® Kitchen Cabinets

 

One of our customers at Loot hired Nancy and I to paint the kitchen cabinets of her beach house.  She just purchased this home and I wish I could show you pictures of how different it looked before she started her remodel. Everything in the house was in a shade of brown when she bought it. First, She replaced the floor with this lovely, beachy hardwood.  Then, she hired us to transform her brownish-orange kitchen cabinets.

 

 

I forgot to take pictures before the cabinet doors were removed, but at least I remembered to take a few shots before we actually started painting.

 

 

 

The finish on the cabinets before was outdated and did not look right with the pretty, light countertops and bright blue backsplash.  After a little Chalk Paint®, they look like they were made to go together.

 

 The Pure White Chalk Paint® on the cabinets really tied the look together.

 

Here is the Chalk Paint® in action: no need to prime, sand, or strip the existing finish.  Just paint away! 

 

 

In order to achieve a really smooth finish, I thinned the top coat with a bit of water by dipping my brush in a cup of water periodically to keep it moist as I painted.

 

The kitchen is modern and sophisticated now and Chalk Paint® helped achieve the look.  This demonstrates that Chalk Paint® is valuable for creating many different types of finishes.  It looks beautiful and authentic on antique pieces and creates an equally stunning finish on modern, clean lines, like these kitchen cabinets. The coverage, ease of use, and versatility of Chalk Paint® are some of the reasons why I love using this paint so much.

 

 

Of course, the predictably perfect finish created with Chalk Paint® is the main reason it is my favorite decorative paint.

 

 

Chalk Paint® sticks to everything and looks the same, no matter what is beneath it.  The bar is a perfect example of this. Once covered in Chalk Paint®, the cabinets match the, newly installed, back paneling, making it look like it was always meant to be that way. 

 

 

I love her industrial style bar stools against the bright Pure White. 

 

We opted to use Annie Sloan's matte lacquer rather than the wax on these cabinets.  It is designed for use on floor, so it is really going to hold up to wear and tear on the cabinets.

 



What a brilliant kitchen now!

 

 

 

 

She also hired us to paint her front door and French doors throughout her home. 

 

Before

 

After

 

 

 

The Pure White Chalk Paint on the doors gives this sophisticated beach house a fresher, more unified look.

 

 

If you live in the Santa Cruz area, and would like to get an estimate for custom painting of your kitchen or bathroom cabinets, send me an email: amandapierre@mail.com

 

Louvered Medicine Cabinets

 

While shopping at the local Goodwill, I spotted two matching medicine cabinets with shutter doors.  They were in the furniture department shoved underneath a desk and I do not know how I managed to see them in their hiding spot.  They must have been whispering for me to take them home with me.

 

 

These two medicine cabinets are great for extra storage in a bathroom.  The box is made of laminated wood, but the louvered doors are real wood.

 

 

 

 

I started by painting both medicine cabinets with Pure White Chalk Paint®.  I love that Chalk Paint® sticks so well to both laminate and wood, giving pieces like this a more unified look.

 

After the Pure White dried, I used a dry brush to casually swipe Provence Chalk Paint® over the Pure White, leaving plenty of the white showing through.  I finished this piece by distressing the shutter door to make the paint look weathered.  The ceramic sea star knob adds the finishing touch to this now beachy cabinet.

 

I decided to do something different on the second cabinet.  I still painted the whole thing Pure White, but then I dry brushed French Linen over it and added a ceramic, clock knob.

 

Nursery Furniture Redo

 

An expectant mother hired me to transform a cradle and an armoire for her baby's nursery.

 

 

She found the petite, vintage armoire on craigslist.  It is the perfect scale for a nursery, but required a cosmetic intervention.

 

She wanted the piece to look shabby and distressed. I painted one coat of Paris Grey Chalk Paint® with a dry brush to allow the dark stain to show through.  I used a little Old White Chalk Paint® on the trim to show off the lines and details.  After the paint dried, I did a bit of distressing all over with sandpaper. 

 

I sealed the finish with Annie Sloan's Clear Wax. 

 

My client said this adorable cradle had been in her family a long time.  She just wanted it to be simple, shabby, and white.

 

 

I painted it with two coats of Old White Chalk Paint and finished the cradle with an all over, light distressing, to add to its vintage charm.

 

Whitewashed Vintage Dresser

 

The last time I visited my family in Sacramento, I found this awesome pair of old dressers on caster wheels at a yard sale.  I do not come across such stylish dressers often, let alone two at a time! 

 

I was so excited and the woman I bought them from was happy when I told her that I fix up furniture.  She asked me if I was going to paint them white.  I thought about it and realized that when I started fixing up furniture, it seemed like I painted everything white.  I rarely paint anything plain white anymore, but I thought this dresser would look pretty in a simple white finish.  I decided to do white with a twist by adding a French Linen wash over Pure White Chalk Paint®.



 

 

The top was scratched, gouged and well-worn.  I patched the uneven spots with wood filler and then sanded it smooth before painting.

 

I love the long legs on these dressers and the fan detail on the second drawer.

 

I like the contrast of the original dark hardware and caster wheels against the new white washed finish. 

 

I used a dry brush and only applied one coat of Pure White Chalk Paint, so that the dark stain beneath would show through and add depth to the finish.  After the Pure White dried, I mixed the French Linen 50:50 with water to create a wash and brushed it over the white.  I used a rag to wipe off and blend the wash over the white.  I left the wash darker over the fan detail on the drawer front to accent the piece.  I completed this piece with Annie Sloan's Clear Wax for a soft, smooth finish.

 

 

While this is not a true white wash finish, it is a great way to create a white washed look over wood that is in poor condition and has been patched with wood filler.  I would not have been able to do a white wash over the wood filler, without it showing through.  The dry brush provided more coverage over the imperfections and the French Linen wash blended it all together.



Florence Dresser

 

Florence is a fun, vibrant color and this plain dresser needed a little vibrancy in its boring life.

 

The existing hardware was not helping the situation. In my mind I pictured some kind of bin pulls with labels for the drawers.  Putting my vision into reality is often a challenge and the hardware search proved to be no exception.  I scoured ebay for days looking for the right pulls to dress up the drawers.  I finally found these amazing, vintage, ex-card catalog pulls for a fantastic price.  I patched the old knob holes and attached the new card catalog pulls, which added so much character to this previously drab piece of furniture.

 

 

I used a dry brush technique to apply the one coat of Florence Chalk Paint®, allowing the dark wood finish to show through the paint.  Then I used a damp cloth to wipe off extra paint along the edges, before it dried completely, leaving a naturally aged looking finish. 

 



I love the way the Florence looks with the vintage, brass pulls.  This was such a simple fix up, but it made a drastic difference.