Fresh Look for Old Dining Room Set

Nancy and I were recently hired by a couple to paint all of their old furniture for their brand new home. They just purchased a chic, upscale home and their existing furniture either had to be replaced or updated, to become worthy of the stylish interior of their new home. They opted for the latter, so we began the transformation piece by piece. 

Their dining table looked rugged when we started work, but, luckily, they were just surface blemishes that could be patched and sanded smooth. I scrubbed the table thoroughly and then patched the top with wood filler, followed by a light sanding to even out the tabletop.

Next, we applied three coats of Graphite Chalk Paint®, which created a smooth, sleek finish.  Since the couple has three young children, we decided to use Annie Sloan's Lacquer as a top coat for extra durability. 

We painted all the dining chairs with two coats of French Linen Chalk Paint®.  Graphite paired with French Linen is quite a striking combination!

They also have a matching buffet that we painted in French Linen Chalk Paint®.  The buffet started out dark brown, like the table, with brass hardware.  

We painted the hardware with Chalk Paint® first and then applied a coat of pewter gilding wax over the paint. We noticed that the gilding wax sticks better to the Chalk Paint® than it does to plain metal.

To keep it uniform, we also used the laquer as the topcoat on the buffet.

This lovely piece of furniture fits like it was made for the space along the wall in their new dining room.

 

We painted the last piece in this trio for their entry hall.  We mixed Pure White with a little French Linen Chalk Paint® to creat a soft white with a hint of grey.

It is always admirable when people choose to reuse what they have rather than purchase new.  It worked out wonderfully well in this case!  Not only does the furniture look stunning in their new home, but they also saved a fortune by keeping their old, functional pieces.

Later in the week, I will be posting about their lovely chesterfield sofa that we painted with Chalk Paint® (see it in the background). Check back soon to see that amazing transformation!

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Buffet Turned Bathroom Vanity

 

A while back, we got this beautiful, marble clad buffet at Loot on consignment.  When I first saw it, I thought it would make an ideal bathroom vanity. 

Surprisingly, this buffet did not fly out the door.  It sat at Loot for quite a while awaiting its perfect home. One day a local antique dealer, with a similar vision of repurposing, bought it for her new bathroom remodel.

She hired me to paint the base in a mix of French Linen and Old White Chalk Paint®. Annie Sloan's dark wax really made the details stand out on this piece. I love the trestle base and the carving on the legs. 

She could not find a sink she liked, so she repurposed one of her stainless steel bowls as a sink basin until she finds one she likes better.

China Cabinet with Secretary

I picked up this china cabinet from the flea market recently for a great price toward the end of the day. It is really heavy and I could tell the man selling it wanted to get rid of it, so he didn't have to haul it back home again.

I love the doors, trim moldings and metal wire fronts on the cabinet.  The man that sold it to me also gave me the orignial old skeleton key that locks all the cabinet doors.

This cabinet is really special and even has a secret secretary in the center, disguised as a drawer.

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I mixed a batch of Chalk Paint® using equal parts French Linen and Old Ochre.  The resulting color is a soft and pretty, warm grey.

I clear waxed the entire piece and applied the dark wax with an artist brush only along the edges, grooves, and molding to bring out the details on this lovely piece of furniture.

The upper cabinet was dark inside, so I lightened it up by painting the interior with Old Ochre Chalk Paint®.

This amazing cabinet did not last very long at Loot.  This is one that I would have kept for myself, had I the space for it. Besides being easy on the eyes, it is also a very functional piece.  I love the amount of storage it has and the added convenience of a little desk, which is an ideal place for sitting to write letters and/or pay bills.

Grey-Washed, Oak Chest of Drawers

I found this solid oak dresser at the Santa Cruz Flea Market recently.  It had a worn, orange finish, but beautiful hardware and lovely details.

I love painting oak furniture with Chalk Paint® because its open grain looks beautiful peaking through the paint. The technique I used on this piece is called dry brushing.  I applied one light coat of French Linen Chalk Paint with one of Annie Sloan's fabulous, natural bristle, oval brushes. Using very little paint, I worked it in and blended it with the brush to get a very thin coat, allowing the wood grain to show through.  In the past, I have used Chalk Paint® thinned with water (a wash), to get this effect, but I prefer dry brushing because sometimes the wash is uneven and does not adhere as well to furniture with a shiny finish.

One Coat of French Linen, Before Waxing

After letting the paint dry, I applied Annie Sloan's Clear Wax and then Dark Wax to enrich the color.

After Applying Clear and Dark Waxes

I also dry brushed all the hardware and applied dark wax over them for a beautiful patina.  The paint and wax really brought out the details on the drawer pulls.

This finish is easy to achieve, and although simple, it really accentuates the beautiful craftsmanship of this well-built piece of furniture.

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.



Ceramic Knobs

 

 

What a busy day at Loot!  I got in a huge order of ceramic knobs earlier today and I had to figure out a way to display them at the shop. 

 

Look at the gorgeous hand painted designs on these knobs!

 

 

I went to the local auction this week and I won a huge stack of vintage frames.  I remembered seeing a peg board in one of the frames when I was loading them into my storage unit.  I went out and dug through the pile of frames and found the perfect display piece for my knobs.

 

 

The peg board was already cut down and attached to this old, gold frame.  I love it when things come together unexpectedly.

 

I also ordered a large, chevron stripe stencil, so I decided to dress up the peg board with a little Chalk Paint® design.  I painted the frame by dry brushing Florence Chalk Paint® over it lightly, allowing the gold to shine through.  I painted the whole board with French Linen and then stenciled the chevron stripes with Old White.  I love that Chalk Paint® sticks to any surface and dries so fast.  This project only took me about an hour.

 

An idea, an hour, and a bit of Chalk Paint® is all it took to create the perfect display piece for my knobs.

Pretty Paloma Dresser

Paloma Chalk Paint is a soft, pretty, lavender with grey undertones.  Annie Sloan knows how to create beautiful colors!

I recently moved and I needed a dresser for my new room.  I had this old, black dresser in my closet at my previous house and decided to spruce it up and bring it out of the closet.

I love it so much more painted with pretty Paloma!  The crystal pulls and silver keyhole look lovely with this subtle shade of lavender.

I found the perfect pair of vintage lamps at a yard sale for $10 each.  They are actually brass, if you can believe it?  I have never seen brass lamps in this shape.  I love these unique, French shaped lamps so much, that I knew I would keep them for myself.

I love using Chalk Paint on metal because it adheres so well and looks so natural.  I painted so many layers of paint on these, that I do not remember the exact order or colors.  It was something like this:  Old Ochre base coat, French Linen second coat, a lot of distressing, then an old ochre wash followed by a little more Old Ochre with a dry brush.

I needed a mirror to complete my bedroom vignette.  I just went shopping at Loot and took home this large, shapely, vintage mirror that I painted a few months ago.  I got it for $10 at The Salvation Army.  The frame is a plastic material, not wood, but you would never know by looking at it now.  Chalk Paint does amazing things!  I painted one coat of Pure White on the mirror frame and finished it with a wash of French Linen.  Because the plastic frame was dark brown and had faux wood grain the one coat of Pure White makes the mirror look like white washed wood.

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Round Back Dining Chairs

I would be thrilled to find one of these shapely dining chairs, so imagine my joy at finding a set of four.  Someone did not realize their value and had stored this set outside.  They were in bad shape and had black widow nests in the seat cushions.  I hate spiders, especially black widows, but I was not going to let that get in my way of salvaging these beautiful chairs.  I carefully removed the screws holding the  seat cushions in place and bravely killed any spiders that dared to crawl out.  Who said fixing up furniture was always easy or safe?

Before

After

After removing all the seat cushions, I patched any cracks with wood filler and then painted the chairs with two coats of Old White Chalk Paint.  I distressed the edges and then I painted a wash over the Old White, made by thinning French Linen Chalk Paint with water.

I wanted the chairs to be classic, elegant, and monochromatic.  I went to my favorite local fabric store in Santa Cruz and I spotted this fabric on the remnants table right when I walked through the door. I knew it was the one!  It is a heavy weight upholstery linen with grain sack stripes woven in and lots of texture.  The best part is that, because it was a remnant, I only had to pay $7.99 per yard!  I am sure this beautiful fabric is normally well over $30 per yard.

Next, I called my very talented upholsterer to pick up the chairs and finish the transformation.  She returned the chairs this past weekend and I cannot stop staring at them.

They look perfect in our Spring room at Loot!

They look perfect in our Spring room at Loot!

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