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.

 

Grey and White Desk With Hutch

Desks with hutches on top are a great invention.  I found this one at a yard sale and at first I passed it up because I really did not need another big project.  Then, I kept thinking about this piece later in the afternoon, so I sent Mr. Rubbish back to the sale to see if the desk was still there and to try to negotiate a better price than they offered me.  He accomplished both goals!

I was not crazy about the desk portion of this two-piece ensemble.  I think the dated drawer pulls were detracting from this desk's potential beauty.

The half clover shapes on the top are what I really loved about this piece.

I wanted a two-toned finish, so I painted the outer part of the desk and hutch with the same grey, custom mixed, Chalk Paint color I used on the cane back dining chairs.  I painted the inside of the hutch with Old White Chalk Paint.

For the drawer hardware, I wanted to keep it simple while complementing the clover arches on the top of the hutch.  I ordered inexpensive bin pulls from Ebay that had the same screw width as the existing hardware, for easy installation and no re-drilling of holes.

I painted and distressed the bin pulls to match the rest of the desk.

I love that this desk is both functional and beautiful now. Couldn't everybody use a desk with a hutch somewhere in their house?

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French Chairs a la Ticking Stripes

I found a pair of beautiful, vintage chairs at a yard sale recently. The chairs looked like someone had tried to strip the paint off and they had a lot of texture.

Because the chairs had so much texture, I decided to layer on the Chalk Paint with a two-color distressed technique. I painted a Pure White base coat and I custom mixed the top coat with equal parts Pure White, Paris Gray, and Louis Blue to create a soft, powdery blue.

I heavily distressed the chairs with 220 grit sand paper, exposing the white base coat and the wood beneath it.

I love the simplicity of ticking stripes and I was happy to find pale blue, ticking stripe fabric at my local fabric shop.

The ticking stripes are the perfect complement to the rustic, Frenchy-blue finish of these chairs.

With the extra ticking stripe fabric and some cream colored burlap, I made this ruffled table runner.

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