Frank Lloyd French

I just finished up this sofa table. It was an experiment, and I like it! I wanted to do another table where I mixed the wood and the paint design, similar to the Hexagonal French Provincial from a few weeks ago.  I have always really liked the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright, and I had wanted to do something geometric on this anyway.  Originally I wanted something sort of Native American, so this design and color scheme worked out perfectly for both.  Here's my best before shot:

I forgot to take a picture before sanding, so that's the tabletop in the raw...  Here's the after:

I liked it so much I put a bird on it! Haha... Portlandia reference.  This one is for sale, and I'm going to do free shipping.  Luckily the legs come off very easily, so it won't have to go show up in a giant box! On the horizon I have another Sakura table, and I'm about to finally get the ball rolling with the string art wall tablets. Have a great weekend!

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Spotlight: Buffet Table

One of my readers saw the post about the Minwax Stain selection, and decided to try her hand at it.  She was nice enough to send the photos in, and let me share with you! Check this out, she scored a nice buffet off craigslist, and then vamped it up in Minwax's "Spice" color. I love it! Thanks Lorena!

Nice, right?? It looks great in her house too, all those colors are going together well. Great job Lorena!

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Jade Standing Mirror

Joel had brought me a standing mirror that his friend was getting rid of, and I am kicking myself now for not taking a before picture! How can I describe it... it was in pieces, missing hardware, and it looked like someone fell asleep while they were priming it.  All in all though, it was a solid wood mirror in great shape, with plenty of potential.  I mulled over it for a while, and finally came to terms with the fact that I have, and will, always love the color teal and all it's siblings in the turquoise department.  So, thinking back to this chandelier project, I wanted to re-use that wonderful Jade color paint! It was hard to find, but amazon brought it home to me.  Here's the best picture I could scrounge up for a "before" of the mirror:

However, the paint was not in such nice condition! So in I started on the jade, and after seeing that all the wonderful wood grains were showing through the paint, I went with a black glaze.  I wanted to utilize the back of the mirror too, which was just wood.  So I made it into a magnetic chalkboard. Here are the pictures, I hope you like it! It's for sale in my etsy shop. 

 I painted the hardware black and distressed it a bit, to match the rest of the mirror.

The holes for the hardware were completely open, so some wooden plug in black make a nice accent. So there you have it, the Jade Standing Mirror. I'm so happy about the magnetic paint! I hadn't used it before and it has really surprised me. I tested it out and it works great!

Have a wonderful weekend.

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Bamboo Sofa Table

I just finished up work on a sofa table that a customer fell in love with. Here's the before picture:

 

Solid wood, and originally done in a sort of dirty wash.  I stripped it, sanded it, and removed all the hardware.  I really wanted to test out minwax's color stains, and let me tell you, it was love at first...  stain? Haha. This stain was great, easy, and water based. I put two coats on this table and it was perfect!  This is Minwax's Green Tea.

Take a look:

After the stain set, I hand cut two sets of stencils.  The bamboo poles, and the bamboo leaves that would layer on after.  Here's a tip if you ever stencil: I sprayed the back of the stencil with spray adhesive, then let it dry. This makes a tacky, almost sticky note surface so the stencil adheres perfectly.  This worked like a dream... I did it for the leaves and not the poles though, however, I like how the poles came out foggy here and there:

There you have it! The customer really likes it, I really like it, we are happy.  This was a really fun project to do, it was seamless from start to finish.  I love it when everything seems to just go well, with no surprises!  Hand cutting that stencil was really fun too, I can definitely recreate this look any time.  Have a great day!

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Spotlight: Double Wide Dresser

I saw this post come through the Better After feed, and I fell in love. Not just with the project, but with gradients in general.  I've always LOVED the look of paint chips, and it's so neat to see all the art people make with them.  It seems the paint companies themselves have hopped on the bandwagon and had people make things for their ads too.  Well take a look at this double wide dresser from Frou-FruGal:

Boom! Isn't that great? The stencils were actually reversed too, so she blocked the letters and numbers to keep the wood grain showing through. I love that. See how it gradually gets darker as it goes down? She started with the color on the bottom drawers, and for each level up added a teaspoon and a half of white.  Brilliant! It gives a great effect.  And those drawer pulls are macrame monkey paws! I've NEVER made those but I'm totally inspired.  Check out her step by step tutorial, here.

On the topic of paint chips, I saw the front of a Martha Stewart Magazine a ways back with some really neat wall art on it using paint chips.  And they didn't even alter them at all! Take a look:

This just follows along the same line of my love of color organizing.  It can totally change the look of a collection.

As far as my own projects, coming up I have the Sofa Table that I'm doing in a colored stain, which I have never done before.  I'm using Minwax's Line of colored stain, "Green Tea".  More on that later...

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!

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French Provincial + Geometry

I believe I have showed the "before" of this table, if not, here it is:

 You can see in the photo that it was one of those over lacquered tables, that is pretty beat up.  But the curves are all there, and they are nice! The top had really pretty woodwork, a nice diamond inlay.  So, continuing with my recent love affair with wood AND paint rather than one or the other, I stripped this table to the bare wood.  I stained the top Dark Walnut, and then went hexagonal with it. Here it is:

So it turns out I'm in love with the table.  You never know when cupids arrow will strike, do you... haha. Seriously though, I'm happy with how it came out. It's just as I imagined.  I love the dark wood flowing in between those hexagons, and then the contrasting turquoise underneath.  It's actually a light turquoise, who's name I can't be sure of, as I spotted in the mishap aisle.  You haven't been to the mishap aisle? It's really great.. you can pick up a lot of fun colors that have been abandoned by whoever asked them to be made. Usually for a couple bucks! This one was a lucky find. Anyway, this table is for sale... but if it doesn't go, I will not mind seeing it in my living room! hehe.. have a great weekend!

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Itadakimasu - Let's Eat!

Finally! I got some pictures taken of the finished tables I've been talking about. The first one, is a round drop leaf table.  It already had really great wood grain and some natural distressing, so I decided to keep that look. I stenciled "Itadakimasu" on the top, which is japanese for "Let's Eat".  Lately I've really been drawn to the style of paint on wood, that still shows the wood. I think it's so different! After stenciling in a blue-grey, I washed the entire piece in a grey paint before sealing it with a few coats of satin clearcoat. Here it is before:

And here is the after:

I love how it came out. I like that you can see it's age and history, but has some fresh additions. This table is for sale!

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Emerald Chair

The Emerald Chair is done! And lovingly named Dorothy, of course. This was a great find, and I'm really happy with how the glaze job came out. Completely new foam and fabric, very comfortable chair!

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Sakura goes to France

I remember learning about a time when the French had a strong interest in the Japanese, and the two cultures shared a lot of goods.   This table, which started like this:

 ended up totally blending the two.  This table has a lot of the French Provincial style, and I didn't even think of the relevance that I was putting a Japanese flower all over it. Ha! What a coincidence.  First, so you know what I'm saying, here are the pictures:

I started out with the intentions to just make a cream white shabby chic table, and just thought it needed something else.  I grabbed some vintage books, and got to cutting. I ended up forming all kinds of "interesting" sentences while I was adhering them, just by reading what was randomly cut out. They surprisingly made sense! haha.  Anyway, it's been fully sealed so the pages are protected, and is up for sale in the shop.
Have a great weekend!

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