School of Restoration

Class is now in session! The great gals over at The Divine Minimalist have asked me to start writing monthly tutorials on furniture restoration and techniques.  We're gonna cover a lot of subjects, and take some crazy looking furniture and give it love again. Fun! Check it out, and their blog: The Divine Minimalist.

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The Dining Set, part 4

and the finale! Well, I put all the pieces in the same room today for a final photo shoot before they go to their new home on Tuesday.  It's been a long journey, but a fun one, and I really like how they came out. Here's the set:

 I wanted to take a picture from both sides, but my three million windows really drowned that last one out! Up next is a close up of the leg, chairs, and table top.

 So, you might notice that table top is a bit different than the first picture I had showed you in part 3.  Well, it is and I'm glad! The person I'm doing this for agreed, it needed a little more brown and warmth, so I distressed it and rubbed 2 coats of Jacobean all over it. Came out great! I love it. I'm waiting for it to fully dry before giving it a good seal to withstand the wear and tear of real life. Isn't that ironic, we distress furniture and then seal them so they won't become distressed? One really great thing about the distressed look though is that if it DOES get a scratch, it's pretty forgiving. I'm rambling, here's some shots of the table progress if you are interested:

 That's the first coat of Jacobean, below is also:

 Bring in a lil' leg to show some contrast:

 And the final coat:

I love that the table is expandable, but with this many seats (6) I think it will always be in it's widest form.  This was a really fun custom job, I was so happy to do it, and I hope she loves it when we deliver it on Tuesday!  Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

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Dining Set, part 3

I'm just about done with the dining set! You've seen and read the progress so far, here, so let's cut the chatter and get down to business. Here's some final shots of the chairs and progress of the table.  First up, the chairs!

 I love that fabric! It's textured so it adds a lot of interest and changes the look in different lighting.

 Don't mind the bits of upholstery foam all over the house.... haha. I had just finished up!

 and in the shop, the table during it's sanding when I remember I had no photo yet:

 

There it is with the final stain coat on it. She chose "tugboat" by behr, which is a semi translucent stain/coating.  It still lets some of the wood show through while effectively delivering the color she wanted. We are thinking about distressing the edges to let the light wood show through just a teeeny bit. Not sure yet.  Once it's done drying completely I'll set the whole thing up for a fun photo shoot. Have a great Tuesday!

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Turquoise Half Table

During dry times on the dining set, I took a little break to spend some time on this half table that was brought in recently:

 Pretty great as is! I loved the legs.  But I hadn't done a good old fashioned color wash in a while, and I already knew where I wanted to go with this table. So I spray painted light blue, color washed in teal, and distressed that dark brown right back out. Here it is after:

 I like it! I sealed it in wax, for the soft finish.  Yes, that's a copy of design sponge on top... I love that book!

 A little close up of the leggies:

This table will probably head over to The Beach Shop on Soquel Ave in Santa Cruz.  Of course, it will also be available in my etsy shop.  Have a wonderful weekend!

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Dining Set, part 2

Moving right along, the chairs needed a good cleaning and a priming.  Here they are:

 What a difference some primer can make!  Yes, maybe I'm over excited about it.  But to see some progress here was really helpful, haha.

 Since the style she wants is a distressed style, I wanted to do a nutmeg undercoat.  In this case I used spray paint.  I just love spray paint.

 So that's the final coat! She picked out the grey, and I distressed down to the nutmeg, and then coated the entire chair frame in an ebony stain. 

 Here's a close up of the distress, I love how it came out.

So now you're up to speed, I'll take more pictures as the progress moves along. There are 6 chairs, and the fabric that she chose for them is a really pretty almost teal blue...... you're gonna love it. Have a great day!

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