Silver Buffet

Happy New Year Everyone!
May 2013 be a wonderful year for you all. I am confident that this will be the year of goals reached, dreams come true, and resolutions kept...  
{well, two out of three won't be bad, would it? ;-) }

Just look at this cool piece I bought easily a year ago on Craigslist. I think it would have looked very nice just like this, but unfortunately the veneer was chipping in places. So, I did not have to debate with myself very long whether to paint or not to paint. Pshhh! As if ......

I decided to try some version of the currently popular silver/metallic/mirror furniture. Only I wanted to do the cheapest version possible, of course.  That's why I used spray paint again for the first time in a long, long while. Also because of the many small grooves on the two bottom drawers.

I primed with Krylon grey primer,

and sprayed with Metallic Silver.

It was very shiny....

After this I applied a little bit of charcoal glaze. You can see the difference in the picture above. The bottom drawer has not been glazed yet.

Can you guess how I got this "stencil" effect above?

I really thought that I was the clever brain behind this technique, 

but alas, of course some other clever brain apparently thought of the same thing, because I saw it on Pinterest afterwards...

In case you have not seen this before, it is spray paint over a lace tablecloth.

 Isn't it awesome?

I really liked the hardware, and even debated to leave them bronze, but decided to spray paint them black instead.

Here is the final result...

I like it, but decided to try the silver leaf next time.

I think it would have looked really nice with the very shiny surface it gives you.

But, since my offset point is Craigslist, I try to always stay within a certain price bracket.

A sweet young couple bought it a week later. I saw the couch and chair they got on Craigslist on the same day, and I'm sure it is going to look awesome in their new home.

That's it, for now, but "tune in" to see my "Breakfast at Tiffany's" dresser soon!
Happy Thrifting!

Joining:

  

Summer Projects part 2

Here's some more items I transformed while on vacation in South Africa...

This is a beautiful drawer chest that my sis bought years ago from an old clothing store in town that closed down.

I encouraged her back then to get it, because it is so cool...even as is.

That's the way she kept it for years, until my visit recently , and "we" decided it needed a make-over.

She wanted the multi-layered green and red painted look, so , this is what I did.

It was so quick and easy...light sanding, no primer, and just patches of green and red paint applied with a brush. Some sanding afterwards, rubbing with a little bit of my secret ingredient (brown shoe polish...shhhhh) , and there she was...

exciting and new, and once again the focus of the room.

I love it!

Happy painting!

Love,

                                                    Joining these parties:




            

Summer Projects:

Hi Everyone!

I know I have been MIA for a while now, but I have a good reason. I visited my home country and family in South Africa. For ten whole weeks! That's right, 10! But just in case you thought I just sat on my behind and sipped wine, you are wrong...
Some days I sat on my behind and sipped wine, and other days I transformed furniture and sipped wine.... so there!
Yep! My sisters made me earn my keep... (but you know I did not complain about saving old, neglected furniture from the dump!)

Look at this piece for instance: was once a built in kitchen cabinet, then stuck in the laundry, and eventually in the garage, where, as you can see, it had been used as a handyman table.

Old Built in Transformed to house a Stereo

My sister needed a place for one of her twin 16 year old sons' stereo, so we went to work on it. I liked the look of the sanded wood on top, so we just sanded it thoroughly (with NO palm sander available, I might add), and waxed it. We painted the body with homemade black chalk paint, and wiped a little brown stain over it, to give some depth to the mat black color.  After distressing the edges, and  adding wheels and funky hardware, this piece was transformed into a very cool, industrial look entertainment center any teenage boy can be proud of.

Don't you agree? And yes, I know the handles are different sizes. And no, it was not on purpose, OK? After we had drilled the holes and attached them, we stood back proudly to view our handy work, and  broke out in hysterical giggles when we realized our  mistake....
Then we decided to just pretend it was meant to be that way.

Old Bathroom Cabinet transformed

This little cabinet was brought home from the farm, and was stuck in storage for forever.

We had specific  plans for it, but it knew better....

When we started to sand it down, all these lovely layers, added through the years, were uncovered.

Then we realized that the door was not real wood, but supa wood...and, soon after, while I was sanding my heart out, the door fell open, slammed on the ground, and the mirror broke. This is when we decided to just go ahead and take the door off.

The lovely blue color on the inside, was left just as is...

..and just check out all the wonderful old layers...blue, green, yellow and white.

We did not bring a paintbrush near it..this look was achieved just by sanding!

It is going up as a shelf in her powder room.

Love it!

See ya soon with more Summer projects!

I am joining these parties


Metamorphasis Monday

Ugly Credenza gets a Make-over

Hi There!

And so my oldest baby got married last Saturday... he looked so handsome and grown-up! This is a picture of me and him,

 and this one of him and his beautiful bride. It was a really private and sweet ceremony.
I know they will be happy and successful.

Today I am sharing with you my most favorite of projects so far... or do I say that every time? I guess that means I love what I do, right?
I bought this credenza, or buffet, on craigslist, looking very sad with a "most unfortunate" paint job...
But, I loved its lines, and only learned after that this is typical a mid-century piece.

It stayed at my front door for quite some time, waiting its turn to get an "extreme make-over".
Of course I forgot to take a before picture.....( have decided to take pics of the pieces as I purchase them, so as not to have this "particular" problem again...We'll see how that goes...)

At least I can show you what the two discarded drawers looked like...and that is a pretty good indication of the state of the rest of the piece. Bad, gloss black paint finish, with drip marks and peeling paint (not the nice kind, either) everywhere. These two drawers did not fit snugly, as a result of some swelling, or slight warping? I don't know, but they seemed too big for the space.
So, thanks to many other bloggers before me who have paved the way, I knew that I could just leave them out, and turn the empty spaces into shelves.

I had a completely different plan for this piece, but when I started sanding and saw the beautiful wood tone underneath , I changed my mind. (I think its actually just really thick veneer, but it still had a lovely warm tone.)

The doors had a sweet little black line in the wood, which I thought deserved a second chance to shine. So I sanded them down, and stained them a beautiful warm tone. Along with new hardware, they look awesome, don't you think?
I did the same with the top, but then painted a checkered black and wood pattern on it.

The drawers got a reverse stencil of 1,2,3, with numbers I printed off the computer, cut out, and sprayed with spray on glue.

The shelves on the bottom are now ideal for a DVR, or displaying of your favorite crockery.

I took this one to our booth at Armadillo Antique mall, Goodyear, and it sold within 24 hours!
I would have liked to keep it myself, too!
Now I have to get painting to get stuff in the booth before I leave for South Africa for two whole months.....    


                  Love,                           

                                                            

Dresser Love

I found this dresser at Goodwill the other day. I was looking for some drawers to go in my closet, and thought this would work. It was a little too long for the space, so of course I had to transform it to sell it.

This was after I already stripped to the top with paint stripper...

I started to just sand, but the gloss finish was so hard, it would not budge under my little palm sander.

The paint stripper did the job perfectly...quick and easy!

 The top  is my favorite part of this piece. So rich and warm.

I stained it with Mahogany stain after sanding with very fine sandpaper.

Right at the end I rubbed with some MinWax Wax.

 The body and drawers were primed with Zinzer 123 primer, and then painted with some Oops paint from Lowes I had. A sort of a off-white/greyish color.

 The hardest work of the whole project was the sanding/distressing after. Did not distress too much, but enough to give it a lived in look. 

After buying different handles at Habitat Restore and spraying it with ORB, I decided to go with the original hardware, as is. I just liked the look more. It added to the warm tone of the rest of the piece.

 O, and I wiped some glaze tinted with dark stain on, and wiped off to give it an older look.

 It looked a little too dirty, so I dry brushed some white over again.

 Perfect! 

 Sorry about the overload of pictures, but I am so in love with this piece..

 It is going to the new consignment store in my neighborhood,

L.E.A. Consignment . You have got to check it out if you live anywhere near Phoenix. It is a wonderful store with beautiful things..

Hu Uhm...they do sell my stuff, after all...   :-)

Hope you like this as much as I do!

What do you think?

Joining:

Everything but the kitchen sink

Motivated Monday

Cindy's Paint Party

http://www.perfectlyimperfectblog.com/2011/07/favorites-a-chair-makeover-and-all-things-furniture-party-6.html

..and the other parties listed on my parties page..