Breakfast at Tiffany's

Hi There!
Well, its about time I share the long promised "Breakfast at Tiffany's" dresser...
I saw the little dresser at Goodwill one day, and fell in love with the shape. I knew exactly what I was going to do with it! There was just one smelly problem....it smelled bad! Really bad. I don't know if it was just smoke, or a combination of dampness and smoke, but that smell would not leave...
I took out all the drawers, sprayed it with bleach water, left it in the sun for more than a month, but no improvement. I tried baking soda, vanilla essence, more bleach, more sun, more spraying with the hose...still stank to high heaven.
So, I decided to just try Kilz primer...painted on, not sprayed. It worked! Not a smell ... yay for Kilz!!!
Ater priming, I painted with a sort of seafoam blue I had, and then used my projector to project an image of Audrey Hepburn onto it. The rest was filled in with small brushes and black and grey paint..

Ta Da!!!!

I love love love this look! But I have a confession to make...

It was not my original idea ...I stole this from Deneen at Dreaming in Color . Only she is a real artist, and did not need a projector.

But ever since I saw her sweet little dresser, I knew I wanted to do something like it.

She is very talented, and her blog is choc full of inspiration. Go stop by her blog and tell her I sent you...     ;-)

Do you want to have another look?

 The rounded corners looked sort of retro to me...

 I lined the drawers with wall paper I had.

Hope you liked it!

Happy Thrifting!

Suzanne

xoxo

Linking up with:
Metamorphosis Monday

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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:

  

Pop Art Side Table

This is a time for celebrating...whether you are religious or not. Most of us associate the Holidays with seeing loved ones, families getting together, having fun, making memories, etc etc. Why then, is everybody so miserable and impatient and stressed out? Isn't this supposed to be a happy time?

I have a theory about that. What makes us miserable this time of year, is expectations. We are told by the media that this time should be and look a certain way. Happy families smiling in the warm glow of crackling fires, perfect little children with cute outfits playing sweetly together, the smell of good food wafting in from the kitchen, loads of presents under a perfectly decorated tree.....
The truth is that most of our realities are very different from that. And so we start to strive for that picture perfect Christmas .. And if we fail, we strive harder, and become unhappy and stressed out. And what was supposed to be a festive time, becomes the time of year with the highest suicide rate, stress and huge credit card bills.
Maybe we should just relax, and appreciate our own reality for what it is.See the blessings in the little things. Appreciate the people that are with us, instead of being resentful for the one's that are not.
 Maybe we can even reach out and be a blessing to someone else....
Maybe this is my advice to myself, since Christmas started to become such a burden  having to spend it without family since my husband and I moved to the US 10 years ago....
Maybe I will take my own advice and just be happy  this Christmas.

ALRIGHTY THEN!  Enough talking...


Check out this ultra cool little side table I painted a while back. I am sooo stoked about it.  I loved doing it so much, I just want to make more. Even though it's not selling. Go figure. Probably not everyone's cup of tea.

My friend bought me this at a garage sale for $3

I painted the body black, and did this Roy Lichtenstein pop art on the front.

I used my trusted projector to do the drawing.

I googled the image. Funny how I always think I have an original idea, but when I start to google it, I discover that some one else has done it already! I found a lot of cool pop art furniture online.

At first I was thinking of putting something humorous in the thought bubble.

Something like: " I wanted Chick-A_Fillet, but it's Sunday..." 

or any of those First World Problems, but I eventually just went with the original saying, which was:" that's the way it was supposed to happen, but now its hopeless!"

Unfortunately I did not take another pic after I wrote the quote in, before I took the table to the consignment store. 

So, there it is! Hope you love it as much as I do!

Happy Thrifting and (Truly) Happy Christmas !

Joining these parties:

http://diyshowoff.com

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I was Featured..

Just a quick and happy shout out to Lauren from West Furniture Revival 

for featuring my Kitchen Table..

 and also my French Dresser

I feel honored to be recognized by such a talented blogger.

If you have not yet, go check her out....

Lots of wonderful projects by her, and the people she features.

Thanks again, Lauren!

From

Suzanne

xoxo

Morningside.....

Happy Halloween to you, happy birthday to me, and happy sugar hangover to whom it may concern.  ;-)

I can't wait to show you my latest project....

My dear friend, Kim  gave me this handmade farmhouse table , chairs and bench. It reminds me of the Neil Diamond song, "Morningside"...
Only this old man did not die and  he did not carve "for my children" on it.....
But I do know that it was made by hand by the father of a big family. After several years of good service, he passed it down to another big family (I'm talking like 7 kids, big), and then finally to my friend, Kim, who currently has 5 children, all ten and under. They used it for a few years, until, finally, a couple of months ago, some of the chairs and even the table started showing signs that it was ready to retire...parts of legs and backs started breaking off, etc.

OR....it was just in  need of some serious TLC.....

I had to use some paint stripper on the table, because I wanted a natural look on the top.

Let me tell you, cleaning these babies was no joke. Just imagine twelve years, 20 children, and lots and lots of meals...

There was so much food stuck in every sneaky corner, I'm telling you, it could keep my entire family alive for quite a few months in the event of a Zombie Apocalypse...or something.

I must have contemplated this aloud, because I'm not sure, but I think I heard Hubby mutter something about feeding my brain to the Zombies instead, since I'm apparently not using it anymore... 

I could not quite get rid of  all the marks, but that's ok, since I still wanted a rustic look.

Since I actually remembered to take pictures during the process, I can now tell you step by step what to do to get the result.

1. First, clean, of course. We've covered that. No excuses about Zombies, etc, allowed.
2. Sand all the pieces lightly. 
3. See that it is going to take forever. Try to guilt hubby into helping.
4. See that its not working. 
5. Wonder aloud why you married him.
6. Say "nothing" when he asked what you said.
7. Try a different approach. Ask for a new palm sander.
8. Get said palm sander.
9. Hug hubby. Say your mother was wrong about him, after all...

10. Using yellow acrylic leftover paint, paint the sides or random places yellow.

11. Let dry, and paint everything a light green, or color of your choice. (In my case whatever I have)

      I painted a rather thick and sloppy layer with a brush, since I wanted it to have the look of several,      old layers of paint, added through the years.

In other places, I did not even bother to cover 100 % with the paint, since I was going to sand it down again, anyway.

12. Wait for it to get dark... (ie. nighttime, not the paint.)

13. Get out trusted Tracer Projector, and trace image of choice onto table.( I did a google search of  cafe signs, and traced it with a black permanent marker.)

 14. Use small brushes and black paint to fill in the letters. ( I used yellow for the shading)

   Remember that this was done on a bare, sanded table.

15. Next day, sand over the letters lightly, and stain whole table top with Minwax Dark Mahogany.

Nice, right? Now back to the chairs and bench....(I'm stopping the numbering of steps, there seems to be way too many) LOL.
After the paint has completely dried, distress by sanding the edges and corners, etc.

 See how the yellow shows through in some places?

Just what I wanted...

After this, I applied a little bit of stain over the sanded areas with a brush, and wiped it off immediately after.

 A little dry brushing with stain in the corners makes it look nice and old.

AND....VOILA!  My new table,  chairs and bench!

I know...I really have to work on my photography skills....and staging!

 I  love how this turned out. 

 A layer of Min Wax Polycrylic sealer was the last step,to protect this little set for many years to come. 

 Let me know what you think, and

Happy Thrifting!

Love,

Suzanne.


Linking up to these parties:
Metamorphosis Monday
Feathered-nest-friday