ALMOST LEFT BEHIND!

So, this guy has been sitting in my inventory for over 6 months and not so much as one person has noticed it:(  I couldn't take it any longer, something had to happen!

Look how great it this piece turned out!

I stripped and re stained the top, box and base.  The drawer fronts needed too much patching and TLC to salvage but I am loving the "two tone" look!

It might have been cool to use the wooden hardware pieces but one was missing and although I am pretty crafty, my wittling skills are not that good...yet:)

FRENCH PROVINCIAL BEAUTY

I'm in love... with a dresser...again!

That's all I can say!

just one more thing...LOOK AT THAT GORGEOUS FINISH!

MY BOY GOT A NEW DRESSER...AGAIN

Because I refinish furniture and have pieces come and go all the time, my 13 year old Jack has happened to have 5 different dressers in his bedroom in the past year.

Now we have built, renovated and moved many times and I know I am blessed with very flexible and adaptable children, but last week when I was hauling his dresser out of his room because I sold it, he was like "um, mom...do you think I can have a dresser that I can just call mine and actually keep"?!?

I think he was feeling a little sorry for himself until I reminded him that there are some kids that keep there small handful of clothes in a cardboard box...if they're lucky.  He got it:)

Still, I was feeling a little bad about taking it away and told him to go into my shop and pick out any dresser and think of color he wanted.

Well, the color he wanted, I didn't have. Because I LOVE to experiment and mix colors myself, I combined a few to get what he was looking for.  I LOVE mixing colors and coming up with something a little different, but unfortunately when someone wants a piece "in that color", I really can not duplicate it exactly.  I need to stop.

Loving that beautiful high end, seamless finish!

GIVING MILK PAINT A TRY

Don't worry my modern BFF's, I am not converting totally but have to admit, it's kinda fun having a paintbrush in hand and being a little creative.

I have used milk paint before but has been many years.  I had a secretary desk that I thought would be a  good piece to experiment on. 

The desk already had a nice coat of yellow on it, which I was going to just leave but then decided, after sanding it down, that I would try this pretty blue milk paint I had on hand.  After I painted it blue,  didn't like it because it was too baby blue for me, so I decided to use this pretty green color milk paint over that (your suppose to layer...right?!?!)

I have been seeing a similar decorative hand painted decal around the blogs lately and decided to try a freehand design myself. I did this before the distressing and glazing as I wanted it to look as original as possible too.  It's not perfect, but perfectly imperfect:)

I loved how the green looked especially when I distressed it and even more after I glazed it.  I really like how there are some areas where the blue comes through, some areas where the yellow shows and a few spots of wood peeking through.  Perfectly "aged".

I clear sealer coat and some new (old) hardware and it's done!

TURNING A MCM DRESSER INTO A TV CONSOLE / ENTERTAINMENT CENTER

I am sure Marc had other things he wanted to do ALL DAY Sunday, but because he totally ROCKS MY WORLD...he build 2 new slide out, tilt down drawers, complete with new sturdy boxes for my customer, instead.

First, lets show ya the before picture...Hmmm

It all started with a vision I already had for this piece and was playing around with on my own.  Then one of my customers caught on to what I was going to do and jumped on board.  Knowing she was going to be our "guiney pig" project of sorts, she was cool with whatever we whipped up.  Thanks Jessica!

What we (Marc) whipped up was a pretty sweet situation!  First we removed the front face of the door with a sawzaw.  Not the most professional way but after building and renovating houses, this guy can cut a straight line with this thing like nobodies business! 

We wanted sturdier boxes for the tv components, so he built new ones.  I am not really sure how as I went Christmas shopping:)  But I am sure it had something to do with some wood, table saw, router and a nail gun.

Instead of one the original middle rail, as you can see from the bottom middle drawer, we opted to do two glides to support the heavier box.

Really, the hinges are the trickiest part of all.  You have only about an 1/8" on all sides to make sure it sits in there perfectly.  

He decided to use the back of the glides, that we did not need as temporary brackets after we measured where the drawer front should sit, which we did by removing the back off the unit, with the box set in place in the dresser, I was in front holding the door front perfectly where I wanted it up against the box while he made pencil lines from the back.

After we liked where the drawer front were sitting with the temporary brackets, he was able to attach the hinges.  You don't want to have to move hinges 5 times to get them perfect, so this is a great way to do it.

TIP-- as you can see I didn't finish the inside of the drawer front till AFTER everything was set perfectly, BIG MISTAKE!  Once you have it perfect you really don't want to remove those hinges again.  It took about an hour to get everything lined back up perfectly and had to basically repeat the whole process over again.  So finish the drawer, front, back and box (which I clear coated) BEFORE you get it all installed.

It turned out beautiful and we learned a LOT on this project of what to do and what NOT to do next time around. 

SIMPLE HIGHLIGHTS ADD SO MUCH

I just finished a couple of pieces for a customer and love how they all turned out.  This piece in particular is a great example of how adding a little glaze to the decal on the top drawer can really change the look.

In the before picture, The cool decal doesn't do much for the dresser.  The original plan was to refinish the piece in a dark grey and do a little distressing with black glaze over the entire piece.  But after the piece was sprayed, she really liked the awesome finish but still wanted a little "something", so decided to add glaze to just the decal.

I used a Q-tip to try and keep the glaze to a minimum

 Then wiped it, pushing it into the corners

I really do like this Valspar antiquing glaze as the working time is long and I was able to keep it where I wanted it.  

New satin nickel hardware and finish chances this into a beautiful and more masculine piece.

SUPER EASY TRIP TO MASK OFF CORNERS OF MIRRORS OR PICTURES

Nothing is more fun and exciting than to try and mask off corners on window panes, mirror corners or picture frames.  Of course, I am being a smarty pants again...it's time consuming and boring!  Here is a way to hopefully help the process go a little faster and be less painful, because it's those dang corners that take the most time.

I always remove the mirror when I have to refinish the frame, just so I can get the inside lip of the frame.  But sometimes, when the picture frame is huge, custom and the back looks all nice and pretty like, I feel bad taking it all apart, knowing the customer payed good money to have this done at one point.  Not to mention I really don't feel like removing or replacing 800 staples.

I have found a PERFECT way of dealing with those corners!  I hope these pictures below will help explain the steps for you.

 1- bring the tape over the edge

2- fold at a 90 degree angle, keeping it tight to the edge and tucked as close as possible.

3- press tight and close to edge, keeping a razor blade nearby to help

4- Perfect, tight corner and super fast!

Awww.  Peter deserves an award for putting up with the daily "deep love and serious affection (aka...torture) he gets from my youngest.  Tonight he was a lion with a the fur off of someones coat wrapped around his neck. Doesn't he look happy!