Project Monday

Painted Furniture

                            after:

Years ago I painted this hutch (circa 1970-ish) black from sort of a creamy white. I wanted a glossy look and used oil, this was way before the chalk paint craze. One thing I didn't know about oil is that it has a propensity to chip. With several moves and attempts at touch up, it.was.time.

I started painting and realized I hadn't take a 'before' shot. 

I decided to keep the inside light, te outside color is Annie Sloan's slate gray and the inside is old white. After painting the white it was too bright for me.

I painted over it with SW Crushed Ice - which is a pale gray and the color I have used on most of the interior walls of my home. You can see it on the left of this picture. 

I got this far and had to put the brushes down to go visit these fellers in Washington state.

One week of lots of lovin'.

When I got back I used Amy Howard's technique of waxing and using dust of ages over it. See post here where I described in detail.

Clear wax, dark wax, dust.

Buff.

Oops!  With starting, stopping, traveling and working in different lighting conditions I missed this one door.  Good example though of the difference of waxing and dusting (left) and just painting. I've got 6 chairs and the table legs of the table to do so I will fix it.  :)

Hobby Lobby has a wonderful selection of door pulls and handles. I have lucked out each time I have gone looking for pulls to find them 50% off.

I found some to update the cabinet a bit. 

Difficult to get a good shot with the reflection in the glass.

All finished and cleaned up pretty well for an old girl.

♥

Moore Designs is here to help you create the home of your dreams.

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Project Monday

Painted Furniture

A few weeks ago at the Atlanta Market I was fortunate to meet with 

Amy Howard - a beautiful furniture maker - who has a line of paint and finishes she markets as 'Amy Howard at Home'.  Go here to see my post last year about her and all of the finishes.

At market I was thrilled to take part in a hands-on demo which was great fun.

 It's taken me a year to finally get the courage to paint my grandmother's hutch, which is a solid piece of furniture in mahogany.  The s-curved glass with the leaded window pane is not something that can be found these days.  While beautiful in its day, it just isn't 'me'.

I thought I would 'practice' on a tea cart - that was grandma's too - to see how brave I am.

It all comes apart which helps for those hard to reach places. 

I'm using the 'One-Step' paint process which is a chalk paint that can be painted over any surface, no sanding or prep required. My fave for sure. It does not need to be sealed but I like to have a bit of depth rather than a flat finish.

One coat, I did long strokes. The paint can be a bit thick, a drop of water helps.

Two coats on everything.

A touch of gold adds so much; I taped off the top edge of both trays, then painted with 'guilding size' which makes the leafing stick and waited 20 minutes for it to become 'tachy'. 

Next, lay the gold leaf over, it doesn't have to be perfect (which is my nature) as it's nice to have sort of a crackled look.

After all the leafing is finished - using a brush - get all of the flecks off. 

That stuff goes everywhere and since my kitchen is my workroom, I'll be finding 'gold' for a while!

Next is waxing, clear and then dark. Soft wax is best, I had some Annie Sloan in the clear and bought Amy's dark. This is the hard part. The clear is great because obviously it cannot be seen but when that dark goes on it isn't as smooth. Both go on with a brush and then buffed a bit, the key is to 'off-load' the wax on a piece of cardboard or something similar to get the blobs off of the edges of the brush. Even with doing that there are dark spots that I couldn't smooth out. My perfectionistic personality really has to let go a bit.  

Amy likes to use this 'dust of ages' to get into the crevices (I would say best for pieces with highs and lows in the wood) which goes on after the wax and then buff with a soft rag for a pretty sheen.

Here's the top tray - you can see the darker spots - definitely need to perfect this technique a bit more before the hutch.

All in all, it turned out pretty well - I would prefer not to have the dark spots - but honestly they aren't as noticeable in person.

♥

Moore Designs would love to help you turn your house into a lovely home.

E-Design services available.

Project Monday

Ugghhh..it's Monday...again!

I usually greet the week with a workout and then home to clean house (yes, I do my own) and spend time in my office.  Sometimes I have finishing touches on projects started over the weekend.

It's Market time in Atlanta and I spent Thursday and Friday going to some of my favorite spots and finding new ones to gain inspiration and enjoy looking at all the beautiful furniture and furnishings.

  

Amy Howard at Home

I adore Amy Howard and had the good fortune of meeting her on Friday. She's a cute southern girl with unimaginable talent!

Her 28 years of experience manufacturing high end furniture and developing beautiful, authentic finishes for Amy Howard Collection recently launched a DIY finish product line giving us the ability to create beautiful looks on a budget and the ability to (in her words) 'enjoy the bragging rights'.  

She demonstrated the basics of her techniques, just enough to get your heart racing!

Amy has several different 'kits' for finishes including; 

One-Step Paint.

Spray on water based furniture stripper.

How wonderful...no more fumes!

Zinc antiquing enables one to give metal the look of aged zinc. Applied to custom cut sheet metal.

Look here for a demo!

Antiquing Mirror

Amazing...she has step by step instructions on how to take a regular mirror and by using her products produce an

 antique looking mirror.

Well, you know me, 

I cannot wait to get some of her products and get busy.

All of her products are natural so no need to wear gloves.

The possibilities are endless.

I don't remember (and I didn't take note) what Amy said about how many thousands of pieces of beautiful hardwood furniture, made in America, that are in the landfills today.  Amy's mantra is 'Rescue, Restore, Redecorate'.  

 I have many pieces of solid mahogany from my grandmother that are just not my taste.  BUT with a bit of time and work, they can be turned into something timeless.

♥

It's a new year, Moore Designs is ready to help you with your projects large or small Don't live in Atlanta?  No problem, online design services available! Contact MD today!

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