Painting Queen Anne

We've had this Queen Anne sofa table for

close to 20 years.

About 3 years ago our Son was using it at his house.

They no longer needed or wanted it so back it came

home to us. I was going to donate it to our local

Goodwill but decided to keep it instead.

It sat in our basement for over a year before I

finally got around to doing something with it.

Somehow along the way 2 of the handles went MIA.

All four corners had to be repaired due to cats chewing on them.

Other than that this sofa table was in great shape.

Here she is all ready to make her grand entrance.

I removed the remaining handle and filled in the holes with wood putty.

Hubby drilled new holes for the beautiful new knobs that I bought

from Hobby Lobby.

I sanded down the top and stained it Dark Walnut by Minwax.

The body got painted with my DIY Farmhouse White chalk paint.

I intended for this sofa table to go in our family room downstairs,

but after placing it by our front door and styling

the top to take pictures of it, I decided I wanted to keep it here.

This area in front of our stairs always looked bare to me.

It was like something was missing.

We can't say that anymore.

Our newly painted Queen Anne sofa table fills in

the area and blends in so well with my mirror wall.

She is here to stay...for now.

Here is the side by side comparison shot.

That's it for this week.

Until Next Time,

Veronica

Creating A One of A Kind Masterpiece

I needed a piece of artwork to go above the

newly painted dresser that sits in our

dining room. I knew that I wanted to

have the color blue in it but wasn't quite

sure just what I was looking for. So I

typed in blue artwork in Google search

and a ton of blue abstract artwork pieces

popped up. I have never been a big fan of abstract

art but the more I looked and studied this interesting

art form the more I loved its simplicity.

Instead of buying a piece of abstract art,

which by the way is very expensive, I thought

I'd try and create my own masterpiece.

Here is my version of an abstract artwork masterpiece.

I call it My Serene Place.

This painting took me all of 30 minutes to create.

Believe me when I say, I am not an artist.

The great thing about abstract art is that it

is so simple to create. There is no right way

or wrong way to create a great looking piece of art.

Cost to create this masterpiece, $0.

I dug through my craft supplies and had everything I needed.

Here's how I created my own work of art.

Supplies:

drop cloth

Canvas print, any size

Acrylic paint, colors of choice

inexpensive paint brush (I buy the $1.00 chip brushes from Michaels)

jar of water

paper plates

paper towels

I start with these 18 x 24 canvases that I buy from Michaels

when they are on sale. I usually have a few hanging out in my craft room.

First you want to dip your paint brush in the water

so your paint brush is a little wet. Dab your wet brush

on a paper towel to remove any excess water.

Squeeze a little dab of your darkest paint onto the paper plate,

you will only need a small amount of each color.

Next, dip the very ends of your brush in your darkest color first

and apply it in various areas on the canvas.

Rinse your brush in the jar of water

and continue this method with each

color making sure that your brush stays wet.

These are the first 3 colors I used

and how it turned out.

I continued using the darkest to the lightest color until I reached the top.

This is how it looked.

 After I had the initial canvas painted, I added colors

here and there until I was satisfied with the look.

Once my masterpiece was created, Hubby and I

created a floating frame to place it in.

 I'll do a post on how we created a floating frame in the near future

and how I created my favorite stain color of all time.

Hubby was quite impressed by my masterpiece.

Here is my masterpiece hanging above the dresser.

A side view.

 Artist or not, you CAN do this.

That's it for this week.

Until Next Time,

Veronica

How To Transform A Timeworn Dresser

Don't you love seeing a good Before and After?
Oh good, me too.

*I am in no way compensated for any of the products I show.
These are my go to products that I use time and time again
which do exactly as they claim.*

Once Hubby and I got this piece home
I couldn't wait to start transforming this
dresser and bringing it back to life.
The first thing I did was sand down the top.
I  almost got to the point of throwing in the towel
because the stain/paint/varnish was so thick it took
FOREVER to sand off a small section, but
 once I got my first glimpse of the beautiful natural wood
color under all that nastiness that's all the encouragement
I needed to keep going. I'm so glad I didn't give up.
After seeing how beautiful the wood tone
was I decided not to stain or paint the top.

I wanted to show it's natural beauty off.
I added a coat of Minwax Paste Finishing Wax to protect the top.
Love this stuff.

Next, I removed the knobs and keyhole covers and wiped
down the entire dresser using Clorox wipes to remove
all of the dirt and grime.
Using wood putty I filled in any deep scratches, dents, holes and cracks.
This is the wood putty I use. It goes on pink and dries a light beige color.

Once the wood putty was dry I sanded down
the areas until I had a smooth finish.
Using a shop vac with a brush attachment I vacuumed
the dresser down to remove all the fine dust from sanding.

Now I was ready to paint.
I painted the dresser using 3 light coats of leftover Farmhouse white chalk paint.
I let each layer dry completely before applying the next.
When using chalk paint there is no need to prime your piece.
This is the 2nd drawer that had the big crack in it.
You can't even tell it was cracked.

I let the paint dry overnight then sealed the body of the dresser
using Annie Sloan Clear Wax.

It was time to add my new knobs.
Aren't these knobs just perfect for this dresser?

The best place I found for unique knobs is Hobby Lobby.
They have a huge selections to choose from and I
always wait until they have a 50% off sale.
These knobs costs me $2.99 each.

After much searching I was able to find keyhole covers
on an Ebay store that were the same size as the old ones
but they only came in a gold finish.
I wasn't too concerned about that. I had an easy remedy to fix it.
Rub and Buff to the rescue. I used the Silver Leaf color.
You can find this in any craft store.

Simpy rub it on and let it dry, then buff to obtain a shiny finish.
Just look at that beautiful dresser top!

Are you ready to see the surprise inside the drawers?

I lined each of the drawers with some leftover material from my stash.

It adds a little special touch to this dresser.

Before adding the material I wanted to make sure that the stain

marks didn't show through the material.

I applied a coat of primer over all the stains.

This is my favorite primer.

After the primer had dried I applied a coat of Mod Podge using

a foam brush and then laid down my fabric and smoothed it out.

What a nice surprise now when you open the drawers.

This dresser now sits in our dining room and holds

all of our table linens.

It's finally nice to have one designated area

to keep all of these corralled.

With a little sweat equity and a big imagination

I was able to turn this old worn out dresser into

a thing of  beauty with a new purpose. I'm so happy

that our Son and DIL didn't donate this dresser.

This dresser cost me $25.00 to restore only because

I bought new knobs and keyhole covers.

Where else can you find a beautiful dresser

for that price? I'd say I got one heck of a deal! 

I wander what our Son will think of this dresser now?

Check back in next week as I have a new

Masterpiece to show off.

That's it for this week.

Until Next Time,

Veronica

An Old Beauty

Last week I mentioned that we are expecting

twin grand babies in the near future and that

I inherited this old dresser from our Son and DIL.

Our Son and DIL are in the process of preparing a room

for the new arrivals and have been sorting, throwing

and donating items. One of the items that was going

to be donated to Goodwill was this old dresser.

Luckily, before our Son hauled it off to Goodwill

our DIL thought of me and how I like to restore old things

and bring them back to life. Our Son called and ask if I would

like to look at this dresser before they hauled it off to Goodwill.

He mentioned that it was in pretty rough shape.

As soon as I saw this dresser

I knew it was coming home with me.

It is an antique and is made of solid wood.

Even the drawer slides are made of wood,

and all of the drawers are dove tailed.

It has all of the original wood wheels which are in great shape.

But before I show you the after let me show you

how bad this dresser actually looked up close and personal.

It looked like whoever finished this dresser

combined paint, stain and varnish together and slapped it on,

THICKLY.

There was white paint spattered or wiped all over it.

The top was scratched and nicked.

I don't know if this dresser had a mirror attached or it
simply had a back piece missing.

The middle drawer had a big crack in it
and the bottom drawer had a big deep scratch
(which I forgot to take a picture of).

One of the drawers was missing a keyhole cover.

The keyhole covers were thick with grim

and the inside of the drawers had big stain marks.

Hubby just wasn't feeling it, but me, I could
see beyond all of the grim, cracks,
dents, scratches and nicks.
I could see the potential in this beauty.

So, are you ready to see the after?

Oh, if you're someone who doesn't like to
see antiques touched in any way you might
not want to look at the after.

O.k., you've been warned.
Here goes!

Before

and After.

We LOVE it's new look!
Hubby was amazed at the transformation of this beauty.
You would never know by looking at it that it used to
be an old worn out dresser that had seen better days.

Here is a side by side comparison.

Check back next week and I will show you
some close ups of this beauty and talk about
how I transformed this piece with a special
surprise inside.

Until Next Time,
Veronica

A New Life

Goodness gracious it's been awhile since

I last wrote a post, not that I didn't want to mind you,

it's just that we have had a lot happening around here lately.

Let me try and catch you up with life in our house.

First off, I finally decided to pull the plug and retire!

Me, being retired.

I still can't seem to wrap my head around that idea.

My paperwork process has begun and let me tell

you what a process it has been so far.

Let's just say it's easier to get hired than

it is to retire from my place of employment.

It deserves it own post!

Once I decided on a date to retire, I also

made the decision to work as much overtime as possible.

I wanted to earn a few extra $$ so I could buy some

STUFF without cutting into the household budget.

Working 6 days a week, sometimes 9 days in a row, doesn't

leave you much time for anything else,

hence the lack of blog posts.

I've also started working a different
shift before I retire and am trying to adjust to the
new work hours.

And in more exciting news,

and this is BIG, no, HUGE news.

 We are having TWINS!

Well, not Hubby and I of course,

our Son and DIL are.

This news not only left us speechless and walking around

in a daze for a few days but everyone else as well.

We knew that they had been trying for a while to have another baby.

They knew that they were pregnant but didn't want to let the cat out of the bag

until it was officially confirmed, never imagining it was twins.

Imagine their shock when they found out!

So..........

after I retire I will have a few months to play

before I start a more important job, and a new life,

as a Nanny Granny to our grand babies.
It doesn't seem like much, but it sure
has changed our life, all in a good way.

Now that you are all caught up as to what has been

happening around here I thought I'd show you

something that I inherited from our Son that is

getting a new life as well.

Check back in next week and I'll reveal how I gave

this old dresser a new look and life.

Until Next Time,

Veronica