Refinished Wash Stand...

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Here she is!… 

Introducing one sweet little beauty of a cupboard…

She was in a goopy state with the layers of many years past paint jobs…  Four real thick ones to be exact…  cream…  pinky…  greeny…  and then the last glossy white…  and if you know me you know that I love to paint things white and cream…  BUT!…  I have a problem with runs and goopy paint jobs… 

I really underestimaed the amount of prep on this piece… You know that Annie Sloane would stick to an eel so I could have just slapped the paint straight onto this as it was…  BUT being that the previous paint was so thick I felt the need to strip it down to the bare wood…  knowing this would produce the best results for the finished piece…  this turned out to be most true in regards to the bottom front detail…  once it was stripped and refinished the details just POPPED!…  no longer was its beauty buried…

Before I go to far though let's back up a little and start at the beginning…  this little beauty was quite a charmer even in her previous state…

She had some nice natural wear and tear but she needed some polish… 

All the hardware was removed…

These little towel bars remind me of the towel bar that was in my maternal grandmother's house when I was a child…  these ones were in rough shape and the request had been made to remove them for good… 

Next came the stripping…  I used my handy dandy Milwaukee orbital sander with a variety of grits of paper…  starting of course with the rougher grits of 80 and 60 and working to a 120 and then 220 to prepare the wood for painting… 

Some sanding words of advice…  if you do not have a respirator then be sure to get yourself some dust masks…  you do not want to be breathing in the dust…  also keep a shop vac handy…  it makes for easy dust cleanup!… 

For fear of sanding away the detail of the bottom strip I made a trip to Home Depot and upon the advice of one of their worker bees I came home with a can of Smart Strip…  an eco friendly stripping product!… 

I taped off the area to be stripped and placed some plastic underneath to catch any overspray…  As the layers of paint were really thick I went through the spray stripping process twice on this bottom detail piece and then got into the fine areas with a small scaper to ensure that all of the stripping product and paint was removed…  finally I gave the wood a wash with water and a sponge to ensure all of the stripper was removed…  it was definitly worth the time to do this twice…  what beautiful results from this product!… 

No I was not endorsed in any way to talk up this product…  unfortunately!…  hehe…  it just worked really well…  and if I can share that information and help someone out with a project they're working then AWESOME!… 

I also gave the stipper a try on the original hinges…

I dropped them into a glass jar with some of the stripper and gave them a wash down after…  they came pretty clean and with a wash they were paint free!… 

On this project I went back to Chalk Paint - Annie Sloan to be exact… I really prefer the chalk paint over the milk paint… I love the thick thick paint...

Sp after the complete stripping it was time for paint…  and of course I chose Annie Sloan's Old White…  but this time I tried something new after…  but before that!…  so excited I keep getting ahead of myself…  It got a good sanding so that the final finish was nice and smooth…  I really love a smooth paint finish on a piece like this… 

Also…  I marked out all of the holes before the final finishing…  some painters tape, Lacey math, and hole drilling and the hardware holes were ready… 

This finish on this sweet little cupboard is completely new for me…  I practiced on a test piece first... and am I ever glad that I did!… 

So the new for me process on this was was using Annie Slone Dark Wax…  I do not recommend putting dark wax straight onto a light painted piece!…  hooooo boooy!…  what worked best was to wax the whole piece with the Annie Sloane Clear Wax FIRST…    once that was on I went back in with a coat of the dark wax…  BUT!…  I didn't use straight dart wax!…  I cut the dark wax with some clear…  I made a half and half mix in a small glass jar…  mixed with a wooden paint stick… The glass jar is really great becuse you can make mixes…  see them and store them easily!…

How have your experiences been with Dark Wax products?…  do you have any learned adviced that you can share?… 

Once waxed and buffed the hardware went on and voila!…  she's been reloved!… 

This piece came to me with the hardware chosen…  and the pulls worked so beautifully with the warmth of the dark wax finish…  These pulls are from Lee Valley…  if you have a local Lee Valley lucky you!…  if not you can order online!…  they have some amazing hardware… 

The rough hand hewn ring pulls chosen for the top drawer and door are quite graphic but still warm in their colouring and primitiveness… 

The dark wax beautifully nestles itself into cracks, corners and ridges…

I found this 12qt stoneware bowl above on a recent treasure hunt… along with the Sunburst crock below and couldn't resisit getting them in a few shots with this darling little cupboard…  they go together like milk and cookies…

Enough of my jibber jabbering… here are a few detail shots… 

Now I said she was all done…  again getting ahead of myself…  I couldn't see this one completly refinished on the outside without some loving on the inside…  the inside was also in some rough shape…  

This piece has truly been loved and well used for many years…  you can tell by all of the beauty marks left upon her…  but a quick measure and a few cuts of some fresh thin board and BAM!…  brand new drawer bottoms…  much more inviting for precious things to be laid upon…

Now she is complete…  and ready to go back home to Feather Katie's Nest!… 

I hope you enjoy her even more now Katie!

xo

Lacey

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Sweet Little Cupboard...

Feathering My Nest has moved!... come check all of this out over at www.featheringmynest.ca/blog

Since Vintage With Flair a few people have dropped off pieces that require some love -  refinishing… The first being this sweet little cupboard that had been used as a wash stand...

Many layers of paint have been gooped on over the years… leaving drips and runs as well as partly burying the detail along the bottom strip...

Here is a close up of the top…  lots of wear and tear… 

…all of the old and unoriginal hardware has been removed and stripping of the drawers has begun… 

Stay tuned!… This will be reloved in no time… 

xo

Lacey

It's All Coming Together...

Feathering My Nest has moved!... come check all of this out over at www.featheringmynest.ca/blog

I've really been MIA!… a month and a half since I've posted!?.  sorry about that folks!… I've been working like a piggy wig every weekend... and evening for the past few weeks on items for the Vintage with Flair sale!…  It's approaching faster that I would like it to be!… really should have been working over the winter with more focus…

A devastating blow came my way when I discovered that you can't put Milk Paint overtop of a stain blocking paint like a kilz… the Milk Paint dries so quickly and is so dry that it just pulls the primer right up!… So the dresser sat aside for about a month and a bit… But in the past couple of weekends I managed to fully sand the dresser and I went back at it with Chalk Paint… I much prefer the ease of Chalk Paint over Milk Paint on repainted surfaces… I find Milk Paint works on raw wood great… Milk Paint is just to chippy on refinished furniture in the end for me...

The Feathering logo stamp has arrived!… I'm still so in love with my logo!… and with Juke Box Print!… 

I've completed a number of smaller projects… many being chalkboards… I have chalkboards up the whazoo!… chalk board trays… chalk boards in gold frames… chalk board windows… 

Now here some some contradiction… I said that Milk Paint was too chippy for me yet I fell in love with this totally chipped to bits metal garden chair!… BUT!… it's different!… this is legit chipped with age… it would be beautiful on a front stoop with a big pot of lavender sitting on in!… 

I've fallen in love with gold spray paint… the top edge of one of my doily bowls was made with pink string… It was cute and all but I had the thought to hit the edge with the gold spray bomb… um the results!?… the tits!… gold ombre look!… 

Here are a few more progress shots… more details and some tutorials to come after Vintage with Flair… just no time right now… no time… as I sit here blogging!… hehe but let me explain… I sat down on the couch here with the kitties shortly after 6am this morning… still tired but knowing I have a long list of items I want to work on… complete this weekend!… so I got a snuggle from Pickle and rolled my tired self out of bed… I thought to sit and blog because 1) it's been quite awhile since I've blogged and 2) it's a nice and easy way to wake up instead of jumping right into working on something… 

The house is literally overflowing with items for the sale… I have two dressers in the kitchen… a kitchen table in the front living room… it's starting to get a little overwhelming!…  The basement is still a workshop… and I've even taken over the deck and back parking pad for workspaces!… 

I'll have to do a tutorial on paperbacking picture frames in the coming weeks… it really is simple and it makes for a nice clean finished and professional looking product...

Here are a few of the beauties that I'll have available at the show in a couple weeks!… Squee!… I'm really getting excited now!… nervous but excited…

Also before the sale I have to take a lot of item photos for my records and for some images for the proper website that I need to develop… I've chalked my logo out LARGE on the kitchen wall just for the pictures I need to take!… sooo in love with this logo!… THANKS AGAIN! Cynthia!… 

Pickle and I are building up our tool inventory now… I added this beauty of a orbital sander… he picked up a great jigsaw… and I think a table saw is in our near future… 

The mouse sander is great for small things… and for small areas but it just doesn't sand big areas quick enough… I had this nasty old purple table with a crazy thick wax on it… the Milwaukee quickly took away the nasty and I've created this sweet little butcher block top farm table...

Just a little sneaky peak… I don't want to give away everything that I'll have at Vintage with Flair… You're just going to have to come to the show… or if you live nowhere near here you can check out my blog to see my booth all set up… and as I mentioned there are many tutorials in my future of the projects… so stay tuned!… 

I really have to get better with taking before pictures… I get so excited when I get some treasures home that I pull them apart and start sanding right away… no before pictures AT ALL!…  I did get a couple progress shots recently as I'd enlisted Pickle to help me make some nice clean cuts… he's so particular and careful… I'm a little more airy fairy and I'll measure once and make 20 cuts… hehehe… he really is the yin to my yang!

Here's the heart breaker all sanded down… man when that paint started peeling up after I put the Milk Paint on top of the stain blocker my heart almost stopped… but I've sucked it up and now she's a beauty… I'll save the after shots for after Vintage with Flair!… 

She turned out fabulous!...

So… life outside of 7-4 work and 5-10 every night at home and the past 8 weekends has been non existent… I did stop one night for Bunco with the ladies… 

Last weekend I was able to get this beauty made… I'll have only one available but I look forward to building more of these… I wouldn't have made it through this one without my Pickle!… it's really interesting HOW people think of things!… we would have taken two completely different approaches to building this… but in the end we used a combination of what we each thought… and it worked out nicely… 

Now I just have to figure out if I'm going to leave the bottom half of the table nice and crisp white or if I should distress it!… I'm sort of torn between the two options!… what do you think?…

Oh I did take a second break one evening!… not until I'd ironed what felt like 800 metres of fabric though… that was test on the ol patience that's for sure!… I found theses amazing Vintage Acme Dingo Daisy cowboy boots and had to go and pick them up… nice and broken in… perfect fit!… it only took six years of living in Alberta to get into the cowboy boot thing… but I'm here now and I've arrived in style!… these beauties go perfect with the dress I have for Vintage with Flair!…  and then they'll be accompanying me to the Calgary Stampede this summer!… 

Okay it's time for me to get up off this couch… and onto my to do list… and then into some projects!… what have you got planned for this weekend?!. I'll be here plugging away!… 

xo

Lacey