Something painted just for us

(You've all heard the shoemaker's story about his kids having the worst shoes? It's like that for everything in life: we get so busy with our work that when it comes to doing the same type of work for ourselves, we don't have the time, the energy or the desire.

I bought a bench at a charity auction last year. We needed something to sit on to put our shoes or boots on in the entrance way. This one was just right for the space. I couldn't wait to paint it, and I knew just how I wanted it to look.

But there it sat for months. Every time I saw it, I would cringe, because it was a reminder of one more thing that needed to be done, when there just isn't enough time in a day, when I was putting all my energy in painting pieces to sell.

I finally said enough was enough and tackled it a few weeks ago.

The White Pear Tree

(Sorry, I don't have a before. I thought I did, but I have so much furniture I lose track, lol!)

I wanted the French cottage look, so I did two coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, followed by a wash of watered down Old White, which gives the piece a more greige feel overall. Love it! 

The White Pear Tree

The White Pear Tree

 The bench was just a little too plain for me, so I added these lovely wood appliques:

The White Pear Tree

 I painted them Old White for contrast, with clear and dark waxes.

The White Pear Tree

The White Pear Tree

The pillow is from RuPiper Designs on Etsy. I absolutely love their stuff!

The White Pear Tree

The White Pear Tree

The White Pear Tree

The White Pear Tree

The White Pear Tree

I'm so happy with the outcome! And proud that I finally painted something just for us.

Wishing you all a Happy Easter!



Nicole
xx

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Linking up to:

Country Grey and City Grey meet in Florence

Hi everyone,

Is everybody in the US still in a turkey induced stupor or are you out in full force doing Black Friday shopping? Either way, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I bought this small table (or bench?) at a garage sale. It was an expensive garage sale. They had many gorgeous antiques, but they were asking as much as a store would. It was an "new" older couple, two widowed people merging households, and I was thinking, good luck with getting rid of stuff at this rate.

Nevertheless, I was able to negotiate a deal on two items. On of them was the table I showed here. The other was this:

I'm not quite sure actually if it's a table of a bench, but I loved all the detailing on it.

These are the after pictures. It sat in my family room for at least three weeks, in other words, plenty of time for me to take a before picture, but do you think I did? Noooooooooo! 

Just imagine a dark wood table. Go ahead, close your eyes and picture it. I'll wait.

And then, tada!!

When came time to paint it, I couldn't think of what to do with it, until I saw a chevron pattern somewhere, I forget where. Now, I know what you're thinking, what is she talking about, that's no chevron pattern? Well, it wasn't the chevron pattern that inspired me, but its colours: a beautiful bluey green and a putty grey. Very trendy. Florence from Annie Sloan Chalk Paint was the perfect match. However, for the putty grey, not so easy. Paris grey was too blue and Country Grey was too green. Solution? Mix them both together in equal parts. It was exactly the colour I had in mind. The blue of Paris Grey and the green of Country grey were perfect partners to Florence's bluey green.

And then came the fun part: stencilling. I found this beautiful silkscreening stencil from Martha Stewart. These are pricey, but they are beautifully detailed and make seamless patterns. The finished result does not look stencilled at all. It comes in several pieces which you can place any way you want, which allows for varied designs. I'm thinking of investing in a few more, they're that beautiful.

The woodwork is so lovely and lacey!

I did minimal distressing on it and just a touch of dark wax.

This is by far one of my favourite pieces. It's at the store now and I'm almost hoping it doesn't sell!

So, what do you think, bench or table?

Linking up to:

Peppler Night Tables

Happy Tuesday! Halloween is a distant memory, November is well on its way and here the stores have all changed over to their Christmas decors. Crazy. I even saw a few snowflakes yesterday. Gasp!!

Today I'm posting about a pair of night tables I found at the curb. Solid wood. Gorgeous. The only thing wrong with them was that a couple of the legs had come off. In our throwaway society, that's excuse enough to discard something... At least they had the good sense of including the legs...! All that required was a good wood glue. A simple repair that cost pennies.

They might be somewhat old, because the name "Peppler" was branded inside the drawer. A little bit of research revealed that this is a now defunct Canadian high end furniture making company that was established in Hanover, Ontario. I'm not sure, but I believe they may have been bought out by what is now the Sklar-Peppler company. I couldn't find any information to that effect. So, I don't now for sure how old the tables are, but they're really solid and great workmanship.

Dodo head here forgot to take a before pic. Here's one of the drawers anyhoo:

And a view from the bottom, lol! (It's the piece with green tape at the top left of the picture.

 I remembered to take a photo of the handles mid-painting:

Quite gorgeous!

I painted the tables in Annie Sloan French Linen. I painted the handles with ASCP Old White, and also used Old White to dry brush the wood trim on the drawer fronts to accent them and tie in with the handles. After a coat of ASCP Clear Wax all over, I then applied some ASCP dark wax to the wood trim to give them an aged look. No distressing, just solid paint.

 French Linen is such a great, versatile neutral. Love it.

I brought them to Rustic and Refined Interiors and they sold almost right away! It gives me joy to think that somebody likes my work. They like it, they really like it!!

Linking up to:

A Labour of Love

First off, I hope everyone on the Eastern seaboard managed to stay safe and dry through the "Frankenstorm". Here in Ontario, we experienced strong winds and lots of power failure, but the electricity did not quit where I live, thankfully.

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The reason for the title of this post?

This piece I picked up curb side:

 You really have to see past the yuck factor. And the fact that it's missing two drawer sliders.

You really have to see past the horribly badly done crackling refinish, the chippiness and the the gross colour.

The bland hardware.

 Did I mention the badly done cracking finish?

No, you have to see beyond that. You have to see the nice curves and legs.

And see the final product in your mind's eye.

It took hours of sanding, stripping, resanding, restripping to get the crackling finish off. There is no paint in this world that would have covered the crackling without all the bumpiness showing through. 

I used an eco-friendly stripping liquid which, unfortunately, was not efficient at all. Then I used the Circa 1850 (or is it 1840? Not sure, but I'm not going downstairs to check the can, lol!). This product was a lot better, however, this crackling paint was so thick and sticky, I had to reapply the stripping solution times on numerous spots. A LOT of elbow grease.

I just happened to have three handles I picked up earlier this summer at a garage sale, cause "you never know when you might need them". Well today was the day. They were the right size and I thought they suited the French provincial look a lot better than the original handles.

Finally, the dresser was ready to be painted. I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Paloma. 

What a gorgeous colour!

I spray painted the handles silver.

I stencilled some patterns with Inka Gold gilding wax in Silver and Old Silver on the drawers.

I also applied Silver gilding wax to the edge of the top.

Sorry, I took the pictures at the store and there wasn't a whole lot of natural light. You can't see the full beauty of the Paloma colour. It's a nice, dusty lilac. Love it!

A closer look. Love the "new" handles!

There she is, pretty in Paloma.

(I didn't mention the drawer sliders part. My wonderful hubby helped me with that part. I was lucky enough to find metal sliders at Lee Valley for $4 each. But installing them was quite a challenge! Again, labour of love, I tell ya!)

So, to recap, we went from this:

To this:

Wouldn't it be funny if the people who discarded this piece unknowingly bought it again?