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:

Still Inspired by Paris

You see the beautiful blue door in the bigger picture in the following collage?

That was the first picture I took in Paris. I love doors and boy, was I in for a treat in Paris. This was "just a regular" apartment door near where we stayed. Beautiful door, beautiful colour. 

The piece of furniture on the top right was at the Little Palace museum. I thought the blue was so beautiful that I told myself I would definitely paint something in that colour.

There are a couple more blue doors in the collage, one of which is a door to an apartment where Van Gogh lived (the one with the number 54). 

The tapestry on the bottom left is from Versailles. The ceiling and chandelier on the right is at the Garnier Opera House. The ceiling, which also contain that blue, was painted by Marc Chagall.

So when I found this gorgeous antique server at the curb side (yes, someone was throwing it out! We have pretty good garbage around here!), it was one of those moments, you know, when you turn the corner and the heavens open up with beams of light point to it and the angels going "Haaaaaaaa"! And I thought, there's my blue piece!

It was in perfect shape.

It has all its original, gorgeous brass hardware.

Ian Watson was here, lol! (This was in one of the drawers.)

The only flaw was a piece missing in one of the drawers. I patched it up with wood filler.

I used Aubusson Blue from Annie Sloan, which is a perfect match to the blue in my collage.

There she is all done.

My formal china matches perfectly!

I used the dark wax all over, which really gave the blue a rich, deep tone.

The brass hardware looks even better against the blue.

Ian Watson and the hole got covered with some lovely wallpaper I found at the 

Reuse Centre in our city.

You can really see the dark wax at work here.

Love!

The lighting was not ideal, even though it was daytime. I used a flash here, not ideal in this instance, but it really shows the colour and the dark undertones well.

The server is now at Refined and Rustic Interiors awaiting its new home.

I'm so glad I took so many pictures in Paris (almost a thousand, thank God for digital cameras!!). These will inspire me for years to come, not only for the colours, but also for the beautiful styles. Paris has so many treasures, you can't help return home with your head full of beautiful images and decorating ideas. And if I happen to run out of inspiration? Gosh, I'll have to go back, won't I?

Nicole

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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?