Something to Write About

I found this little writing desk at the curb. 

 There was nothing wrong with it. Absolutely nothing.

Yeah, again, I forgot to take the before picture, so you're in fact getting a "during" picture. And a crappy picture at that. It will just have to do. 

 And here she is finished. Paris Grey, with Old White accents. 

Such pretty long legs!

Followed by clear wax.

It's so cute. It has a groove on top for your pens and pencils and storage underneath for your writing paper or, more likely, your lap top, since sadly, hardly anybody hand writes notes anymore.

I made embellishments using another stencil from my girl Martha. These stencils are so beautifully detailed, it looks like real lace!

So tempted to keep it for myself, because it's so cute and romantic, but let's be honest, I have no room for it. Sigh!

Perhaps whoever ends up owning it will be inspired to start hand writing letters to everyone!

I accessorized it with roses in a julep cup. I bought the beautiful silk roses on my Hobby Lobby shopping spree a few weeks ago. They were a little pricy but so worth it because they're so realistic looking. And the beautiful silver plated julep cup I put them in? I thrifted it at Value Village for $6. It's from Pottery Barn and would probably have costed around $30 originally. Yeah. 

Mine has tarnish on it. Bonus!

Little fun fact for ya about julep cups: According to Wikipedia, traditionally, mint juleps were often served in silver or pewter cups, and held only by the bottom and top edges of the cup. This allows frost to form on the outside of the cup. Traditional hand placement may have arisen as a way to reduce the heat transferred from the hand to the silver or pewter cup.

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http://www.greenwillowpond.com/

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?

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