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:

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:

Fright Night

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?