French Linen Dresser & Night Stand

What a lovely 'stumbleupon' when this buffet and dresser came up on CL from the same seller.  

 I'll write a later post about the buffet, but for now, today's post is regarding the dresser.  Both pieces met my criteria for quality, so let's load 'em up!

My inspiration came from this lovely picture via Pinterest:

Unfortunately, the original Pin had no identifying marks with it, so I don't know where this lovely picture originated from.  But the room was quiet and serene.  I loved the way the dresser looked in the overall scheme.  There was my vision for this piece.

The dresser looked like a soft version of ASCP French Linen, with Old White accents.  After the base coat, I did a very soft wash of Old White...just enough to settle in the grooves of the drawers.  

I had a lovely Drexel night stand in my 'inventory', so I paired them together.  Here is the 'before' of the night stand:

And here is the 'after':

I added crystal knobs to the night stand...thought she needed a bit of sparkle...

Here's the happy couple...

But the two didn't stay together for long.  One of my favorite customers loved the night stand and asked me to keep an eye out for a similar piece.   So what did RPK do?  She repainted it!  Ha!  

The dresser went to a lovely couple who just moved here from Alaska!  

And they all lived happily ever after...

Thanks for stopping by!

Robin

Vintage Vanity

Here is another lovely lady, who was old and tired.  

My first step is to strip the top.  As I've said before, let's see what is under the hood.  I never know if I'll be able to strip & sand it well enough to refinish.  Fortunately, she looked good after that step.  

A custom mix of ASCP ( a little bit of this and little bit of that!) got me a pretty shade of blue.  

Dark Walnut stain and MissMustardseed Clear Wax.

The original hardware was in great shape....

A little fluted detail and some pretty turned legs...

She's not so old and tired anymore.  When Christine saw her, it was love at first sight!  It does my heart good to know she has found a new home!  :)

Thanks for stopping by....

Robin

Linking to:

MissMustardseed

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Finding Silver Pennies

Elizabeth & Co

Redoux Interiors

Why is this Crackling? Help Please!

I bumped into a bit of a mystery on this project and am hopeful you can help me solve it.  My Paint Crackled and I don't know why.

Let's start from the beginning:  Lovely little desk, well made and deep, dark reddish, mahogany stain. 

A client spotted it in my "inventory" and thought it would be great for her daughter.  Can I paint it in ASCP Pure White, and redrill for knobs instead of the pulls?  I say to myself, I can do that because I have mastered the plague of the bleed through!  So she gets a good sanding, fill the holes and get her prepped for paint.  

The side panels are constructed of wooden boards (this little desk weighs a ton) and there is some separation in the boards.  After filling, gluing and sanding, the prep is done..

I apply two coats of shellac, because that is my magic weapon against bleed through.  I've done a dozen pieces of dark mahogany and Old White and the shellac has worked like a charm.

Next comes 2 coats of ASCP Pure White.  NO BLEED THROUGH!  Am I the master of the universe, or what??  Ha! 

Ah, the rub.  Time for humility to set in!  Those boards on the side panels are not flush and I can see the slight difference in elevation from one board to the other.  It is slight, but I am aware of it.

The cottage look was not what the client and I had discussed.  So I sand, fill, etc, but to no avail.  I send her this picture (after day 3 of working on this cute, little desk, arg...) and she is cool with it.  Not a problem.  Great....let's get her finished up!

2 more coats of Pure White (I like a thorough coverage), with light sanding between each coat.  She is feeling smooth to the touch and really beginning to look beautiful.  It's late and time to call it a day.  Good night sweet, little desk.  I'll see you in the morning!

This little darling turned into the devil and started CRACKLING overnight!  What in the world???

Please tell me you've seen this before and can explain what happened!  I've gone through this process of shellac and Old White a lot recently and not bumped into this....I am stumped.  This was still during the summer, so there were no drops in temperature during the night.

I called my client and we scrapped the project.  I painted the desk black, refinished the top,  and added some really cute knobs (Thanks, Reese, from The Weathered Door for inspiration!).

In the end, she turned out beautifully.  These projects have a way of taking on a life of their own...but as DIYers were open to that happening...make the adjustments, because that's how we roll!  :)

Any thoughts on what caused the crackling would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for stopping by.

Robin

Linking up at:

Finding Silver Pennies

Elizabeth & Co

MissMustardseed

I miss you, Dad

Today has been a bit of a blue day.  It's been 10 years since my father passed away.  My love for fine furniture came from him.  He and my grandfather opened their first furniture store in 1949.  I had the pleasure of working with my dad for 25 years.  I learned so much from him, and loved having that time with him.  He was a gentle and kind person.  Our business slogan was "Nice People, Nice Things".  Very hokie, eh?  That is who he was. 

I could write volumes on what he meant to me, but I'll keep it simple for now.  I miss you, Dad.

Ole WGP, Jr - March 12, 1923 - October 28, 2003

Layering, Distressing = Reloving

Veneer damage, carved out key holes and a marred, stained top were some of the scars left on this petite sized desk.

 She was old and looks like no one loved her for quite some time.  I’m never sure how I’ll transform a piece until I start to work.  The key holes had been deeply gauged and the locking mechanism was gone. I built up the holes with wood filler, deciding this would be a good location for the knobs.  I proceeded with some veneer repair, sanding, and cleaning.  By now, I have my vision. 

I’ve decided to give her some layers starting with a light coat of ASCP Old Ochre. 

You can see it is a thin coat…not intended to be full coverage.  I want some of the wood to come through.

I made sure to dry brush the legs and carved areas so that paint wouldn’t fill in the crevices.  Look at the fluting of the legs…no paint.  

The second coat was a mixture of Duck Egg, Paris Gray and Old Ochre.  Again, I didn’t apply this coat with a heavy hand.  I then distressed with 100 grit and 220 grit, depending on how rough or worn I wanted the area to look.

I applied a coat of clear wax and then some dark wax to show off the details.  I gave her a pair of crystal knobs…just to show she still has some sparkle!

I think using a few colors to layer really gave her such a lovely depth.   What technique do you use when applying multiple colors?  I’m always interested in learning from others, so I’ll hope you share!

Thank you for stopping by!

Robin

Linking up at:

Elizabeth & Co.

Redoux Interiors

Bassett French Chest

It's a new week and new project to share.  I apologize now for not having many "before" or "during" pictures.  I just get into the "zone" once I start and forget to grab my camera.  Forgive me, please?

This old gal appeared on CL and was currently residing in a thrift store in a rather low income part of town.  

Hmmm...a 30 minute ride to check out a French piece.  Let's go for it.  The faux painted finish was awful!  I'm not sure what your next steps are while inspecting a piece for purchase, but I go for the drawers...all four of them get yanked out.  Looking good:  dovetailed joints, wood on wood drawer guides.  I'm starting to warm up to the little lady.  Who made you?  

Ah...Old Bassett, not new Bassett.  RPK, what's the difference?  We carried 'old Bassett' in our family store back in the day.  Remember, I come from a furniture family...and quality was of the utmost importance to us.  We dropped the line in the early 70s as they started to take short cuts and their quality didn't meet our standards.  The red raised emblem is from "Old Bassett" when their quality was still good.

But as I am snooping through the drawers, there is tacky drawer liner glued down in some of the drawers.  And the little darling who owned this chest previously had a taken a magic marker and proclaimed her love to her boyfriends!  Yes, plural!  There were many "I love John, I love Bob, etc" notations on the inside of the drawers.  Oh my goodness.  And again, sorry about not having any pictures.  But you can imagine, right???

She was looking good...strong, good bones, so she came home with me.

The old hair dryer trick helped me remove the glued down drawer liner.  And Zip Strip, with some intense scrubbing helped remove all of "her proclaimed love"!  Ha!

I had been working with layering paints on other projects and decided to use a similar technique.  So after some serious sanding to smooth out the paint strokes from the tacky faux wood grain, my first layer was ASCP Old Ochre.  And then a custom mix of ASCP Duck Egg, Paris Gray, Old Ochre (ratio: 5:2:1).

Some distressing, clear wax...and enough chit chatting.  Let's get to the pictures!

This is the only shot I have of the drawers.  They cleaned up nicely...no more proclamation of love!

There she is all prettied up. Anna took her home and is awaiting for Baby to arrive!

Thanks for stopping by!

Robin

Linking up at:

Elizabeth & Co

Redoux Interiors

MissMustardseed

Finding Silver Pennies

Hepplewhite & Me

As I seek out classic pieces of furniture to relove, I occasionally bump into the beautiful style of Hepplewhite.  

What to do?  How to relove?  What’s my vision?  My best tool for thinking through a project is Pinterest.  I create boards based on the style of the item I’ve acquired.  It helps me start to visualize what might be. I got my inspiration from PB. 

This classic styled chest has a fresh updated look.  Love it.

I do have a passion for the beautiful grain of wood, especially mahogany.   I decided to strip the tops of these pieces and stain them with dark walnut.  Fortunately, I had all of the original hardware.  Old White base, some light distressing and MMS wax.  No dark wax…

Love the serpentine front and curved base.

How could I not try to save this top?  I think the wood is so beautiful.

The matching chest.

I had a similarly styled night stand in my stock.  You wanna see a before picture???

Not only was the tan paint color yucky, do you think it had enough stickers on it?  Check out the beautiful red drawer that came with it!

You wanna see the after???  

I couldn't get the drawers as pristine as I'd like, so I lined it with some lovely French script paper from FrenchCharmed.

I've enjoyed transforming these Hepplewhite pieces.  There were a few more dressers that came my way.  We became friends as I gave them my full RPK love, and have found them loving homes.

Thanks for stopping by.

Robin

Linking at:

Elizabeth & Co.

Redoux Interiors

MissMustardseed

Finding Silver Pennies