A little departure

Look! They aren't Union Jacks!

I have been so busy painting large pieces that I sorta neglected my etsy store. YIKES! Gotta get some shipping-size pieces done! It's hard finding nice little tables but I found two after looking at a seemingly endless stream of press-board stuff.

(Then Mr. Bad Rabbit surprised me with 3 awesome little tables when he returned from a meeting in Portland on Wednesday. I'll get 'before' pictures. Those little guys are cute! Mr. Bad did good!)

The local Re-Store had Milk Paint last week, so I grabbed some. It was the paint in a can, not the powder you mix yourself. I've used the powder and after the learning curve I've had success with it. To my surprise the paint in a can was like latex. Maybe it IS latex. I haven't bothered to read the label yet.

Anyway, one of the colors I bought is Federal Blue and I wanted to try it. So I grabbed a little table and the weirdest thing happened! It didn't become a Union Jack! I just did a simple blue table with a white star. Twice. Because painter's tape pulled the blue up in rubbery strips. Well, heck. (That's not what I really said.) It took some trickery but I got that star on there.

(I am looking forward to Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint.)

I thought "hmmmmm, folk art" and grabbed a second table. I've not done Americana before so, what the heck? I was more cautious with the painter's tape this time and only had minor repairs when the paint pulled off.

Groups of three are best but I had no other tables so I went with my test stool. This little guy is what I test a technique or color combo on. Guess I'll have to go back to using plywood. But yay, the stool is mostly chalk paint. :-)

So I have my little group of Americana to go on etsy - as soon as I figure out freight charges. I soooo don't enjoy figuring out freight. Sometimes I think I'd rather chew rocks.

Next I'm doing a Union Jack.

Have a great weekend!


UPDATE: Today I went to fluff my booth and all 3 Americana pieces were sold! Huh. They didn't last the weekend.


Linking to:
shabby nest
beyond the picket fence
my 1929 charmer
kammys korner
my repurposed life
miss mustard seed

Okay, I dragged it home. Now what?

I was at a yard sale over the weekend and spotted this headboard and footboard and my eyeballs bugged right out of my skull. To me it is glorious in all its chippy goodness. And the colors! Annie Sloan would weep. So it got stuffed into my car along with a couple tables and I went home triumphant.

Mr. Bad, upon seeing the headboard, said: "Well, you'll have your work cut out for you repainting this."

Say what?

So I explained (again) about chippy perfection and he said: "So what are you going to do with it?"

THAT is the $20,000 question. What am I going to do with it? 

The house is full. We have large rooms but no wall space. In the great room we have windows on one wall, built-in bookcases on another and the wood stove with lots of brick on the third.

So I dragged the headboard around the house thinking 'There? No. Hmmm. There? Yikes, no.' 
That thing is HEAVY!

I could put it above the bed where a Pendelton blanket now hangs. (And has been for 15 years.)

 

 Uhhhh. No. Not even.

(Does anyone else do a Photoshop mock-up when it's too hard to just try out an idea?)

(The good news is I found a wonderful old French tapestry to put on that wall. Mr. Bad is thrilled. I can't even tell you how thrilled he is. Building a new frame, spackling the old holes, trying to match the paint. Blah blah, you know the drill. He's trying to rebuild an engine and I keep distracting him with my little projects. I'll post a picture when we get it hung.)

 Back to the bed, turned sideways it might make a great divider.

 Too much work. I need a third piece and I don't want to cut the legs off. So, no.

I should have been painting but instead I was dragging this heavy chunk of wood around the house. Mr. Bad was out of town so I had time to figure this out without distraction from him. He reminds me I have Doctor's orders to not move heavy furniture. So I change things when he's on the road and he gets to be surprised when he gets home. It's how we roll.

But, truly, I am super careful when moving furniture. I respect my doctor and follow his orders. I have a hand truck, a dolly and an understanding of the laws of physics. And if the piece is ginormous I leave it alone. No need to get silly and snap some bones.

So, next, I put the pieces behind the sectional. Nope. The back of the headboard is too unsightly.

Finally I tried the headboard on my brick bench - behind my Mora clock to see if that worked.

Well, okay! I can live with this a while. The foot board is fine behind the sectional so that's where it will live .... for now.

Huh. Guess I was tired after a day of dragging heavy chunks of wood around the house. I didn't realize that this picture was blurry. Let's just call it soft focus and pretend I did it on purpose.

And now it's back to painting!

Linking up to:

miss mustard seed
my 1929 charmer
mod vintage life 
southern hospitality
between naps on the porch
the gunny sack
diy show off
kammys korner
coastal charm 
my uncommon slice of suburbia
a stroll thru life

The Venetian Hotel and Annie Sloan

I was at the Venetian in Las Vegas a few weeks ago and noticed something I hadn't before. Annie Sloan colors! I know Annie Sloan develops her colors to match historical paints but it really hit me when I took note of the colors in the very accurately recreated Venetian Hotel.

I've been in the Venetian many times before but this was the first time since my 'paint awareness' had been raised.

Take a look. Here is the fabulous lobby area.

(source: Flick'r)

 And the fabulous lobby ceiling.

Below is a painting done by John Singer Sargent - 1800s (maybe) called Venetian Interior Pavement. Some think it is a forgery but still! Check out the colors! I saw that it's possible to order the print - they sell prints of possible forgeries? Whatever. I digress.
Sargent or not, I really like the painting. I might get a print. :-)

Chalk Paint colors were everywhere! I decided to match the Venetian to actual Annie Sloan paint.

(Lobby)

(Ceiling)

I was inspired to go home and try combinations I hadn't thought of before. Gray and gold? I'm sure there's a sports team somewhere with these colors but for decorating? I'll give it a go.


(Carpet)

(Room Entry)

(Hallway)

The walls were wonderfully textured.

We were surrounded by all this beauty and charm 
and yet ......

and yet........


THIS light fixture was in the King Suites.

How did that happen? The picture doesn't show how awful the fixture is. Really. I was speechless.


Regardless, the Venetian is awesome and next time I'm in Vegas I'll check out the Paris. I wonder what the color scheme is there?

White on white, perhaps?

Linking to:
home stories a to z 
hope studios
tip junkie
domestically-speaking
crafty scrappy happy
coasta lcharm


Special thanks to  ciruelo interiors  for doing serious leg work and making this post a little easier.

My Memories Give Away winner

Laura from Whimsical Perspective won the Give Away! Congrats! You'll be hearing from the My Memories folks soon!

The buffet that ate my house

First of all, let me say I'm embarrassed by the awful pictures. This buffet is so huge i had to paint it in the livingroom, smashed between the bookshelf and the couch. We had snow so painting it in the freezing cold garage was out of the question.

There is no natural light behind the couch. And there is no room to take decent pictures. I tried standing on the couch but I wobbled too much, plus I was afraid of falling to my death.

This is my first gigantic piece of furniture and it taught me a lot. The most important lesson (after, like 5 coats) was to use WIPE ON poly. Hours could have been saved. Hours!

Here is the Beast before:

A dog tried to eat it.

Six-inch pulls meant I had to use wood filler in the holes and drill new ones. Actually, Mr. Bad did the drilling. He gets all kinds of freaked out when I use power tools while he's away.

Want to see the half-a-dead-mouse my cat left for me while I worked? No? Okay. How 'bout the 2 birds? Gopher?

My cat must have thought I needed rewarded for
working so hard.

The finished buffet, along with Morgan, Battle Cat.

I did very, very light distressing and glazing.

Whew, finally finished. I was on a deadline with this one. I thought I had all the time in the world - a week and a half before my new booth opened. Then Real Life struck. Mr. Bad Rabbit was stuck in Portland due to snow so I was without heavy-lifting muscle. Then, surprise, I had to go to town every day for transfusions and those wonderful Shots-In-The-Belly. That was an entire 5 days KILLED. Plus we went to the Vegas Gift Show, eating up another 5 days. So the pressure was on! Maybe my cat sensed the stress level and brought me the dead stuff as encouragement.

While I waited for paint to dry, I busied myself cleaning blood off the carpet. Not exactly soothing.

This buffet cost me $35 at a local thrift store. I was beyond thrilled! I'm normally the person who arrives just in time to see the really good stuff being pushed out the door by someone else.

I used Annie Sloan Paris Gray mixed with Milk Paint Sage; Annie Sloan Old White; and Milk Paint Lamp Black mixed with Paris Gray. (I was out of Graphite)

Linking to:

my 1929 charmer
under the table and dreaming
the gunny sack
between naps on the porch
miss mustard seed
home stories a to z  
tip junkie 
domestically-speaking
crafty scrappy happy
diy show off
kammys korner
coastal charm