rustic chic

I had a client give me a table to do "whatever I felt like" with. Normally I would ask for more direction because I most certainly would "feel" different than she, when all was said and painted. However this table was rustic and bent and even had a prosthetic foot. (How cute is that?) What was not to love about this table?
It was like The Little Table That Could. A survivor.

Here it is now.

And before.

I looked it over to see what repairs could be done but the table top was too warped for me to be able to tighten anything up. So it got to stay really rustic.

As far as painting style I try to always go with what the furniture demands. Oh sure, sometimes I screw up and stand back from a piece thinking, "Okay, isn't that just hideous?"
And then I repaint it, eventually, when I'm not
sick of looking at it.

But I digress from my rustic little project.

I added wood filler to the cute little prosthetic foot. That was the only repair.

I painted the table top Graphite.

Most awesome texture!

I dry brushed the body of the table Annie Sloan French Linen and Old White with a dab here and there of Paris Grey. Then finished with clear and dark wax. This table was perfect for dark wax, all that texture to highlight!

I came very close to offering to buy this little guy from my client. I just love it. I love furniture with a story to tell.

Speaking of which, I recently acquired a set of rustic furniture from Clark Gable and Carol Lombard's 1930's Big Bear cabin. Let's talk rustic. Let's talk stories to tell!

It will be a monumental task to restore and reupholster this furniture. Stay tuned. It could happen in our lifetime.

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Can't Touch This.

I was thrilled to bits to find this buffet on Craigslist. Gorgeous! And a good price, too. Then ..... my father-in-law (Mr. Really Bad) told me he'd disown me if I painted it.

 

Now, he and I are kindred souls and I have to admit I was already hesitant to paint such a lovely creature. But I'm in the business of painting and selling furniture, right? What was I going to do with a buffet I couldn't paint? Sell it as is? Well, yeah. Except I fell in love before the Craigslist ad hit the atmosphere.

Can't Touch This

And so it goes. The buffet joins a couple other things in the house that I can't bring myself to paint. And then there are the 'untouchables' in the barn. I have an antique cigar humidor cabinet that some people (not Mr. Really Bad) have got their shorts in a twist over. Okay! Okay! I'm not painting it!   yet

Would you paint this?

Nice dead plant. Good staging.

How 'bout this?

 

I'm also having trouble deciding to paint this chippy dresser. And, I want to keep it. That whole problem again! Sheesh!

Ahhhh well. The garage and barn are over-stuffed with things I can paint .... but I have to be in the mood to paint something. Right? I have a thorn-in-my-side out on my garage work table that just gets uglier the more I force myself to work on it. It was okaaay but not great when I decided to repaint it. Now it looks like Morticia Adams painted it. With help from Thing. It's The Vanity of Doom.

I have some cute little tables I can work on. I'll do that.
They're just outside.

 EEEEEEEK!

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To sell or not to sell

That's a hard decision when you've just finished a project you dearly love and you WANT TO KEEP IT. Of recent projects, I've kept my sewing table and my little pet table. And this, which I've never posted before.

This is my Tuffet. 

I love my tuffet. However, no one uses it but the cat. It was originally one of three pieces that I did for myself. I eventually sold the benches on etsy but it never was my plan to part with the tuffet.

Talking about it is the first step, right?
Maybe it's time to let go ........

Oh, I don't know .... I really like my tuffet.

Mr. Bad was appalled when I grabbed the original ottoman at our local fire station benefit yard sale. Appalled. This was back when he used to ask "What are you planning on doing with that piece of cr*p?" It was in pretty bad shape, actually. I think Mr. Bad thought mice lived in it. Now-a-days he doesn't bother to even ask. He knows I think I know what I'm doing. :-) The most he'll say now is "How do you plan to get that home?" Which sometimes is a very good question!

I made my tuffet before I knew what a blog was so I didn't take before pictures. Below is all I have to show you of that original ottoman. I had kept the old fabric and legs, so I dressed my new tuffet up in its old clothes so you could get the idea. It wasn't purdy.

But it was nothing new fabric, trim and legs couldn't fix!

Before and after. 

Oh, confession time. I recently refinished and upholstered this chair and GUESS WHAT?
I want to keep it!

Cool fabric, huh?
The chair is sitting in the tuffet's old spot and the tuffet is smack dab in the middle of the livingroom, still sitting where I photographed it.

Maybe I'll carry my tuffet around the house
and find a new spot for it.

BRILLIANT!

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Can a table be a pet?

How my work day started:

I grabbed my Annie Sloan Old White, which I'd switched to a jar, and gave it a few good twirls to 'stir' it. Suddenly I had a jar lid in my hand and Old White spread out on the carpet in my work room.

I let out an inhuman shriek and threw myself down to the floor to scoop up as much paint as I could save. Worth its weight in gold, right? Who wouldn't grab a spoon and start scooping Old White?

When I'd salvaged as much paint as possible I cleaned the carpet - and cleaned the carpet.... It came out okay .... eventually .... but my advice to you about getting paint out of carpet is don't spill the stupid paint. And, yes, I have a huge drop cloth in my work room but that paint took a flying leap to the edge of the drop cloth in order to drench the carpet. 

It's all the paint's fault. If it hadn't collected and hardened in the jar lid, none of that would have happened.

I went back to my garage work space to work on this:

It's so precious it should have a name.

It was one of those "aw, look at that! It's so cute and little!" purchases. The little red table looked so serious, like it was trying to be a BIG table. I had to have it. And now it was time
for its transformation.

Ironically, the Old White I'd spilled wasn't even for this tiny table. Additionally, I wasn't even using chalk paint. I was using CeCe Caldwell paint this time. Alaskan Tundra and Ochre to be exact. They both are beautiful colors.

It had been a while and I was surprised with how easy the CeCe Caldwell paint is to use.  Distressing with a damp rag can't be beat, and I love how easy it is to blend the colors.

Here is my little red table wearing soft green and yellow.

The outdoor shots show the best representation of the color.

Fly little fledgling, fly!

The distressing was done with a damp rag. No dust! 
(No sandpaper was harmed during this project.)

The morning sun.           And a rabbit.

So much texture!

Ahhhh, my lovely. My sweet. My pet.

As always, this table was meant to go to the booth but I want to keep it! There is not one single place to put it but I keep roaming the house, looking for a spot. Mr. Bad says we're starting to look like old people who can't get rid of anything. So, I'm going to have to sacrifice something else to make room for my Little Table.

And, to top off the Old White incident:

While working on my little guy out in the garage I happened to look over and realize I'd painted and upholstered the wrong bench to go with a vanity I'd done. Fine. Just great. I can't even just go with it because this bench is too wide to fit under the vanity. No time to dwell on that now.

 I'm headed off to the local library, where I work a shift every week. Considering the day, I'm sure to rain havoc there. Shelve books that haven't been checked in. Courier holds to the wrong branch. You know. What can I say? Embrace the chemo brain. And check everything twice.

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