funky vintage sideboard

You might all remember me mentioning my fabulous neighbor who loves to go "picking" for me.  Well, she did it again with this piece.  She found it at the Last Chance thrift store in Chamblee.  The drawers all work perfectly and I just love it.

Before:

Although the hardware is unique, it wasn't what I wanted.  So I filled the holes, went with something new and gave the old pieces to my dad, who will use them on his rustic wood crosses that he makes.  {I should post about those some time!}

I used Annie Sloan's old white, but I did use a spray primer first.  I think it might have taken me three years to paint this piece by hand with all of the nooks & crannies, if I hadn't used a primer first.

We also added feet to give the piece some height.  It was a little low for me.

After:

On a completely unrelated note, did anyone else see this in Traditional Home magazine this month?  I love these planters, but almost fell over at the price tag ~ they're in the Sundance catalog at $148 for the set of 3.  Eek!

Hope you're all having a great day!
kathie

A dresser for Cade

We've been doing a lot of furniture building lately and not so much painting, so this project was extra fun for me.  I love this family & they showed up in our driveway with this dresser in their trunk.  What a treat!  It is for their son's room and they were looking for a dark gray paint.

Painting with kittens in the house ~ not so easy.  This is the color I chose.  It stands out nicely on my hardwood floors, in the paw print, doesn't it?  Thankfully I was using Chalk Paint and it came right off the floors :)  I went with a mix of Paris Gray, French Linen and Graphite.  It was perfect.

Here is the before:

The 'after' in my kitchen...

And the real 'after' in his bedroom, looking adorable and styled perfectly by his mother.

Love it.  And more to share soon!

love kathie

An Ana White Table for My Sister

My sister moved recently and was in need of a dining room table.  We looked & looked but couldn't find anything we loved that also had a price tag that we loved.  So I found a great plan on Ana White's website & we begged my husband to build it for her.

If you like to build things, and you haven't been to her site, please take a moment and do that.  Right now.  Ana is a genius ~ she finds pieces that people love and she makes simple, easy to follow plans for them.  There are cut lists, shopping lists and step by step plans.  And they are free.  Something else that I love about her site is the 'brag' posts that people can add.  Once you've completed a project, she encourages people to add pictures & notes.  So if someone made the project with different dimensions or changed it up a bit, you can read about that too.  Its just an amazing resource.

The plan for this specific table, the fancy X farmhouse table, is here.

So, Doug built the table.  I didn't get many pictures of the table in progress (I was upstairs painting at the time) but here it is, unfinished.

I stained it with a dark walnut gel stain and then sanded the top pretty heavily after the first coat of poly.  That gave it the great rustic look I was going for, but the subsequent coats of poly will protect it.  Here she is, decorated for a baby shower my sister was hosting…

I just love it.  And we've already had someone place an order for one!  Building from scratch means no 'oohs & aahs' of a before & after, but it is so satisfying to complete a project like this.

In other news, we have six new foster kittens!  They are ridiculously adorable.  See for yourself.

Hope you're all having a great day!  Thanks for stopping by.
kathie

Old White Bookcases with a little flair

Soooo….

Long time, no see.

I've been away from the blog for almost a year.  I've been busy, just not blogging about it.  Life has been full, in a wonderful way.  But I've made the decision to try and get back to it.  I think I mainly got away from it because it seemed like everyone and their sister, and their best friend's cousin had a blog.  And not only did all these people suddenly have blogs, which is wonderful, but they all seemed to be professional photographers of their work, too.  It just seemed like too much to keep up with.

So I made a deal with myself.  I am going to keep up with the blog on my terms.

The blog will primarily function to:

1.  Document:  my custom work, the pieces we're building, refinishing, painting, etc.  And of course the pieces we keep for ourselves ;)

2.  Inspire:  SO much of my inspiration comes from those of you who also share your work and I appreciate you so very much.  There are few things better than finding a good before & after (right??) so I'm going to keep it up.

What this blog will continue to be:  informative, instructional, but basic.  I am not a professional photographer and although I do have a nice camera, I really don't like to fuss with it for furniture shots (I'm just being honest here).  I hope you'll stick with me.  I can't believe how many of you have stuck with me thus far… thank you :)

So here is your before & after of the day.  Dated, yucky wood, Goodwill bookcases.  Made new with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White (what else?).

Before:

And thats the beauty of Annie Sloan… when its hot outside, you can paint right in your kitchen and not worry about making your whole family sick.  Everyone can still enjoy their supper right next to a freshly painted piece!

In progress:

I painted the back first in an Old White - Napoleonic Blue mixture.  I wanted a lighter blue but didn't have any on hand.  It was WAY too bright for me so I made a trip to Chalk it Up Norcross and got some new paint, and painted a new layer of Louis Blue over the first layer.  I left it streaky/watery on purpose.

After:

Hope you enjoyed it.  I'll be back sooner rather than later this time, I promise!
Thanks for reading :)
kathie