Athena

I occasionally have a man (yes, always a man) wander in and lament the painting of wood furniture *GASP*!!!!  I had one such visitor at the last show I did.  I have my ways of dealing with them (I'm nice, despite the fact that they obviously aren't going to buy anything.)  This particular man, however, saw this dresser and decided that he liked this one.  He described it as "post-apocalyptic."  Well, I'm not sure that is actually a design style, I could be wrong.

Anyhow, in his honor, I am naming this dresser Athena, goddess of war, wisdom and the crafts.  Seems appropriate, don't you think? 

She has good strong bones, as solid as they come.  If any dresser was going to survive an apocalyptic war, it would be her.

This finish is an example of one of the few times I've used an existing finish as part of my finish.  The cream color is the color she was originally stained.

She was then coated in blue, perhaps that was her uniform?

The graphite?  Well, any warrior worth her salt is bound to pick up some soot, right?

Her knobs and legs are painted the same graphite color.

I love how this finish turned out.  As a true goddess, she would look right at home in a variety of settings.  

 

OK, how about one last full body shot.

Behold, Athena, in all her glory!

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Athena is for sale.  See more information on my Portfolio/Available page.

I'm sharing at:
Today's Creative Blog's: Get Your Craft on Tuesday 
Domestically Speaking's: Power of Paint 
Miss Mustard Seed's: Furniture Feature Friday 

Phoebe's Dresser

I love Seattle.  They have the BEST yard sales.  I wasn't even LOOKING!

This is what I found. . .

Isn't she horrible?  Actually, she is incredibly beautiful. The bottoms of the drawers are made of bird's eye maple.  It's been a long time since furniture was made with such care and quality workmanship.  She was pretty beat up, though.

I sanded down the drawer fronts and the top.  Notice the second drawer down, though.  It had a thick wood veneer in three panels over the drawer front with the grain of the wood going in the opposite direction of the other drawers.  When I stained it it looked strange, so I needed a new solution.

I painted the top and bottom of the drawer the same color as the body of the dresser, then I used piece of sheet metal grating (not sure what's it's intended function was) as a stencil on top of the stain on the middle panel. 

The panels were divided by a thin rounded piece of wood that was originally painted gold.  I painted them red- like furniture racing stripes!  

The knobs were off of a dresser I refinished last year.  I always hang on to old knobs, and here's a good example of why!  A little extra red jewelry to match her racing stripes!

Just a bit of distressing and a top coat of dark wax gives the pale gray paint a bit of age, interest, and protection.

This little girl is in the running for my favorite furniture revival of all time. 

 

 

And I'm rarely organized enough to have a side by side before and after, but since I'm playing favorites anyway!

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Phoebe's Dresser is for sale.  See the Portfolio and Available page for details.

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I'm sharing at:
Today's Creative Blog: Get Your Craft On 
Elizabeth & Co's: Be Inspired 
Restore Interiors: Restore it Wednesday 
Miss Mustard Seed's: Furniture Feature Friday

Mini Buffet

Two weeks ago I drove to Newberg to pick up some chairs that I had found on craigslist.  I was with my mother-in-law and we took the scenic route to Newberg, where there is no cell phone reception.  When we got back down in the valley, about 3 miles outside of Newberg, and about 40 minutes from home, I got a cell phone call.  The man had all ready sold the chair and hadn't realized it.  The word irritated came to mind. . .  but he told me to come by his shop anyway, there may be something that I might find interesting.  Well, what did I have to loose?  I'm so glad I did.

I didn't leave Newberg that day with any chairs, but I didn't leave empty handed, either.

This lovely mini buffet came home with us.  It was in good shape, but just needed an update.  

I painted her body a soft gray.   The top drawer and the doors got painted a pretty Tiffany blue/green.   Then I dry brushed over everything with a wheat color, distressed the living day lights out of it, an finished it all off with a coat of dark wax and a good buffing.

  I used some vintage copper knobs I purchased last year off of etsy.  They looked pretty scary before spending 15 hours in a bath of vinegar and meeting the business end of a green scrubby pad.

They do make fore pretty jewelery, don't they?

She will be going with me to my first show here in Oregon.  It seems appropriate that my first Oregon show should be in my new home town, and so it is.  I will be a vender on Saturday at Artisans in the Grove here in Forest Grove.  If you are in the area I hope you can join me.  I'm working on a few other pieces of furniture, and some fun decor items to take with me as well.

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The Mini Buffet is for sale.  For more information see my portfolio page.

I will be sharing at
The Shabby Creek Cottage's Transformation Thursday
Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday

Kiki's Cabinet

One of the dear friends I made in Omak is the adorable and industrious Kiki.   I got an email from her yesterday with some awesome photos.  I asked her if I could share and, happily, she said yes!

She and her daughter picked up this sad hutch at a garage sale for $30.  You gotta love that!

A few alterations, a lot of work, and some paint later, this is what it looked like.

Omak is small community and you often see and meet your neighbors and people that you've bought things from at garage sales.  I hope the person she bought this from was moving away, because I'm afraid they would want it back!  Isn't it awesome!?!

Here it is styled in her house.  The blue canning jars on the top where her inspiration.  The red matches her couch that you can see off to the left there, and the incredible vintage glass in the hutch doors, while it looks green in these photos, is actually classic amber vintage glass and coordinates with the warm golden color on her walls.  

I wish I could see it in person.  My friends in Omak are giving me a lot of reasons to want to come back for a visit!!!  Awesome work, Kiki!  Thanks for letting me share!

Spring Wreath

Even though I stopped blogging for a while, I didn't give up on my commitment to make a new wreath for each new season.  I'm particularly delighted with my spring wreath.

Best of all, everything but the ribbon was from a thrift store.  The entire thing cost me around $6.   You can't beat that!

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 I'm sharing at:
Cherished Bliss's Craft and Tell

My Boys

My boys are getting so big and I know I might be a bit biased, but they seem to be getting more and more adorable as they grow!

John Henry turned 4 shortly after we arrived in Oregon.  He asked for a rocket ship cake, and this was the best I could do with limited supplies on hand.  He loved it and that is all that matters!

He is my happy artist, loving to color, paint, sculpt, and draw on anything and everything.  We try to keep him happy with paper and side walks, but occasionally let him unleash his wild side and paint on himself!

Leo turned two.  I can hardly believe it.  He is wearing 4T shirts and 3T pants.  He started speech therapy and has drastically increased his vocabulary in the last few weeks.

We loves to climb and run and best yet, he still loves to cuddle with his mama.  He is a sweet, affectionate little boy and I just adore him.

They are a handful at times.  The two of them together have enough energy to power a small town, which has been difficult while I've been sick, but I do know how blessed I am and love these two little boys to the moon and back!

My Pantry

Well, I fell off the face of the blogging planet there for a while.  I hope this is the end of said falling.  Shortly after our move to Oregon I got quite sick and stayed that way.  I'm still not well, but I'm doing somewhat better and we have an idea of what might be wrong with me and how to fix it.  Currently we are waiting on a change in insurance companies, and then I will be back in hopefully the last doctor's office to get this resolved once and for all.  Wish me luck.

I have not, however, been totally idle.  Our new house, which we have dubbed "The Opal House" needed a few furniture additions, and I got to work!

Here's the first piece I want to show you.

We needed a pantry, but it needed to thin and long, like a china hutch.  So we found a china hutch on craigslist. 

Pretty blah, right?

So, I covered the glass in a with fabric, spray painted the original hardware ORB, and painted the whole thing a beautiful teal color. (Crippled Creek in Ace's Royal line.)

Doesn't it have great retro-ish lines!

It holds all of our dry food goods with no problem.  Underneath we store paper goods and cookbooks.  It is a perfect pantry for our little kitchen.

I have more a few more pieces and I'll show you all around the house (maybe even the still scary parts) soon.

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 I'm sharing at
Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday