Lisa's Chair

I don't talk a lot about my personal life here at Apple House Revival, but I have shared quite a bit about myself and my family in other places.  Some of you may know that my younger son was adopted.  I am an adoption advocate, and while I haven't been actively blogging about it for some time, there is a lot of information about adoption on one of my other blogs, Adoption FYI.

We enjoy an open adoption with Leo's birth family.  We love his birth mom and his birth siblings.  We call his birth mom Lisa when we talk about her in online.  It isn't her real name, we use it to protect her privacy because we are so open about our adoption experiences. 

Lisa is trudging through the last few weeks of pregnancy right now.  We are excited to meet the adorable little bundle she is carrying, but after three pregnancies in four years, Lisa's body is less than thrilled with the situation.  In addition, she has an energetic toddler to chase around, well, all you mamas out there know how hard it can be.  Lisa's doctors have told her she needs to take it easy (easy for them to say!)

I wish more than anything I could be there to help her through these last few weeks.  (She lives several states away from us.) One thing I would do if I could is bring her a nice comfy chair and tell her to SIT DOWN!

This is the chair I would bring her. 

Isn't it adorable?  I found it with the corduroy cover all ready over it.  (It was originally leather.)  It needed to be cleaned up a bit, but nothing my steam cleaner couldn't handle.  

 I painted the body a classic creamy white.    I love how it looks with the fabric!

I was heavy handed with the distressing on this one, particularly on the arms.  I wanted the dark wood to show through.  It now looks old and worn and loved.  I feel like she may have cradled many an expecting mama's tired body.

The back pillow is down and the frame supports your body while the soft cushions offer the perfect amount of softness for relaxing.

We love you, Lisa.


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Lisa's chair is for sale.  See pricing information on my Portfolio and Available Page. 

Cara's Dresser

This was a commission piece, which I just fell in love with!  Cara looked through my portfolio, told me which pieces she liked, and what colors she wanted and this was the result.  Isn't it beautiful?

The drawers are painted in my favorite white, BEHR's Magnolia Blossom.  Then lightly distressed and finished off with a very slightly tinted wax.

The body and the knobs are a teal color that was probably the prettiest oops color I've ever picked up.  I had a gallon of it, but when that's gone I'll likely have to go have it color matched I love it so much.

On the two small top drawers I used some classic glass knobs.  

The top was stripped and stained with a single application of Minwax's Dark Walnut, which showed up lighter than normal on this piece, but I liked it.  Of course I finished it off with some tinted wax and gave it a good buffing to get that aged gleam we all love so much.

If you are interested in commissioning a piece of furniture, email me at applehouserevival @ gmail . com

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I will be sharing at:
The Dedicated House's: Make it Pretty Monday 
Elizabeth and Co.'s: Be Inspired

Kismet

I love it when someone sees one of my pieces and proclaims it "just exactly what I've been looking for!"

That happened twice last weekend at my last show of the year (thank goodness!)

Since I'm busy recuperating from a flu/cold double whammy, two HUGE shows, and trying to get this family in the Christmas spirit, I thought I'd show them to you together.

The first is this cute chest of basket drawers.  It actually went to live in our cute local fabric store, 3 Layer Quilts to store their scraps.  Perfect, right?

The second is this vintage office chair.  Everything about this chair was still perfect.  Its wheels still rolled smoothly, its turning mechanisms still worked, it just needed a little help in the looks department.  A nice couple knew it would go perfectly at their solid old roll top desk.

I have three other pieces ready to show you, plus pictures from the last two shows, so I'll be back sooner than later.

Little Purple Table

Until I painted Julie's Desk, I have never painted a piece of furniture purple. I enjoyed it so much I decided I needed to do another piece. I had recently picked up this small side table with violin shaped sides. I used the same color as on Julie's desk, however this time I alternated it with a white wash.

Aren't the legs a lovely shape?

I painted the top white and applied a graphic of a French letter with the cancellation stamp.  

The graphic came from The Graphics Fairy.   I printed it backwards on my laser printer and then used nail polish remover to transfer it to to the table.

While I was at it, I also painted a purple frame to match the table.  The bird also came from The Graphics Fairy.

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This little purple table is for sale.   See my Portfolio and Available page for details.

Julie's Desk

My cousin, Julie, has recently taken the exciting step of becoming her own boss! If you live in the Portland area and need someone to talk to, I would highly recommend Five Seeds Counseling.

Julie wanted her office to be comfortable and home like.  She asked for my help.  The first thing she needed was a desk.  She brought me this darling.  Someone had done a hack job of trying to restore her.
 

After some love and attention, you can see that she is a new girl.

Inside.

The colors in Julie's office are a pale sage green, various creams, and this beautiful plum color.  Isn't it fantastic?  And isn't that hardware amazing?  It isn't the original hardware.  At least the person who tried to refinish her first gave her some pretty jewelry. 

The body is a creamy white with a pale wheat color glaze.

Some strategic distressing, a coat of dark wax, both inside and out, and she is now the most charming secretary in the building! 

The next time I am at Julie's office I will take my camera and show you the rest of her office.  It is a beautiful room.

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I am sharing at:
French Country Cottages: Feathered Nest Friday 
Primitive and Proper's: Piece of Word Wednesday

Eliza

Eliza is an petite antique rocker that I acquired from a lovely family in Verboort who had loved her for a long time, but needed to find her a new home.

Isn't she beautiful!

She still had remains of her original finish.  Even after I carefully sanded her down there were crackled areas of old finish.  It is just lovely.

I gave her a good coat of clear wax, which made her beautiful wood grain pop right back to life.  She was so dry I actually had to wax her twice.  I've never had to do that before.  Isn't the wood stunning?

I had some vintage upholstery fabric in my collection and knew it would be perfect for her.  She had been re-covered sometime in the 80's with a Native American inspired tapestry fabric.  It did not suite her at all.   However, the same person who had chosen the fabric had done an excellent job restoring the structure of her seat.

After digging many a staple out of her, I gave her a pretty new dover and she was once again restored to her natural beauty!

Let's have one more look at her.  I placed the Dahlia on her to give you some reference.  She is small woman's rocker.  At 5'7" I am too tall to truly enjoy rocking on her, but she is so beautiful, I would happily keep her around just to look at!

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Eliza is for sale.  Find pricing and dimensions on my Portfolio and Available Page.

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 I will be sharing at:
Primitive & Proper's: Piece of Work Wednesday

Button, Button who has the Button (Table)

This fun side or occasional table was a lot of fun to do, and a lot more work than I was anticipating.  It took a LONG time to glue all those buttons on there!

First I started by painting the table in a pretty cream color, then distressing it and rubbing it all over with a dark stain.

Next I purchased buttons in a particular color way and then dyed them to give them a bit of age and patina.  It would have been fun to do this with vintage buttons, but it would have been far too expensive, and would have taken me even longer to find the buttons.  I had to buy three packages of buttons.  Unfortunately, the first Michael's I went only had one.  I found another at another Michael's location, and then continued to look when ever I was nearby, but they never got another package in the same color way in for weeks and weeks.  Finally, I found the third package at a Michael's in Utah while I was there visiting and brought it back with me!

The last step was to use a product called Envirotex Lite from a company called Environmental Technologies to pour an epoxy finish over the buttons.  I got it at my local Ace Hardware, but you can find it on Amazon. 

If you decide to try this, be sure to follow the instructions.  You can only pour 1/8 of an inch at a time, so I had to pour it on in three coats.

The finish is VERY durable and feels nice and smooth.  I have had so many people touch it and be surprised that it isn't glass or plexiglass. 

It was a lot of fun to work on.  However, next time I think I will chose something a bit bigger than tiny buttons.

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The Button Table is for sale.  See my Portfolio and Available page for pricing and dimensions.

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 I'm sharing at:
Elizabeth & Co.'s: Be Inspired 
Primitive & Proper's: Piece of Work Wednesday