A little change in plans

It's funny how things start out small and then kind of snow ball into something much bigger.  I'm talking about me and my little, well was suppose to be little,  business!  When I started refurbishing furniture last year in California, it was just to make a few buck a month to help with the bills a bit.  And I assumed I would do the same here in Illinois when we moved back.  You know, a few pieces a month to be refurbished and then sold on Craigslist.  Well, for some time I've been thinking, no,  more like dreaming of opening a little shop of my own.  And by golly that's what has happened!  It all started on rainy morning after I dropped off my son at Preschool,  I took my normal route down Main Street dreaming I could have a shop there some day.  Thinking there might be something to rent,  even though I knew it would most likely be way out of my budget, I kept my eyes opened for a sign.  I get just about to the end of my route when I spot this little card board sign stuffed in the corner of the window of a cute little shop!  The building is one of many Historic building here in Columbia and I just fell in love with it at first sight.  So, I call the number, still wondering what the heck I was even doing it for.  After finding out how reasonable the rent was, I crunched a few numbers, talked to my hubby and here we are getting ready to be open for business in mid November!  Well they told me it was going to be crazy hard at the beginning of opening a shop, but I thought please, I have 5 children, nothing could be that hard.  They were right.  Since the day we, and I mean my wonderful husband and my childhood bestie Jen, have been there every night!  The tenant before me had a paint your own pottery store and the walls were painted, well, let's just say rainbow bright!  After 4 gallons of primer and 5 gallons of paint, we finally got it to looking exactly what i had in visioned,  a cozy cottage.
So, besides cleaning and painting the new shop, I have been shopping for inventory, painting the inventory and doing all of  those legal things you must do to start your own business, whew.  Oh, and how could I forgot, being a stay at home mom to 5 kiddos!  I'm hoping things will settle down a bit after i have the shop all full of goodies and I get the hang of things.  So if you don't see me on here for a few days, its not because I gave up on blogging, it's because I'm running around in a million different directions hoping to catch up with myself soon!

Lesson learned

I'm the type of person who is always open to new ideas, new food, new places to live even, but recently was a time I should have stuck to what I knew worked.  On Monday, I was so proud and excited how great the top on the antique dresser turned out after I stripped it and sanded it down.  Just like the desk I just finished, the stripper did it magic of taking all that old poly and stain right off to reveal what I think may be mahogany wood.  It has a reddish tint to it and is very hard(I know, all wood is hard, but here me out)! It's just a gorgeous piece of wood and yesterday when I went to stain it, I looked at my stains and noticed one that was left at this house by the previous owners, still unopened and new.  It was a Antique Walnut Stain/Poly in 1 step. Cool, I thought, one less step to do and like I said I'm always open to try new things! Well not so cool, it was just awful.  As I was putting it on, I noticed it was really thick and sticky, but I kept going thinking it would be ok, after all I followed the directions.  Well, it turned out having a REALLY shiny finish and was streaky and just plain ugly!  Thinking it would be better in the morning, like some furniture fairy was going to fix it while I slept, haha, I let it be until morning.

after stripper second time

No fairies came that's for sure.  When I went out to the shop this morning, it was still thick and streaking and uneven looking. So I had no choice but to strip it again.
This time the stripper had its work cut out. I applied it like always but it immediately started bubbling up I guess you could say. After letting it sit a few minutes longer than the can said to, I scraped it off once again and sanded it down to beautifully smooth AGAIN.

after sanding second time

Now I'm sure this product might work on other things like cabinets or even doors, but definetly did not work well on this antique dresser. The dark walnut stain I  applied after sanding, brought out all the stunning wood grain on this piece. A couple coats of a oil based poly (don't care for water based, but that's another post), and I was so happy I made the decision to redo this piece not once, but twice. It is so beautiful now and will be a fabulous piece when I'm finished with the paint detailing!
So, lesson learned for me today, don't change something if you're old way works just fine:)

and finally after stain and poly
 for the second time...lovely 

P.S. CHECK OUT MY FOR SALE PAGE NOW AND IN A COUPLE DAYS FOR THIS GORGEOUS PIECE!

Sense of Accomplishment!

You know that feeling you get when you're zipping right through your to do list? Yeah, a sense of accomplishment!  Well, that's what I am feeling today.  I woke up, made our little ones breakfast, put in the start of the daily laundry, made the beds and cleaned the downstairs bath all before 8 a.m., whew!
Some days start of kind of sluggish when you just don't have the motivation, but not today I say!  After my morning chores, my mom came over to keep an eye on the kids (thank goodness for moms!) and I was back at it in my workshop.  There's something about opening that big door and turning on the lights to see all of the wonderful pieces awaiting my paint brush.  It's almost like they're begging for their turn!

Today my goal was to buff the finished desk and take photos of it to put on my For Sale page (I'll get back to this gorgeous desk in a bit).  I ended up finishing that, stripping the antique dresser and starting on the painting of it's sides and drawers. I also finished the inside of the antique china cabinet and it's shelves.  Now do you understand why I am feeling so accomplished today!?

Back to the gorgeous vintage desk I finished over the weekend.  This piece was also one of those finds that the owner was no longer using it and it had an outdated stain on it.  I found it on Craigslist and learned it was an Early American Desk and boy it is solid! Because the top was in great condition, I went ahead and stripped it instead of painting it to bring out a beautiful walnut color. The varnish that was on it was quite thick and it took two coats of stripper to remove it, but when it was all off it looked amazing already.  I was so excited that the time to wait for it to dry, so that I could sand it took forever!

And here is the top after sanding it down, so smooth:)

Well, I finally got my chance and it went so easily that after using a 180 grit, I only had to go over it with 220 grit a few runs.  The dark walnut stain I applied brought out all of that yummy wood grain and after a few coats of polyurethane, its was as smooth and beautiful as velvet.

The body of the desk is in ASCP Old White and the 7 drawers are in Louis Blue.

I distressed the piece a bit and applied Annie Sloan's clear wax and then dark wax over the Louis Blue to give it that gorgeous aged look!

The drawer knobs were in great condition and I felt they could just use a few coats of Rustoleum Rubbed Bronze.  They look fantastic against the Louis Blue:)

Before....

And after,  just gorgeous!!

Dark Walnut Stain

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Loving the distressing and dark wax against the Old White

My favorite shot!

Sweet Vanity!

 Yay, my first piece is done!  Since we moved back from California, I have been super busy moving into the new house and decorating it just so. I have also been working on getting my furniture refurbishing back in business.  In California, I absolutely loved buying good quality solid furniture that people didn't want anymore and turning them into such gorgeous chic pieces. The best part of it was meeting so many different people and making them smile when they came to pick up their piece!
Well, now my inventory is back up and I just finished a cute vintage vanity that would make any young or even older lady smile!

I found this gem on Craigslist and although it was cute just in its self, it was in need of some serious girly touches.  As soon as I walked in the door to pick it up, I immediately thought that ASCP Antoinette was for sure going to be on this, not sure where, but somewhere.  I didn't even make it home when the thought of decoupaging sheet music on her and using Miss Mustard Seed's new milk paint in "TYPEWRITER" for the knobs, which are the original.  With her sweet wood wheels and adorable folding mirror, I can not wait to see the smile of it's new owner!

The body is painted in ASCP Old White and the drawers are Antoinette. I then bought vintage church sheet music and decoupaged them to the sides, oh so cute!  After it was almost complete, I thought the drawer faces could use a little flare so I hand painted a design on each one using MMS Milk Paint "TYPEWRITER", it's just what they needed!

And here she is....

Isn't she so sweet:)

Loving the vintage look on that sheet music...

I forgot to take off the date stamp on my camera, and this is
what it looked like after I tried to removed it, my apologies.

Here she is before, minus the folding mirror...

Mirror, Mirror

As I was on my weekend treasure hunt, I noticed a lot of people had mirrors they wanted to get rid of mostly because they were outdated or just down right ugly, sorry but true.  So I got to thinking of the mirrors I have bought over the years and updated to use again and again.  Mirrors are such wonderful pieces to have just about anywhere in your home.  They make small room feel bigger and just by painting them, they can also be used as accent colors in a room.  Yesterday I bought another one of those "undesired" mirrors at a garage sale and can't wait to transform into something gorgeous again!

Here are some before and afters of a few of the mirrors I have redone to add color and style to any home!

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Gold mirror from the 80's, not so pretty

I painted it in a mix of  ASCP Louis Blue and Perris Grey and
trimmed it in ASCP Old White, then used dark wax for a beautiful
patina look...love it!

My family room, the mirror makes it feel so much bigger as
it reflects the fireplace and make the room so cozy.

This was a custom job in California, a client bought this
at Good Will and wanted it painted to match
a Queen Anne Chair I also sold her.  It is painted in a mix of
ASCP Duck Egg and Perris Gray with Old White as accent, then distressed it a bit,
waxed it and buffed to a luster.

This is the trim with ASCP Old White underneath so that when I
distressed it, it had a layered worn look:)

Ok, so this was also a client who I found this mirror for.
She wanted a mirror for a Hollywood Regency look.
After I bought it, I realized it didn't have potential for
that style, so I found another for the client and painted this
one in ASCP Perris Grey/Duck Egg with Old White Accents,
The girl I bought it from had it for sale on Craigslist for months
she said, I had it on Craigslist for a week!  See the power of paint!

Love the scroll work on the mirror which
I believe was a dresser mirror from the 40's

When I picked this up off Craigslist, the bottom decorative
pieces of this were falling off, so I bought these glass
tiles from Home Depot and glued them on, I think it gives it a
vintage 20's look! 

The New Dining Room

As I mentioned in my previous post, my family just moved from California into a older home here in Illinois. Well the house is just perfect for us, 5 bedroom and out in the country, and has that old farm house feel to it.  The original part of the house was a farm house built in 1948 and sometime later, o think in the 80's, a 3 bedroom split level was added on. We actually bought the home without even seeing it while we were still in California..crazy I know. I would literally stare at the pictures of it online everyday and in vision how I wanted the furniture arranged here and what color I wanted for the kitchen and so on. I even bought fabric while out there and made drapes for the dining room. Yes, thanks to Miss Mustard Seed's inspirational tutorials @  www.missmustardseed.com I managed to get her gorgeous "look" in my new house! Her tutorials are so easy and in detail. I was able to sew up some of her "dummy panels" in no time and saved a lot of money doing so! She even gives the name of the fabric she used which I just had to have!

Isn't it dreamy...

So today I thought I'd share with you my finished dining room! Well, all finished except the crystal chandelier which I scored on Ebay and that my lovely husband hasn't had time to put up
yet (he has his projects to I understand).
The table and chairs and china cabinet were Craigslist finds. My wonderful mom and her boyfriend actually picked it up for me in St. Louis while we were in California..are you starting to see how impatient I am? When I saw it online, the table top looked like solid wood, so you can imaginr how dissapointed I was when I saw it with my own eyes and discovered it had a veneer top. After doing some research on how refinish veneer, I gave it a go. Although I was skeptical on the whole process of refinishing veneer, I thought what's the worse that could happen? If it doesn't turn out I could always paint it! Soooo, I striped the varnish of and oh do carefully sanded it down to a silky finish. A dark walnut stain was  applied followed by 5 coats of poly, yes, one coat for each child, haha, and the results are just gorgeous! It turned out better that Id hoped. I then painted the bottom of the table and chairs in ASCP Old White. I distressed the chairs and table bottom, then used a clear wax on these pieces which gave them a soft luster. The seats cushion were o great shape, just not very pretty so I upholstered them using a fabric from Walmart(yes, they have everything!) that resembles an old grain sack, and then I made my own stencil using a ruler to help keep the lines straight, and tada, German grain sack upholstered seats!

Cane Back Chair with new "grain sack" seat

The china cabinet was very time consuming, but totally worth it. I painted the shell and doors in ASCP Louis Blue and the trim and inside in Old White. After distressing, I gave it a coat of clear wax followed by dark wax for a patina look.
Also, the walls in the dining room were a not so pretty green so they had to go,  they're now a creamy white. I hope you enjoy:)

And our new Dining Room

China Cabinet in ASCP Louis Blue and Old White

Old Glass Knobs, lovely..

Getting back into business

Wow, what a day! With It being Columbus Day, the kids were home, yes, all 5. So needless to say I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped, but I did manage to put more information on my blog, stain our stairs handrail and start on the antique vanity/dresser.
I need to point out to those if you who do not know me, that my family and I recently moved back to our home state of Illinois after living in Los Angeles for 6 years. We are ecstatic about being back closer to our families, but moving a big family across half of the country is  well, a bit exhausting!  Being in LA was at times difficult, if you've been there you know all about how expensive it is and I won't even get started on the traffic, but put all that aside, it was fabulous:) It's where our youngest 2 were born and its where I started painting! I'll tell you some stories about that in another post.

Now back to the cute little vanity.  It wasn't difficult to choose paint colors for this darling piece because as soon as I saw it, I pictured it in either in a little girl's bedroom or a teen girl's bedroom.
There's only one pink I could use on a piece like this, Antoinette Pink by Annie Sloan. This color is just to precious! It's sort of a rosy color and when a mixture of clear and dark wax are put on over it, its the perfect vintage pink:) Of course I wouldn't do the whole vanity in it, only the drawers which came with the neatest knobs. They have a marble insert in the middle of them and I think I will keep them with this piece. As far as the body goes, well, you'll just have to wait and see!
oh and check out my Pick it Before I paint it page to see any new inventory:)
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I know she's not so pretty now, but she will be:) *not show is a tri mirror*

Hello and welcome to my very first blog post!  I am so thrilled to share my journey of refurbishing ugly, unwanted furniture and home decor and turning them into beautiful treasures to be enjoyed for many years to come!