AtticMag has featured a great collection of Gradient Dressers, included the one I created!
Go see them all here!
Showing posts with label retro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retro. Show all posts
Steampunk
Do you know what “steampunk” means? I certainly didn’t! I had to check out wikipedia’s definition and, of course, ask my husband once I heard that word being tossed around. As it relates to furniture, I have decided it means anything that is a little bit industrial, a little bit funky, and a lot of fun!
I started out with this chest of drawers that has been sitting in my garage for months. I have mentioned often that furniture “speaks” to me, but this one was strangely silent for a long time…
…Apparently, that’s because I wasn’t speaking it’s language!
Then one fateful day, I spotted this cute dresser at Twice Lovely:
…and I knew…
My chest of drawers, however, wanted to be black and distressed. It was an old piece to begin with, so I needed to work with that.
I purchased vintage valve handles from etsy. They came with the original dirt still attached! My love for ‘vintage’ ends there, so I ran them through the dishwasher.
I used 1/4” x 1 1/2” machine screws to attach the hardware. There isn’t much of a ‘neck’ on these valve handles to hold them away from the drawers, so they were a bit awkward to use. So next I purchased 1/4” nylon spacers to place between the valve handle and the drawer, and that makes them much more comfortable.
They handles are secured by 1/4” nuts on the inside of the drawer.
That’s all there is to it! But I love the fun, funky look of the piece. I think this would be fabulous in a boy’s room!
What about you? Have you jumped on the “steampunk” bandwagon yet?
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Linking up here.
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This project was featured at Simple Home Creations, House of Hepworths, and Beyond the Picket Fence .
Retro Red
From a vintage baby cradle to a retro buffet…I am a woman of contrasts! I fell in love with this piece at Deseret Industries:
It really is a lovely piece. The wood was in remarkable good condition…the finish…not so much. Whatever had been on there for a protective coat flaked off like mad…it looked like I was sanding in a snowstorm!
I know aqua is all the rage, and I gave serious consideration to that color—but I decided to go back to my first love: red!
I had a terrible time getting the color to photograph well. It was almost a brick red before I glazed it with black…then it seemed to turn a dark cranberry.
The next picture is too bright…but I wanted to show the cute key! I love the fact that this buffet has a key. I painted the rest of the hardware with ORB spray paint, but I left the key it’s original brass.
Do you have a color you love, despite all the trends? What is it?
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This project has been featured at Sisters of the Wild West.
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Linking up here.
38 Flowers
The first piece of furniture I bought to kick off my spring-painting-frenzy was NOT the first piece of furniture I finished!
My first purchase was this Bassett dresser. I looked at it a couple of times before I broke down and bought it...after all, my husband did leave town...and his space in the garage empty! :-)
Here she is with all her drawers taken out and the handles off...my camera and I still need to develop a better relationship.
The "bluer" pictures were taken with the flash on. Those show the flowers better, but it makes the dresser look brighter than it is.
As you may have noticed, I used the original hardware, but I sprayed it all silver. It was missing two of the tiny knobs, so I used two cute blue flower pulls from Hobby Lobby.
I gave up on the polyacrylic idea completely, and, for the first time, tried furniture wax. That was an epic adventure in and of itself! But after many, many, many applications and LOTS of rubbing, I am very pleased with the final outcome!
[ Read More ]
My first purchase was this Bassett dresser. I looked at it a couple of times before I broke down and bought it...after all, my husband did leave town...and his space in the garage empty! :-)
Here she is with all her drawers taken out and the handles off...my camera and I still need to develop a better relationship.
Maybe we would if I didn't keep having affairs with furniture...
It's definitely a little bit "retro."
I picked up a quart of "oops" paint in a beautiful aqua blue. My plan was simple...paint the wood blue, paint the pulls and metal trim silver, and spray on a coat of polyacrylic to protect it all.
EPIC FAIL!!!
I wish I knew exactly what happened. The paint went on beautifully, and all was dandy until I sprayed on the polyacrylic. Then, without warning, ugly yellow stains started to seep up through the paint! It didn't happen everywhere...but it looked awful wherever it did.
I wasn't willing to give up at that point.
So I decided to glaze it with my Minwax polyshades, just like I used for the cute side table.
The above was a result of that so-NOT-inspired decision. Need a reminder? Here it is again:
It looked like it had been dragged through the mud.
There was nothing left to try. I had to let it dry for several days to let the poly cure--so I could sand it off
Since I had to do all that work over again, though, this time I decided to step it up a notch.
I used my Silhouette (I never mentioned I got a Silhouette for Christmas?? Well, I did!) to cut out dozens of vinyl flowers...
I liked it. I thought about leaving it like that...but in order to protect the vinyl, I would have had to have tried the polyacrylic again. THAT I was not willing to do!
So using a metallic white acrylic paint, I carefully painted in all of the little vinyl stickers...38 of them, to be exact! It was cold in the garage at 10 o'clock at night. But it was quiet!
It didn't quite work out.
EPIC FAIL!!!I wish I knew exactly what happened. The paint went on beautifully, and all was dandy until I sprayed on the polyacrylic. Then, without warning, ugly yellow stains started to seep up through the paint! It didn't happen everywhere...but it looked awful wherever it did.
I almost swore.
I wasn't willing to give up at that point.
I thought to myself,
"Maybe I can still work with this! I'll make it look like it was on purpose!"
So I decided to glaze it with my Minwax polyshades, just like I used for the cute side table.
The above was a result of that so-NOT-inspired decision. Need a reminder? Here it is again:
It looked like it had been dragged through the mud.There was nothing left to try. I had to let it dry for several days to let the poly cure--so I could sand it off
Since I had to do all that work over again, though, this time I decided to step it up a notch.
I used my Silhouette (I never mentioned I got a Silhouette for Christmas?? Well, I did!) to cut out dozens of vinyl flowers...
...and I randomly placed them in a cascade across the top and down the front of the dresser.
I liked it. I thought about leaving it like that...but in order to protect the vinyl, I would have had to have tried the polyacrylic again. THAT I was not willing to do!
So using a metallic white acrylic paint, I carefully painted in all of the little vinyl stickers...38 of them, to be exact! It was cold in the garage at 10 o'clock at night. But it was quiet!
The result was a cascade of lovely, shimmery, barely-there flowers.
The "bluer" pictures were taken with the flash on. Those show the flowers better, but it makes the dresser look brighter than it is.
As you may have noticed, I used the original hardware, but I sprayed it all silver. It was missing two of the tiny knobs, so I used two cute blue flower pulls from Hobby Lobby.
I gave up on the polyacrylic idea completely, and, for the first time, tried furniture wax. That was an epic adventure in and of itself! But after many, many, many applications and LOTS of rubbing, I am very pleased with the final outcome!
So there she is...38 Flowers. What do you think?
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Chalkboard Dresser & Chest
I remember seeing this article when it was originally published in Better Homes & Gardens, and I was struck by the cleverness of using CHALKBOARD PAINT on furniture, of all things! Since then, I have used it on a window and two desks, with great results. Then I saw the Isabella & Max makeover, and although I didn't have any cool *pink* chalkboard paint, I decided I had to give the dresser idea a try!
These pieces I found at Deseret Industries a few weeks ago:
They were in excellent structural condition, but the finish had yellowed over time.
The chest of drawers had one double-deep drawer (it just looks like two), and the dresser had two.
It even included the mirror! Best of all the pieces were by Bassett Furniture--a very good name.
I painted everything with two coats of flat black paint before starting with the chalkboard paint. Everything got at least two coats of that, as well (the tops got three).
Where it used to have pale bluish-green accent stripes, I chose to go with silver.
The knobs are original, but they used to be gold with that same bluish-green center. They all got coated with silver spray paint and a clear coat.
The top drawers of both pieces are beautifully curved!
I didn't forget the little metal caps on the bottoms of the front legs--they got a coat of new silver paint as well.
I am so completely envious of those bloggers who have the space to "stage" their creations! For something like this, my garage is all there is! But if you look in the mirror, you can see other projects waiting in the queue!
[ Read More ]
These pieces I found at Deseret Industries a few weeks ago:
They were in excellent structural condition, but the finish had yellowed over time.
The chest of drawers had one double-deep drawer (it just looks like two), and the dresser had two.
It even included the mirror! Best of all the pieces were by Bassett Furniture--a very good name.I painted everything with two coats of flat black paint before starting with the chalkboard paint. Everything got at least two coats of that, as well (the tops got three).
Where it used to have pale bluish-green accent stripes, I chose to go with silver.
The knobs are original, but they used to be gold with that same bluish-green center. They all got coated with silver spray paint and a clear coat.
The top drawers of both pieces are beautifully curved!
I didn't forget the little metal caps on the bottoms of the front legs--they got a coat of new silver paint as well.
I am so completely envious of those bloggers who have the space to "stage" their creations! For something like this, my garage is all there is! But if you look in the mirror, you can see other projects waiting in the queue!
