2 colors = twice the fun!

Hello, hello! I just wanted to pop in for a moment and show you this TV console that I just finished yesterday. Here is a before photo:

Beautiful, right?! Such a solid and gorgeous piece to work with! Per request from client K it was first given a coat of Duck Egg blue, (by Annie Sloan Chalk Paint), and then a top coat of Paris Gray, (also by ASCP). After the top coat went on, I took a sanding block and rubbed the whole thing down, not enough to distress it, but enough to remove some of the Paris Gray and allow the Duck Egg to peek through. The contrast, though subtle, is absolutely stunning! My camera is not high tech enough to capture such subtle contrasts so you'll have to take my word for it ;) Then, I just used the sanding block gently around some of the edges of the piece and gave it a light distressed look.

Finished product:

(click on photos to view larger)

The next few are some close ups where I tried to capture the Duck Egg underneath:

What a privilege it was to work on such a beautiful piece! Definitely one of my favorite transformations thus far. And, I learned how stunning a subtle contrast in color can be! You don't always have to have 2 very contrasting colors to make a statement. Wonderful choice, K!

Thank you for popping by and have a wonderful day!

~Chelsea

Please, have a seat!

Hi Friends! Well, despite a delay in my dining seating order, (my client and I just haven't found the *right* chairs for her dining room yet), I've still been busy with some chairs this week! Since selling the Chunky Chair from this post I have had several requests for more like it! I found a great deal for 4 wooden chairs earlier in the week and did two of them in the 'Duck Egg' aqua color. They're a very different style from the previous 'Chunky Chair', but these have some really cool details that make them so unique! After the paint went on I distressed and sealed both in clear wax.

Pair a' Chairs

(click on photos to view larger)

I also had a request from the lovely woman who bought the Sweet Aqua Chair from this post for one in 'barn red', (she's a photographer, how cool!). Whether she's still interested or not it was so much fun to work with such a vibrant color! Definitely a step away from my cooler grays, aquas and whites!

Rustic Charm Chair

(click on photos to view larger)

Before these chairs are claimed maybe I'll sit down and kick my feet up!....oh wait, my kids are up from their naps. Some other day ;)

~Chelsea





Wax on, Wax off

Hello again! 2 posts in one day...wow. I DO have a life outside of this blog...I promise.:) Actually, the last post was about how awesomely busy things have been around here, but that's not very interesting to read about. I just completed a bench for a custom order which I thought might be a bit more interesting for you. This bench will eventually be part of a dining seating set. I've been hunting for the *right* chairs to complete the set and once they're found and refinished, I'll show you the bunch together! It's a cool project, actually! My sweet client, L, wants to update her dining room. She initially came to me about a dining table I was selling but ultimately decided she wanted to keep her dining table and get fresh seating. She really wanted a combination of a bench or two and chairs, (I love that!). Within a day of talking about it with her I found this bench on craigslist! It's a sizable 6ft long, solid wood and very sturdy. We were thrilled with this find but I wish we'd found two. Now, we are looking for chairs to go along the opposite side of her dining table and for the ends. They'll be refinished the same way, unifying them together as a set.

Before picture of the bench. It was already painted a muddy brown color. The nice thing about ASCP is that it adheres to anything so I did not have to strip the old paint.

After a few new nails here and there and lots of sanding on rough edges, I painted the bench in French Linen, (by ASCP). I did a very light coat of clear wax over the whole thing and then distressed using 220 and 180 grit sandpaper. Then I used a sanding block and lightly rubbed it over the entire piece. Doing this over the light coat of wax created a really cool streaky weathered look on the wood. Next, I did another very light waxing just over the edges where I had distressed. This is so key in making your distressed areas really pop out.

I think this finished product looks so awesome!
(click on the photos to view them larger)

Okay, that's it for today. Seriously this time. :)

~Chelsea

On your mark, get set, GO

Hi All, well it just seems like I can't get myself on here more than once a week lately! But, if I'm scarce it's because I'm working hard on some fantastic transformations to show you soon! In the past couple weeks, since the March 31 sale, there have been a handful of custom orders coming in as well as dozens of appointments with people interested in the pieces left over from the last event. I'm very happy to say we have almost sold out of all the refinished pieces from 2 weeks ago. If you would like to see what remains please click on the photobucket link under 'Shop'. I'm in the process of creating a portfolio album of all the pieces I have done in the past. In my head that seems like a good idea so potential clients can see the range of work we are capable of here...it's just a matter of sitting down and doing it!

So, this little business is not just about being in the garage painting away all day every day. In fact, the last couple weeks have been my busiest yet and I have not painted a single piece! With the custom orders we have going on at the moment I have driven an hour and a half round trip just for a couple cans of ASCP, (Annie Sloan Chalk Paint), spent several days hunting for a set of dining chairs for my lovely, (and patient!), client L, and took a successful disastrous trip to Home Depot for some heavy duty supplies, (including our first power saw!). Free tip, from me to you: 3 little ones under 3yrs, a 4x8 sheet of MDF board, 2 8ft pieces of trim, extremely loud machines, and a handful of supplies to fit around your kids in the shopping cart DO NOT MIX! Leave the kids at home. Also, make sure your vehicle can fit a 4x8 piece of MDF board before you come. We are learning.

Anyway, I wanted to show you a very hard decision one of my clients, K, is having to make for her new TV console. She checked out the ASCP website to look at paint colors, and probably like most people who have seen the site, concluded that the tiny swatch of color they show online just isn't enough!!! She wanted to be able to hold a paint sample up to other pieces in her room and see which would go the best. Who can blame her! Since the store I buy my paint from doesn't have color swatches which you can take home, (and mail), I made my own! I was planning on using index cards but since I didn't have any I used the next best thing I had: the stationary my husband and I wrote our thank-you notes on from our wedding! Now they're in an envelope and en route to K!

Here are the colors K is deciding between:

Duck Egg, French Linen, and Paris Gray

Don't these three colors look scrumptious?! Good luck deciding, K!

Now, I am off to the Garage to work on a bench and set of chairs which I hope to show you at the end of the week! Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

~Chelsea

Ikea, all the way

**IMPMORTANT** This post was written in April 2012. Please see my favorite IKEA picks in their 2013 collection here!

Hello friends! It has been a few days since I've posted and I hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Thanks to my brother coming over and watching the twins for several hours, Husband and I, (and our littlest one, Mason), got to take a trip to Ikea! We have had great luck at Ikea in the past, so when our deck was finished last fall we thought we'd check there for deck furniture. Of course, it was the end of the season so they didn't have anything in stock, but we really liked what they had offered! About a month ago I called to ask when they would be getting their first shipment of outdoor furniture and they told me first week in April, so we marked our calendar and made a day of it this past Saturday.

What I love about the ourdoor furniture at Ikea is that you can mix and match things to make your own set that matches your style. We had looked extensively for sets elsewhere but just decided that a matchy-matchy set was not so 'us'. We wanted something simple, colorful, casual and low maintenance.

We used the Falster table with the Falster armchairs on the ends, and 4 yellow Roxo chairs along the sides. Remember my love of gray and yellow from this post? It's still a favorite :) We love that the chairs don't take up a lot of space, they're stackable, and easy to wipe clean. We have already enjoyed a couple evenings out here since Saturday!

This striped yellow rug is another purchase from Saturday - $3.50! They had a variety of colors including red, olive, and navy!

Another score were these three prints that finally complete an empty wall in our Dining Room. We have lived here for over a year and a half but I had not yet found anything for that wall that was 'just right'. When I saw these I knew they would be the finishing touch I'd been keeping an eye out for.

And I have to throw this in; my sweeties all dressed up for Easter on Sunday.:)

I hope you are having a great week so far and thank you for stopping by!

~Chelsea