Before and Afters Archives | Page 33 of 51

Before and Afters

Apron Strings Dresser Reveal

When I last showed the dresser painted in MMSMP Apron Strings, it looked like this… …and this is how it started out… …and here is how it looks now… First off the color looks a little bit more raspberry than coral on this piece, but I love how it turned out. It’s spunky, vibrant and fun. I think most of you know, but the cherry blossom design is hand painted, not a stencil. See the crackling in the top right corner? That’s just some paint stripper that wasn’t totally washed off. I love the look and may have to do it on purpose at some point! I originally tried clear glass knobs, and those looked fine, but I tried these amber ones I picked up from Target on clearance and they brought it to a new level. They were perfect. It really is amazing how much distressing a piece and

October 16, 2013 40 Comments

Before and Afters

Say Hello to “Trophy”

The dresser with attitude is finally finished and photographed! As a recap – this is what it looked like before… …this is what it looked like during (aka – the ugly stage)… …and here she is all finished! You can read about how I dealt with the bleed through HERE and the striping technique HERE. And if you’re the sort who is still aghast at me painting a piece of wood furniture, you can read my thoughts on the subject HERE. This piece is a great example of how you never know what to expect when you work on a piece of furniture. Sometimes everything goes as planned and sometimes it doesn’t. This piece gave me lots of attitude and pushed me into the design she ended up with. I love all of her imperfections and quirks…a declaration to the world that she was painted by hand, not a machine

October 9, 2013 62 Comments

Before and Afters

Preserving a Family Heirloom

A few weeks ago, I shared by True Value on my Facebook and Twitter. I don’t know if any of you watched it, but it is a really beautiful clip about preserving a family heirloom. It gave me tingles and made me misty, because I’m really into that sort of thing. I love pieces with a story and soul. Pieces that have been patched, repaired, refinished, moved across the country and handed down through generations – all signs of a quality piece that’s been well loved. With the constant parade of furniture that goes through my house, there aren’t many pieces that have remained over the years. One piece that I’ve never even considered selling is the buffet in my dining room. First of all, it’s just my style. More importantly, it’s a piece that was given to me by my parents. They bought it from an antique shop when they

September 10, 2013 68 Comments

Before and Afters

Clock Face Makeover

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post brought to you by Frog Tape. Remember the clock I bought on clearance at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago? I’ve been eyeing large clock faces for a while, but the ones I liked were always really expensive and the ones that were affordable weren’t quite right. As I was strolling through the clearance aisle at Hobby Lobby, I saw this over-sized metal clock face. I figured there was a lot of potential for this thing, so I snapped it up. (I think it was around $50.) It didn’t look bad off the shelf, but I wasn’t crazy about the finish and the shiny black clock hands needed some mustardizing. And you know me…I just can’t leave stuff alone! I liked the numbers the way they were, so I taped them off with some Frog Tape. I honestly wasn’t sure how MMS Milk Paint would adhere

July 9, 2013 67 Comments

Before and Afters

Blank Canvas

I shared a few weeks ago that I found the perfect dining room chairs on Craig’s List. They were vintage oval-back French caned chairs…just what I have been hunting for. AND they were sturdy, which was important. You know…so people could actually sit in them. (I have been known to have chairs in my house that are just to look at and that’s a bad idea. People do what you do with chairs and sit in them and I cringe, hoping the chair doesn’t flatten under them.) Anyway, the only bummer is that these perfect chairs had multiple coats of paint on them, the last one being maroon. They were pretty gummed up with paint, so another coat of paint was not going to get these chairs where I wanted them to be, so I looked into having them stripped professionally. I was surprised that it was not as expensive

July 6, 2013 83 Comments

Before and Afters

Antiquing Wax Tutorial

When I last showed the barrel-back French cane chair, it looked like this… In the picture, it has one coat of French Enamel Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint. I then applied a second coat, followed by a light wash of a mix of Shutter Gray, Eulalie’s Sky and Grain Sack. (Eulalie’s Sky is one of our new colors and will be available for purchase in a few weeks!) There were beautifully carved details on this chair, so I wanted to bring those out with some white acrylic paint. I use acrylic paint for decorative painting, because I like the body of it and the way it flows off the brush. I’ve used it for my decorative painting for years and it was my medium-of-choice when I first started out as a decorative painter and muralist. Once the paint was dry (or mostly dry…I can be a little impatient at

June 15, 2013 83 Comments

Before and Afters

Milk Painted Bar Stool

After a few years of leaving them as I bought them (I know, what is wrong with me?), I finally started painting my Target bar stools. I actually just painted one to experiment, before I did the other two. I love how it pops against the white cabinets and wood counters now. Before, the stools were blending into the counter and floors and felt a little “eh.” This stool was painted in two coats of MMSMP in French Enamel and then heavily distressed with 100 grit sand paper followed by 180 grit to soften the scratches a bit. I quieted the paint color and finished the chair with MMS Antiquing Wax, So even though there’s lost of visual texture, the finish is butter smooth. I know my boys are going to help me with distressing these, so why not take it to the extreme? I think it also gives these off-the-shelf

June 13, 2013 64 Comments

Before and Afters

Dresser Before & After

It’s time for a good old fashioned dresser before & after here at Miss Mustard Seed. We all loves those, right? This was a piece I did for the Lucketts fair a couple of weeks ago… Here’s how it looked before. Just a ho-hum dresser… It needed a lot of repair to the drawers, which was the biggest task. Once those were fixed, I stripped the top of the dresser to refinish the natural wood and lightly sanded the base to prep it for painting. From the moment I bought this dresser, I envisioned it being Mustard Seed Yellow. Beyond that, I wasn’t sure. I just let the piece develop as I worked on it…which is usually how I work on pieces. I highlighted the details with white acrylic paint and added little green knobs from Hobby Lobby for a little pop of color. To me,

June 4, 2013 156 Comments

I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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