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Hand Painted Furniture

Antiques

Milk Paint Dresser

For those of you who have missed my furniture before & afters – this post is for you!  Today I’m sharing a classic Miss Mustard Seed dresser makeover.   I bought this dresser off of Craig’s List a couple of weeks ago.     It looks like it’s natural wood, but it’s actually painted brown.  It did have the original hardware, though and it’s solid as a rock.     I painted it out in one coat of a custom mix of milk paint by Homestead House and lightly distressed it.  (I’m going to make some video tutorials on milk paint soon.)  Milk paint did the magical thing it does and created this awesome flaked finish.  I finished it off with a clear coat of Annie Sloan’s clear wax, so it’s super smooth, despite the textured appearance.   I decided to paint the top on this one, since it was already painted brown

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Before and Afters

Inside the Armoire

Over the past couple of months I’ve been working on my work office (not to be confused with our home office) for a magazine feature.  It’s been so fun moving things around and adding some pops of color to inject a bit more personality into the space. The art director asked me to move the fabric from my mirrored armoire, which wasn’t being photographed to my French armoire, which was.  Well, the inside was an orangish-yellow pine and I was not going to have that in a magazine.   Here’s the best before picture of the interior I could find.  See…knotty, yellow, orangish, not cute.   So, I went to my paint stash to decide on a color.  Since this was the inside of a piece, I could have a little fun with it.  I decided to use ASCP Antoinette, which is a soft ballet pink.     Since there are inset

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Before and Afters

Jack’s Home

Most of the time I take my furniture to Lucketts or a fair, it sells and I don’t ever see it again. It’s always nice when I “hear from one.”  (Especially when it ends up in the home of a professional photographer who sends me photographic proof that it found a good home.)   This dresser started out as a typical Craig’s List find, but there was something about the quality of it, the lines, the masculinity with turned legs…I just knew it was a special piece.  As a bonus, the amazing original hardware was in a plastic bag in one of the drawers.     I refinished it for a Cottages & Bungalows article last January…   …and then put it up for sale during the Lucketts Ground Hog Day Sale. Jodi spotted it on the Lucketts website and, after consulting with her designer, she purchased it over the

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Before and Afters

pillows, upholstery & a dresser

I had a very productive day today and it felt great. I made three pillows, upholstered an arm chair, painted a piece of furniture and caulked and primed some trim.  Whew!  There are a few things that are contributing to the flurry of activity.  First of all, we have a big photo shoot happening over the next two days.  Second, I need to take some more shots for the cover of my book.  Lastly, we are soooo close to finishing some projects that have dragged on for years, so I’m ready to have things done. Here’s one of the pillows I made… A good friend of my mother-in-law gave this unfinished needlework piece to me and the colors were perfect for my house.  The second pillow is a tea towel with simple ties on each side. I’ll show the pillow and the upholstered chair another day.  I ran out of

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Furniture Makeovers

my favorite dressers from 2011

We’re getting towards the end of the year and, since I don’t have any Christmas decor to share yet, I thought I would start sharing some of my favorites from 2011.  To start with, here are my favorite dressers from last year…   …the Swiss Miss herself…   …the Union Jack dresser…     …the gray milk paint dresser with the bone knobs…     …the super distressed aubusson and cream dresser…     …the cherry blossom dresser…     …the sea green milk paint dresser…   …I didn’t get a great picture of this one, because I was in a mad rush getting ready for Lucketts at the time, but I love this graphite dresser with glass knobs…     …the slate gray dresser…   …and it may surprise you to know this was one of my favorites.  This Greek Blue dresser almost ended up in the trash, but I put

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Hand Painted Furniture

Untitled-1

We’re getting towards the end of the year and, since I don’t have any Christmas decor to share yet, I thought I would start sharing some of my favorites from 2011.  To start with, here are my favorite dressers from last year…   …the Swiss Miss herself…   …the Union Jack dresser…     …the gray milk paint dresser with the bone knobs…     …the super distressed aubusson and cream dresser…     …the cherry blossom dresser…     …the sea green milk paint dresser…   …I didn’t get a great picture of this one, because I was in a mad rush getting ready for Lucketts at the time, but I love this graphite dresser with glass knobs…     …the slate gray dresser…   …and it may surprise you to know this was one of my favorites.  This Greek Blue dresser almost ended up in the trash, but I put

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Before and Afters

{swiss miss}

I always hate the anticipation of having to drag a piece of furniture up my basement steps, rearrange my dining room and set up a photo shoot, but I am always so happy when I take the time and effort to do it.  This is my latest dresser makeover, that is going to be the “pop of color” in my room for the Lucketts holiday open house.  I’ve been calling her the “Swiss Miss”, for obvious reasons. I found this dresser at the same shop where I found the cola cooler.  It needed a little bit of repair on the drawers, but was in nice condition otherwise.  The wood is a beautiful bird’s eye and I fancy these empire-shaped dressers.  (It did have all of the the drawers, I just snapped a quick picture with my phone before I painted it.) I sanded down the top (the old finish was

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chalkboard armoire & princess dresser

Another day of making ornaments has come and gone.  My entire house is dusted in glitter and littered with shreds of paper.  Sigh.  So, since I’m stuck in monotony at the moment, I thought I would share two other new pieces of furniture I worked on last week and dropped off at Lucketts. This armoire had been in my office for a couple of years, but it was replaced in my recent makeover.  I couldn’t just let a good vintage armoire go to waste, so I gave it a new life. I decided to paint the entire piece in black chalkboard paint.  I think it could work in a kid’s room, kitchen, craft room, play room, family room…lots of options.  The other piece, which actually already sold, is this princess dresser.  It wasn’t bad, but the paint finish was very tired, so I stripped the top and painted the base in ASCP

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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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