I went to a local antique store a few weeks ago and bought a few pieces, including this workbench… Jeff was surprised at my choice.  It doesn’t have the curvy lines I usually go for and the top is some kind of wood composite.  I just had a gut feeling about it.  It had a nice shape to it and, with the right additions and changes, I felt like it could be a really special piece. And here’s how it looks now… Kriste can’t even look at it.  She is so sad she doesn’t have a spot for it!  I feel the same way, although I could make an excuse to keep it in the studio, but there are only so many tables and workbenches someone needs…at least that’s what Jeff thinks. Everything just came together serendipitously for this piece.  I was thinking about what to do with the top

I had another BYOF workshop last weekend.  (BYOF stands for Bring Your Own Furniture, for those who didn’t figure that out!)  I always love those classes, because I get to help people work on one of their own pieces as they learn how to use milk paint and the finishes.  Not only do they learn, but they get something done in the process.  This workshop was just two ladies, me and my mom, so it was really low key.  I even had the chance to do some painting. Both of the ladies brought chairs.  The first one was an interesting child’s size chair that doubles as a stool.  It was clearly something that was homemade for a specific purpose, so it’s really unique. The owner chose to paint it in Shutter Gray, distressed and finished with Antiquing Wax… The other chair was a farm-style, plank-bottom chair, except it’s not old.

I bought this dresser off of Craig’s List a few months ago when I was having a run on empire dressers.  I think I found 5-6 of them, all for under $100, within a few weeks.  It was crazy. This is one of the roughest dressers I’ve worked on, but it was the cheapest one of the bunch and I figured we could do something with it.  It has a pretty wicked shimmy at the moment and the drawers are a little wonky, but I think Jeff will be able to fix it to at least make it functional. It’s a chunky piece, but has a bowed top drawer and some turned details on the sides that add some femininity to it.  I decided to paint it in Layla’s Mint, one of our new MMSMP European colors, to make it even more soft and feminine. I did not add Bonding

 I bought a small farm table a few months ago to use as a center “island” in my booth at the Chapel Market and to, hopefully, sell.  Well, it was the one piece of furniture we took home with us from Alabama and it’s been hanging out in the studio since then.   You can see it buried a bit in this picture… Kriste and I talked about it and decided that we should paint the base of the table to make it a bit more eye-catching.  She painted it in MMSMP Lucketts Green without the Bonding Agent, so it could chip and flake away.  I lightly distressed it and finished it with the Antiquing Wax.  I think it will catch some eyes now. This was one of those times when the Milk Paint just chipped perfectly.  I literally just ran the sand paper over it, with very little pressure,