I painted and refinished a lot of furniture this year.  I didn’t keep count, but I should have.  It’s probably around 30-40 pieces!  I’ve been a busy girl.  Furniture has become my niche and my favorite thing to work on.  So in keeping with sharing my favorites of 2009 and in leiu of our usual Furniture Feature Friday, I’m going to share my favorite furniture before and afters from 2009.  There is a link party below, so you can share your favorite furniture makeovers, amazing finds, or treasured pieces with me.  So, on to my favorites…enjoy!   This $1.00 antique store two-tiered table becomes… an elegant blue/gray and dark walnut side table. This Queen Anne yard sale vanity becomes… a chalkboard desk with hand painted detail. A grungy stool and burlap feedsack become… a funky and one-of-a-kind work of art for weary feet. A $1.00 yardsale table becomes… A clever place to

Can you believe that this… …was this? I purchased this French Provincial dresser off of Craig’s list in October and have been chipping away at it at a snail’s pace. First of all, as you can see, it was missing most of the hardware. Normally this isn’t an issue, but the style of this dresser demanded specific hardware. I’m embarrassed to say that I shelled out almost $70.00 to buy vintage hardware that matched the original. It was an e-Bay bidding war that became very emotional. That puts my investment total at $100.00, which is high for me, but still awesome for a solid wood dresser of this quality, style, and size. Since this piece is solid wood, I decided to strip the top and stain it in a dark walnut. I was ready to go to war with this thick polyurethane top coat, but it came off surprisingly easy.

I am a little embarrassed to say that I just finished the custom painted bread box that was the giveaway for reaching my 100 follower milestone. That’s right. Give me a little bit of a break, here. It was custom painted and I had to work with Lilia to paint it how she wanted it. I also have two toddlers, a house, a husband, church commitments, clients, and I painted and moved our shop. That is the craziness that is my life. But, it’s finished and here it is! And here it was. This is the second one I have found in a thrift store, so these are pretty common. They’re constructed well, they are just dull and scream 1980’s. Lilia, from 2 Brown Eyed Beauties, chose to have the box painted a distressed white with a glass knob. For the decorative painting, she wanted the quote “A mother’s treasure

It’s finally done! This is the tray I offered as the giveaway prize for my very first Furniture Feature Friday. The winner was Lou Lynn from the Life of Lou Lou and her fabulous chair makeover. This is what the tray looked like before. It was a thrift store find and actually was in really nice condition. It could have been left “as is” and I gave Lou Lynn that option. She chose to have me custom paint it for her in a soft blue/gray with white hand painted detail. I chose to distress the edges to give it more character and a sense of age. It also will hide any dings that may occur in daily use. I hand painted some detail around the outside of the handles in addition to the border around the surface of the tray. The hand painted scroll work was inspired by the footed