Furniture Makeovers Archives | Page 16 of 110

Furniture Makeovers

All Things Home

progress on the craigslist counter

I did some work on the craigslist counter last week and I thought I would share how it’s shaping up. Now, I’ll be honest…I was planning on painting it. The wood was looking really red, the finish has some unsightly paint splatters, it was really dirty, and it seemed like such a massive black hole with how dark it was. But, I stripped a section of the side, I painted a swatch on the side and the back, and I even painted one drawer. It just wasn’t working for me. The paint was flaking a lot and I didn’t like the contrast of the dark wood and the pale gray paint. I also felt like the piece might look ordinary painted. So, I took a step back and decided to give it a little spa day. Buff it out, oil it up, and see how I felt about it then.

February 21, 2017 88 Comments

Before and Afters

the landscape wardrobe

There are some pieces that are screaming to have a landscape painted on them. This was one such piece. And how can I ignore the pleas from an old piece of furniture? One that’s been around the block, but has a lot of life left? I can’t. And I didn’t. I have been terrible about taking proper before pictures with the most recent pieces I’ve acquired, so here is the best before shot I have of this wardrobe… I found it on craigslist at a nice price, but like most of my finds, this one had some, shall we say, problems. There were some odd modifications and it had clearly been exposed to some moisture. So, we unmodified the odd modifications, cleaned it up, repaired the damaged parts, and added some shelving to make it a more functional piece. We (and by “we”, I mean my dad) also installed a

February 17, 2017 53 Comments

Furniture Makeovers

Me & Mrs Jones

I left early (for me) Thursday morning to fly to Memphis, Tennessee to spend the weekend with Shaunna of Perfectly Imperfect and Stephanie Jones of Me & Mrs Jones. Trips like these always feel like a bit of an interruption to daily routine (I guess trips technically are), but they always end up being a huge boost for me. They pull me away from the computer screen and the studio and give me the opportunity to meet with kindred spirits. I’ve come to expect that from these trips and this one didn’t disappoint. First of all Stephanie Jones, if you have never, ever heard of her, you should check her out. She is not only so creative and an inspiring entrepreneur, but she is one of the loveliest people I’ve ever met. Seeing her in action and spending time with her in her creative spaces was a delight. Enough gushing.

January 31, 2017 38 Comments

All Things Home

Hand Painted Stencils

“Where did you get that stencil?” I’ve been asked that question so many times when I share one of my hand painted pieces. And that has led to people asking if I ever planned to come out with a line of stencils. I have always loved the idea of it, but as someone who works in a freeform way, I had a hard time figuring out how to translate my patterns into stencils. It probably wasn’t as hard as I was making it, but I got stuck on it for a long time. I also wanted to find a way to make my stencils unique. I finally decided to just paint some designs and see how they looked as stencils. Some worked and some didn’t. I worked with a stencil manufacturer who did a fantastic job of guiding me through the process, though, and the result was stencils cut from my

January 30, 2017 31 Comments

Furniture Feature Friday

step-back cupboard reveal

I shared my progress on the step-back cupboard yesterday and here it is all prettied up! As a reminder, here is how it looked before. Well, it had part of the first coat on the top, but this angle better shows what a mess it was! My goal in giving it a makeover was not to make it look new, but to retain it’s age and charm and lose the pencil scribbles, grease spots, spray paint, and definitely the cobwebs and dirt. It didn’t need an extreme makeover, but a little attention to bring out the beauty of the inset door panels, hardware and utilitarian shape. Again, I painted it in a custom mix of two part Eulalie’s Sky to one part Layla’s Mint, both from the MMS Milk Paint line. The back and inset panels were painted in Linen. I finished it out in matte Tough Coat. And isn’t

January 27, 2017 29 Comments

Furniture Makeovers

step-back cupboard in progress

I have learned to trust my gut when I see a piece that is underpriced, underestimated and, perhaps, overlooked by others. Such was the case with this step-back cupboard. It had, shall we say… issues? It was originally a built-in, so it was missing a back, top and trim, it lost its bottom somewhere along the way and it was filthy. I didn’t even realize until I got it home that even the top was on upside-down. I was initially puzzled as to why someone would put contact paper on the bottom of shelves. Duh! Here’s how the top piece looked (with the new back resting against it)… …and the bottom… Once the cleaning and repairs were completed, I fixed the drawers. I couldn’t even fit them in their recesses, much less pull them back out again. You can read how I fixed them HERE. I liked the color of the bottom cabinet,

January 26, 2017 14 Comments

Before and Afters

say “hello” to Outback Petticoat

Last year, we retired two colors from the Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint line, Apron Strings and Dried Lavender. I’d like to keep our line at 25 colors, so we are replacing them with two new colors. And one of those colors is launching today – Outback Petticoat. It’s orange, in case that wasn’t apparent. Let me tell you, orange was really tough for me! First of all, I needed to convince myself to create an orange. Since I don’t use a lot of orange, I couldn’t easily envision it on a piece of furniture. But, I searched for inspiration and found loads of beautiful rooms, pieces, and color palettes featuring orange. I decided I could get on board with it. Once I was at peace with orange, the second difficulty was finding the right shade. Orange can go bad very easily. While developing the color, I ended up with all

January 17, 2017 75 Comments

All Things Home

baker’s table & hutch top

And so it begins…the shopping marathon for the Lucketts Spring Market was officially kicked off with a late-night scouring of craigslist that yielded four pieces already with a few more that we’re scheduled to pick up. It feels good to have furniture coming into the studio again and to see a queue start to form. Two of the pieces that were just rolled in on a dolly are these primitive beauties… A baking table and a hutch top. The owner sold them as a pair, but they actually weren’t made to go together and I plan to sell them separately. I reserve the right to change my mind mid-project, but that’s the plan. Both pieces need a good cleaning, since they’ve been sitting out on a porch, but otherwise I like the white paint with the alligator crazing. I will repaint the sage green hutch interior, though, seal both pieces with Tough

January 11, 2017 38 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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