Furniture Makeovers Archives | Page 31 of 111

Furniture Makeovers

Before and Afters

bring your own furniture | makeovers

Today, Kriste and I shared the studio with some lovely ladies who came for the BYOF (bring your own furniture) workshop. It’s always so fun to introduce people to milk paint and watch them transform their own pieces with just a little guidance and instruction. Here are the transformations… Then: A magazine rack saved from the side of the road. Now: Painted in a custom-mixed green, distressed and finished with Hemp Oil. Before: A stool made by the owner’s father in shop class when he was a boy. Now: Painted in Tricycle layered over Mustard Seed Yellow with a Hemp Oil resist between the two. Distressed and finished with Hemp Oil. Before: A sweet table painted in a blue the owner didn’t really like. Now: Lucketts Green layered over Boxwood with a Hemp Oil resist between the two. Distressed and finished with Hemp Oil. I love how you can still see bits

October 31, 2015 37 Comments

Artistic Endeavors

photo shoot at the retreat

Let me go back to the Lucketts Spring Market a couple of years ago. Suzanne, the owner of The Old Lucketts Store and Design House, came and sat with me on a slow Sunday afternoon. We were chatting about all of the business opportunities we’re working on and the things we’re dreaming about. And she shared about a manor house she purchased and was renovating. She told me, “The woodwork in this house is so beautiful, it’ll make you cry. I just couldn’t pass it up.” It would be a vacation rental, a venue for small weddings and events and a place for creative retreats. And, it would be something that could be finished. Suzanne has described the antiques/home decor business as an “ice sculpture.” You find/finish pieces, put them together, they are sold, the room is picked over and emptied, and then you have to start over again. Again and

October 29, 2015 26 Comments

All Things Home

book page dresser tutorial

Remember the dresser that was being a total jerk? Well, he has improved upon acquaintance. He’s a bit of a Mr. Darcy and I dare say that he is now dashing and (almost) ready to sweep someone off their feet. This dresser is sort of like that… Here’s a simple video tutorial on how I did it… The dresser is painted in MMS Milk Paint in Marzipan. The top was stripped to the bare wood and finished with Hemp Oil to hydrate the wood and protect it. The hardware was so pretty, but it was a little fussy for what I envisioned, so I removed the backplate and just used the clapper pulls. This allows the book pages to be the real star. This book was from the 1870’s and the patina on the pages is so pretty. It was a pretty tattered book and I bought it for just

October 26, 2015 14 Comments

All Things Home

the file cabinet coffee table

First of all, I want to announce the winners of the giveaways I held last week. Drum roll, please… The winner of the Antique Farmhouse giveaway is Becky Yaddis! And the winner of the Miss Mustard Seed in a Box giveaway is Melanie Milburn! As I was making the major push to get ready for Lucketts earlier this year, I found a very cool part of an old, oak file cabinet at one of my favorite antique shops. It was a good price ($65), because it was only one piece of a larger unit. It was missing a top and had awkward strips on top of it, so another unit could be stacked on top. Well, I found a random old top for $10 and Kriste found some great wheels ($12, I think) and bingo… …it becomes a coffee table. Kriste’s coffee table to be more specific. She snaked it

October 21, 2015 37 Comments

All Things Home

Milk Paint on walls & Kriste bought a house

So, Kriste bought a house!! Our little girl is growing up so fast. She and her husband, David, closed on a sweet 1920’s craftsman bungalow just over a week ago. Not a bad first house at all! It has lots of charm and lots of potential as well. (It even has a studio space for Kriste!) And this girl has been dreaming about that potential. Here are a couple of detailed sketches she made for each room… You can click HERE to see all of her sketches and “mood boards”. Literally hours after they closed (maybe even minutes), Kriste and I were in her bedroom, paint rollers in hand. (A girl after my own heart. That’s exactly what I did when we bought our first house!) Kriste asked if we could use MMS Milk Paint for her walls. Of course we can! Now, I’ve never done it, but

October 19, 2015 35 Comments

Before and Afters

farmhouse white table

It was one of those days when I went to the studio, put my music on, and painted. I love days like that. I worked on a couple of pieces for the next MMS Milk Paint look book, but I was also playing around with a new milk paint color we’ll be adding to the line, soon (early 2016)…Farmhouse White. It’ll get a proper “say hello to…” post closer to the release day, but I just couldn’t wait that long to share. I tripped upon this color as I was getting ready for the market and wanted a white that covered better than Ironstone. I loved it so much that I immediately sent an e-mail to my manufacturer, telling them we needed to add this new white to the line. I had some mixed for some metal bins I’m painting, so I decided to brush it onto a table that’s been on

October 16, 2015 25 Comments

All Things Home

in the works & in the wings

After the push to get ready for The Market on Chapel Hill, I took a bit of a break from bringing in new pieces of furniture. I was actually trying to clean out the studio and weed out the stash, so I just had things to work on that I was really excited about. We’re putting together a second look book for the MMS Milk Paint line and have a shoot scheduled at the most insanely beautiful manor next week and I realized I only had two pieces to shoot! Time to get in gear, Marian. I tripped across these chairs. Almost literally. I went to the Old Red Barn in Chambersburg, PA to teach a milk paint demo last weekend and spotted these barrel-backed cane beauties… I mean…come on. Initially, I thought there was no way in the world I would paint them, but they aren’t particularly old (1980’s most

October 15, 2015 57 Comments

All Things Home

zinc-top table gets a second chance

I brought this amazing zinc-topped table a few weeks ago to sell at the Market on Chapel Hill. I didn’t have time to fix it up the way I wanted to, though, so I was sort of glad when it didn’t sell. It was great as is, but needed a little TLC. And when it comes to furniture, TLC is something I can (and often do) do. Here’s how the piece looked when I brought it to the market… (If you get seasick, you might want to have a barf-bag handy. Yes. I just wrote barf-bag.) The front, left leg is an inch shorter than the other legs. To say the table was wonky was a bit of an understatement. The floors in our studio are so un-level, though, that I didn’t notice it until the day before we packed it. Here was my quick fix… …a stack of sticky

October 7, 2015 19 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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