Furniture Makeovers Archives | Page 44 of 111

Furniture Makeovers

All Things Home

how I hand painted the Mora dresser

I shared this hand painted dresser last week and, as promised, I’m now sharing more detail on the hand painted design. First of all, I’m always asked if my hand painted designs are stencils. No, they are hand painted. I know that will immediately lose some folks when I say that, because a lot of people don’t feel comfortable with hand painting. I get that. The kind of hand painting I do is simple strokes, repeated over and over again until it makes an overall design. When you see it up close, you can see how simple and even a little messy it is. I have learned that the less I overthink it, the better it looks. I always start out by chalking out the rough design. That way, I know the design is going to look the way I want it to before I put a drop of paint

January 26, 2015 23 Comments

Artistic Endeavors

the first workshop

We opened the doors for our very first workshop in the Mustard Seed Studio on Friday. It was so much fun getting ready for it and a great incentive to get things in the studio finished. My goal for these workshops is to educate, but also to share this amazing creative space with others and make our guests feel pampered…in a DIY sort of way! I know many of them are taking a vacation day or hiring a sitter or getting this for a birthday present, so I want to make it worth it! Each space was set with a look book, a note card for taking notes, an apron and a hand painted linen name tag. I found these adorable mini wood clothes pins in the office section at Wal-Mart and they were the perfect way to clip the tags onto the apron. Attendees wrote their name on their tags

January 25, 2015 21 Comments

Before and Afters

say hello to “mora” | hand painted dresser

It’s now time for me to introduce the final color in the MMSMP European Colour line. I have to say that it’s been so much fun developing these colors, painting pieces in them and then revealing them here. It’s been a true creative journey for me. The last color I’m introducing is perhaps one of my favorites. Say hello to Mora… Mora is a pale blue/gray/green color that can look entirely different depending on what it’s next to. It was named for the Swedish town of Mora, which is famous for those gorgeous curvy standing clocks. (I hope to have a “mora clock savings fund” going one of these days.) Anyway, it’s a soft, beautiful color. Believe it or not, I found TWO empire dressers on Craig’s List a couple of days after Christmas and they were both very well priced. I have been on an empire streak lately! I decided

January 22, 2015 26 Comments

Before and Afters

painted oak hutch

Over the past few days work days, I’ve been getting the studio ready for our first workshops (happening later this week.) It’s been good to have an imposed deadline to get things spruced up. Otherwise, I just work on whatever I’m most interested in and leave other things hanging. Kriste is always a huge help, but in this case, she was really good at keeping me on track. I’ll meander around the studio, working on this and that and she’ll say, “Okay, what are the priorities? Should we get this finished before the workshops? I’ll work on this while you take care of that.” It’s so helpful. So, a few weeks ago, I painted the oak hutch that’s behind the shirt counter… I painted the outside in one coat of Shutter Gray and then got busy with other things, so I never applied a finish. After living with it that way for a

January 20, 2015 21 Comments

All Things Home

say hello to “schloss” | sofa makeover

This really could be two posts, but I decided to fit it all into one. The truth is, after a week of hard work, I have a lot of things to share and I’m getting antsy to get them posted! First of all, here is another one of our new European colours in the MMS Milk Paint line… It’s a rich greige that many of our customers have been requesting and it seemed fitting for the new line of subtle colors. It’s definitely a chameleon color, as you can see in the collage above. It looks more beige on the raw wood sample, warm gray on the side table (by Allison of The Golden Sycamore) and a richer gray on the settee frame. For those who don’t know, Schloss means castle in German. This color reminded me of the gray and beige variations in the stonework. (This is the Marienburg

January 18, 2015 40 Comments

All Things Home

distressing painted furniture | tips & techniques

I’ve shared a lot of tips about distressing furniture through the years, but I decided I would tackle the subject again. I took pictures of the process as I worked on the Marzipan dresser I revealed yesterday for that very reason. So, here’s how the dresser looked once it was painted. It has two coats of MMSMP Marzipan with some Ironstone (white) painted on the trim, handles and carved details. Because I’m going to distress, I wasn’t too concerned with the white paint being perfect or completely opaque. It actually looks a little sloppy at this stage. Distressing serves a few purposes, then. It hides the imperfections in the painting, but it also brings out the details of the piece and adds a sense of age to the fresh coat of paint. I’m going to start with the basics…what is distressing? It’s more than just roughing up a piece. It’s about removing

January 15, 2015 26 Comments

Before and Afters

say hello to “marzipan”

It’s time for me to introduce another one of the European Colours in the Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint line. (The “colours” spelling was for you, Kate.) Please give a warm welcome and hello to Marzipan… This is a very soft, warm neutral with a whisper of a beige in it. When I first worked on this color, I wasn’t sure how much I would use it. Well, now I’m totally in love with it. For those of you who don’t know, marzipan is a paste made of almonds, sugar and egg whites that is used to make cakes and confections. When I was thinking about a name for this warm neutral, the marzipan treats from my childhood in Germany came to mind. The funny thing is that I never liked eating marzipan! It was just too sweet for me, but I loved looking at all of the beautiful things

January 14, 2015 40 Comments

Furniture Makeovers

say “hello” to Layla’s Mint

It’s time to say “hello” to another one of our new colors in the MMS Milk Paint European color line! You’ve already met Bergere and Arabesque and now here’s Layla’s Mint… Yes. It’s named after the Layla. Lettered Cottage Layla. It all started back in the summer when Layla sent me an e-mail, wanting a perfect minty green for a secretary in her house. I tried a few different ratios and came up with a lovely minty green… Layla tweaked the recipe a little bit and painted the secretary, which looks so pretty in her space! As I was collaborating with some of my retailers on the European color line, the request for Layla’s Mint kept coming up, so it became a no-brainer to add it in the line and, as a bonus, it already had a name! The colors in the line all have warm undertones and the original Layla’s

January 8, 2015 30 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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