Furniture Makeovers Archives | Page 48 of 110

Furniture Makeovers

Before and Afters

jelly cupboard reveal

I always enjoy getting ready for a show, so I have a reason to work on a lot of furniture! I finished the jelly cupboard this week and I finally get to reveal it… This is how the jelly cupboard started… It’s an old piece…most likely mid-to-late 1800’s. I always love working on old pieces that have been neglected for a few decades. This piece had been painted a rather sad brown and was really dirty. The hardware was broken and had been repaired, but the repairs weren’t holding. It was sturdy and had great bones, so I was excited to bring it back to life. You can read the process of how I painted it HERE, but in a nutshell, I painted it in Artissimo MMSMP, then used the Wax Puck as a resist, applied a coat of Flow Blue, distressed with two different grits of sand paper and

October 3, 2014 28 Comments

furniture feature friday | favorites & link party

Good evening, ladies! I have been a little under the weather with a cold since my Toronto trip, so I’ve spent two whole days in bed, if you can believe that! I watched a lot of Netflix and did some computer work, but I was generally useless. I think the need for two days in bed has more to do with me just being worn out than the cold, since I’m not really that sick. I’ve just needed some rest and time to relax. I was still dragging a bit today, but had more energy and was excited to get in the studio. I’m so glad I went in today. Kriste and I worked on photo shoots and painting more furniture for the Chapel Market and the studio. Jeff worked on building more rolling walls that will be used as dividers and photo shoot backdrops. It was productive and fun

October 2, 2014 14 Comments

Before and Afters

painted tote

Kriste and I were working on pieces for the Chapel Market last week and I blurted out, “I’m in the mood to paint!” I bet you think I’m always in the mood to paint, but I’ve gotten busier as my business has grown and become more diversified and I have left more things unpainted. When I buy small wooden totes, crates, boxes, baskets, etc., I just leave them alone. Well, as I said, I was in the mood to paint, so we started painting anything that I thought would look good painted. I picked up this humble tote someone handmade out of bits of wood and plywood and painted it in Ironstone MMS milk paint. I didn’t take an official before picture, but you can spot it in this photo. It just looked a little blah, but the homemade appearance of it spoke to me. It was crooked in a sweet way

October 1, 2014 18 Comments

Hand Painted Furniture

the jelly cupboard | distressing & antiquing

As a recap, this is how the jelly cupboard started… It looks like wood grain, but it was actually painted brown. I painted it in MMS Milk Paint Artissimo without the bonding agent added. The previous coat of brown paint wasn’t glossy, so I expected the milk paint to adhere pretty well. It chipped in just a few places, which was perfect. The jelly cupboard had amazing texture on the finish and I wanted to bring that out by using two different blues and distressing. To make the distressing process easier, I rubbed the surface with our natural beeswax puck. You can use any kind of beeswax or candle wax you have on hand for this technique. I also rubbed the edges of the piece, where the paint would naturally wear away. When using the wax puck between layers of paint, it acts as a resist. It makes it easier to

September 30, 2014 28 Comments

Before and Afters

barn board to breadboard

I wanted to make a bunch of breadboards to sell at the Chapel Market, so I’ve been on the hunt for cool old boards for that purpose. I found a couple of beautiful old boards that came from a barn. They were about 8′ each in length and about a foot wide and they had lots of character…worm holes, dents, dings and a nice deep grain. I sketched out the shapes I wanted to make with chalk and my dad cut each of them with a jigsaw. Cari, someone who comes to help me with odd jobs as I’m getting ready for events, sanded them down. Sanding them was a tricky job, because we wanted to smooth them out without losing all of the patina. I think Cari did an amazing job sanding them without going too far with it. Now they needed to be oiled to bring out the richness of the

September 26, 2014 17 Comments

furniture feature friday | favorites & link party

Good evening, all! I’m finally back from Toronto and seem to be in more of a routine, since I actually remembered FFF this week AND picked favorites! I know…high five! I did get a scolding from a reader a few weeks ago for forgetting about it, but if she walked into my studio, she would understand how I could get a little overly-focused on it and forget other things. Thanks to Kathleen for picking favorites for me last week while I was away and to all who participate and enjoy the party each week. Here are the favorites I selected… I love this entire nursery featured on Custom Slipcovers by Shelley. She was showcasing her work on sweet ruffle-skirted chair, but the entire room is coming together beautifully. Of course I love this blue & white living room by Karen of Shabby Sweet Cottage, but the real work of genius is

September 25, 2014 10 Comments

Artistic Endeavors

back in the studio…

It was so nice to be back in my studio today after being away for several days. I just love having the creative space to work…it’s rejuvenating and fun and seems so full of possibility. I’m still a little fuzzy-headed from my cold, but I was able to get some good things done today. The light was really soft and pretty today when I arrived, so I carried some new products across the parking lot to the old white and gray building to snap some pictures. The soft colors, chippy paint and old texture are just perfect for me! I was shooting pictures of our new topcoat, Tough Coat… …and of our new sample size bags. I photographed them with the quart size, so you can see the difference. It’s so cute and small. The Tough Coat is available for our retailers to order and the sample sized bags

September 24, 2014 37 Comments

miss mustard seed goes to toronto

It’s been a whirl-wind of a few days and I feel like I haven’t “talked” to you in forever! I wrote all of the posts you’ve been reading over the past few days before I left, so it feels like I’ve been totally neglecting my blog. I’m so glad I took that time to prepare those posts, though, because it was a packed trip and my internet access was fairly limited (I had to pay for wifi at the hotel, if you can believe that!) I traveled up to Toronto to attend the Toronto Fall Home Show as a vendor and speaker. It was a bit out of my comfort zone, but my milk paint line is made in Toronto and I’ve never been there before! I also still get e-mails here and there asking if the paint is available in Canada. Of course it is! That’s where it’s made!

September 23, 2014 56 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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