I’m so sorry, girls. I have totally gotten lazy about taking “after” shots of my furniture. I have to haul it up from the basement, move the furniture around in my house, gather props, stage the photo, take the pictures and then put everything back. It’s very time consuming and I have to have good light and an extra person on hand to move the furniture. Well, after today, I think I’m going to start going through that trouble again.
I finished two dressers last week and I have lousy pictures of both. So, be prepared to be underwhelmed.
Despite the poor photography, I really love this dresser.
It was painted in glossy green and gray oil based paint. I took this picture after the paint from the top was removed.
Mini Mustard Seed painted it in ASCP’s Cream, which is sort of a very pale yellow. Once it was dry, I used the Springtime in Paris Stencil from Royal Design Studio and ASCP’s Paris Gray to create a “French poem” design on the front.
I distressed the edges to allow some of the old paint to show through. The top is finished in a dark walnut wood stain and then the entire piece is protected in a soft wax finish.
It’s a very soft, pretty piece. If it isn’t sold, yet, I’ll take better pictures of it on Thursday. Off to work on another dresser, a wardrobe, a desk…and it’s time to tackle the basement. If you don’t hear from me tomorrow, send a search party.
82 Responses
I love the combination of the pale yellow and gray, so soft and pretty.
I adore it and especially with the grey French poetry!! Great job!
xoxo
Karena
Art by Karena
I have a fabulous Giveaway from Interieurs I hope you will come and join!
Wow. I'm working on the exact same dresser for my dining room (Even has the wheels on the legs). This must have been a very popular style. I ran into a bit of a problem with the top because the veneer was breaking and peeling everywhere. I bought the same knobs to put on my finished piece too. Smart minds 🙂
Very soft and feminine. Absolutely lovely, as always. Don't be so hard on yourself with after photos. Its displayed beautifully in your shop setting.
What an inspired piece! Love it. Deb
What a gorgeous dresser! So divine! Have a lovely day, Kellie xx
That is gorgeous!
Pretty, pretty dresser! I like that Royal Design Studio gives you the translation of the poem – it's nice to know what you're putting in your house!
Beautiful! What a great idea!!
Why don't you set up a little photo studio in the basement? A faux wall, a stash of props, and some lighting options… The time you take to set up a little corner studio, will probably be saved in your first or second photo shoot of lugging something upstairs and rearranging your world. Just a thought – love the dresser!
You should make a fake wall/fabric panel that you can just roll behind the furniture to take pictures. Sometimes if I make smaller projects I just put a large white canvas behind them so the pictures are better "staged".. just a thought haha. I love the dressers regardless of the pictures!! 🙂
-Bonnie @ Revolutionaries
http://bonniegetchell.blogspot.com
You are certainly inspiring me to do some work with stencils! I never have and I keep seeing projects all over blog land with these stencils! Looks fantastic! I love how the light blue is sort of faded & gives the appearence of being in the background!
Love the idea of the poetry on the front! fantastic! I'm with you about the pictures – I'm doing good lately to get a project done let alone take pictures on something other than my cell phone and blog about it!
Stephanie
http://junkernewbie.blogspot.com/
Soft and beautiful and downright dreamy.
Lisa
I love this one and can't wait to see more. Such a soft pretty yellow.
I know you are a very busy girl, but if you could just drop by my blog. I have done a dresser almost like this one (except for the writing on front). That is just too cool and I will remember it.
And this is what you call lousy picture!!! Go check mine then lol
I love the dark top and the light bottom and french is my love ( Im french educated at schoold since I wasnt born here ) So you should see my husband when he keeps on correcting me dont say merci say thx , you are in America girl no one will understand the "Merci"
It looks lovely, I also have to lug my finished pieces from down in the basement to upstairs to get photos, I still dont get the best light because we have a lot of trees.
Love, love, love the script on front. Beautiful color combination. After the search for you could you send them after me. I'll be buried in my garage with a gazillion projects. lol
freakin awesome!
I love it, I have been wanting to try one of their stencils and I really like this one! I can see many uses for those lovely words!
Debbie
Hey Marian,
I have been wanting to buy the Cream, but was not sure of it. So happy it leans to the yellow side as that is what I am looking for.
Beautiful dresser!
Janet xox
http://theemptynest-janet.blogspot.com/
Love it my dear! Love this stencil so much too, it is totally "Miss Mustard Seed-y" Also I need to get my hands on some ASCP. Quick like.
Love your guts
mandi
Even your bad pictures are good! Love the colors you used on that piece… very pretty!
This is absolutely my favorite dresser re-do I have seen. It's so serene…I have no idea what serene feels like (haha) but now I know what it looks like!
So beautiful!
Very pretty! I can relate to getting lazy about pictures. I have to move things around just to take pics of products for my website AND my blog and it is so much work. I really only have time to blog about once a week since the phots take up so much time. NOt just the moviing etc. The uploading, resizing and editing makes me crazy too. Sometimes I sit in front of my computer and am just not in the mood to work and I end up window shopping!
I'm in love! Just love the colors and how subtle the poem is! Great job, Marion!
-Amanda
This is absolutely my favorite dresser re-do I have seen. It's so serene…I have no idea what serene feels like (haha) but now I know what it looks like!
Its a beautiful piece i love the pale yellow & grey its very soft & dreamy. I love the old type writer too
I am so inspired by all of your ideas!! Thank you for being so willing to share with us!!
Absolutely magnificent, Marian!
This is gorgeous – you are so inspirational! Thanks for sharing your gift of creativity!
tres jolie!
I just don't know how you do it all! As always, your piece is gorgeous. I wish I had a steady enough hand to stencil writing like you. Try not to work to hard.
I want it! Alas, we are so far apart; I live in Miami. Your blog is such daily inspiration.
May God continue blessing your talented self and your lovely family!
One of my favorite dressers yet! Love the buttery yellow, but the stenciling slays me. Gorgeous!
Are you primarily using Annie Sloan paints now??
Thank you, as always….
Jenny
I want it! 🙂
Good thing I don't live near your booth…I want to buy all the pieces you create. 🙂 This is wonderful!
It's beautiful!!
Very nice. I wish your shop was closer to me. I wonder though….you are a big fan of chalk paint and I am ready to order some. Why did you do this piece im something else?
OMGoodness Marian! Just how do you do it? This is a stunning dresser. You inspire me.
Thanks~SueBee
I love this! But then I love everything you do! I have a similar dresser that our tv is on in our family room. I love it, but would like to do something to it. This is a great idea.
Oh and the thing about ours is it was green as well, before I painted it!
Oh MY Miss Mustard Seed!! This is the first time I am seeing my French Poetry typography stencil on furniture and I have to say J'adore!! Thank you for sharing another lovely stencil project and inspiring so many! 🙂 -Melanie
Your 'underwhelming' photos are the level I strive to match!
Oh, Oh, Oh, just beautiful! I'm so inspired! Ordering a stencil now. Thanks Marian.
Ok, I'll take it. Pack it up and send it to NC. 🙂 It is absolutely a wonderful and perfectly French piece. I have an almost identical size and shape dresser, and I will apologize right now and say I simply must "borrow" aka steal this idea. I am head over heels in love. Thank you for this wonderful inspiration, its exactly what I need to finish my bedroom. Blessings, Barb
What a lovely piece! Love the color and dark wood top – and the writing on the face – SUPERB! I've been following your blog for a few months now and I am so inspired by your stories and your painted furniture how-tos. Keep up the great work 🙂
Ooooh…so pretty! I LOVE the stencil!
wow, thats so pretty and so feminine. i love it. maybe i can TRY my luck at it, but know it would never compare to yours. you do beautiful work. im sure it will be gone in a heartbeat. no doubt about it.:)
Hi Marion!
Let me start by saying that I love your blog and your work. You are truely an inspiration to me. So much so that I am coming to you to ask you your opinion on the pieces that I recently picked up on Freecycle for FREE. I wondered if you thought I should paint or not? I am really in a quandry here. Or perhaps you have some other suggestions? I would love some direction. The pieces are so beautiful and I don't want to ruin a good thing. Thanks for your help – you can find the link to this posting and pictures of the pieces here:
http://staceyembracingchange.blogspot.com/2011/09/freecycle-finds-reveal-you-arent-going.html
Stacey of Embracing Change
freetstacey@yahoo.com
Beautiful! I love how you did the poem, very inspiring!
lorrierbrewer@yahoo.com
Love love! Just yummy, Marian!
Sheila
Gros bisous… Très joli travail et longue vie à cette nouvelle commode!
Beautiful, Marian! Gray and yellow is a fabulous combo. FINALLY someone came out with a French script stencil!
xo,
Jami
Oh Hon, your crummy photos are better than my bestest ones. The chest looks great; what does it say?
I always wonder — when I see French on items, am I buying something emblazoned with the Gallic equivalent of "Your mother wears Army boots?"
Ah, you are much too young to remember when that was an insult!
You do lovely work, and your energy astounds me.
Cass
It's just gorgeous, Marian! I love it!
Hugs,
Julia
Haha… only you could take a bad picture and get 58 + comments on it! Oh my this dresser is gorgeous!!!
I'd say your shortcut works just fine. 🙂
Donna
The paint job is so great, who's noticeing the quality of your photo. I'm going to try this on a chest I have. I'll be watching for instructions on how to do a stencil. Jan
At least you have been blessed to have to keep busy in order to stay up with the demand for your work. This is way too cute! I have really been into yellow and gray lately, but the hubby would nix anything like that for our home. 🙁 I can totally understand the challenge of making the time to take photos after a project is done when your selling the item & you need to get moving on to the next. I am in craft show mode now & sometimes forget either the before or the after pictures for my blog.
Like!!
Hi!
I'm dropping by to thank you for following me on Twitter. It's really nice to meet you and I see you're a VERY talented lady! Wow! Good for you! 🙂
Anyways, I hope we can get to know each other better.
Have a great week!
xo
Luciane at HomeBunch.com
Hi Miss Mustard Seed, I've been an avid follower of your blog for two years–LOVE this dresser.
I have a question that I trust you to answer better than anyone else. I just painted a dresser turquoise, in latex paint, Behr with primer built in. I sanded to remove the gloss but not to bare wood–I was hoping the built in primer would be enough.
Now, a week later, the dresser is still "sticky" to the touch. This is only important for the top of it.
My question is, should I use a paste wax finish, or polycrilic? Which will help to take away the remaining tackiness? I definitely want to finish the top, and would have used the polycrilic I had on hand but the tackiness has me thinking that perhaps somehow the wax would do a better job at preventing things from sticking to the surface.
OMG!!!! Your work is NEVER underwhelming — WOW! You are a genius. Would love a better view with some info on the piece on the wall behind the dresser. Your work is truly beautiful.
Beautiful! I've just painted my first pieces with ASCP (thanks for your suggestion!) and just love it! Going to a sale this evening…. wish me luck! xx jess
I really love that yellow color! It's perfect. I also like what you've been doing lately with the tops of your pieces, refinishing them & staining them, while painting the rest, I think it looks great & will be much easier to maintain.
Hi! I love that stencil (looks terrific on the dresser!). I just used Melanie's French poem stencil us her Florentine corner stencil in a Designer Showhouse in Centerport NY. It's the Normandy Mansion – show I figured there should be some French in the showhouse! Here's the link with a picture on my blog!
http://studioofdecorativearts.blogspot.com/2011/09/designer-showhouse-in-centerport-ny-and.html
ahhhhhhhh! i just heard from melanie at royal designs about you using the french poem the same day i posted about mine on hellolovelyinc! great minds!
i love how you have used it!
also excited to see your new nest painting. what a fabulous inspiration for your bedroom.
michele
Less than perfect pictures or not, that dresser is still a star. Love the poem on it! How do you come up with these things. Good luck with the basement and all the work that is waiting for you in there.
Silly girl…. why don't you create an area in your basement where you can photograph your furniture when your done painting it? You could create a faux background wall using bead board, set up lights that are always on "the ready" have some props in a cabinet… maybe even a small rug. Easy peasy— and fast 🙂
I love, love, love it! So much that I wish I could just hop on up to the northeast and grab it! But I can't, so for now I will just drool here in East Texas. It will be the only moisture the ground has seen in months! Thanks for sharing! By the way, your photography is fine! XOXO!!
Love this….i also love the black thing with the letters above it, can you show more pics of that????
I just got an email from Ballard's and they are getting in on the Annie Sloan Chalk paint only calling it Casa Florentina with 15 different hand-applied finishes that look just like AS color palette, here's the link
http://www.ballarddesigns.com/collections/casa-florentina/woodswatches/?sortBy=NA&pageSize;=0&pageSizeBottom;=0
Forget the staging…your stuff looks awesome even without it. You are busy and we get it…aren't we all? I got the same thing from Ballard as Amy above me and thought the exact same thing! Peace to you MMS…I don't know how you do it 🙂
I was just about to ask if I could still buy ths, but then I looked at the dates of the other comments and realized they are from 2011 and this is WAY too pretty to still be available! I love why you did ith thu. You are so talented.
I have recently come across the springtime in Paris stencil at royal design studio. However, I cant bring myself to spend that much on a stencil! Any ideas on where I might get used/cheaper stencil? I have searched and searched. No luck. :-/…..