'Pistachio' - Bedside Cabinet

Hi, Happy 4th of July to all my USA readers, especially Cassie ...yes I am a bit early for you but it is the 4th already here in Australia! 

I hope you enjoy your day with family and friends, and that the sun is shining :)

This is my last project for the week before we pack up and head off to Sydney for a 4 day weekend...not a holiday weekend for us as such, but it is the middle of our winter school holidays so a little break is nice!

I picked up this cabinet a couple of days ago...someone had obviously given it a paintjob previously but it was time for a fresh one.

Now I probably would have kept walking if I didn't like the previous paint colour and didn't think I could use it to my advantage...stripping paint is a lot of hard work and I cannot always be bothered, particularly on a small piece which is only ever going to achieve a lower price than a bigger piece. Sometimes it's just not worth the time and effort versus your return.  Still, I've learnt that the hard way, and will no doubt continue to break my own rules on this when it suits me!

I played with my Annie Sloan Chalk Paints® again, as I have said before I only have three colours so far but the combinations I can make with those are many and varied.  I do hope to pick up another colour or two soon though.  I wanted a light green to go with the pink so I mixed Antibes Green with Old White but didn't go as pale as the green I made for this toolbox - I mixed 4 parts Old White with 3 parts Antibes Green.

This is the finished piece - I applied two coats of paint, distressed, applied clear wax and dark wax, and new sparkly crystal knobs.

See how the pink shows through in places? Just like a pistachio ;)

This is for sale, please contact me for details.

Sharing at Lilyfield Life Paint Parade and Savvy Southern Style Wow us Wednesdays

Before and After: Cute Painted Shelving Unit

Before and After: Gelato Colours Bedside Tables

Some more repeat business

As I showed you previously, I turned this

into this.

The client was also after a lowboy and a pair of bedside cabinets to match.

I had this lowboy in stock that suited her...

It actually was part of a set I purchased, the other part was this duchess which I showed you earlier today...

which I turned into this.  

The same client actually custom-ordered the black duchess for her other daughter, so in a way the bedroom suite will stay togther, even though one part of it is off-white and the other part is black :)

Notice the curved front to the drawers?  I think it is lovely.  The original duchess right up the top didn't have this curved front to it, but once the lowboy was painted and distressed the same, the client & I thought they would look great together.  Particularly since the had the same original handles, that we opted to keep.

Here is the part where I should show you the after shot of the lowboy.  I'd love to, I really would.  But the client came to pick it up and it was only after she'd left that I thought 'oh woops, I didn't take a photo of that'.  Woops is right!  Sorry!

Here is where I will try and put that right by showing you the next before and after....the bedsides.

The client looked for ages before finding a suitable set to go with the duchess and lowboy.  Again, they are a little different to the other pieces but luckily they happened to have exactly the same handles as the other two pieces, and all pieces had Queen Anne style cabriole legs.  

(Love those!)

Here they are in the before state...

One of them had quite a bit of sun fading but that wasn't going to matter once they were painted.  And here they are...this was a straightforward project, thankfully!

So now one lucky teenage girl has the shabby chic bedroom furniture of her dreams, I imagine.

Lucky girl!

Sharing with

Primitive & Proper Piece of Work Wednesday party

xx Karen

Pretty Bedside Tables

Hello there!  Sorry it has been a while since I last posted any reveals, I have been busy working away on a few projects, such as these Mahogany bedside cabinets.

(online auction photo from sales listing)
 
I liked the shapes on them, and just knew I could make them pretty.

I washed them down, removed the handles (with a hammer...they were glued on, I hate those sort!) then filled the holes, because strangely enough, they weren't evenly spaced on the drawers.  

Weird that it never bothered the previous owner/s!

After a coat of sealer, they got 4 coats of Dulux Cape Colville in a semi gloss water based enamel...then I hit them with the sandpaper and sanding sponge.

And here they are all done...

(Excuse the leaves and ugly carpet.  This is my workshop (previously known as a garage) and I like to work with the doors open.  No sooner do I vacuum in there, all the leaves start blowing back in again!)

And old friend of mine sent these knobs to me all the way from India...very sweet of her and they look perfect on these.  Plus I hid a wee surprise in the drawers just to tie it all together...

This gorgeous shade of pink, Resene Cosmos, which I found at my local paint store, in the mistints section.  It is not actually a mistint in the colour sense, the paint shop man just said it had probably been tinted in the wrong formula (but luckily for me, it was just the formula I use - Semi Gloss Water Based Enamel).  Can't wait to use it on some more projects

...oh wait I did already...just haven't posted about it yet  ;)

Showing these off at

and

Savvy Southern Style

xx Karen

Pink Bedside Cabinet

This has been hanging around my workshop for a while, waiting for some makeover magic.  It is pretty plain, but I still thought I could do something with it to give it new life....and I decided pretty and pink was the way to go.

I cleaned it then sealer coated it with adhesion primer.  Then gave it some pink paint that I custom mixed...

After 3 coats of pink paint, I distressed it then glazed it with my usual conconction of watered down wood stain, wiped off quickly with a wet cloth...the stain really grabbed the pink, especially where I had sanded to distress it.  Then, just to soften it a little, I applied liming wax.

Here it is, all finished...

I painted the insides of the drawers in off white, to give it a nice fresh clean feel.

I lime-waxed the handles, too.

I am showing this off at

xx Karen