Provence Coffee Table

I've just finished this coffee table for Tracy, a regular client of mine. She's filling her home with my creations, which is pretty cool! A lot of my work is repeat business from existing clients, and new clients often find me through their friends, who have a piece or pieces of Restyled Vintage in their homes. I'm very happy and grateful that once people do business with me, they come back for more. That tells me I'm doing something right!

Here's what the table looked like before:

We discussed many colour options and in the end, Tracy decided upon Provence. I have to say it wasn't one of my favourite paint colours, but after using it on this table, I have changed my mind!

I styled the shots in my downstairs living area...I think the table looks pretty good in there. I don't have a coffee table in front of the couches usually because the kids spread out and play on the rug...it is usually covered in Lego and Sylvanian Families!

Details:

- Coffee table has been painted in 3 coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Provence then sealed with Annie Sloan Clear Wax
- Couches - Ektorp from Ikea

- Enamel jug is from Ikea

- Enamel tray is from Ikea

- Rug is from Spotlight

- Larger Aqua Cushions - Ikea

- Small Aqua Cushion - Laura Ashley (found at op shop)

- Yellow Floral Cushion - Handmade by Restyled Vintage

It turns out I had plenty of home decor items in my home in a similar colour to the paint colour I didn't like...lol...I love the colour, I just didn't like it for furniture...until now!

Tomorrow is a public holiday here for us in NZ and Australia as we remember our ANZACS. A day when us Kiwis and Aussies put aside our friendly ribbing and rivalry and celebrate our common bonds. And eat Anzac biscuits...invented by the Kiwis of course ;)

On Saturday something VERY exciting is happening, so exciting I am having trouble sleeping...I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve! 

Will share it as soon as I can...promise!

How to get the French Willow Grey look using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

Thanks to everyone that read my last post on How to have a great Market Stall, especially those of you that took the time to leave a comment here or on Facebook, thank you. It's a post I've been meaning to write for ages! I do have more to add to that post and will do that soon.

Tonight I'm showing you a couple of projects you've probably already spied in my market stall photos...

A trio of bar stools...

and a pair of side tables.

They started out like this...

I picked these pieces up late last week and set myself a rather mad goal to have them refinished in time to take to the market with me. 

I am nothing if not determined (my parents are smiling and nodding as they read this, lol!) and I worked hard, probably a little bit too hard, but got them done.  

I decided to try another way of getting what I call the 'french willow grey' look.  I absolutely love this look/colour - I think it works perfectly for beach house or French country style.  I've written about this before such as here (my most viewed post on my blog by far...it seems I'm not the only one that loves this look, and I think Google is my friend on this one!) Using Annie Sloan Chalk paint to achieve this method is much easier, particularly if you want this look over your whole piece of furniture, as my other method involves stripping back your surface to bare wood first.  It is still my favourite look for table tops though, and one I've used lots!

To achieve this subtle, layered timeworn look, I painted on two coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in French Linen, then did a top coat in Paris Grey (ever so slightly watered down - not really a wash, just a thin coat of paint, covering most of the base coat).   I distressed by hand, then clear waxed.  I could have added a whitewash layer, or a lightened Grey/White mix, or even liming wax, but for these pieces, I loved them like this. Dark wax applied sparingly would also add another dimension...so many options, only limited by your imagination!

This would also work well to update your old yellow/brown colour basket ware into French willow grey - I'd suggest watering down both colours of paint for this, and I probably would add a whitewash layer for the top coat. I wouldn't worry about sealing with wax, these baskets are often a chalky texture.

These pieces didn't find new owners on Sunday, so they are still available for sale...please contact me if you are interested in purchasing them :)

Grey Washed Beach Vintage Dining Table

Well the school holidays are over and we are into Term 4 - hard to believe the next time school holidays come around another school year will be over, and it will be Christmas time!

Yesterday I had my first full day in my workshop in almost 3 weeks and loved it.  I've got quite a few projects in various stages of completion and it was nice to get further along with some of them...I even finished one...this table I started on quite a while ago.

I didn't take a full before shot, mainly because I had to take the table top off the base to get it home, then I painted the base before reattaching the table top (it made it much easier to get at without hitting my head, always a bonus!) The base is painted in my favourite custom shade of vintage green - Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Duck Egg + Antibes Green (1:1).

Here is a photo I shared on Facebook once I had painted the base:

The whole table was that golden brown colour previously - yuck!

I attempted to strip it with my heat gun but the sticky varnished finish wouldn't budge, and since it has been pretty hot lately and bush fires are always a risk here I worry about creating sparks with it, so I went with paint stripper in this case. Once it was stripped and dry I sanded it smooth before painting on some watered down Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in French Linen.

I did three coats, sanding in between each one.  The second and third coats are a very slightly lighter colour (lightened with Old White).  This gave it a lovely subtle colour variation - so subtle I am not sure if you can even tell in my photos!

Last week I got a visit from Fiona of Lilyfield Life and her family, which was lovely.  We've chatted via email for a while now, and we finally met in person last December in Sydney. Our kids are a very similar age and get on like long lost buddies, even though they've only seen each other twice now - I love how kids do that. We both have an 'S' girl and a 'J' boy - funny!  Of course we also have furniture refinishing in common and there is always plenty to talk about...especially over a bottle of bubbly!

Same colour paints using different techniques to give different finishes that go well together without being a perfect match

 Last week was the first time Fiona had seen my furniture in the flesh and she was very complimentary about my finishes (thanks Fiona!)  She was impressed with how smooth I got my pieces, and it got me thinking - I guess most of us mainly see painted furniture of others online - blogs, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram etc. You can't tell from photos what something really looks like up close in person, what it feels like, how well it has been refinished, or what the actual colour is like. Some of it is better than it looks in photos...and some of it is probably worse!
I've had many people feel my furniture at my market stalls and ask how I got it that smooth, like they couldn't believe that type of finish can be achieved with a hand painted product...but it can - I do it, with the right preparation, products, and of course, experience and elbow grease!

I've been told many times that my pieces look better in the flesh than in photos.

Hmm, yes, my photos. I know they are not the best, but it's the best I can do - we all have our strengths and photography isn't mine!  I only have a little Sony digital camera that is almost 5 years old.
My husband is the one in our family really interested in photography, and is hoping to get a DSLR in the next few months (then learn how to use it!) Once he does, I will be the designer, painter and stylist and he can be my photographer :) I'm not sure I have the patience or the will to learn to use it myself...but then I don't like stuff to beat me, so we'll see...

If you are thinking of commissioning me to do paint something, or considering purchasing something I've painted, by all means, come and view my work, look at it up close, feel it. Because my photos really don't do it justice :)

Restyled Vintage pieces can be viewed Wednesday to Saturday at La Bella Petite Boutique in Taree NSW, or by appointment at my workshop in Lake Cathie, NSW Australia.

The chairs in this post are not for sale, but you can read more about them here.

The table has just been sold but I am always happy to do another to order :)

Linking up with:

* Elizabeth & Co. * Domestically Speaking * A Stroll Thru Life 

 * Miss Mustard Seed * DIY Show Off * Savvy Southern Style

*Funky Junk Interiors

Paris Grey Dining Suite

Hello, hope you are all well...it is the first day of school for Term 3 for my kids today.  

We've enjoyed the holidays very much but just quietly I am enjoying today too ;)

I had a bit of a break from painting in the holidays which is nice for a short while, then I miss it terribly and cannot wait to get back into it!  I have quite a few custom jobs lined up at the moment which I am very grateful for, and now the kids are back at school I am looking forward to getting stuck into them.

I did sneak this transformation in last week, and have just managed to get photos of it this morning.  You would think after several years I would remember to take a 'before' shot of each project, but for this one I didn't, so we can skip straight to the pretty 'after's ;)

This was my first project using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® in Paris Grey, and I love it...what's not to love about a pretty grey, especially when teamed with white.  I used a watered down mix of Old White on the tabletop, which I sanded back to bare wood.  I waxed the whole lot with Annie Sloan Soft Wax in clear, and it's hard to tell in my photos but when you buff after using this wax you get the most amazing shine on your pieces.

I distressed the suite quite heavily because I think it needed to be with this colour and style.

I am a total sucker for vintage-style signs...just cannot help myself, they are so cute!

How can you not love that?

I love them almost as much as I love bunting ;)

Sharing at Lilyfield Life, Savvy Southern Style, Miss Mustard Seed, Blue Egg Brown Nest and Elizabeth and Co

Coastal Coffee Table

Wow it's July already, where is the year going!?  

On the plus side July is my birthday month and I fully intend to milk it for all it is worth...a week before my birthday last year I got influenza, wow it was awful and I hope I never get it again.  I had my first ever 'flu vaccine this year and will do so from now on.  It took me a good six weeks to feel completely normal again (as normal as I can be, lol), and now I have zero tolerance for people who say they have the 'flu when what they really have is a cold. 

SO not the same thing, as anyone who has actually had the 'flu knows!  

Anyway, the birthday month milking will start in earnest on Friday as we head to Sydney for a long weekend.  Hubby is going to a rugby test and I will be fitting in as much shopping as I possibly can...Birkenhead Point outlet mall, Pottery Barn etc group of stores, Victoria's Basement kitchen/homewares store...and a certain bike shop that sells the cutest bikes in pretty pastel colours...can't wait!

So onto the furniture project...my love affair with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® is growing by the day as I complete more projects and play with colour mixes.

I bought this coffee table online last week.  When I went to pick it up the lady was very apologetic about the state of it and said it was OK if I didn't want to take it once I saw it in the flesh.

It did come with drawers but I forgot to put them in for the photo.  Doesn't look so bad though hey?  What about this angle?

I thanked the lady for giving me an out but said that it didn't bother me at all as I'd be refinishing it.  In fact I was glad it looked like this on top, it probably put a lot of people off ;)

I got to work with my heat gun, stripping the finish off the table top.  It was raining when I was doing this which was quite a good thing as the bits I was scraping off kept catching on fire! 

(Don't worry I was working with a roof over me!)

This is as good as I cared to get it with the heat gun, 120 grit sandpaper on the orbital sander made short work of the rest.

For this piece I chose not to completely sand all the dents and dings out, I wanted to keep a bit of character in the table top.

I did my usual on the table top, then played with a couple of my Annie Sloan Chalk Paints® - Duck Egg and Old White.  I *think* that it was either equal parts of each, or 4 parts of Old White and 3 parts Duck Egg.  Pretty sure it was the latter but if you are wanting to try it, just do equal parts of each, mix well to check the colour, if you don't think it is light enough add one more part of Old White.  When I've been mixing colours I just do it using disposable tablespoons and a plastic disposable plate.  It does pay to be careful to remember your mix, particularly if you have to make up more than one batch for your project.  For this coffee table, my 6 or 7 tablespoons was exactly the right amount for two coats.  Which was lucky for me given my lack of concentration while I was mixing the colour!

After distressing, waxing and buffing, here it is (looking right at home in my family room I might add!)

I love these porcelain crackle knobs, them seem to look great on anything!

Here are some of the dings and dents I left in the table top for character :)

I have used Annie Sloan Wax all over this table, including the top.  The other day I mentioned that I had four tables in my home that I've done in this finish - two of them are sealed with water based poly (two coffee tables, one of these lives outside) and two are waxed (both dining tables).  They all get a hammering, particularly one of the small dining tables as the kids eat their breakfast at it.  It gets plenty of spills and lots of wiping but the surface remains perfectly sealed.  I can't say it has remained in perfect condition however, due to the amount of little kid handwriting that has been indented into the table over the years...grr!  Lucky I know how to refinish tables, aye ;)

I wonder what the lady who owned the coffee table would say if she saw it now?

This is for sale has sold, thanks.
Sharing at Lilyfield Life, Savvy Southern Style, Miss Mustard Seed, Blue Egg Brown Nest The Happy Housie and Elizabeth and Co