Stepback Cupboard

Stepback cupboards have a top section which is set back from the bottom.  They are a popular design which dates back centuries.  The cupboard that I painted was primitive in design and handmade.  The stain which was opaque was dried out and peeling away in most places.  This is what it looked like on Etsy where I purchased it from a local business called  In the Raw Vintage.

I had to do a lot of sanding to get rid of that peeling stain.

 

I painted the cupboard in Annie Sloan Country Grey and added Old White dry brushing to give it texture.  The inside was painted in a Provence mix.

This is a closer view of the dry brushing.  Country Grey is a perfect colour for a rustic piece like this.  It is a neutral “greige”and the type of colour you see on old furniture.  I don’t think the handles and knobs were original but they are old brass.  I painted them with  both colours and added copper gilding.  Now they look like verdigris.

The painted version is definitely an upgrade over the original which was not usable in its peeling state.

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A Playful Dresser

This antique dresser was probably just wood at one time but over the years it had been painted a few different shades.  When I bought it, it was a pale peachy beige and the inside of the drawers had been wallpapered in a beige and peach floral.  I have removed wallpaper from walls before but I had forgotten how much work it can be.  I might have reconsidered buying the dresser if I had known how much time I would need to remove it.  I thought about just painting over it but the wallpaper wasn’t in great shape and the corners weren’t very well done.  Because the dresser is on the small side, I just couldn’t see an adult using it so I painted it with a child in mind.

 

It gave me a chance to use FrogTape Shape Tape which gives a nice clean edge and a playful look.  I  admire the work of Poppyseed Creative Living who uses this tape a lot in her designs.  She has been an Annie Sloan Painter in Residence and has many great pieces.

The white looks pure white but it is actually a 50/50 mix of AS Pure White and Old White.  You can see that I got the wallpaper out of the drawers and painted them, as well as placing a bright orange wrapping paper inside.  The turquoise is AS Provence which is a lovely saturated blue/turquoise.

 

The antique-looking porcelain knobs are from Lee Valley and are a nice touch without being too feminine.

 

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Making Broken Beautiful | No. 22

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2015 in Review

These are some of my favourite pieces from this past year.  I like variety and I like to experiment with different colours and techniques.  I have discovered that I enjoy stripping and refinishing wood almost as much as painting it; I get immense satisfaction from the process.

1. A walnut desk painted in AS Coco with a white wash.  I loved the bookmatched veneer on the top of this desk.

2. An antique dresser painted in AS Old Ochre with Graphite dry brushed on the drawers and a Burgundy interior.

3.  A converted radio/record player also in Old Ochre with a turquoise interior.

4.  A mid-century modern dresser with mahogany drawers and Pure White body.

5.  An antique dresser painted with an Old White/ English Yellow mix and Old White drawers.

6.  A spool-legged dresser painted in Graphite with dark wax.

7.  A farmhouse dresser painted in AS Coco with fuchsia drawers

8. A mid-century sideboard with refinished top and grey body

9.  Cabinet painted in a teal mix with Antibes dry brushing

10. A wooden tray painted in AS Country Grey and Provence with gold leaf on sides and raised gold leaf and Provence stencil

Happy 2016 to everyone.

 

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Mid-Century Sideboard

I live in a house with traditional and antique furniture but I love mid-century modern design.  It’s partly nostalgic for me because I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s and partly because I love the clean lines and the look of the wood in a lot of the furniture.  I am particularly fond of Scandinavian glasswear such as the beautiful salad bowl that is visible in some of the pix in this post.  It is an Oiva Toikka Flora made by iittala of Finland.  If you are interested in the history of mid-century design, you can read this piece or read my earlier post on Atomic Design.

This is a before photo of the sideboard that I bought.  It was made in Canada by Gibbard, a well-known manufacturer of mahogany and walnut furniture.  It’s walnut and the design is typical of furniture from the time-period with straight lines and decorative door handles.  Gibbard knew their customers wanted something modern looking but not teak and sleek.  You can often tell whether something is Scandinavian or North American by the wood since most pieces made in America were walnut.

I stripped the drawers and the top section for a colour block effect.  I decided not to use stain since I wanted to see the beauty of the grain as much as possible.  I could have put straight poly on top of the clean wood but I opted for Tung oil.  There are 2 advantages to using an oil finish like Tung or Danish oil:  they penetrate the wood and really raise the grain and they can be easily fixed with sanding and re-application of the oil.  The disadvantage is that they are not waterproof like poly.  They are water-resistant but you have to treat the surface like fine furniture.  I have a mahogany side table with a Tung oil finish that has never had a mark on it in 25 years.

I painted the body in a mid-grey milk paint.  For an added touch of colour, I painted the insides of the drawers in AS Provence and added a Provence stripe inside the cabinet.

You can see the ittala salad bowl in the above pix.  I went for a colour-block effect which gives the sideboard  a contemporary look.  The wood is very beautiful and I am happy with how it turned out.

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Beautiful Teal

I have written in the past about how much I love turquoise and all its variations.  Annie Sloan’s Provence is one of my all time favourite colours; I also love her Florence, but it is a very bold blue-green that is probably too strong for most people.  It’s very easy to mix chalk paint and get hundreds of variations both light and dark.  I love the combination of the blues and greens that produce shades of turquoise, teal and peacock.  Leslie Stocker’s excellent blog Colorways shows lots of mixes and I really admire the peacock coloured cabinet that is in this post.    

This Art-Deco dresser was painted in a combination of Annie Sloan Florence and Aubusson.  It produced a green/blue teal.  I have a wall in my kitchen painted in Benjamin Moore Majestic that is almost the identical colour:

I opted to paint the dresser a solid colour without distressing or any other textural detail.  This is unusual for me as I generally like washes or dry-brushing.  I thought I would try something plainer and rely on the glass knobs to add a bit of sparkle to the piece.  The dresser does have nice Art Deco detail on the drawers.

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Two-toned Furniture

I love the look of two-toned furniture, whether it is the popular wood top and painted base or two shades of painted wood.  There is something  sophisticated looking about pieces that have been painted this way.  I have to admit that it is one of the looks that drew me to furniture painting; I have painted a lot of solid pieces but it is the two-toned ones that I get the most pleasure from.  A quick look on the internet shows that it is very popular at the moment-take a look at this Pinterest page which shows a lot of examples.

These mahogany end tables which were painted in a lightened Provence with Old White drawers and gilding are one of my most popular pieces.  I use one of the pix on my Facebook page and people keep contacting me trying to buy them.   The tables were very good quality to begin with but painted, they are beautiful.

Mahogany End tables.

Another mahogany piece that I painted was this Art Deco dresser.  It was painted in Provence again but this time, I put Aubusson on the edges and a wash all over which gives it the blue colour.  The edging and dentil molding were heavily distressed.  The dresser had very distinctive brass knobs and handles.

My latest piece is a round end table that came from a Habitat for Humanity ReStore which had been given a shipment of hotel furniture.  I painted it in French Linen with Old Ochre on the top as well as some gilding.  It was originally dark brown wood and is a nice, solid piece.  It was fine that way but is much prettier in this painted combination.

I love grey and off-white as it is quite elegant.

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Using Dark Wax

Annie Sloan, the other chalk paint brands and the major refinishing brands all sell a version of dark wax. Dark wax is essentially a faux finishing tool that allows you to add an aged-look to a newly painted piece. Used on the right piece or in the right places, it is very effective; however, it can also be a disaster and may end up giving the piece a dirty, streaked look.
I have used it quite a few times but I have to say that I prefer it on carvings, distressed edges and darker colours. I would never put in on Pure White or Old White unless I was really trying to make the piece look old, like something that had been painted years before and aged. This is the second piece of furniture that I painted when I first started out. It is in AS Provence and you can see that it is a lovely mahogany dresser to begin with. I plunged right in and put the dark wax on the drawers, the edges and the top. I ended up removing some of it because it was streaky but I did leave a lot on. This is one of the pieces that people comment on the most and I did have someone ask me if it was actually very old or just made to look that way. So the wax did its job.

I tend to use dark wax mostly on distressed edges. These pix show it on the carved trims:

If you are afraid to use it, I would suggest you start out in small areas and not try to put it on a large surface until you are comfortable with the process.  There are some basic rules to using it:  Put it on over a clear wax because it contains stain and will sink into the paint and be impossible to remove if you don’t like it.  If I distress something, I always use a bit of dark wax to make the wood stand out.  Mix a bit of varsol in with the wax to thin it out if you find it hard to work with ( this also makes a good glaze).  You can also remove it if you don’t like it.  Clear wax will take if off but the cheaper, more efficient method is to use solvent ( varsol).

One of the things that I like the best about dark wax is the way it deepens colours.  This little antique dresser was painted in red chalk paint.  I waxed it then put dark wax over the whole thing.  It settled nicely into the edges, the distressing and enhanced the colour.  Because it is an antique farmhouse dresser, it really seemed to suit the piece.  I also used it on the knobs to make them  match in colour and to age them as well.

Dark wax, glazes and washes all give more dimension to painted furniture.

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Another Desk

I have had a lot of luck selling desks and I am not exactly sure why.  Most vintage desks are a lot smaller than more modern versions especially computer desks, so I would not have thought there was a lot of appeal.  Maybe it’s the fact that people don’t need as much desk space anymore with tablets and laptops or maybe it’s just the vintage look that people are interested in.

This latest piece was bought at a thrift store.  It had thick shiny paint on it but I could see that it had a very nice braid trim on the edge.  This told me that it was good wood; it is all mahogany and the top refinished very nicely.  I painted the body in Annie Sloan Provence and Old White. Make Me Pretty Again’s blog on cerusing oak got me thinking about highlighting the trim to make it stand out more.  I made my own liming wax by mixing Old White into the clear wax and  I used it on both the trim and the Provence.  It softened the colour and gave it an antique look.  The handles are original to the desk and have a bit of an Art Deco design to which I added some German Silver gilding.

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The revolving door of kitchen tables

This is what our kitchen table used to look like

Then it changed to this when  we began  our kitchen reno and we decided that it was too big for the room.

Pine table with Pure White

I have written a post about the refinishing here.  We sold this table and decided to buy a smaller round table to open up the room a bit.  I bought this round table for $20.  It’s not actually wood.  The base is metal and top is something like MDF made to look like wood.   I stripped the top as best I could-MDF doesn’t really strip well and I stained it with an ebony stain.  You can still see highlights of the old golden oak colour mixed in with the black/brown.  I painted the base in AS Provence.

It looks very pretty and the colour combination works well.  We painted the accent wall in the kitchen a deep turquoise to go with it and I bought some cane back chairs which I painted white.  The coverings which are a lovely leaf print are a perfect match.

The problem was that we didn’t really like the round table.  I guess all those years of having a larger table had conditioned us to a bigger surface.  It’s all a little too pretty as well.  So, onto table #3.

This one was a bit of a mess when I bought it.  The previous owner had refinished it in a shiny pine colour but he had taken a layer of veneer off the top before he did that.  Consequently, it has holes, gouges and dents.  It used to have a stretcher bar across the bottom but for some reason that was removed as well.  My husband thought I was nuts but I liked the size and the older look.  I filled in a lot of holes but really couldn’t make the surface perfect and that’s ok with me.  And I went for a completely different colour.  I had half a can of AS Chateau Grey on hand.  If you are familiar with this, it’s not really grey at all but almost olive green with a grey undertone.  It’s not a colour that I am attracted to but it really works well in the room ( there is some green in the back splash) and co-ordinates well the turquoise.  I put a white wash on it for a couple of reasons.  It softens the colour, it ties in with the chairs and it highlights the imperfections rather than disguises them.  I am very happy with the result.  If you have ever painted over a shiny surface like verathane or varnish, you will notice that once it is waxed, the shine will come through.  It’s much shinier than a regular surface.

One more thing( if you are still reading this) I bought 2 table and chair sets and one single table in order to get a table and 4 chairs for our kitchen.  I sold the round one, sold a set of press back chairs and I still have a refinished table with 2 cane back chairs to sell.  Once they are gone, I will have paid for all my purchases and made a profit.   Not the easiest way to acquire a table but I actually enjoyed it. Of course, in retrospect, I could have kept the original table.  Here’s the final set to be sold ( minus the press back chairs).

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A tale of two chairs

These 2 vintage chairs are both considered Windsor chairs.  A Windsor chair has a saddle seat with drilled holes into which the legs and the back are fitted.  It originated in England probably some time in the 17th century but it first became associated with the town of Windsor around 1710.  English Windsors were usually stained and the seat was made from elm, a strong wood that does not split easily.  American Windsors were made with a variety of woods and often painted to disguise the different types.  In the 19th century, rustic chairs were painted with milk paint which was a mixture of buttermilk, turpentine and cow’s blood. There are a variety of styles that can be seen in this picture:

http://www.designsponge.com/2010/09/past-present-windsor-chair-history-resources.html

Although always available because of the simplicity of the design, Windsor chairs have gone in and out of style.  They are associated with the Colonial Revival movement of the late 19th century and are generally seen in traditional homes.  However, the eclectic mix and match fashion of the last few years has created a new interest in using Windsors ( usually painted) with other styles.  Look at this great photo from Houzz.com:

Photo by Jeanette Karlsen. See more scandinavian dining room designs

The chairs have been painted light pink and paired with mid-century furniture.  Or this one:

Photo by Neiman Taber Architects. See more contemporary dining room designs

                                                                                                                                                                                                                       You can find an excellent article with more photos of a modern take on Windsor chairs  here.

My two chairs were both bought at the same garage sale.  The first one is a 1930’s rocker which is an adult chair and the small size suggests it was marketed for women.  It is a good-sized child’s chair by today’s standards which is why I painted it turquoise ( an AS Provence/Florence mix).  I like the dipped look on hoop back chairs.

The white chair was someone’s painting chair and was covered in paint spots.  I painted the seat and back in purple ( AS Old Violet and Emperor’s Silk) then painted over it in Pure White.  I wiped off a lot of the white paint to reveal the undercoats.  You can also see some of the original splatters.  It’s not everyone’s taste but I love this little chair.  It’s very sturdy in spite of being old looking and I think it would look great as an accent chair somewhere.

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