Get in Gear

I've officially run out of my current color OBSESSION

(Tick Tock from Amy Howard at Home)

so I cracked open another recently released color that is also 

GORGEOUS!

GET IN GEAR...

We primed this solid wood cabinet in white before applying Get in Gear

then distressed with a medium grit sanding sponge

to reveal both the white and the dark stained wood

(I've found if you distress One Step Paint right after it's dry, it distressed fairly easily)

The color is rich, vibrant, and saturated...

I love how the Mercury Glass hardware  glistens against the blue-green shade

I opted to keep the interior very simple

in fresh, clean white

(the doors had decorative wood inserts, but I loved the more modern look

of the plain glass doors)

This is a wonderful statement piece, don't you think?

I imagine this piece in a neutral dining room

(perhaps mostly white?)

with some natural wood elements

Haven't tried Get in Gear yet?

Go for it! 

M~

Gilded Age Gorgeousness

We recently had the opportunity to try out a new product

(OK, new to US!)

It's called Modern Masters

and I now want to paint EVERYTHING

metallic!

We used the "Shimmer" Metallic Paint

in Warm Silver

(and let me tell you, I AGONIZED over what color to try

there is a rainbow of shimmery hues!)

I know, I know...you want pictures!

Here you go!

Remember THIS set?

Well just LOOK at her now!

So about the paint...

it goes on like a DREAM

It's opaque, but we used a lighter shade, so we used three coats

When I told Kenny we were going to try metallic paint, he said:

"you better let ME do this project"

He said this because he is a perfectionist painter,

whereas I am NOT...

Usually, metallics are VERY unforgiving

and every brush stroke shows

(which explains why Kenny didn't want me to do it!)

but this paint is so SMOOTH!

It dried fairly quickly, too

These pieces had a shiny, varnished surface

so we lightly sanded them first

We distressed just a little, and the paint was easy to distress

To finish, we used dark wax

I was very worried that I'd opted to tackle 

such a LARGE project with one quart of paint...

but guess what?

We've got half a quart left!  

I am OVER-THE-MOON

about how this set turned out...

Modern Masters was the perfect choice

to GLAM it up...

I loved it so much, in fact, 

I'm painting my own buffet-turned-entertainment center next!

This set is available in our ETSY shop

Score!

 I cried the blues on FB

about how all the French Provincial pieces I'd been finding

were poor quality, particle board, laminate-topped junk

 and what do I stumble upon, in two days time?  

( I didn't edit these, so sorry for the less-than-perfect shots!)

 

Yep, this baby is Drexel Touraine...

(please ignore my dinner sitting on top!)

and then, the next day...these!

 The drawer fronts must be two inches thick...

It's also FILTHY

so it's getting the mean-clean

Sadly, someone beat me to the 9-drawer dresser

and fancy-schmancy mirror that matched...

sigh...

Let's hope this great luck holds up,

this is the kind of stuff we LOVE to paint!

seeing red...again!

It all started with this little table...my love affair with red paint!

I should have kept these pillow cases, too, because now I wish I had them!

then, I saw this (sorry, I don't recall source!) and I was really smitten!

Of course, someone else already spray-painted this dresser red,

but why not just go with it, I said to myself...

(repaint it red, of course! not leave it as-is)

So I've been really "feeling" red lately

I love the idea of adding red accents to a neutral space...

some grain sack pillows, red ticking stripes...you get the idea!

Which leads me to the point of this blog post:

Bright Red Milk Paint

from The Real Milk Paint Company

How do I love thee?

Let me show you how!

The first piece was painted with thinned coats of milk paint

 (with anti-foaming agent added for smoothness)

I used three thin coats to achieve this depth of color...

I sealed the surface with Burnishing Paste

and once dry, I topped that with Annie Sloan's Dark Wax

The finish is divine...and as you can see, it stayed pretty vibrant red!

On this old chair, I really wanted the wood grain texture to show through

but not the wood itself, if that makes any sense...

to achieve this, I watered the paint down even more,

and did four very thin coats

 I wanted this chair to be a bit darker, not as vibrant

so it would accent the desk without matching it perfectly

This chairs was finished with Dark Wax right over the milk paint

You can see the dramatic difference in color...both lovely!

You can find these items in our Etsy Shop

Serenity Dresser

This dresser needed MUCH love

when we brought it home...

That's Kenny's department!

I knew I wanted soft, serene colors for this piece

It had already been through enough!

 We custom mixed this gorgeous, soft color

It was inspired by a color called "Sugar Cane"

I love the bow-front,  the pretty details on each side

I love the hardware...oh, who am I kidding, I love it all

In case you're curious, this piece was done

with milk paint with Bonding Agent added

We stripped the top, but haven't stained it yet...

Stain it, paint it...I'm leaving that decision to the buyer!

What have YOU painted lately?

Chartreuse (aka Pea Soup)

This mirror...so lovely

except is was COVERED 

in bright gold GLITTER paint

 

yep, I said glitter

 

It's solid wood

super heavy

and the carved details are really cool

The obvious choice was to paint this mirror

in a soft, "shabby" color

to compliment the carved hearts and flowers...

...we try to avoid the obvious choice

Coat one went on...

Kenny painted it in Hunter Green milk paint

 

now, I do love green, but the dark color

seemed to obscure the details too much

so while he was busy with something else,

I mixed up some deep aqua milk paint

You can see it peeking through here and there

It was pretty, but I really was craving something different!

I mixed up a crazy concoction of milk paint until I got a color

that resembled chartreuse

 

 

PERFECTION!

Completely different, unusual, and vibrant

while still being elegant

 

Good thing it's still a shade of green, 

otherwise I'd have an unhappy husband to contend with! 

We did a bit of distressing, toned down the vibrancy 

a little with Dark Wax

(for a tutorial on waxing, click HERE )

It's a bit classic, a bit funky...

and a bit unexpected

Just like us!