the french armoire - before & after

Some of you have been waiting a long time for this one. Trust me when I say that I have, too.

Back in March or maybe April, I was browsing Craig's List.  I looked all over my area and didn't find one thing that was of interest to me.  Hating to spend all of that time searching and only to come up empty, I decided to expand my search.  I looked in metro areas where I had family, including the Orlando area where my parent's live.  And, I came across this French armoire for $150. 

"Um, Dad...will you pick up an armoire for me?  Pretty please?"  Batting eyelashes don't translate over the phone, but my Dad melted at my sweet, angelic tone. 

Not only did he pick up the armoire for me and spotted me the money until I sent him the check, but he stored it in the garage and then packed it up and drove it to Pennsylvania in May for me.  My mom was freaking out for a few weeks about fitting the armoire and everything else they needed to transport in the back of the truck, but it all worked out. 

This is the armoire I used for my inspiration.  It was from the shop And George and was listed for $10,000.  That's a wee bit out of my budget.  Okay, it's a lot out of my budget. 

 

Mini Mustard Seed sanded the decorative painting off the pine armoire and then painted it in a mixture of ASCP Paris Gray and Louis Blue.  I then painted the details in Old White, distressed the edges and waxed the piece. 

 

I have always wanted a French armoire and I love how this one turned out. 

And the price was certainly right. 

a poor paint job

I used to shudder at pieces of furniture that were poorly painted.  Drips, major brush marks, streaks and chips.  I felt like my paint job would only be as good as the previous paint job and I needed to sand it baby bottom smooth to make it right.  Well, I have had a change of heart.  I no longer see problems in poor paint jobs.  I see texture.  Amazing texture just waiting to be highlighted and put on display. 

For example...this piece was poorly painted. It was streaky, drippy, chippy and not in a good way. The drawers worked perfectly, though, it's solid wood, has the original hardware and a great shape. 

Instead of stripping or sanding it, I just painted straight over it with a mixture of paint (I'll get into that in a minute.) Once the paint was dry, I sanded it heavily to bring out all of that imperfectly glorious texture.  Now the streaks and drips look dramatic and even intentional. 

As a little bonus, this wonderful spring green color came through under the gray and white layers of paint. 

The paint I used WAS going to be a mixture of ASCP Louis Blue, Paris Gray and Graphite, but I ran out of Graphite.  Hm.  What can I do to darken this color?  Well, I have some black chalk board paint.  What the heck, let's give it a go and see what happens.  Guess what?  It worked brilliantly.  I mixed in some of the black chalk board paint and it still had great adhesion and distressed well.  Who knew? 

I was so thrilled that the original glass knobs were a complete set and in great condition, so I just put them back on after I waxed and buffed the piece.  Oh, I also tried a new brand of wax...Mylands.  It is very, very stinky.  Like, stunk-up-my-entire-basement and I-had-to-open-the-doors-in-my-house-to-get-a-cross-breeze stinky.  Aside from that, I really like it.  It buffed up to a super smooth finish with a wonderful shine, so it's just another option for waxes out there. 

I brought this dresser to Lucketts on Thursday, so we'll see if someone else loves the textured look as much as I do. 

On a personal note, I am thoroughly enjoying the beginning of fall and the cool weather.  I love hoodies and jeans and football and soup and snuggling under blankets and the anticipation of the holiday season, so this is definitely my time of year.  We decided to go out and enjoy it today, so we hit some of the highlights of the Gettysburg battlefield. 

I'll share some more tomorrow.  I really do live in a beautiful corner of the world. 

French Poem Dresser

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. 

my home - before & after

I am tired today. It's a pretty rare thing for me. I'm always tired at the end of the day, but I woke up grouchy and I've been tired all day. I didn't even want to go out to yard sales this morning.  I spent the day hanging out with my family, cleaning my house and chipping away a little bit more at my office/craft room purging project.  Since I don't really have anything new to share and I'm too tired to write an involved post about anything, I decided to share some before and after pictures of my house.  If you're new to my blog, you may not have seen these and if you've been around for a long time, I'm sure you're the sort who appreciates a good before and after (even a regurgitated one.) 

Not all of the angles are the same, but you'll get an idea how far this house has come.  Here's the dining room before...

...and after.

The living room before...

..and after. 

The kitchen cabinets before...

...and after.

The guest room before...

...and after.

Quite a difference, huh?  There's still so much I want and need to do, but all in good time.  I'm off to have some dinner and will end the day watching a movie in bed.  I hope you're enjoying the first weekend of college football.  Go hoos! 

Just to respond to a few of the comments, the "before" pictures were taken before we moved in, so the furniture and decor in the photos belonged to the seller. 

Greek Blue

I love testing out new colors...escpecially blues.   So, last week I cracked open a can of ASCP (Annie Sloan Chalk Paint) Greek Blue.  Now, let me warn you.  The color is shocking when you first put it on.  It looks like electric blue.  You have to talk to yourself while you're using it and say, "Miss Mustard Seed warned me this would look like electric blue, but all will be well once it dries and is waxed."  Ok?  Let me tell you...this color is a stunner.  I love it. 

I've had this very old dresser in my basement for months.  It needed a lot of work and I kept putting off.  I finally worked on it...reattached the top, added new feet, fixed the drawers, cleaned it out, etc.  I am a bad blogger and didn't snap a before picture, but I'm sure you can imagine it.  It was that orangish wood, dried out, tired. 

I painted it in one coat of Greek Blue and hit the details with Old White.  I then heavily distressed the piece with a palm sander and a sanding sponge followed by a coat of clear wax mixed with dark. 

I love how it turned out and was so tempted to keep it for myself, but I didn't have the perfect place for it, which is my rule.  I am going to use this color somewhere in my house, though. 

Speaking of new colors, I just tried ASCP Olive on a dresser yesterday.  It's a lovely mossy green color and I'll share some pictures in a few days. 

On a different note, we had a bit of excitement here today.  Practically the entire east coast of the US was rocked with an earthquake.  I was sitting at my computer and I have a habit of fidgeting and shaking my foot.  So, I was shaking my foot and thought, "this bar stool is really wobbly."  I stopped shaking my foot, but the stool kept wobbling.  Then, the pot rack started swinging and the stack of dishes on my counter started chattering.  "I think this is a earthquake."  Craziness.  I hope everyone is OK and the damage was minimal.   

the washed buffet

Those of you with sharp eyes may have noticed the buffet behind the dining table in yesterday's post. 

It's had a pretty amazing makeover.  This piece is also confirmation that I married the right man. As a youth pastor, my husband helps a lot of people move and every once in a while he gets first crack at some furniture someone wants to sell or get rid of.  He came home one day after a move and said, "Oh.  These people were getting rid of a piece of furniture and I thought you might want it.  It's OK.  It's not as bad as some of the pieces you bring home."  Ha!  So, I went outside to check it out, certain he had picked up some 1970's monstrosity with obnoxious hardware and a shape I just couldn't work with.  I was so surprised to see this...

...a lovely antique buffet. A little mistreated (that faux painted wood is just wrong) and a little dinged up, but a very lovely piece. 

I knew this piece was going to be a beast, but I decided to give it my all. I stripped the paint off the top to reveal the natural wood.  I didn't stain it, but opted to just wax it.  The base was painted in ASCP's Paris Gray followed by a "wash" of equal parts Old White and water.  I brushed on the Old White mixture with a chip burhs and wiped it off with a dry cloth. Lastly, I hit the edges with some sand paper and waxed it with clear, soft wax. 

The knobs are carved and have a sort of tortoise shell look.  I purchased them at Hobby Lobby and they worked perfectly with the scale of the piece and the wood top. 

My husband is usually pretty relaxed about all of the furniture coming and going in our home, but he was really hesitant about letting this one go.  "Are you sure you want to sell it?  It would look great in our family room with a flat screen TV hung over it."  Oh boy, you're speaking my language.  Then, the reality of my empty space at Lucketts flashed into my mind and I strengthened my resolve.  "Don't worry.  I'll find another one."  I have to confess that I wouldn't have been too disappointed if it hadn't fit up the steps to my third floor space, but it did. 

Now, let's just hope I find another one! 

Another French Chair

I can't help myself.  I spent years searching for a French chair and now they seem to find me.  A sweet local reader, Allie, sent me a picture of four chairs to see if I wanted them.  They were gorgeous antique wood-framed French chairs.  Yes please.  They were upholstered in cream canvas, but it was dingy and they needed to be reupholstered.  Today, I worked on two of them to take to Lucketts tomorrow. 

I left the beautiful wood frames alone (see, I don't paint everything) and I upholstered the back and seat with antique European grain sacks.  Gorgeous, huh?

I'm selling two and I'll probably keep two for myself. 

Today, I also finished a dining set, a beautiful buffet, an oversized chalk board, a gold leaf mirror and a dresser.  I painted the dresser with a new-to-me ASCP color, Greek Blue.  It's shocking when it goes on, but it is yummy now that it's been distressed and waxed.  I can't wait to snap some pictures of those pieces tomorrow in my space and share them with you. 


Thanks again for all of the amazing comments from my "Losing and finding myself" post.  I've been going blind reading through all of them, but it's been so worth it.  Some of you shared very touching stories and I feel a connection with them all.  You're an amazing bunch of ladies.  There was a guy in there, too.  His comment was a riot in contrast to the rest.  It was basically a shoulder shrug and a thumbs up.  That's what you get when you come wading in the deep end of an estrogen pool. 

Curio Makeover

For the past few months, pieces of furniture have been coming and going at such a rapid pace that it is difficult for me to get before and after shots of every piece.  You may have noticed this curio cabinet in the corner of my room at Lucketts.  When I shared the pictures a couple of weeks ago, some may have thought, "Hmm.  I don't remember her ever showing the before and after on that."  Well, if you thought that, you're super observant and deserve some kind of prize.  Tell your hubby that I said he needs to wash the dishes for you tonight or something. 

Here's what this piece looked like when I first got it.  Great lines...everything else was a mess.  It was filthy, broken and looked depressing.  I could envision this cabinet stuffed to the gills and buried under a pile of possessions in an episode of Hoarders. 

I cleaned it out, used a chisel to "cut" off the broken fretwork, and glued up any loose areas. 

 

I then painted the interior in ASCP's Paris Gray and the outside in Old White.  A great improvement, don't you think?  This is one of those pieces I don't mind keeping in my space for display, but I did tag it, so if it sells, that's OK, too.  That is the whole point after all.

I'm headed down to Lucketts tomorrow with a van load of furniture and antiques, so I'll definitely share updated pictures of my space. 

Before I sign off, I want to welcome my newest sponsor, Spool No. 72.  They sell beautiful clothing, accessories and home decor.  Lots of fun stuff...including this French grain sack-inspired pillow...

...and some really fabulous dresses.  There's not a chance in the world I could pull off this dress, but isn't it fabulous? 

 

I really appreciate my sponsors...all of the people who think this blog of mine is worth supporting. 

Thank you.