Dresser #2

If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that I love me a good antique dresser.  If you’re new to my blog… Well, I love antique dressers!  Now, that we are all caught up, let me tell you about my most recent find.This beaut was another Craigslist treasure.  That Craig and his crazy list sure have a some hidden gems.  I got this tall antique dresser from good old Craig for $40.  Sure, it needed some work, but the $40 was money well spent.  Here’s a side view, just in case you didn’t get enough of the lovely dull yellow paint…I went a different route this time, then the last dresser I tackled.  Instead of sanding the many old layers of paint off this old girl, I decided to use a paint stripper.  I have never used a stripper before, so I was pumped to give it a try.  I did some googling to find out which stripping agent had the best results.  It seemed that most DIYers out there are loving Citristrip Stripping Gel.  I had my winner, I picked up this bottle of Citristrip at Home Depot for $11.98.  I have heard some harsh things around the interweb about paint stripping agents.  Apparently, they can have some pretty rank smells, and be damaging to many materials, including skin.  This stuff was rated highly because it has a nice orange scent and it is safe enough to use indoors.  And, although, I had the option to work inside, I still chose to take this project out to the garage (thank goodness, it was a filthy job).  I, also, used a good pair of gloves because this stuff will still harm your skin.

Before I went to town slathering Citristrip everywhere, I removed all of the knobs and gave it a good wipe down, including inside of the drawers.Then, I just used an old paint brush to brush the Citrstrip on every painted surface of the dresser. It took me about 30 minutes to cover all of the surfaces.  After 15 minutes or so, the paint began to do this…See all that rippling and bubbling?  Typically, this is not considered a good look for a dresser but, I was happy to see it.  This meant it was working, and faster than I expected.

From there, I just used a metal spackle tool to scrape the paint off of the dresser.Here is what it was looking like after I had scraped all of the surfaces…It took about an hour of scraping to get it to this stage.Pretty good.  Don’t you think?  But, still not good enough.  There was still some paint and a layer of lacquer left.  So, I did another round of stripping.  All the same steps again.  And, I had this…Do you see that top center drawer?  Ya those are flowers.  Pretty inlaid fowers that were covered up by paint.  Oh people.  Why do you paint over things like this?I think it’s a pretty detail, so I was thrilled to find it.

From there, I just grabbed my palm sander and gave everything a good sanding, twice.I, then, stained the all surfaces with the same Minwax stain in English Chestnut that I used on the last dresser.  And, I had this…I know!  You are totally doing this right now…I get it.  I do.  I was doing the same thing.

I definitely wanted everything to stay as nice as it was turning out.  So, it was time to seal this puppy.  I used Minwax’s Water Based Polycrylic Protective Finish.  I ordered a quart off of amazon for $16 and some change (free shipping of course, thank you Amazon Prime!).I, also, bought a new higher quality paint brush, just to avoid any paint strokes.  When applying, I made sure to brush the sealer on in very thin coats.  I did two coats, some people suggest three, but since this piece wouldn’t get too much action, I figured two would be fine.  If I were working on an end table or coffee table I would probably go with three coats, since they would more likely have more traffic on their surfaces.  I let everything dry for a day, then added the knobs I had picked out.  I needed ten knobs!  TEN!  That’s a lot of knobs, and at the usual $5 a pop I was looking at $50, just on knobs!  Even though that would only bring the total cost of this dresser to about $100, I wasn’t digging that price.  So, being a cheapskate at heart, I googled around for some other options.  I knew I wanted them to be white and something that would look okay with the antique look of this dresser.  I came across these guys on Amazon (have I mentioned I love Amazon?)…And, at $22 for all 10, I was sold!

Last step, I just put all of the knobs in place and VOILA!!…The stain and polyacrylic really made a huge difference.  I am stoked about how it turned out.  And, in case you are wondering where this old girl is going to live.  I am happy to tell you it landed in my art/craft/office/extra guest room. See it?  Hanging out over there on the far right wall?  We tossed the old futon that was living on that wall and put the dresser in it’s place.  I was needing more storage in here and what better than this dresser?I totally dig it and am so excited to have these big drawers for added storage.  For fun here is slideshow of the process…

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Have your ever refinished an old piece of furniture?  What were your methods?  Any suggestions for future projects? Do tell!

Painting the Guest Bedroom

My blue dresser has a home!  Remember this guy?…

Well, his living arrangements were determined early on.  I knew I wanted him to live in our guest bedroom.  We desperately needed to kick our old entertainment center to the curb and find a better solution.  This little blue dresser was my solution!

So, I dragged the old entertainment center to the road and moved the blue dresser into it’s place.  I stepped back, and took at the room, and I thought booo.  I wasn’t digging all of the blue hues going on in this room.  It was blue overload.

So, I painted.

I went with Colorplace Autumn Haze.  It is a pretty neutral tan color. I figured with all the blue going on in here, it would help tone things down. P.S. I just throw everything in the center of the room when I paint, don’t mind my mess. Once I was finished painting, I brought the dresser back in.  And, what do you know? It looked much better with the neutral wall color!  Woot woot! Of course, Charlie helped keep an eye on my work.   And he also digs the new color. I think it looks bigger in here now, even with more furniture.  Weird how a color will do that. One last thing before you go.  A before and after…

 

Dresser Love

A while back (were talking months ago) my friend Gwen gave me a small antique dresser.  She told me it needed some love, and thankfully I always have extra love to share with an antique dresser.  Here she is…

I know, she’s a beaut! I got her home and guess what?  …  It sat in my garage for about 3 months.  Justin threatened to bring it to the curb multiple times.  Of course, I retaliated, that I would be moving out if he did. Gotta do, what you gotta do for an antique dresser.  Fast forward a few months, and I decided it was time to get to work.

There were a few things I wasn’t jazzed about.  First the color.  Don’t get me wrong, red can be amazing, but I have no place for a red dresser in my house.

Next up, this broken drawer…

All of the drawers were in great condition, except that lower one.  It had seen better days, and was missing the bottom.  Kind of defeats the purpose of a drawer when you can’t store anything in it.  Lastly, I wasn’t in love with the drawer pulls.

The first thing I did was give the whole piece a good scrub, inside and out.  I used a few old rags with some diluted vinegar.  Did the job perfectly, and I swear the vinegar smell wears off.

Next, I wanted to sand all of the surfaces down with my palm sander.  I have a Ryobi detail sander.Before starting, I removed all of the knobs from the drawers, then removed the drawers from the dresser completely.From there, I just made my way from right to left using the palm sander.  I started with the lowest grit sandpaper I had, which was 80.  With a little pressure on the palm sander, I was able to remove most of the paint in the first shot.  Some areas were harder to work with, like the slats in between the drawers.  But, overall the paint removed pretty easily. The palm sander wouldn’t quite fit in the top slots, where I had removed the top three drawers.  So, I used a low grit sand paper to get in those areas by hand.

Lastly, I had to get the paint off of the drawers.  This was pretty straight forward, just sanding some more flat surfaces.I gave all off the surfaces one more good sanding with 120 grit sand paper.  I made sure to work with the grain of the wood.  This last sanding removed any remaining paint, and evened out any scratches on the wood.  As I previously mentioned, I was not planning on reusing the same hardware that came with the dresser.  So, I needed to fill the holes in the drawers left from the old pulls.  I used DAP painter’s putty.  You just fill the hole with the spackle, then pull a trowel across the area to remove any access putty. Once I had all of the holes filled, I let them dry for a few hours.  I, then, gave the drawers one last sanding with my palm sander to remove any remaining putty around the (now filled) holes.  Here she is holes filled and free of paint…I had planned to give this dresser a painted distressed look, and I wanted to have some darker wood tones showing through.  In order to do so, my next step was to stain the wood to a darker tone.  I used Minwax stain in English Chestnut.  I just used a foam brush to paint the stain on, going with the grain of the wood.  I, then, took an old rag and wiped any access stain off of the surface.  This is one step where you have to move a little quicker, since you do not want the stain to dry.Please don’t judge my poor dresser at this stage, it looks a bit rough.  As you can see, I didn’t completely get the red paint off of the ledge where the top drawers sit.  It was a tight area to work with, but I made sure everything was smoothed out, even if there was still paint remaining.Also, the top of the dresser had been spackled by a previous owner and those spots did not take the stain.  I was not worried though because I knew I would be painting over all of these issues.  Perfection wasn’t what I was going for at this point.   Then, it was time for paint.  This is a make or break, color is a big choice, and I was thinking about going a little more bold than usual.  I decided on a blue, specifically Olympic’s Celestial Blue.  Once I had my paint, I got right too it…Let me tell you, I was really worried about my choice at this point.  I was not digging how bright this blue was turning out. I figured I made it this far, I might as well slap a second coat on and see how I feel about it.

Much better! Thank god for second coats.  Just check out the difference in these drawers.The top drawer is one coat and the bottom drawer has two coats, in case you can’t tell.

Here she is, in all her blue glory…Woo to the hoo people, I am stoked about how it turned out!

Now, this is where the distressing comes in to play.  I debated how I wanted to go about distressing this dresser, and I ended up deciding not to do anything at all.  I love it just as it is, and I figure if I want to distress it in the future, I can do so at anytime.

Since there would be no distressing, I just had to get some new hardware and this puppy is done!  So, I let the paint dry for a few days, and while I waited I came across a sale on these knobs at Pier One…$0.98 each!  Which is amazing considering I needed 8 of them!  The metal matches the antiqued gold key slots on the drawers and I love the hand painted leaves.  Before I drilled my new holes for the pulls, I measured and marked where I wanted them to go.  I measured twice, just to be sure. Then, I grabbed Justin’s Dewalt drill, and I found the drill bit that was just slightly larger than the screws that came with the knobs.  I placed a piece of painters tape over my marks (I saw somewhere that this will reduce the chances of splintering your wood or damaging your paint).  Then, I just drilled right into the tape.  Once I had all of my news holes, I plopped the new hardware in place and voila…If you are wondering, I did not forget about the broken drawer!  I brought the whole bottom drawer to Home Depot, and one of the guys in the lumber section cut me a piece of wood that fit the slot in the drawer perfectly (yes, they do that for FREE).  Once I got the wood home, I just nailed it in place, so it wouldn’t move around.  The wood piece only cost about $4, and this dresser now is in full working condition!

And just for fun, a slideshow of the process…

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There you have it, our new/old dresser.  Can’t wait to show you where it ended up, but that’s a different post for a different day.

The Antique Market

Sorry for the delay in posting lately!  Our wedding is approaching fast and I have been busy working on getting everything ready!  I wish I could share all of my wedding projects, but it has to stay under wraps until our big day!  But I will be sure to make you sick to your stomach with all of my wedding ventures once we are married.  Ah Married!  That’s crazy!  Now on to the Antique Market…

If you live in Jacksonville and you enjoy antiques you probably already know about The Antique Market, if you don’t you will now and you’re welcome.  I finally made my way out to The Antique Market and fell head over heals in love with this place!  I was basically Ariel seeing the human world for the first time and I think we all now how enthusiastic she was.

And now I am going to show you this whole new world, get it?  Sorry I’m lame.

This place will try to trick you by looking all cute and quaint, but it is ginormous inside.  It goes on and on with booth after booth of antiques of all different kinds.   I love the idea of having many different vendors in one building.  I find that most antique collectors have certain things that catch their eye, and the pieces they sell usually show it.  I love to see the different style of each vendor and also can usually find at least one thing I fancy in each booth.

Here is one of the first booths that caught my eye.  In particular that rolling teal table.

How cute is that? I could see this as a short little coffee table or I would personally use it in my art room, it would be perfect to transport supplies around the room.

These trunks were something that I saw as soon as I walked in.  I don’t know about you, but I feel like I can never get enough storage in my house and why not let it be an awesome antique, amiright?  I would throw either of these guys in the corner of a bedroom or even at the foot of the bed and use it to store extra sheets, pillows, you know all that good stuff.

I am really digging little antique medicine bottles at the moment, here are a couple that I spotted on my way in.

How about this cute little guy?  You know I found him right away.  He was was heavy and if he came home with me he would be a doorstop.

They also have some great furniture at some really great prices, loved this one above and the one below… hubba hubba.

This booth you could smell from a mile away, look at all of those homemade candles.  And I’m talking good smells.

Here is a view of the rest of her booth and you now know how long it has taken me to write this post, with all of the halloween decor around.

This bench was almost mine.  I would love to have a bench like this by our front door, gotta have somewhere to put your shoes on.

This booth was amazing, it was sort of music inspired with some other goodies throughout.  My favorites were the mandolins hanging around…

I will learn to play you someday mandolin!

Did I mention I loved the furniture?  This booth was also pretty sweet.  I especially loved this old wheel…

How awesome would that be hung on a wall?

This guy also wanted to come home with me to be another form of storage, probably for magazines exactly as it was being used there.

Are you in the market for a squirrel nut cracker?  Well, theh you’re in luck… because The Antique Market has one!  Oh no?  You need a dog nut cracker? Okay…

Boom! Got that too.

This booth was one of my favorites.  It just had so many unique antique finds.  I love this desk/table on the bottom and also those wooden cube boxes on the very top.

This awesome dough bowl and copper bin were in the same booth.  And one more because this booth was so bad ass…

It had a moose!  Say what?  Yes, a moose.  Love it!

This booth was also pretty killer.  It had some great signs and bottles. Want a closer look?

The booth above had some pretty great chalkboards.

 I love me some crates and they have plenty…

The above booth was full of fishing, outdoor, and men type antiques.  I pretty much wanted to take everything home to give to Justin.

This industrial looking chair was amazing.

If you take a walk outside and around the corner you’ll find chickens!  CHICKENS!  I mean I thought this place couldn’t get cooler, then it had pet chickens!

And after you pass the chicken coop you’ll come across the Consignment Barn which is a little bonus that is right next door.

Here’s what you’ll see there…

But that is a different story for a different day.  For today I’ll let you just bask in the glory of the Antique Market! Oh and PS they have awesome employees/vendors.  They are super helpful fabulous people!  Go see for yourself.

Willowcreek Antiques and Interiors(Rochester, NY)

While back in NY visiting my family, I got a chance to visit my friend Christina’s, mother JoAnn’s, antique shop!  I love me some good antiques so I was pretty stoked to check it out.  Here is what you will see when you arrive…

If this doesn’t get you excited to check out the inside of this shop I don’t know what will!  How cute is this barn? I love upstate NY with all of it’s beautiful barns and rolling hills.  Lets get to it and check out what they have!

Before you step inside you’ll notice this awesome bench made by none other than my friend Christina and her husband Dave.  As you can see it’s an old Ford tailgate made into a unique bench.  Sorry folks I don’t think this one is for sale!

In front of this bench I saw this great rustic white trunk.  If my memory is correct I am pretty sure it was only $35! This could be a great coffee table or used for blanket storage at the end of a bed!  This would have come home with me if I didn’t have to take everything back on a plane!

When I first walked in I spotted these vintage baskets.  JoAnn told me she believes they were originally from a library or a school.

I turned around and came across this adorable antique sink set up that was filled with soaps from a local crafter.  I love that JoAnn features local artists in her shop!  I am all about supporting local arts, crafts and farming!

If you head to the back of the barn there is a room that Christina told me her dad set up as the “man room”.  I loved it.  It is filled with all sorts of beer signs, tool boxes, antique fishing rods, jugs and flashlights.

I also wanted to take this vintage craftsman tool box home with me, at a price of $15, it is a steal.  Unfortunately, I was still battling the whole suitcase packing dilemma and being constrained to a 50lb. per suit case limit.  I would have loved to use it to store paint supplies for my art room.  It had a removable shelf inside which would be a great divider.

These antique paddles were also calling my name.  I could just picture them hung in the little nitches that I have in the tall ceilings in my living room.

Can you picture it? I also came across this other paddle that I was digging…

I believe they were $30 each.  Not bad!

Check out this jug lamp and little antique lunch pail.

JoAnn also has many beautiful antique dressers at amazing prices.  I believe this one was $95!!!  You cannot find a deal like that here in FL, down here this antique could sell for close to $400!  Here is another that I am absolutely smitten with…

This one was $150 and I need to own it!  I love the drawer pulls and the fact that it is on wheels.

Both of these china cabinets were around $150 each, which is another great price.  I wish I lived closer!!  On top of the white cabinet I saw these antique glass bottles…

Thought about picking them up for my wedding, but I think I have enough glassware for my center pieces.  Someone please go purchase them and fill them with wild flowers!!!

These vintage trunks were so unique.  They even had writing from the previous owner on them with instructions for delivery.  I also think these would make great storage in a bedroom, possibly a little boys room? The possibilities are endless people!

This old wine barrel was beautiful!  And the burlap bags on top were pretty superb as well.  I could see them made into a couple throw pillows!

I had an awesome time checking out JoAnn’s shop and I wish her great success,  I plan to stop in each time I am back in NY to check out any of her new finds!  You should go visit her if you live close by(5377 Ridge Rd W, Spencerport, NY 14559)! Also check out her facebook page and take my advice, go visit her you wont be disappointed!

This is my friend Allison, myself and Christina outside the shop.

I will be back tomorrow with another post to show you what did come home with me and where it ended up in my home!

A Little Bit of This a Little Bit of That

This here is a very random post.  I just have a couple quick things that we have done lately that I have not shared.  What better time then now?  Am I right?

First up the fan in my art room has changed again.  We now went from this…

To this…

The white fan just fits better in this room.  The brown fan was nice, but it was too dark.

Want a side by side?  Finnnne…

I just think it fits better in this space.  This room has a lot further to go, slowly but surely were making our way.

One other quick thing I did was move the guest room around a bit, before it was looking like this…

Now here is it’s new set up…

Basically, I just added our TV stand and TV, and moved the bed to the center of the room.  I put the two stools on each side of the bed to be used as night stands.  This room now feels more balanced to me.  Eventually I would like to get a nice antique dresser to put across from the bed instead of our old TV stand, for now it works though.

So these are couple little things I wanted to share.  Thanks for reading folks!