The most effective way to do it is to do it – Amelia Earhart

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Annie Sloan

Removing Damaged Veneer

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During one of my Estate Sale shopping trips I found an old Victrola record cabinet that needed some fixing up. About a quarter of the veneer on the top of the cabinet was missing. A chunk of wood was also missing on one of the doors on the front.

For the door I had to take out the old screw and add a longer one so it would connect from the bottom of the hinge into the wood that wasn’t damaged. My first attempt didn’t work but I eventually was able to get a long enough screw into place so whe door would open and close with the hinge.

I used wood putty and sanded it so I could paint over it.

Back to the veneer top. I’ve used wood putty to fix veneer before but this area was too big to fix so it needed to come off. I tried just scraping it but quickly realized that wasn’t going to work. So I did a quick search on Pinterest and found a solution.

I took an old towel and got it wet and laid it over the veneer I wanted to remove. Be careful not to get any veneer you don’t want to remove wet. You don’t want any warping on veneer you want to keep. I would scrape off the parts that would come off easily and then lay the towel back down and spray it with a water bottle to let it soak into the veneer. I had to do this a few times. The towel needs to be pretty wet, not dripping wet but almost. I would let it sit for about an hour to let it get into and under the veneer. The glue holding the veneer down will soften up making it easier to scrape off. You can see from the picture I just used a putty knife.

This method worked really well for me, and then I just needed to sand it down for a smooth finish and paint it!

I painted this one Annie Sloan Napoleonic Blue. I finished it with clear wax and added Annie Sloan Bright Silver Gilding Wax to some of the edges. I replaced the old pulls with small glass door pulls to finish the look I wanted.

The record player had been removed from the inside so it makes a great storage cabinet.

I love taking taking an old piece of furniture and fixing it up so it’s beautiful and ready to be used again.

Hope you find this helpful. And thanks for stopping by. If you want to see more transformations and helpful hints take a minute to sign up for my emails.

Cindy

Vintage Farmhouse Table, Chairs & Bench

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This was a big project! I spend over a week working on this table. But it was more than just the time it took that made this a big project. Here’s what the table looked like when I started.

It only came with 4 chairs, 1was a captains chair. It also came with a leaf so it was big enough to seat 6.  I started searching for a bench to add more seating and also to add to the farmhouse look I wanted for this table. I couldn’t find one to refinish so I decided to have one made. Remember the Entryway Bench  I had someone make for me? I went back to my friend Colton and asked him to make me a bench. I sent him a picture and measurements and a few days later he delivered it! I have to say, I’m so impressed with anyone who can build something from scratch!

Time for stain! I sanded the table and leaf and noticed a few flaws in the wood top. The top of the table has a wood veneer and so it’s thin. Over time some of it chipped a bit on a few edges and in one area the wood deteriorated. So when I went over it with a sander it came right off. I really wanted to stain the top and not paint it so I went forward with that plan.

I picked Minwax Golden for the stain color. It’s a light stain but the table top came out darker than I expected. On the bench it was much lighter. So I had to pick a darker stain for the bench so it would match.

 

You can see the difference in the wood on the table and the bench with the Minwax Golden. With different wood you get a difference in color. I ended up using Minwax Dark Walnut on the bench. Much better match!

Next it was time to take the ugly, dirty seat covers off and recover them.

 

Recovering seats is usually pretty easy and this was no exception.  I’ve done this a few times now. You can see some of my other post where I reupholstered chairs: Chair makeover with ASCP Emperors silk and Rose back chair restyled and Antique or Vintage Chair Reupholstering  and Huge Reupholster Project Part 1 of 2  and Huge Reupholster Project Part 2 of 2

I took the staples out and found the original seat underneath. Someone added padding to the chairs previously so I kept it.  I added a layer of quilt batting because I think it makes a smoother look to the finished seat.

I stapled the batting on with a few staples to keep it in place and then stapled the material on. I picked an upholstery material that had a Grain Sack look and added the pattern to each chair. I measured and taped to make the pattern, then used Annie Sloan Graphite to paint the stripes.

Because I added the quilt batting I had to use longer nails to put the seats back on the chairs. Loving the grain sack look!! It’s simple but adds a lot to the overall look of the table.

Now for the painting! I stared by painting the chairs and legs Annie Sloan Louis Blue.

In my last post, Layering Annie Sloan Chalk Paint I layered 2 colors of paint. For this table and chairs I used 3 colors. After 1 coat of the Louis Blue I added bits of Graphite.

Then I used a chip brush to add a coat of Old White. I lightly sanded everything so the Graphite and Louis Blue would show through.

Layering paint gives the piece an aged look. I finished it off with General Finishes Top coat.

And this table was finally done!!

Perfect Farmhouse Table! You can see the blemish in the top of the table but I think it adds to the farmhouse aged look. And the wood on this table is so beautiful I’m glad I didn’t paint over it.

Lots of time went into this project. Sometimes big projects can feel tedious and a bit frustrating but when it’s done and it turns out how you imagined it, it’s all worth it!

And now it’s ready for someone to take it home, just in time for the holiday! 😃

Ok I want to hear your thoughts on this! Have you painted a tables and chairs before? What was your experience? Please leave a comment cuz I love hearing from everyone!! 😊

Thanks for stopping in to take a look at my latest post.

Cindy

Layering Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

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Annie Sloan Duck Egg is a very popular color and you can see why. It’s a beautiful soft blue that is even more lovely with a coat of clear wax added. This is a unique and fun little dresser. Here it is before I painted it.

I used a layered paint technique for this piece. I started with 1 coat of Annie Sloan Coco.

Then I added 1 coat of Duck Egg Blue. I used a medium grit sandpaper to lightly distress the dresser and then I wet distressed over the sanded areas to show a little more of the Coco.

Now the original wood and hints of the Coco are showing. Then it was time for the clear wax. Annie Sloan Duck Egg takes on a slightly different shade when you apply clear wax. You can see it here.

Lovely!

A pretty addition addition to any room!

Thanks for stopping by to take a look

Cindy

Annie Sloan and General Finishes make over

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I love to find great pieces of furniture to upcycle. Sometimes I find a piece and know right away what I want to do with it. Sometimes I think about it for a while before I start the make over. I spent some time thinking about this project and even thought I had a good idea of what I wanted the end result to be, this project changed several times during the process.

I started by sanding the tops of these tables in hopes of staining the wood inlay. I decided to try out a wood stripper for the edges of the top to remove all of the stain and polyurethane top coat.

The wood stripper worked great with a stiff nylon brush. It removed all of the original stain from the crevices, but it was really messy. Like REALLY messy. But by far better than trying to sand it out of the crevices. Unfortunately when I tried to stain the top, the stain was not even over the different wood inlays and the wood edge. Sigh 😔 So General Finishes Gel Stain to the rescue! You may remember my post Painting and Staining our stair railing part 2 , I used a mix of GF Nutmeg and Grey. For these tables I used the same mix and it covered the top beautifully.

With that disaster taken care of I painted the body of these tables Annie Sloan Paris Gray. I wanted to add some Pure White and Silver accents. I painted the cut outs on the legs with a small brush and originally I painted the drawers white as well as the corner cut outs. In my head that looked better. In reality it was too much white. So I painted over the drawer fronts and the corner cut outs with Paris Gray.

I distressed it, used a clear and dark wax and then highlighted the buttom edge of the table and legs with Annie Sloan Bright Silver Gilding Wax. This took a while. 😉 But completely worth the time. All of these products help to bring out the shape and character of this piece. The beautiful handles on the drawers got a coat of spray paint and these tables are done!

This wasn’t exactly what I envisioned when I started this project but I love the end product now that they are done.

 

It takes some time and sometimes several different products but getting to the end of a project is always satisfying. Don’t be afraid to change it up if it’s not working out as you want it to. There’s always a solution if you come across a hiccup.

Leave a comment or a question if you have one!

And as always, thanks for taking a look at my blog 😊

Cindy