Go Kate Go!

So let me take a moment to say how thankful I am for my daughter, Kate. Back in the day I prayed for a girl, and God answered that prayer with my darling Kate . . . Even way back then I thought about how much fun it would be to have someone who might share some creative interests . . .

Well God certainly does answer prayer! Kate has really come into her own in recent years, and I absolutely love her creativity and style!

This is one of the smaller

bookcases before we painted. 

Last spring when I was there she talked me into helping her paint their dark bookcases white - quite a project because she had a lot of bookcases since they sell books online - but boy did they turn out great!

Here are a few before and afters.

Done painting and starting to put the books back in place

One of the things I really chuckle about is her ability to recognize potential in throw-away pieces. She is constantly spying things by the side of the road in Baton Rouge, picking them up, and breathing new life into them  . . . like this great old piece with a hole in the back! She popped out the back, painted it yellow, and added some baskets. Voila!

A few weeks ago she was driving down the street and a guy was putting this great old, well-used desk at the side of the road. She screeched to a halt and told him she was interested if he was really getting rid of it. He said yes and even popped it into his truck and delivered it for her! Ha! That's my girl! So this week she decided the desk would join her white bookcases . . . .

Go Kate go!
I love it!

Thirty-five

Last week was Christian Life Fellowship's 35th anniversary, and I was asked to help with a few displays of photos to celebrate the rich history of this great church family. The challenge: Create four display tables - two on each end of the Performing Arts Center in Wisconsin Rapids. 

Here is the process I used to create the displays:

Step 1: Prayed with my friend Julie for a great way to do this with little or no money! Thanks to in-house printing and our free roll of black paper, we were able to do this entire project for $55!

Step 2: Went on a hunt around the church for things that would make an interesting "framework" for the photo display. I went out to the garage and gathered some old wooden boxes from past musical events, grabbed a couple leather cubes for seating from the children's wing, spied two cardboard barrels - one in the garage and another in a storage room, borrowed two silver cylinder waste cans, and two half-rounds.

I also snagged four black tablecloths and headed to a back room to start playing with then pieces. One table would be free-standing, and one would be against a wall.   I also called my friend, Sue, who has literally over a hundred fabulous unique candle holders with electric candles that she was willing to lend me.

Step 3: Realized what a large task I had gotten myself into, and enlisted the help of a few creative friends - thanks Kristi and Karen! We took measurements and Karen curt large black paper to cover the cylinders.

Step 4: I looked through hundreds of photos and choose a variety to illustrate many of the people and events over the years. Made them black and white, guessed at some helpful sizes to fit our boxes and cylinders, and asked Pam to send them through the printer. 

Step 5: I trimmed photos and Kristi begin arranging them for the cylinders. Using LOTS of double-sided tape we secured the photos for all of our cylinders on large sheets of black paper on the floor. When complete, we taped the large black paper filled with photos onto the cylinders. 

Then we numbered the large photos for the wooden boxes and cubes. We decided to wait to attach them until we set up at the PAC on Saturday night. We rolled lots of pieces of gaff tape to attach them to the boxes when they were all in place.

Voila! Here's one display Saturday night at the PAC:

We decided to set the whole display up at church for a couple weeks to let people enjoy the display for a few more weeks.. Here's the display back at church:

A Blast From the Past

As I was sorting through my photos this week I found these photos from 2009. We were painting the designs on Maddy and Charlie's newly painted bedroom walls.

We mixed colors and cut out stencils to go with the design on their new quilts. It was really fun to get the kids involved - and even Maddy let Max help, too. It was really fun to add details with thin magic markers!

Wow! Where have the years gone???

Door as a Headboard

Still crankin' out the projects while it's gorgeous weather! All too soon falling snow will replace falling leaves! This old door is destined to become a new headboard:

I hosed it down and let it dry. I mixed up a shade of grey to coordinate with the bedding colors and brushed it on as a base color. (Graphite and antique white) Then I dry brushed a shade darker shade, followed by a lighter shade using Annie Sloan's Cocoa with a touch of Graphite.

Finally I sanded the edges to bring out the details. I finished by rubbing in a coat of Fiddes & Sons Supreme wax polish - Light.


Fiddes is an ever so slightly yellow color wax compared to my Annie Sloan Clear. I felt this would help with the aging look we were going for, without going too dark. I may change my mind after I see it in the room and add the darker wax, as well. Here is it so far:

Look What was Underneath!

Carey was looking for an old trunk to use as a coffee table - with the emphasis on "old." We found a trunk that at Whetstone Antiques' Barn sale that was the right size and had some interesting design elements.

But . . . .

Someone had painted it shiny black, silver and gold!

[Side note: I find it rather humorous - one generation says, "look at this old piece, I can paint it to freshen it up." The next generation says, "Why would anyone paint over such a great old piece! I could strip it to reveal the natural patina!" Next generation - "Paint it!" Next generation - "Strip it and stain it!" These poor old pieces never know what they'll be wearing! I've lived long enough to try it all!]

Definitely not the look she was going for. She wanted to see the original wood, and hoped for an older, "well-used patina" on the trunk and metal-work. The price was right, so we decided to take it home and see what was underneath . . .

We started with this:

I brushed on a coat of CitriStrip Stripping Gel and waited a half- hour. I like CitriStrip cause it does not have harsh fumes. Then I used a plastic scraper to remove the residue, followed by a little elbow grease with steel wool & mineral spirits. (Took about 45 minutes) This is what was revealed:

I took it over to see what she thought - Should I rub in a little yellow ochre? A little olive green? Should we protect it a bit with some wax, oil, or satin varnish? 

She was pleased with it so far, and decided to live with it awhile before doing anything else with it. Here is in its new home.

Mirror & Dresser

One old (and pretty cheap laminate) dresser from our house "back in the day" ended up at Jeff and Carey's house to hold their TV.

Carey dry brushed the drawers a few years ago to give it a little lift, but it was time to do something new again.

I tried my had at it . . .

The top was bumpy and had some water stains and after sanding a bit looked like this.

She also had a mirror from TJ Max that had served them well, hanging horizontally over their couch for several years. It was time to freshen up that look, as well. She was going for a more aged look and wanted to ditch the gold.














I used Annie Sloan Chalk paint on both pieces (Color: Graphite) followed by a little sanding of the edges and some of Annie Sloan's dark soft wax. Since this is in a home with 5 children, I also used 2 coats of Artisan Embelishments Clear Topcoat Sealer on the top of the dresser - it still amazes me that you can apply it right over the wax!

Tada!

The Kitchen Table

Jeff & Carey have been working hard remodeling. They knocked out a couple walls to open up the space between their living room and kitchen. At a Habitat store, Jeff found wood flooring for the kitchen that matched the living room floor boards. He also added trim to the old cupboards and painted them white - don't they look amazing?

From this . . . .

To this!
Way to go Jeff - That's my boy!
Grandpa John will be proud.  

I found this solid oak table on Craig's list for $50. It also included three pressed oak chairs that I will keep for another project.

With one leaf it will comfortably seat 8. With both leaves it seats 10.
For a family of 7, it's just the right size!

I had to strip the top because it had been used for crafts and had some paint, glue - and even a little glitter attached to the top. (I used CitriStrip  Stripping Gel) I scraped and sanded and let it dry thoroughly.

I mixed two parts Annie Sloan Graphite with one part Annie Sloan Antique White, and added some water to create a wash of grey. The hope was that some of the wood grain would show through but would not be pronounced.

From this . . . .

To this!

For the base and legs I used straight Annie Sloan's Graphite - I brushed it on and let it dry. Then I mixed Antibes Green with Florence and a pinch of Graphite. I dry-brushed it over the graphite.

From this . . .

To this

This table will be used by a family of seven, so I opted to skip the wax and applied six coats of acrylic Polyurethane. A few more coats and several days of drying and we'll be ready to take it to their house! I promise to post some pics of the big finale!

Carey's Office

We are making progress on Carey's office!  We finally got the photo wall up - at first we ended up with an "optical illusion" - even though the photos were centered on the wall between the corner and the bookcase, they looked like they were much closer to the corner. So I took them down and we just "eye-balled it." My recommendation is to take some time to "test it" before just assuming that taking measurements will give you the look you want. You can read more about our original inspiration for office, and how we created the photo wall here.

About her desk . . . When she showed me her inspiration photo I realized that I had just worked on a table much like the one in the picture. It was still in my studio,  and I was willing to swap it out for a different table. I had painted it a deep teal, so I just dry-brushed the legs a bit to get the greener color she liked.

Remember her chairs from a previous post? I also dry-brushed the bookcases and added some colorful accents in her colors.

It's been a fun little adventure!