Just Sitting Around...

I have, in our basement, what my husband lovingly refers to as the "chair graveyard." Well, sometimes its lovingly and other times its in an exasperated tone. The exasperation usually comes when he's trying to get to something on the "other side" of the mountain.

So...for the sake of my happy home I thought it was a good time to tackle a few chairs and get them out of the basement.

I really like this color combo. I'm so into grey right now. And the number 15??? Well, my 9 year old liked it :-) I love it when my kids give me art direction!

Old rocking chairs make me smile. We had a chair very similar to this one growing up. I can still remember mom rocking my baby sister in it.

I am so happy with how this one distressed. It was originally black. I wasn't sure how the blue and black would work together but I think it turned out nice.

Truth be told, I didn't make much of a dent in the "mountain of chairs." But tomorrow's another day!

And thank goodness my husband is patient with me! ;-)

I'm linking up to:

Drop Leaf Table

Happy Leap Day!!! An extra 24 hours in your year!!! Did you treat it like any other day or do something special? I hate to admit that to me it was just other day. My husband did something special...he got the flu...poor guy. But to look on the bright side...he didn't waste a whole day being sick :-) Love you honey!!!

Here is my latest project. I have been wanting to do a treatment like this on a drop leaf table for a long time.

It is inspired by vintage dish cloths. Why No. 12? I really just picked it out but my daughter saw more significance to the number...she is 12 :-) Then I got to thinking...my husband is the 12th child in his family. Maybe there was more to it than I realized.

I never know how much I will distress a piece until it begins. I don't think I've ever distressed one quite this much. Did I go too far? That has been my fear, however, the more I live with it the more I like it. Lots of texture...yummy! It looks like it's been around for a long, long time.

With old tables like this, I find myself wondering about it's history. Who has previously owned the table? What were the happy times that took place around it? How many fabulous meals were eaten here? Oh, if this table could talk!

I continue to keep my word of the year "GROW" in the back of my head. And with that in mind I have some new, fun and exciting things happening in the near future. I will expound on those more in future posts...stay tuned!

Have a great week and thanks for reading!!! I love comments so leave one if you have the time.

All-Star Table

I just can't seem to leave the top of a table alone. For me it's like a blank canvas that I just have to do something with. I didn't even realize I was doing it until I took a look back on other projects. Maybe it's becoming my "signature" look :-) Anyway this is the newest one. The ALL-STAR table.

What's really a bit creepy is that I rarely have to think very long about what I'm going to paint on the top. It's like the furniture "talks" to me.

Don't be too scared...furniture pieces are the only inanimate objects that I hear :-)

Here's a before pic of the table...kinda brown, kinda stained, kinda boring.

I used Annie Sloan chalk paint in aubusson blue on the table. I really wanted the top to look like a worn pair of jeans when finished. To achieve this, I heavily distressed the top then waxed and buffed it. I repeated the process again and distressed one last time to rough up the wax. One last buffing gave me a smooth but worn looking finish.

I have to admit I'm having some trouble with photographing my pieces indoors. Until the last few projects I was able to take all my pictures outside. Natural lighting and green grass as a background is so much easier. I'm still looking for the perfect place in my home for photo shoots.

It's been so fun getting back into the swing of things. I just love furniture, painting and making something that's old look new again.

Have a great weekend and try to stay warm. It sure is cold in Illinois! I will be linking up to a few other blogs. Take a look at what's new this week in blogland.

Toy Room Buffet

WOW! I've been MIA this month. Once I finished my show I was spent and had to take some time to clean my house! It had been completely neglected for about a month and was trashed!!!

I've been wanting to paint the T.V. buffet in our toy room for quite a while but was too busy getting ready for my show and had to produce products to sell. So I knew this would be the first project on my list of things for the house. I LOVE decorating my home. It's truly my passion.

I pondered what color to use for quite some time. The room is orange. I mean REALLY, REALLY orange. Not every color goes with orange. Of course I was going to use an Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. So I considered Old White but this buffet gets used a lot...with kids. The art supplies are housed in here as well as many other toys. Something darker would work best. I had Aubusson Blue on hand and I went with it. I loved this color on the dresser I finished right before my show.

This is not the best before pic ever. I went through all my photos and this was the only one I had. I think my son was doing one of his newest dance moves...sorry buddy. But if you can look behind that fabulous stance you can see what the buffet looked like before.

I did a little distressing to this piece as usual. I figured it would probably get a little more distressing the natural way so I kept it light. I also decided to use the original hardware; frugal as always. My husband is a lucky man :-)

When I purchased the buffet to use for the new T.V., I knew right away that I wanted a large shelf above it. This shelf is 7 feet long and made by my "other" hubby, Tom. He's a fantastic woodworker and is always willing to indulge me in all my "great" ideas. He custom made it to my specs and I think it's just perfect for the wall. On top of the shelf is one of my newest collections...globes!!! I'm loving this collection and still have plenty of room for more! I'd really like to find a black one. One thing I'm learning with collecting is that it takes a great deal of patience.

I just couldn't resist putting this pic in. Gosh...he's so darn cute and growing up way to fast!!! I love you T. Finn and my other babies too! Now make sure to keep the toy room clean :-)

I'll be linking to some great parties this week. Check them out!