Tag Archives: Miss Mustardseed Wax

Napoleonic Blue and Old White Chalk Painted Demilune with Stencil

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Linda

Here’s a great little $5 demilune table that I found on Craigslist. The owner said to me “It’s only half a table and that’s why it’s $5.”I said “No problem – I’ll be right over!” I guess she didn’t know what a “demilune” was. I added some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and a Royal Design Studio stencil – and changed the look completely.

half moon shaped table painted with Annie Slaon Chalk Paint

The “before pic” shows what a sorry but very serviceable piece it is. (more…)

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3 Comments | Posted in Annie Sloan's chalk paint, Decorative Finishes, Makeovers, Paint, Tutorials

Miss Mustardseed’s Flow Blue Milk Paint: A Before and After Chair

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Linda

e chair after 0058

I don’t know why it took me so long to try out Marian Parson’s Milk Paint – but I finally did and I loved it.  I’m not the world’s biggest “blue” fan but because Marian uses it so effectively in her home and her Milk Paint colors are so beautiful (especially this blue!), I figured I would try to learn to love blue!

 e chair before

Sorry for the blurry “before” pic, but here’s the sorry little “free” chair that I had from one of my clients.  Lovely shape but the upholstery was so dated.  I sanded down the chair somewhat – I say “somewhat” because what I really mean to say is I did it so quickly that you would hardly notice that I even sanded at all.  Mistake!  I mixed up the Milk Paint per the instructions and then I went at it.  It was chipping – yippee!!  But, guess what – it chipped so much that even a whole section just about came off entirely.  I should know better, being a decorative artist, but I guess I was so anxious to experience this product that I didn’t prep correctly. So – give your furniture some sanding before using, especially if it’s a shiny, varnished finish, as mine was.

 closeup chair 0057

Here’s a closeup. I finally did some sanding on the piece and so the chipping was much gentler which was more to my liking. After I finished, I waxed the piece with Miss Mustardseed’s Furniture Wax – that helped to preserve any further chipping as well.  So. if you have a shiny, varnished piece, make sure you sand to give the product a surface that will accept the paint.

The final touch was to give it a better cover. I had some leftover Osnaburg linen fabric from the project I did revamping a realtor’s office,  I always loved how Miss Mustardseed would cover her dining chairs – so I shamelessly copied her!  Somewhat.  My amazing window treatment guru, Mary Ann Schultz, made me this lovely skirt for the chair from the leftover fabric.  I wish I had sewing skills – but, very sadly, I don’t.

I am not sure where this little piece will eventually go – perhaps in our guest room (which I hope to show you soon!) or maybe it may have a temporary home in my next staging project.

Let me know what you think!  Have you used Marian’s Milk Paint?  If you haven’t, I hope you will give it a try. And no – this is not a sponsored post.  Just love the product and the creator!

e chair after 0058

A few other pics…

Miss Mustardseed chair side e 0140

Miss Mustardseed chair e 0134

Sharing this with…Miss Mustardseed; Redoux, Shabby Nest; French Country Cottage,

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Making a Real Estate Office “Pretty”: Part 1

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Linda

A very good friend of mine, Dianne Scalza, just opened up a new real estate franchise – Exit Realty All Pro in Bay Shore NY.  Dianne is a colorful, dynamic and fearless woman and so when I saw her private office – all beige – I knew I had to feminize it and bring more color and “Dianne” into the space. Luckily, she asked me to help make it her own.

before picture of the real estate office of Dianne Scalza,

Before the transformation

…And we just had to do something about those glass blocks (with no budget to remove them. Tomorrow on the blog I will show you how we transformed the window!).

She needed some extra storage in her office but she didn’t want ugly file cabinets – so she brought along a bombe chest that she had purchased 10 years ago.  A bookcase was also a priority – so I went in search of something that would work in this feminization of a boring real estate office. I found just what was needed on Craigslist – for $60!

an antique bookcase and a bombe chest before a transformation

Before: The antique green bookcase and the bombe chest

Both of these pieces had some nice curves and sex appeal – but the colors were ugly.  So – I got to work.

The Bombe Chest

painting a bombe chest Napoleonic Blue

During…

I used some Annie Sloan Chalk Paints to revive this piece – Napoleonic Blue and Old White.  Dianne loves anything nautical, so these colors really hit the mark. But I had to add some beachy elements to bring in Dianne’s love of shells and the beach.  So – I added this…

a revamped bombe chest done with Annie Sloan Chalk Paints

On my porch, ready to go to her office!

I added this shell and roses design to the middle drawer.  It’s a design called Shell Eloquence from Royal Design Studio – but I did something a little different than just stenciling.  I first stenciled the design in Old White…then I freehanded the rest of the motifs – adding some Dutch Metal Gold and some dark brown for shading. I also touched up the hardware with some Dutch Metal Gold. Here’s a closeup of the drawer…

Royal Design Studio Shell Eloquence with handpainted details on a bombe chest

Closeup of the middle drawer design

I waxed the entire piece with Miss Mustardseed’s wax to make it durable.  Here’s the chest in Dianne’s new office…

 

a revamped bombe chest done with Annie Sloan Chalk Paints and Miss Mustardseed wax

Additional elements added were a lovely blue coral picture that I found at HomeGoods (for $10), but it had a black frame, which I changed by adding some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and some shells – including a shell planter with a faux orchid.

The Bookcase

Being that it was a deep forest green, you really couldn’t see the lovely scroll work at the top of the piece, so I had to make sure that this was prominent.  You also didn’t really notice the wonderful paneled backing of this bookcase.  I don’t know what year it’s from but the panels had a lot of depth being that every other panel protruded a bit (a staggered bead board effect). I wanted the inset top and the back of the piece to stand out – so I created a custom pale blue paint color for it.  The rest of the bookcase was painted an Off White.

an antique bookcase revamped with off white and pale blue paint

During – right before antiquing

I antiqued the bookcase with some raw umber and dark brown glaze, just to bring back the history of the piece.

a revamped antique bookcase with off white and pale blue paint and antiquedMuch more feminine…don’t you think? So – please come back tomorrow when I show you how we transformed the windows!!!

Let me know what you think in the comment box below!

Linking this project to: Miss Mustardseed; French Country Cottage; Redoux Interiors; Liz Marie; Common Ground; Between Naps on the Porch; It’s So Very; Katherine’s Corner

 

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8 Comments | Posted in Annie Sloan's chalk paint, interior design, Paint