Sunset Coast: painting

Showing posts with label painting. Show all posts

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Beachy Bathroom Mini Makeover and the Human Drive to Decorate!

Hello! I don't know what makes people the way they are.. do what they do, love what they love. Some people get their enjoyment from music.. some people can't live without running... some people love their books. Then there is me and evidently, quite a few others out in the creative 'blogland', that can't live without decorating. What is it that drives me to paint, rearrange, sew and just generally have a need to change things up? We'll never know what drives people, just that they do what they have to do!

So here's my story !

It all started with this painting.

I went to an estate sale a few months ago for the artist Richard Keyes. A local artist and somewhat known, he passed away last year. I went to the estate sale and picked up a few of his works for a reasonable price. I couldn't believe the behavior of some of the buyers, they were grabbing up things like crazy. It felt like some weird reality show, like Storage Wars or American Pickers on steroids. Anyways, I put one of the unframed paintings in the bathroom. This painting is of the Big Sur coast in California.. a beautiful rendering of a place I love. The original oil painting was like a breath of fresh air, like a window to the outdoors in this little windowless bathroom.

Before

Before

Then, I had to do it.

I had to make that bathroom feel lighter and brighter and happier without major renovations. The bathroom was feeling heavy.. brown tile and brownish walls that I had hand done with Venetian Plaster years ago. Not wanting to redo everything, I liked the bones, I set out to make the bathroom feel beachy and fresh.
Step One-Shopping! Always the fun and easy part, before the messy reality of pulling off what my little brain was imagining. First stop, of course, Home Goods! I wanted a new rug and found this. I like to start out with the piece that has a more limited selection and match things to that. Paint can be matched to anything.. rugs come as they are.

Then I found some inexpensive blue towels at Walmart. I wanted color and these towels don't have to be great. This bathroom is mostly used as a guest bath.
Next stop in my shopping adventure--Hobby Lobby. I found the last beach themed hook in the whole store, this seahorse was a dollar. Perfect!
I picked up paint swatches at Home Depot and decided on Jazz Blue in one of their 8oz sample jars. It went nicely with the blues in the coastal painting.

Now I was ready for the projects. I painted the previously brown shelf, white and I also painted that little 'Peace' candle holder with leftover turquoise spray paint. A thriftshop elephant got put to use holding seashells, it was the perfect color.

I used the seahorse hook and a piece of fence board I had saved and made a towel holder/decorative plaque. I wanted to bring the blue around the room with the vibrant towels.

I made a frame for the oil painting out of scrap lumber from the 'depot'. Check their scrap pile when you have little projects. The wood was 51 cents.... yep, cheap. The wide frame acts as a narrow shelf for this sea village scene on a copper plate made in Chile, as well as collected shells.

As for the shower curtain, it had a nylon liner, so I just took off the beige and brown curtain, leaving a simple, crisp white curtain.

I used the bold, pretty blue paint and painted the sink vanity. One thing about the sample size paint, it only comes in flat, so I had to put a coat of satin Polyurethane on, also.

I love the blue! I used it to paint a finial too and put that on top of the toilet tank.

Then I had to make a decision about the gold framed mirror.

Using my decorating logic,(dangerous at times), I convinced myself it was 'only paint' and I could always redo it.. I painted the mirror white with blue trim. The jazzy blue was a little too loud under the light fixture, so I toned it down with a wash of watered down white paint.

Well, what do you think? I really like all the changes! Even though it still has the basic walls and tile colors, the new colors and accessories really make it feel beachy and refreshing.

Thanks for checking out the happenings at Sunset Coast. You can follow my blog by email, google friend connect or Blog Lovin'. Blog Lovin' is a way to have my blog updates sent to you daily. Just click on the links in the right side bar to sign up. I appreciate all my readers and followers! Do you have a mini update you'd like to share? Send me a link in the comment section.

Have a wonderful day!

Cindy

   Check out more projects at these sites where I share!

Old red Barn
Diy Showoff
Nifty Thrifty Things
Flamingo Toes
The Dedicated House
Twigg Studios
Suburbs Mama
Sunny Simple Life
Silver Pennies
USS Crafty
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Underthetableanddreaming
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Between Naps On the Porch
Mod Vintage Life
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Dwellings the heart of home
I Heart Naptime
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Making the World Cuter
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Not Just a Housewife
Naptime Creations
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CozyLittle House
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
The Winthrop Chronicles
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Our Home Away From Home
A Stroll Thru Life
Hickory Trail Blog
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If it's not Baroque
A Diamond in the Stuff
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The 36th Avenue
Style Sisters
Made to be a Momma
Domestically Speaking
Ginger Snap Crafts
Someday Crafts
The Shady porch
Tillys Nest
Trendy Treehouse
Free Pretty Things For You
Mom on Time Out
No Minimalist Here
I Gotta Create
Beyond The Picket Fence
Lamberts Lately
The Girl Creative
Shabby Creek Cottage
52 Mantels
House Of Hepworths
Delightsome Life
Saving4Six
Jennifer Rizzo
Common Ground
Shabby Art Boutique
French Country Cottage
The Thrifty Groove
Life We Live 4
Redoux
Happy Hour Projects
The Charm of Home
A Peek Into My Paradise
30 Handmade Days
The Brambleberry Cottage
The Dedicated House
Tatertots and Jello
SerenityYou
Too Much Time
Its Overflowing
Funky Junk Interiors
Daisy Cottage

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Painting a Vintage Jewelry Box with Faux Marble DIY

Good day! After a horrible week in the news.. Boston bombs, West, Texas explosions, floods in Illinois, etc, I needed some paint therapy! Wishing everyone who had a tragedy this week some healing and peace. I just finished up painting this pretty vintage jewelry box. If you're out scrounging at thrift stores or flea markets, you've probably seen those old, kinda ugly, wood jewelry boxes. Well, they're easy to paint and make them better than new. They were really well made and worth saving. This one even has a working music box that plays 'The Theme from Love Story'!

I've been seeing those great painted dressers lately in many different colors all over the bloggyland.A few have been in a mustard shade that I have been wanting to try out on something. I can't possibly lug one of those big bureaus home by myself, but I can get the look with this miniature version, a musical jewelry box. So let's see how I did it! Shall we??? (Don't answer that, just keep reading...)

Sand it! Just a light sanding to rough up the wood using medium sandpaper.

Clean off the sanding dust with a damp cloth.

Prime it! I like this stuff. Zinser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 is a good water based primer. I used some blue painter's tape to mask off parts I didn't want paint on.

Marbelize the top! It's easy and I'm going to walk you through it so you can use this technique on bigger pieces.

I used those little 2 oz. bottles of acrylic craft paint. I put out 3 colors--gray, white and black. You could skip the gray, but I had it. You could use other shades like browns or greens, depending on the color of marble you're going after.

Grab a scruffy looking brush and dab it into a couple of the colors. Now start dabbing it on the box top in a diagonal pattern. Keep picking up more white, or black or gray on the brush. Wipe off the brush occasionally on a rag so the colors don't just come out gray. Keep moving across the box until it's all covered.

Wipe off the brush again and blend the colors together until you like how it looks. Don't overwork it or it will just all be one color. You can still add more white or tiny bits of black and blend those in too.

Next, you're going to add the marble veins. You can look at some real marble or just use this method.

Using a small liner brush, dip into some white paint. Work while the top is still wet and drag the brush. The brush is almost lying down sideways. You're getting white paint on, but also dragging a line into the wet paint.

Paint the lines in a diagonal, squiggly-criss cross, X pattern. If you hold the brush lightly it works best. Then add some little branches off the white lines. I hope this makes sense when you see the picture. If you mess up, just stipple over the whole thing again. I like the lines to continue off the edge and not stop in the middle. Don't want it to look like lightening bolts .

Next, you add some black lines. My lines sort of shadow the white lines. Use the black sparingly. (You might notice in the picture below that it is different than the one above. I didn't like the darkness of the painting so I just started all over, adding more white.)

Use your dry scruffy brush and mottle the lines a little, here and there if you want.

I used the same marble technique for the bottom molding on the jewelry box.

YAY! You made it through the marbelizing! Now onto the easy gold painting.

I started again with 3 shades of gold and mustard paint and some white. I used a flat paint brush and applied paint to the sides and drawers. It needed 2 coats, so the first was just getting some color on there as a base.

For the second coat, dip your paint into a couple of the gold colors, slather it on, add white paint, slather more.. Mess around until you like it! ( Don't you love my detailed instructions?)

Distress the gold painted sides and drawer by lightly sanding the edges. See what I mean in the picture below?

I decided that the little drawer pulls needed some color.. something to highlight them. I used some teal paint, then lightly brushed them with robin's egg blue to bring out the details.

One final step, I rubbed on some Fiddes and Sons Wax. When it was dry, I buffed it with a soft cloth, to a nice sheen. I found the wax on Ebay and it's my favorite furniture finish lately.

And here it is! All waxed and pretty and ready for some jewelry!

If you got all the way here, thanks for visiting the Sunset Coast! I would love to have you follow this site and sign up for emails too!

Have a Marble-ous Day!

Cindy

Check out these blogs I'm sharing at...
The DIY Showoff Rose Chintz Cottage Nifty Thrifty Things Twigg Studios The Tablescaper
USS Crafty FlamingoToes Underthetableanddreaming AlderberryHill Dwellings ModVintageLife
Cozylittlehouse CraftyTexasGirls BetweenNapsOnThePorch CupcakesandCrinoline
Art@Home KammysKorner not Just A Housewife Our Home Away From Home Cozy Little House
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia ElizabethandCo SavvySouthernStyle A diamondinthestuff
Gingersnapcrafts Hollys Stamping Addiction I Gotta Create Cupcakes and Corndogs The Shabby Creek Cottage 52 Mantels House of Hepworths A Delightsome Life No Minimalist Here
The Girl Creative PJH Designs The 36th Avenue Southern Living Saving 4 Six Craftberry Bush FrenchCountryCottage Shabby Art Boutique The Thrifty Groove Redoux Interiors Domestically-Speaking The Rustic Pig My Simple Home Life Jennifer Rizzo Tatertotsandjello Vintage on a Dime MockingHillCottage LavenderGardenCottage SnapCreativity The Answer is Chocolate Life On Lakeshore Drive
Made to Be a Momma Green Willow Pond

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Child's Toy Chest and Bench made with a Headboard

Just a quick little share and a couple pictures of this toy chest I made for my great niece, Kitana, last year when she turned 2 years old. This is about the 'cutesiest' thing I ever painted!

I had previously painted the vintage headboard with the leafy, jungle look. I just needed to paint the pink molding on top and the side posts.
My brother was really helpful and made the toy chest part with a hinged lid. He also cut down the headboard height to fit better.

For my part, I added pre-cut wood dragonflies, ladybugs, bees and flowers from Michael's. The wood pieces were already painted except for the flowers.

After priming the toy chest part with latex primer, I painted it with white semi-gloss paint.I then painted the flowers and butterflies and polka dots using acrylic craft paint. I added the black dash lines to give the bugs movement. I just did a fun, whimsical design. Simple flowers and leaves were painted across the front of the toy box. You can see where I added the pre-cut flowers to the big flower centers..

I had a couple of old funky handles and added them to the sides, making them look like dragonfly wings by painting a body.

To make the cushioned bench top, I used 2 inch foam cut to size. Then I just covered it with the insect fabric, wrapping it underneath the top and stapling.

The wood bugs were glued on and nailed with tiny brad nails. The toybox was attached with screws.

When it was all done, polyurethane coated and assembled, I added some small white wheels to the bottom so it could be mobile. It's pretty heavy with that old headboard attached. Now it can be easily moved about her room.
I almost forgot something important! I added a safety toy box hinge inside. It prevents the lid from falling on the kids' hands! I used something like this. It holds the toy box lid open until you push it down to close it. It won't fall and it worked great!

I think the toy chest/bench is just darling! It's so fun to make something that a child can use and enjoy for years to come.

How's that for a quick explanation for a complicated project? Have you done any cute projects for kid's?

Have a Playful Day!

Cindy