Painted Vintage Furniture: The Leaf Chair!

Good morning campers! Looks like the Sunset Coast is going to have a beautiful spring day.. I thought I'd share a project, a painted chair I did last fall. Ok, wrong season, but it's a good day to share a project and this is my blog so bear with me. ( I almost wrote 'bare' with me... not a good visual!)

I'm going to call this picture the before shot. There are so many of these nice vintage and antique oak chairs out there. I didn't have a before photo of my chair because I did this furniture makeover 'BB'--before blogging. I was just tired of the brown and did I mention? I'm in an orange phase.. just love it here and there throughout the house lately.

  I began by lightly sanding the  wood chair. It was something I picked up at a thrift store a long time ago; it was time for a change. I don't spend much time sanding--just enough to rough up the surface so the paint holds.

Next, I base painted the whole chair. I had some red latex paint and my standby 'burnt orange'. You can see the Ralph Lauren orange color here on my painted patio chair. First I painted on the red paint, then while it was still wet, I painted on the orange paint so they mixed together , but not totally blended. The paint has a variegated look, great on furniture.. walls, not so much. Brush the paint in one direction to get this look.

Inspiration Leaves from Liquid Amber Tree

For the leaves, I went outside and collected leaves from my 'liquid amber' sweetgum tree. ( I told you it was autumn when I did this!) I collected a variety of leaves. Some more red, some yellow, some with green and brown. They also varied in size for the next step.

After the orangish-reddish base coat was dry, I placed the leaves on the chair in some kind of pleasing composition. Here's the little secret about 'drawing' the leaves. Ready? I traced the leaves onto the chair with chalk! If I didn't like it, I rubbed off the chalk and did it over.

Then I loaded up my painting palette, ( 'palette'= sheet of aluminum foil) with lots of colors that were in the  fall leaves.. greens, reds, oranges, golds, yellows, purple, and white. I used those 2oz acrylic craft paints.

I just started painting, looking at individual leaves and mimicking their designs and colors. They didn't have to match perfectly, because nature is all different too. Every leaf was individual and unique.

I used the same colors to paint the chair back and bring out the details and added more leaves. Lastly, I waxed the whole thing with my Fiddes and Sons Supreme Wax Polish and buffed it to a nice sheen.

TA DAAAAAA!!.. My painted fall leaf chair was done!

Thanks for stopping by the Sunset Coast. What inspires you to paint or create? I'd love to hear about your projects!
      Have a Vibrant Day!

           Cindy













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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

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Painting Plastic Patio Furniture--a trash to treasure makeover

This is a true story of trash to treasure. It was trash day and as I was out walking Tinker and Pumpkin, I saw this lovely chair next to the trash cans across the street. Now, in our city, they won't take anything that isn't in the trashcan itself. So it was fate! This patio chair was meant for me! I've painted lots of furniture, but this was a bit of an experiment to see if I could paint Plastic, PVC. So I dragged it home and decided to use paints I already had and see what happened. I'll let you know how it holds up!


Treasure After

Trashy Before

 This is the  patio chair after I scrubbed it with cleanser and a scrub brush.  My before picture doesn't show all the grunge that was on it.I figured the paint would stick because the surface was so rough from years of being in the sun. Don't a lot of us have those pvc patio chairs? They don't look so great after a few years, but they're still usable and they won't break down in a landfill for a zillion years.

 The seat part was especially rough, but that's what allowed it to hold the paint well.

Next, I got out the supplies. I already  had this orange exterior paint in a semi-gloss finish. It was made from a Ralph Lauren paint chip called 'Bitter Orange'. I love the shade of this! Do they even have Ralph Lauren paint anymore? Anyways, I set up and started painting.

 
 Painting chairs is deceptive! All those evil slats and pieces have four surfaces to paint. Also, you constantly have to watch for and clean up drips. I added a smaller brush to reach some of the parts better. I was a mess...

Here is it after the first coat of latex paint. Not bad, but it needed another coat after it dried overnight. I left it outside and hoped that it wouldn't be too damp that night. Where I live gets pretty soggy since it's so close to the ocean.

It survived overnight. So, on with the second coat!

Second verse same as the first, a little bit louder and a little bit worse. (Where did that come from? )

 Just seeing if you're paying attention! See how rough that seat is? That's where the paint grabs on the best!

 

 

When it was dry again, I gave it a spray with Krylon Crystal Clear. I concentrated on the arms, the seat back and some of the more slick surfaces. I think it came out really nice!!!

 

 

 

Pumpkin likes it too!

I'll have to see how it holds up outside. I guess if it chips, I'll just call it shabby chic, or chippy or vintage. It looks great in the backyard, giving a refreshing pop of color.

 

Have you tried painting plastic patio and lawn furniture?

Do you have a favorite trash to treasure story?

 

Have a Delightful Day!

 

Cindy

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Painting Furniture--The Cute Hall Cabinet Makeover

 

I love this little cabinet! It's very shallow and fits in my downstairs hallway. It's handy for dropping keys and sunglasses right off the doorway to the garage. I was given the cabinet by a neighbor that was moving and FREE is the best price! For a few years I left it in it's ugly varnished state until inspiration struck.

I've been painting vintage furniture for years, but lately I've gotten intrigued by the chalk paint craze and when I saw the paint at a local store, I thought.." I can paint furniture that looks like that with latex paint". So this little piece was my experiment.

After taking off the hinges and handles, I lightly sanded the  varnished wood down and gave it a coat of water based primer.(Whatever they have at Home Depot like Kilz or Bulls Eye works great). 

There was a key hole that I filled with wood putty and I sanded that smooth too.

 

Now, for the easy paint technique on this not quite antique wood furniture... I had a couple tones of blue paint. One was 'Languid Blue' from Sherwin Williams and the other was a Blue Cypress color from Behr. (It's a light turquoise-ish/blue-ish hue). First I slopped on the Languid Blue, then while it was still wet, I blended on the other Blue Cypress color.
I didn't blend it completely, I wanted some streaks.

 

When the paint was completely dry, I waxed it with Fiddes and Sons clear wax polish. I like their brand better than others, it's smooth and not grainy like some I tried.

So after a good buffing, replacing the hardware and adding a knob........Here it is!

I don't know if I got the 'ASCP' chalk paint look, but I like it and I decided not to distress it. It's not distressed, it's 'de-stressed'!

The paint really highlighted the cute details. I especially like the curvy bottom trim that was hardly noticable before and it's new shabby chic charm.

 

On another note, I framed those old flower prints you see above. My mom had them in a closet for years and years. I just cut them to fit 2 in a frame that I had from something else. Instead of buying a mat, I simply used some grosgrain ribbon to hide the seam between the prints and to surround them. Easy DIY project!

 

What furniture needs an update at your house?

 

Have a Productive Day! Cindy

 

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