HOW TO: Repair veneer / White Wash finish

This is by far one of my best pieces to date. I bought this poor beat up beauty on Craigslist for my kitchen.  It needed a lot of work, so if any of you have pieces out there like this... pay attention!!

As you can see, the veneer in the piece was lifting... way worse then you can even see. So I started by peeling back everything was lifting and added wood filler.

The instructions on the packaging are pretty self explanatory. But I did it in multiple coats so I could get a smoother finish. I also used very fine sand paper to avoid scratching the original veneer.

Then I painted the entire piece in homemade chalk paint. I chose "Mariner" by Martha Stewart. 

I then added a lighter blue to the details. I knew I wasn't done yet... but as you can see... This piece in is my kitchen, so it had to remain "functional" as long as possible. So I added the knobs on it, and went to bed ;) 

I decided I wanted to white-wash the piece so I watered down some homemade chalk paint. I added it to the side first to check the consistency. I ended up added about 1 1/2 cups of water. As you can see, I noticed that if I applied to much pressure, I started to remove the bottom layers of paint. No fear... I kind of embraced it and It is one of the things I love most about this piece. 

If you haven't attempted white-washing... it is simple... apply the watered down paint as shown below

Wipe off immediately...

Once the white washing was complete, I popped off the top. Because, lets face it... it was ugly. Rather then spending time on trying to recover it, I started from scratch.

I then stained it in my always favorite, Jacobean by MinWax. 

And VOILA! She is done.

Look closely... you can still see where I repaired the veneer... but thats okay. It's character.

HOW TO: Refinishing a dining room table

For Mother's day, I decided I would refinish my mom's boring dining room table! She bought this because it was functional when they moved to Virginia. There stuff was lost by the moving company for over a month.. so she just want stuff they could use, and of course... it never left.

Here is a picture of the chairs... to give you an idea. Nothing special, or notable about the set.

If you have ever considered doing a table, I highly suggest you purchase an electric sander. After watching me try to sand for two hours with no success, my Husband decided this would be a good mothers day gift for me. Thanks babe! 

Luckily, I only needed to sand the top! 

I used Minwax Jacobean stain on the top. 

Always been a favorite of mine. 

I started painting the piece using a Home Depot "Pro" grade brush. And I finally learned something... the brush you use really does matter. And I can't stress enough how much I love my "vintage effects" brush from Woodster. I had to clean my brush and use it wet just to take a picture to prove my point. 

First coat with Home Depot "Pro" brush 

EWW! I would be painting forever. 

Here is my first coat with the Woodster Vintage Effects brush.. which by the way is CHEAPER. 

Thats more like it. Oh! and in case you were wondering, I chose the color "Irish Dew" 

So... after painting... I used a satin poly on the top, and waxed the rest. Waxing chairs sucks. I had hand cramps for a week ): 

But the result was well worth it! 

HOW TO: achieve the "chippy" look with milk paint

First, let me start out by saying, these piece are still not finished... they are in my master half way done. This is because I wasn't pleased with the color. So I plan to strip them down and start over. BUT I would still like to go over the step by step for anyone who is considering doing a piece in MMS (Miss Mustard Seed milk paint) and would like to achieve the "chippy" look.

First, I started with the undercoat of a darker blue (Flow Blue by MMS) I would hoping to duplicate her technique using Vaseline to have the darker colors show through like natural distressing.

I only painted the pieces of the dresser I planned to apply the vaseline, because I cut corners from time to time and really I didn't have enough paint.

Then, because I like to jump around a bit, I sanded the tops.

Once this coat dried, I applied the light color (French Enamel by MMS) WITHOUT the bonding agent to the pieces of the dresser I wanted to chip. It began to react very quickly, as you can see below.

You can see the color difference below, halfway into my adventure, I realized I didn't have vaseline. A perfect example of why you should check for that kind of thing in advance. I attempted to use Vicks... don't. Didn't work.

After I was completed with that, I added the bonding agent to the paint and proceed to finish the top coat of the night stands. The color appeared thin... so I attempted to paint a second coat with a new batch of paint.

At which point I quickly learned that I did not add enough bonding agent to the second coat, and the dresser began to chip rapidly. I could not apply the wax fast enough! I ended up needing to peel back a good portion of the paint and reapply.

Quite disappointed to spend so much time, only to have them not match! ): The french enamel is much brighter and more "aqua" then I anticipated. I was hoping for a "french blue" that was more ashy.

Stay tuned for the new color I have picked out!!

My buffet makeover

Okay, so moving to Virginia we sold most of our furniture. We knew we would be with my parents for a few months, and nothing we had was really worth the cost of trekking it across the country and storing it! So when we finally found the perfect place for us, I started hunting craigslist and local Facebook groups for some fun pieces to add character and functionality.

That's when I found this buffet! I immediately fell in love! At least 100 years old, and only $100!

The piece definitely needed some TLC, but it was perfect! and to top it off, it would be my first project using DIY chalk paint.

First I repaired the veneer in the drawers using wood filler.

Once the wool filler dried, I sanded the surface so it wouldn't be visible when painted.

Then I mixed the chalk paint and began painting, finishing all but the drawers before calling it a night.

I love that I can paint indoors so I can do touch ups in-between cleaning and getting other things done around the house.

The next day I finished the drawers and sanded down the top to stain. The top was in very poor shape so I had to sand A LOT.

The drawers would not slide on the tracks with ease, and the top drawer would push to far in on the right. So I removed the tracks and added this metal tab to keep the drawer even.

After staining the top, she is as good as new (personally I think BETTER then new) 

Wouldn't you agree??