Sitting Room Side Table and A Few of My Favorite Old Things...

While I don't have a furniture makeover to share with you today, I do have an unexpected addition to our sitting room that I am smitten with!  I actually bought this lovely side table from a dear friend of mine with the intention of painting and selling it...

 

I had been on a hunt for a round or oval table for this spot, hoping to come across one before I did the big reveal post of this room makeover back in August.  Last week I had a drop cloth laid out, my paint and brush ready to go when I decided to set this little yellow table down in the sitting room area, just to see...  As it turns out, it wasn't a round or oval table I needed here, and this table wasn't meant to be repainted (at least not at this moment).  I love my little square table in it's shabby pale yellow paint, right here in this very spot!  It's just the perfect size for a board game or a book and a cup of tea!

 

 

People often ask me how I can possibly let go of some of the beautiful furniture I sell.  Let me tell you, it isn't always easy!  Every now and then I find a piece that just fits into our home so well that it becomes a permanent addition...and then it's not so difficult to part with the next beauty that comes along!  Most of the purchases I make these days at estate sales and such are made with the intention of reselling them.

 

 

When I came across this tea set at an estate sale a few years back, it was cast off in box, covered in dirt and I just figured that after a quick clean-up, I would stick a sale tag on it and set it out in my shop space later that week.  But when I started washing away that dirt and grime, I fell head over heels for the 19th Century ruffled, hand painted German porcelain beauties sitting in my kitchen sink!  Now, this tea set is one of my all time favorite finds!  When this happens, I look around the house and find something that I am willing to let go.  I try so hard not to acquire too much stuff!  I really need to implement the same kind of discipline with my children and their toys!  Easier said than done...

 

 

A more recent find that I've become attached to is this wonderful book, "Beautiful Stories From Shakespeare," circa 1907.  I love that each page has a pretty lavender frame around the text.  You really can't have too many wonderful books, can you?

 

 

A dear friend of my grandma's recently gave her this sweet little jewelry box and asked her to pass it on to me!  I will treasure it always!

 

 

Old pearls, vintage sheet music and antique lace collars are among my favorite things to collect and use in staging vignettes for home, for the shop and for my photos! 

 

 

 

 Thank you so much for stopping by to see the addition to our sitting room area and a few of my other favorite little things!  I am working on a storage project for my studio now that I hope to have ready to share soon!

 

Have a wonderful week!  Stay warm!

 

Best Wishes and Blessings,

Amanda

 

 

 

Sharing with...

Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Home

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed

 Furniture & Paint Party at Start at Home

Treasure Hunt Thursday at From My Front Porch To Yours

House to Home

I was honored when the publisher for our local House to Home real estate and lifestyles magazine approached me about doing a feature on the workshops I teach at Camas Antiques!  Lovely Judy and her talented photographer, Nick joined me for a workshop several weeks ago and now the fabulous write-up and photos are in print!  The publication is just beautiful!  Thank you, Judy!

 

If you click on the link it will take you to a digital copy of the magazine. 

Our feature is on pages 8-9.  So fun!

 

 

I hope you are having a wonderful week!  Thanks for stopping by!

 

Best Wishes and Blessings,

Amanda 

Layers of Autumn

 

The Vintage Street Faire, summer's end, the return of the rainy season and back to school for my little guys...it all took me a little bit by surprise!  It just happened so quickly that I feel like I barely had time to catch my breath!  And for that reason, I am very behind on blog posting, emails, and visits to my dear blog friends!  I lost my momentum and ended up in a weird, unorganized fog.  But I think I've finally snapped out of it and am ready to return to sanity!  Ready for Autumn!

 

 

Last week I managed to get a couple of small things painted for the shop.  This chair had such a sad finish on it, if I had used anything other than Chalk Paint® Decorative Paint by Annie Sloan I would have had to spend hours tediously sanding and priming before ever getting to the fun part!  All I did was dust off the dirt and cobwebs with a wet wipe, opened up my Chalk Paint® cans and went straight to work!

 

 

I used combinations of French Linen, Pure White and Old White to achieve this mottled grey followed by clear and dark wax.  I love how authentically old the finish looks and feels.

 

 

Colors were layered, then wiped away while still wet.  I honestly didn't know which way I was going with it when I first got started but once I found the look I liked, it was effortless, really!

 

 

 I love grey in any season and I think it's particularly pretty layered with the Autumn inspired accents! 

 

Happy Autumn to you!  Thank you for your sweet visit today!  I hope you have a very lovely week!

 

Best Wishes and Blessings,

Amanda

 

 

Sharing with...

Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Home

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed

 Furniture & Paint Party at Start at Home

Treasure Hunt Thursday at From My Front Porch To Yours

Vintage Vanity Ready for the Faire!

 

I just love vanities.  What an elegant, feminine piece of furniture.  They are for sure one of my favorite things to paint...and are almost just as much fun to accessorize, stage and photograph!

 

This vanity was purchased from a friend.  It was her grandmothers and although she would have liked to have kept it, she didn't have the room for it.  I was thrilled when she called me asking if I would like to buy it from her before she listed it on Craigslist.  Competition on Craigslist is fierce these days, so I always appreciate a head's up from a friend when a special piece is about to become available!

 

 

There was no bench to go with this particular vanity, but shortly after I brought it home I found this darling little piano stool!  At first they seemed an unlikely pair but painting them really pulled the look together.  This pale lavender is a Chalk Paint® Decorative Paint by Annie Sloan mix of Paloma and Old White...I didn't measure but I would estimate 1 part Paloma to 2 parts Old White.

 

 

The body of the vanity was done in Old White and I accented some of the details in my custom lavender color, tying it together with the lavender stool.

 

 

After some light distressing, I used Annie's clear and dark waxes to give my paint finish a polished, professional look and feel.

 

 

The hardware was also painted with Old White, distressed and waxed.  I am so pleased with how it turned out.

 

 

 More often than not I will leave vintage hardware alone, but these pulls were just too dark against the creamy white drawer fronts.  Painting them with Chalk Paint® was really the way to go!

 

 

I completely covered the insides of all three drawers in pages from a vintage hymnal.  It was a fun little project and I just love the special touch and added charm!

 

 

This pretty vanity is all ready to go to the Vintage Street Faire in downtown Camas on Saturday!  It's sure to be a lovely day for treasure hunting!  If you're in the area, please come by!  I will be doing a Chalk Paint® demo at my booth during the event!  We will also be taking reservations for the next Chalk Paint® Workshop at Camas Antiques, scheduled for Tuesday, September 17th at 7pm!

 

Thank you for your sweet visit!

 

Best Wishes and Blessings,

Amanda

 

 

 

Sharing with...

Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Home

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed

 Furniture & Paint Party at Start at Home

Console Table Makeover in Cutom Dove Grey

 

I used to think grey was boring.  Grey is anything but boring!  Each and every time I paint a piece of furniture grey, I am amazed at the versatility and depth of the color.  If you have been following me for the past year and a half, you know that I love and am loyal to Chalk Paint® Decorative Paint by Annie Sloan.  Over a year ago I partnered up with the owner of Camas Antiques, where I rent a booth space and sell my treasures, to instruct the Chalk Paint® workshops there at her store.  One of the first colors I used from Annie Sloan's palette and fell in love with was Paris Grey.  I have painted many pieces in Paris Grey since then...more than I can count!  It continues to be a favorite color of mine.  But when I recently ran out of Paris Grey, I decided to buy a can of French Linen to play with this time around. 

 

 

French Linen is a much darker, different grey than Paris.  I like it as is but for this table, I decided I wanted to lighten it up.  I mixed 1 part French Linen to 1 part Old White.  The result was a soft, lovely Dove Grey!  I will most definitely be mixing this color up again!

 

 

After a coat of clear wax, I had a nice soft, cool grey.  Adding the dark wax made it a warmer tone and gave it the old worn look that I wanted.

 

 

Paris Grey often picks up a slight blue hue, but this mix really gives you a true grey.

 

 

 

I am enjoying some late summer blooms.  Pink roses are always a lovely accessory, especially against a grey background!

 

 

Mid-painting I had an idea.  Even with it's new color, this table was still looking a little too early 80's for my taste.  I realized it was the standard brass drawer pull that was throwing me off.  It had to go.  As it was attached to a faux drawer, it really wasn't necessary anyway...but, still something decorative was needed there.  I pulled out my treasure trove of old hardware and played with a few ideas before deciding on this lovely old metal piece.  I am sure it was once a drawer pull that got separated from it's handle at some point.  A little glue, a few nails, a bit of paint, some light distressing and a little wax and...voila!  I love it! 

 

 

My husband loves this table!  Hearing him say it pleased me to no end!  He doesn't get too enthusiastic about all of my furniture makeovers, so when he says he really likes a piece, I know he means it!  He said we should keep this one.  Well, we will enjoy it for about a week and then it's off to the Camas Vintage Street Faire! 

 

 

I have so much to do to prepare for this fabulous event that I really should get off of the computer and get back to painting!

 

Thank you so much for visiting me today!  I hope you are having a lovely week!

 

Best Wishes and Blessings,

Amanda 

 

 

 

Sharing with...

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Home

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed

 Furniture & Paint Party at Start at Home

Studio Space / Sitting Room Reveal

It seems I have been accused of teasing you!  This sitting room area/creative studio space has been undergoing  decorative transformation for over a year now and I have only shared little bits of it here and there but never a full room reveal.  As I look through these photos, I still see so many things that I want to work on and change but as décor is always changing in my world, I thought I had better do a post on this room before I decided to do a complete overhaul again! 

 

My game plan here was to design a multi-purpose space.  I needed a place for the computer and ample table space for crafting as well as lots of pretty storage for all of my tools and supplies.  At the same time, this is the first room you see when you enter our house, so I didn't want it to feel like you had stepped into an art studio or office.  I wanted it to be warm and inviting and reflect the style of the rest of our home.

 

 

From the other side of the room you can look in on the formal dining room that we used quite frequently at one time...before the kiddos arrived!  I forsee that room undergoing a transformation in the near future as well!  Hmmmmm...

 

 

I realize that my creative space would be so much prettier without that big black box in the corner...but for the time being it is practical and necessary.  If you follow me on Facebook, you may have gotten a glimpse of my freshly painted vintage dollhouse.  I am having fun using it to create little "idea vignettes!"  More detailed photos of my creative studio area and painted storage pieces can be found here.

 

 

This dresser holds a whole lot of crafting supplies!  Link here to see before and after photos and read about the makeover.

  

I store all of my pretty papers in my Eastlake dresser...wrapping paper, printing paper, scrapbook paper, sheet music and book pages.  If you missed the post about this makeover project, you can find it here.

 

 My most recent addition to the room was this sweet chair!  It was one of those pieces that was just meant to be.  The Craigslist post read "petite cream chair."  There was no photo!  I took a chance and not only was it just the chair for this room, but the woman selling it was someone I actually knew! In fact, she had offered it at a vintage sale the weekend before that I had shopped!  I guess I was so overwhelmed by all of the treasures at the sale that I missed the chair.  It worked out in my favor though, because I got the "after-sale" price!

 

 

Everyone's favorite place to read and rest is on the comfy chaise lounge, one of the first pieces I bought for this room last spring.  I wrote a post about this corner of the room when I bought the door and floral painting earlier this year.  It was fun to see how this corner had evolved over the year.  However, don't be surprised if it looks totally different next year!

 

 This vanity mirror was among my very first Chalk Paint® Decorative Paint by Annie Sloan projects and I just love how unexpected and whimsical it looks on the mantle.  You can read more about it and see the before and after pics here.

 

We are enjoying this space today more than ever.  That doesn't mean it isn't likely to undergo many more changes in the future, but I think the overall purpose of the room will remain the same.  It is functional and comfortable and I have had so much fun putting it all together!

 

Thank you for joining me on this little tour today!  I hope you are having a wonderful week!

 

Best Wishes and Blessings,

Amanda

 

 

Sharing with...

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Home

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed

 Furniture & Paint Party at Start at Home

Petite Lavender Desk & Missing Veneer Fix

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  I can't wait to show you what I've been working on this week!  I think you're going to be quite surprised when you see the before photo of this sweet little lavender desk!  I am a bit ashamed to say that I purchased it from the woman who had originally painted it bright blue using a latex paint.  I wasn't about to tell her that it was going to be repainted...I don't think she would recognize it if she saw it today anyhow!

 

Upon closer inspection, I could see that the desk had been painted olive green at one point!  Both layers of the latex paint were actually peeling off in places...like layers of plastic.  I was not about to waste my time trying to sand or peel all of those goopy layers of paint off.  Seriously, talk about hours of tedious, boring work!  Thank goodness for Chalk Paint® Decorative Paint by Annie Sloan! 

 

 

I started with two coats of Old White, just to be sure that none of that bright blue was going to reappear at any point.  I knew I wanted to do some heavy distressing in the end and without a good undercoat of Old White, any distressing would reveal the peeling blue latex paint. 

 

 

 Once the two coats of Old White had dried, I was tempted to stop there.  The coverage was excellent...I was looking at a white desk!  However, I still had this vision of a pretty Pale lavender, so I mixed 1 part Paloma to 1 part Old White.

 

 

One coat of my custom Lavender color was all that was needed to completely cover the desk.  I then went to work distressing to reveal bits of the Old White underneath.  Clear and Dark wax completed the shabby, rustic look and sealed the deal...no more peeling latex here!  A crystal knob on the drawer was the finishing touch!

 

 

A peek inside the drawer reveals some pretty vintage wallpaper!  I have a few 3 feet pieces of this available in my shop space.

 

 

I love how this little desk turned out, but I am equally pleased with the little white chair!  Are you ready for this?

 

 

Never again will I shy away from a beautiful piece of furniture with missing veneer!  A very special thanks to the talented Rosemary of Villabarnes for the inspiration! 

 

 

Pieces of vintage sheet music have filled in where veneer had once been broken away. 

 

 

I sanded the edges of the intact veneer so that no one's clothing would be snagged if they were to sit on this seat! 

 

 

This isn't just a cute chair to look at...it's amazingly sturdy for it's age and ready to be used! 

 

 

 That is one cute little desk and chair ready for Camas Antiques!

 

Thanks again for visiting me today!  I hope you are having a lovely week!

 

Best Wishes and Blessings,

Amanda

 

 

Sharing with...

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Home

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed