Just because it seems like garbage to you...

Forward: I'm going to go ahead and assume you are poiletly ignoring my awesome garage.  Just like you've been doing  for the last few posts.  Thanks.

My nice grandpa noticed that his neighbors were getting ready to throw this away and rescued it for me.  People!  Please NEVER EVER put something like this in the actual trash.  Even if you think it seems like actual trash.  I promise that there will always be someone like me around who will be more than happy to take it off your hands in 2 seconds flat or faster. It's a little cracked and its a little rickety, but I can fix that.  Just wait.  I've got plans.  Its going to be a beaut.  People, you're going to want it back.

 I got started on it yesterday and I can't wait to put it in my shop.

Thanks Grandpa!  I love you!

Sometimes I don't know what I'm talking about.  When Kristen first contacted me about refinishing her desk, I told her I don't strip and re-stain pieces. Its really time consuming and hard to get it right.  I tried to talk her into staining just the top and painting the apron and legs.  But this desk is special to her and she knew what she wanted.  She stuck to her guns and I'm so glad she did!  I think it turned out beautifully.

Before

 She wanted it re-stained either the color it originally was- a light cherry- or darker.  I took it a few steps darker but stayed in the cherry family.  The stain I used was called Black Cherry.

 I highlighted the details with some black glaze and added poly for protection as always.

Thanks for the challenge Kristen!  I hope you love it!

Birthday Suit

Remember the client project from my last post?  Well, thanks to my new sander love and my best friend The Stripper, its nekked.  I usually love paint, but all this bare wood is so pretty it might be hard to be a little hard to cover up.



Stay tuned!

Holy Spring Break

A new client project arrived this morning.  I need to get going on it and I'm so very excited to break out my lovely new sander again.  I obviously knew this project was scheduled to start today.  I am, after all, my secretary and handle all my important scheduling.

 I had hoped to have a list of accomplished tasks before the desk got here. Tasks including but not limited to some of this:

And some of this

Turning into two of this

 But its Spring Break this week.  For the ENTIRE week.  Need I say more?  Pretty sure I didn't get a whole  week off for Spring Break way back when.  Dumb budget crisis.  And lest you think that I don't like my kids, rest assured, I do (most of the time).  Its just hard to get anything accomplished other than this:

that is delicious chocolate chunk cookie dough, if you can't tell

and this

Oh well.  Pretty sure life could be worse.

Here's hoping you all have a wonderful Spring Break without getting too much accomplished either!

Where Have You Been All My Life?

RIP, Crappy, Crappy Sanders

My "good" sander has been slowly dying on me for a while now. My old backup sander has always been highly annoying but reliable. Last week they both decided to give up the ghost. Literally within hours of each other, sort of like an old married couple. Except I wasn't sad like I would be if they actually were an old married couple- I was just ticked off. While I've been anxiously awaiting an excuse to get a new one, and have had my eye on a few fancy-schmancys at Home Depot, the day the Crappies dies I needed to be sanding right. now. So I thought I would settle for something at Walmart until I had time to make an informed decision on a more expensive model. Plus around here, Walmart is way closer than Home Depot. I came home with this little beauty. And lo and behold, its AWESOME! Smooth as butta, I tell ya. Maybe its just been a long time since I had a new sander (it has) but I'm in love! Its a random orbit model and I swear it purrs.

I'm pretty sure this makes me a sander nerd. Do I look like I care? (I don't.)

Come to Mama.

And Part Two

The rest of the Nicest Client stuff

As I communicated with Vanessa about what she had in mind for her furniture she expressed very clear ideas about her wants for everything but this little garage sale bookcase. She just didn't want it exactly the same as everything else. When I suggested the idea of grassy/Kelly green I was picturing glossy and clean with no distressing. Ha. This is a great example of how furniture sometimes has something else in mind. It's solid wood and very cute, but not in great shape. The glossy, clean paint really highlighted the imperfections. So, I went vintage with it, but with a little bit of an updated feel. And I'm loving how it turned out.

The before thumbnail

Took off the pieced-together, rusty-nailed back- and replaced it with something a little cuter by making myself a pattern, tracing it onto the backing, and painting it in by hand. (Kind of like this at Jones Design Company) I also worked on a side table for her family room which was done to match a piece that she recently purchased, as well as a nightstand done to match the bedroom set I just finished. And last but of course not least, a coffe table also finished to match the new piece.

Coffee table before. She's trying to phase out the red/warm tones in her family room.

Again, thank you so much! I'm so very glad to hear that you are happy with everything!

Can't wait to see some pictures of everything put together :)