Fusion Mineral Paint in my heart

It has been a year! A whole year since the last time I wrote a blogpost! I knew it had been long, but I had no idea! I have no other excuses, other than "life happens". But I sort of only used my FB page for posting.

I have not NOT been painting. That is not the reason. "Business is blooming", really. Well, hobby non the less. But still. I have painted quite a bit. I have been taking a break from milkpaint, but instead I discovered Fusion Mineral Paint. It is A M A Z I N G! (I know, I am really, really late to the party...)

While spending lazy summer days under the spanish sun, I kept my eyes on the furniture ads back home in Norway. I was so lucky when I found this set! 

Here it is dismantled. It allso came with this matching head bord.

I found a stamp inside one of the drawers saying: J. B. Van Sciver Co. 

So at one time, this lovely bedroom set was actually imported from the U.S all the way to Norway!

How exciting is that?!  I know you feel me, haha

I had allready set my mind on Fusion Mineral Paints Ash. A warm, lush dark grey. I absolutely love how luxuriously it looks. It came on incredible easy, and two layers was all it took.

I sanded all the way down the top, and stained them with a weathered light grey stain.

You dont have to seal your pieces while using FMP becuase it allready has a protective sealing built-in in the finished paint. Is`t that amazing? (but I guess you guys allready knew that, because again, I`m late, haha....)

But I decided to use white wax either way, because I wanted a weathered and rustic look to my piece. And the wax gave me exsactly that! 

The drawers were lined whit this delicate feather paper

I could not be more happy with the outcome.  I really, really love it! 

It is still waiting for someone to pull it away from me. Until then, it is sitting here, safely.

You might have noticed that I havent re-finished the headboard? That is because I have slightly other plans for it. But I`ll save that for another day.

A dreamy, vintage vanity desk

Hi everyone! Summer is over, kids are back to school (In Norway, kids have been going to school for two weeks allready) and I am back to work. We had a lovely summer vacation, and two warm, delightfull weeks in Greece. But it is good to be back. I can allready feel the fall creeping up on us. But I dont mind. Fall is my favourit time of the year.

I actually got to do a bit painting and refurbishing during the summer. I havent been taking it to easy.
I never really can.

But I am going to start with a lovely, handmade, vintage vanity desk that I actually got for free by a very sweet old lady. It had once been painted mint green, but she had stripped all of all the paint many years ago. And I am so glad she did, because raw, dry wood is my favourit kind of wood to paint when I use milkpaint. So this piece of goodness was the perfect candidate for Miss Mustard Seeds lovely collection.

I did very little prepping and/or sanding. Except for the legs, wich still had just a little paint left on it.
I was so lucky to have my to little helpers with me.
They were very eager to help.

After it was sanded, and dusted, I brought it in. I had removed the big framed mirror and placed it up against our kitchen island. Does anyone want to take a guess at what happened next?? Anyone?....
Well, what was bound to happen when you are stupid enough to place it in a highly trafficated room, I guess. Because someone tripped on it, and the whole thing went BAM! to the floor.
So now I had to start looking for a new mirror to replace it with the shattered one. Long story short; I found one.


I used a mix of MMSMP in Bergere and and Schloss, and homemade white chalkpaint for this one.

I just love how easy the paint sticks to raw wood. And if you look close, you can see the woodgrains peeking through the finish. Perfect!

I am not going to bore you with to much details, because it was pretty straight forward. But there is one detailt I want to point out, and that is the delicate wall paper lining I inserted in the drawers and inside the cabinet doors. They had the perfect framed panels for the paper. And it really compliments the dusty blue color of the vanity.

Again with the woodgrain. Look how they glow through the paint.

And those "waterdrop" pullhandles are the icing on the vanity-cake!

This was such a fun piece to work with, and it quickly got a new owner aswell. 

I hope it gets a long and happy life!

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Makeover of a 80`s something rolled top desk

I love furniture, no doubt about that. But I do have a special crush on hutches and secretary desks. Actually anything that can unfold itself to me, open up and show the inside. There is just something to it.....

This is an 80`s (possibly even 70`s) secretary desk. It was tiered and a little worn down. But nothing I knew I couldnt fix.
When I first saw it, I knew the knobs had to go first thing. Well, that wasnt going to be very easy, because they were plugged in with wooden dowels and glued ALOT! I used every trick in the book to get them off. Finally, they went.

Heres a few before pictures...

See how rough the finish had become?

But the wood was still so beautyfull, so I knew I wanted to keep some of the wood finish. I just had to give its old shine back. Allso, after seeing Jamie over at Andersons & Grant with her amazing two-toned rolled top desk in black, I instantly knew what I wanted the end results to be!

I used Miss Mustard Seeds Typewriter for this job. I just lovet the matt, chalky finish on it. I sanded to top with machine, then I stained it. Everything that wasnt painted in black, got a few layers with hempseed oil. I have allways wanted to try MMS hemseed oil, but I havent gotten my hands on it yet, so I actually dared to try a hempseed oil from a regular health product store. And it worked like a charm! (but still want to try MMS`s...)

I just love the effect on the rolled top! I sanded quite a bit to bring out the gold-like oak. Instead of waxing, I used the hempseed oil on it. 

All the pull handles were replaced with these golden knobs. They are just the perfect crown on this jewel. I sanded quite a bit all around the edges of the desk, to make it look more vintage. 

I can just imagine sitting here, writing hand-written letters on old, yellowed paper with an ink pen. Hopefully someone else will allso se the nostalgic charm in this old, renewed rolled top desk.

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An old, vintage dresser in Miss Mustard Seed milkpaint

T H I S is why I love what I do! And why I strive to know all there is to know about milkpaint. I think it is amazing how you can take a really old piece of furniture, paint it, and still have it looking old. From the info that I got from the previous owner of this dresser, it is about 100 years old. But it was in good condition, considering...

The drawers had been covered with an adhesive lining paper. It was hideous, and quite frankly impossible to get off. Event though it most likely had been there since the 50`s, the glue was incredible strong. I wasnt even a little fond of spending time on that...

My head went through a dozen of color combinations for this dresser. I knew I wanted a two-toned look, and I wanted it to look "old". I had to restrain my self from using Miss Mustard Seeds Boxwood, a lovely green color. And by green I meen GREAN! Really green. In fact, the reason why I didnt use it is that I had to be sure it would sell.... and not everyone likes green, so I have heared.

So I opted for a combination of Curio (MMS`s brown) and a self-mixed color of blueish teal.
I do not regret that choise, because they came out amazing! I just love the selfmade mix. If I am not mistaken, I used Flow Blue and mixed in what I had left over with Marzipan, Shutter Grey, Schloss, and a little Farmhouse White. I think that was it.....

Before

The handles were sort of interesting, except some of the white plastic on them were broken. So I had to remove it.

The drawer linings. Need I say more?....

After

I just love the MMS brown (Curio)! It is a truly brown color, and can allso be used as a stain. And it covers so well. The thing that I was so amazed by with this project, was how the grain and nooks showed through the paint, but still gave a good cover. That makes the whole differens! And it still looks old. 

I lined the drawers with a baroque-themed wallpaper. The suttle blue on creamy white was the perfect addition to the dresser. Plus, it covers up the hidious 50`s paper. The handles got a good scrubbing, and are now shining like gold.

And off course, I have to show you all the amazing details!

Look at these pictures of the blue! Doesnt it look like a starlit sky?

I realise that the colors on the pictures look a little different from eachother, but that is because on some of them I had`nt applied the wax and on others there are both clear and dark wax. 

Well, what do you think? No wonder this is one of my favourits so far! I am allso lucky to have good customers, because a lady who has allredy bought three other pieces of me, allso snatched this one up.  Yeah!

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A planked top dining table

I have edited the pictures of this post since it was published. Things change quickly around here! Before I knew it I had sold this bench and replaced with another. I allso added an extension to the table. AND! Tadaaaa! A new lamp! Oh, how I have been looking for THE perfect lamp over our new countrystyle diningtable. And I refused to pay a fortune for it. So when someone offered to sell this expencive designer lamp from HK Living for a third of the original cost, I jumped right at it. It is the perfect touch of vintage country chic.

The words rustic, wood, vintage and farmhouse just makes my heart melt. Its like words taken out of a story from the House on the Prairie. If I could wrap our rental house in driftwood I wood. I mean, would!


Our diningroom is small. Amd in constant change (go on, just ask my husband...)
And the diningtable that I brought home about 6 months ago (wich was free) was okey, but a little to big. And not very "House on the Prairie" if you ask me....
Now, I have always wanted a rustic, planked dining table that was just the right size for our little family of four, but had the potential to transform it self into a seating for a few more guests.
How does a rustic, planked dinigtable with extensions sound? F A N T A S T I C!
So I searched and searched and searched a bit more on line (okey, you got me, the old, reliable Pinterest...), but it seems like #1) No one else is as brilliant as me, or #2) Extensions on a planked dining table is really not a good ide. I went for #1. So I warped it up, and figured I would make the inserts for the extensions like Tommie and Ellie did.  Now, let me tell you, I am not a skilled carpenter. Far from it! In fact, all I had to work with was a hand-held saw, a hammer, screws, and a drill.  And I did it ALL by my SELF (except from screwing the planks to the top, because I was actually lying on top of the table while my husband was on his back under it and fastened the screws... Thats teamwork for you!

Here is the only picture I took when I chiseled out the openings for the extensions. 8 of them! By hand!!

I forgot to tell you guys that I kept the original base from the old table. The legs are just amazing. I love the big, chunkyness of it. Very farmhouse. I painted them right before christmas.
For extra support, I put in three horisontal supporters for us to attach the planks to. It is actually a very easy make, but the chiseling for the extenders makes it very time consuming.

But before I knew it, it was actually done! And I could not be happier! I havent assembeled the exctensions yet, that will have to wait a couple of weeks.

Actually, one of my biggest consurns about making this table, was the color of the top. I knew what I wanted it to look like, but wasnt quite sure how to get it. Allso, I am a true believer of using what you allready have, so I sourced out all my paints and tried out quite a few techniques. I came out with this perfect driftwood color. First I painted on a thin coat of watered out white chalkpaint. Second coat was a watered out Curio milkpaint (Miss Mustard Seed)wich is a brown color,  that I rubbed out with a cloth, and the third coat was a watered out grey stain called Patina grey. I sealed the top with three coats of clear, matt lacquer.

Now we have the perfect sized diningtable for our little diningroom. And it just oozes of farmhouse.

Here is to show you the old table vs, our new "old" table:

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by! 

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A vintage inspired dining room rolling cart

Phuuu.... that was a long sentence, but it describes my new piece of furniture so well!
(I left out the swearing and cursing that occured while putting it together...)

I had my heart set on making a vintage looking cart/shelving for our dining room after seeing ALOT of pictures on line. At the end, I sortet it out to these three images, wich was my inspiration.

Left: Cherished Bliss, top right: Dear Lillie, bottom right: Restoration Hardware

I came across this cart on Jennifers blog Dear Lillie, where she actually wrote a tutorial on how she made it. And beeing the "in with a spoon" kind of girl I am, I went for the tutorial. It seemed so easy peesy! I even went to the lumber store on my own, chopped of the right lenghts for the materien there and then, went home and went at it. It was a "hag" putting together!  My numero uno mistake was using TWO pieces of wood for each shelf (because the lumber shop didnt have the correct width on the lumber I actually needed. So I ended up having to be very creative as to how I would make it hold together. Wich I did....
If you look veeeeery closely to MY cart,  (please dont!) you would actually see that it is quite lopsided,  the shelves are bending upwards on the middle, some are bending down, and I had to screw it to the wall so it wont fall over. BUT, it allso looks kind of amazing. Pluss, I made it on my own!!
I would really like to make another one some time later, and do it with the right material. But for now it is ok. Pluss it is great to play around with when it comes to staging all my ironstone, linens and nick nacks. Is it to much?....

I put brackets on the corner, wich I pre-painted with Miss Mustard Seeds Typewriter. Its the perfect matt black on metal. The shelves are stained in a washed out water based stain that we have used on a lot of other home made furnitures. The metal X helps keeping the whole thing a little better together. In fact, I wasnt sure I wanted to use the metal band or dowels like Jennifer did in her tutorial, I kind of regret now that I didnt..... Just so you know.

But all in all, it is a great piece, and gives that touch of countryside that I like so much.

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