French vintage dresser

Happy friday everyone!
I`m still riding on my own little cloud after making a great sale yesterday!
A couple of weeks ago I decided I would take this furniture-painting to a whole other level, and opened a Facebook page dedicatet to the furnitures I find, buy, paint and restore. I have ambitions about someday being able to make this to more than a hobby.
Ever since that day I have been picking up furniture ALOT! Our top floor is full of furniture in all shapes and sizes. Haha....

Yesterday I finished a lovely french dresser, that I had been working on for 3-4 days (I still have a full-time job, two kids and a husband, so things take time).

When I picked up this piece, it was in perfect condition! Not a single scratch! The former owners must have taken really good care of it! It was allmost as I felt bad that I was going to paint it....
But I really dont regret it.

Here is the "before"

It was very nice and all, but it just did`nt do it for me....

I knew I wantet to try one of Miss Mustard Seeds newest colors, Schloss. So I went for that and Iron Stone. Both are great colors! Besides, nothing beats grey on a french old wornout piece of furniture, Since that was the look I was going for.

I startet out "highlighting" some areas with the darkest of the color, Schloss. The side panels and the drawers were going to be white, so I wanted the grey to show under a little bit, to give it a little depth

.

After that, I sort of went in my thinking box, I often do that, right after I have startet on a piece. Because usely I havent decided what I want it to be before AFTER I have startet. 

But I knew I wantet it to look old, and worn, and french. And not perfect. I wantet it to look chic.

Thats where the dark antique wax comes in. It makes wonders! It is the perfect touch for an old, worn look.

What do you think? Did I do just that?

Oh, as I was sayin... I am still soaring on a cloud of happy, because this lovely dresser sold after only 15 min after I put it out for sale on my facebook page. A lady really liked it and wanted it right away! I must be doing something right, huh?

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend! I am taking my family up on the mountains for the weekend, where I will propably dream about my next project! 

Shared over at:

Share youre style link party

Treasure Hunt thursday

Feathered Nest Friday

Show and share

Amaze Me Monday 

Be Inspired 

Making broken beautyfull

Something to talk about

A makeover of my mysterious antique sideboard + getting to know Miss Mustard Seed milkpaint

Here it is guyes! At least part of it. I spent most of my weekend (in parts) painting and sanding this beauty. I painted with Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint. This was my very first time using milkpaint, and I actually found an online shop here in Scandinavia who sells MMSMP, its called Skattkammaren.

The how-to for milkpaint  is not so very different from the chalkpaint, wich I have used several times. And I was aware of that MP is a very unpredictable product when it comes to behavior. I was hoping for a little chipping of the paint, but that did not happen. I even tried a few tricks I had read about, like using a hair dryer on the wet paint right after aplying it, and even paint on a second coat before the first has dried. But no.... I guess the surface was to saturated and "dry". The sideboard is most likely over a 100 years old, and it has not been sealed or treated with any thing for a looooong time. It simply had dried in. Oh, well. On to the sanding then, my favourit part! The details on the mirror are just lovely! And I feel I got to put them in their right element with this color, plus the sanding and distressing helps to bring it out.

I had another issue with this piece, and that was the marble top with the big hole in it for the sink. You can see pictures of it here, before I started painting it.
Obviously, I am not using it as a bathroom furniture, så I (aka my husband) had to build a new one. I had the plans ready in my head long time ago, but you see, we dont saddle the horse and ride the same day.
After finally buying the material for the new top, we buit it yesterday. And it was a perfect fit! I am so happy with the results!

We screwed on three bearers under the boards, to hold them stable, and the desk fitted right in. 

No it wont budge!

I actually read that  milkpaint is the perfect paint for raw wood! Did you know that?? It works as a stain, and sucks right in to the wood, fast! It is brilliant. Then it is all up to you how thick or opaque you want the stain to be. I actually mixed it out quite thin, but applied 3-4 coats. And then I sealed it with clear wax.
I havent gotten to distress the bottom om the sideboard yet. Its like I am postponing the process so that it wont finish to fast. It is so much fun, and I want it to last! But of course, I want a beautyful finished furniture to shine in my diningroom, too.
I was actually a little sad when I spent the very last grains of milkpaint, thinking this is it. Now its empty...  I know, I`m weird....

Now, I have big plans for the bottom part and the doors! It involves a jigsaw and chicken wire.
Woohooo! I am so exited! Please stay tuned for part two of this amazing (I think so...) reviel of the makeover of my mysterious antique sideboard.

Have a good day everyone:)



(You can read about this post over at Songbirds  Inspiration Party and at the "Youre time to shine"-party

How to whitewash - A make over of our second-hand dining table -

Right before our big move to our house last desember, my husband was given a laaaarge dining table from his workplace. There it had been used as a conference table. It was big, had rounded ends, metal legs and two extra feeder plates. It had a brown-orange-like color, not so bad. But it did not fit the style I was going for. But it would actually take me about six months before I did anything about it. Our kids use it for homework, playing, drawing, painting and we have our dinners there. So eventually it had sustained quite a lot of "injury" on the top. It had come to the point were I couldnt focus on eating my dinner anymore. All I saw was the staines and cuts on the table top. Something HAD to be done, soon!

This picture was taken at christmas last year, 

before anything was done with the table.

I really didnt know what to do with it, I just knew (and heard) that its not easy to paint a big surface like that without having all those brush strokes showing. Besides, I wanted an old and distressed look on the wood. So, my first thought was to sand it down and give it a turn with homemade staining. You know, the kind you make yourself. "Project sanding down insanely amount of wood" was on. My first thought was: "pft... I can do this with sanding paper! No problemo!" Way problemo!
It was too time consuming and my arms was killing me. So we had to find a sanding machine.
(should have done that the first time....) It made the work a lot better, but unfortunately, we still had to do a lot of manuell sanding to get all the way "in there".

Then, when I thought we had done enough sanding (obviously NOT), I startet putting on the DIY staining. I am shure this is a suuuuper good idea on light/new wood. But for this sucker, not so mutc. It was horrible! I even tried waiting several days to let the stain get settled. But that never happeden.
Burned-out furniture was not the look I was going for. So..... what to do?

Obviously, I had`nt done enough sanding. But at this point, looking at the results, 

I had given up...

I spent a couple of nights searching Pinterest for ideas and tips, and came up whit drypainting!
Obviously, there are different ways to do it, but I came up with the right formula for my paint.
I used 1 part paint and 1part water, stired it well and used a wide pencil and just slightly dipped the tip in the paint. Then I went bananas! Haha... Since there is only a tiny amount of paint on the pencil, I used a little force to get it on. Just brush it! Brush it reeeeaaal good! Up and down in big movements. And preferably without lifting the pencil halfway on the table. You want the pencil stroke to go all the way from one end to the other. A rag is allso a very good tool here to wipe of excess paint. Remember, its supposed to be dry!

See the difference?? The strips of light there is actually my chandelier.

Now, THIS is what I was going for!

I actually did this three or four times (I lost count...) before I was satisfied.
Now I had to come up with some thing to look it all in, and protect it against new injuries. I read up a little on that to, and the solution was simple. Floor lacquer. It is strong, sustainable and see-through. Perfect! Another good advise I was given her was to use the matt kind. Not the shiny one. Then the white paint most lightly will turn yellow! And we did not want that! Another tip here is to apply it with a roller! No brush strokes:)
After two coats of matt floor lacquer, it was done! And we had a shiny new dining table!
It was a lot of tryal and failing, but it was worth it in the end. And no it sits much better in our dining room. And it can take a lot of beating to, thanks to the lacquer!

Mutch better!

Have you ever tryed drypainting? What is youre experience with it?