Mid century vanity desk

Hello everyone!
It has been a while, I will admit. But I have been working on some things for our house.
We got a new dining table (free!) and so I have been putting my self AND my husband at work so that it would be finished and ready by the holidays (wich by the way are creeping up on us fast!)

Now, on to my latest make.
I bought a very cheap teak vanity desk. The formal owner had allready painted it white, so there was nothing I could do to savour the teak wood.
I knew right away that I wanted to play with this piece of furniture, and actually use some color for a change. I usually play it safe with neutrals, so this was absolutely out of my comfort zone. But I think I did a good job, and hey! It sold within two days, so I could`nt be happier!

Here is the before

The paint was in very bad shape, with thick brush strokes. Not a very good paint job...

But the mirrors were in lovely condition! No stripes or spots (except from the one down to the left there. Thats an old sticker I removed).

And the after:

I used Miss Mustard Seeds Leylas Mint. It was the perfect green minty color for this piece and it gave it a sort of 60`s feeling. 

  

The inside of the two side compartments and the drawer was in perfect condition, so I did not go in there with the paint brush. I lined the drawer and the fronts with this awsome wallpaper with matching colors. Is`nt that cool??

I was very suprised to find out that the fronts flip down, instead of out like regular doors. An interesting touch!

And finally, just to make it a LITTLE bit more interesting, I spray painted  bronze "socks" on the legs.

What do you think?

This mid century vanity makeover makes me happy! And I really got to test my self by going out of the  box and think in other directions. 

There`s one lucky girl out there who is getting this for christmas! The guy who bought it wanted to give it for his girlfriend as a present. 

On to the next one!

Shared over at:

Inspired feutures and link party

Show and Share

Amaze Me Monday

Treasure Hunt Thursday

Something to talk about link party

Vintage wooden dresser in MMS`s Iron Stone

Hello everyone!
Today I want to show a dresser that I bought a few months ago. I have been playing with the thougt of painting it time after time, but havent quite been able to make up my mind. But that was until now!
I just threw my seld into it, and grabbed the brush, hoping that if I painted this dresser white, then it would help brighten up our dining room a little.

The lady I bought it from, told me she once bought it from an old man when she was a student, I guess about 25-30 years ago. And when she got it, it was painted brown. She stripped it down, only to find out that it allso had been red, blue and black at some time. So it is safe to say that this lovely thing had been through quite a lot of makeovers.

Allthough I do like old, raw wood, I can only take so much. Besides, it was a blank canvas begging for attention.
I only had some milkpaint in the color Iron Stone. Even though I would much rather paint it in MMS`s Grain Sack, I just couldnt wait to get started. So Iron Stone it was....

Now, this dresser was VERY thirsty! It took three layers of paint. Some places more, and I was starting to get nervous of if I had enough paint to finish it. But I did! But I did leave the top unpainted, and that I did for a good reason. You see, I have a pretty old cupboard hanging over the dresser, allso in old, raw wood. And I wanted the two pieces to still "be connected", if you know what I mean.

Anyway, after the painting was done, I sanded and distressed in all the "right" places. I will admit, I was very nervous that I had done a stupid thing by painting the dresser. Somehow, while painting it, I just didnt get a good vibe of it. But that all changed when I was finished destressing it! I knew I had done the right thing by giving it a makeover! I gave it a layer of clear wax, and it was perfect!

I just love it!

What do you think? Did I do the right decision by painting it?

Shared over at:

Amaze Me Monday

Share your style link party

Something to talk about

Making Broken Beautyful

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

Mellow Yellow cooffetable

Hi again!
This time I want to show you this cool little table I got from a friend. It is an original teak table, but the finish was quite bad and beatened up. So I did what I do best. I painted it! I had a small bag of MMS Yellow laying around. I had never tried that color, but after seeing the wonderfull yellow dresser that Marian from Miss Mustard Seed painted, I knew that this was the right color for this retro triangle table.

I did no prep work on this piece. But I did have to put on qiute a few layers of paint for it to cower enough. Think maybe the paint was to thin? Allso I distressed it just a little bit before I gave it a proper layer of wax.
See the details on the legs? Yeah, I thought that was an interesting touch for a retro table. Not bad, eh?

This one is for sale at my facebook page. Hope someone likes it enough to take it home!

Shared over at:

Five Star Frugal

Something to talk about

home & garden blogs blogs

For the love of Milk Paint

How excited is it possible to get when a bag of milkpaint drops in your mailbox??
Pretty excited, I`ll have you know! If it wasnt for me driving the car down to the mailbox (we came from the grocery store. Its not like I take the car just to get the mail!...) I am very sure I would have skipped all the way home. Haha...

I while back I got four old wooden chairs from some lady who was actually throwing them away. I KNOW! Who does that??
Anyway, I took them offcourse, but they have been sitting in the basement evers since. Because, well, we actually have dining chairs allready. But they dont really go with the look that I am trying to achieve. Unfortunately for me, my husband dont care....

Not long ago, Miss Mustard Seed Milkpaint launched a new range of colors. Now, I do love colors, they just fit in with our interior. I am more of a neutral gal`with a splash of wood and soft pastels.
So when I read about the new color Marzipan, I knew that was it for my old wooden chairs.

These will look so good when the milkpaint gets a good, light sanding, distressing and some wax.
Cant wait to finish them. Who knows, maybe even my husband will aprove....

One down, three to go!

Shared over at

Treasure Hunt Thursday
Youre gonna love it
Vintage Inspiration Party
Share your style 
Restyle Relove
Show and Share

How to be accurate when you drill new wholes for your drawer pullers. Every time!

Well, this old thing keeps popping up. You might remember that when I bought it, one puller was missing, and they were`nt really much to look at to begin with, So I decided to remove all of them, plaster up the holes and make new, once I had found the right pullers. And I did!
See how I painted them and gave them a makeover with chalkpaint here.

But I was a little short-sighted, and had not foreseen how I would make sure that the holes on all three drawers were identical. So I came up with something, that I think was very clever! Haha...
I have not seen it elsewhere, but I doubt I am the first person in history who came up with it.
And by all means, if there is an easier/better way, please let me know!

You are going  to need tracing paper and a pencil.
Make sure your paper is long enough to cover the lenght of the drawer.

Place the pullers where you want them, and start measuring. 

Heres a tip! When you have it where you want it and you have marked the spots (I marked with a pen spot exactly were the screw holes goes) then you fold the paper in half and just trace them over from where you made them the first time. Now you will have a mirroring image of the handle placement. 

Fold open the paper again over the drawer, push down hard with your pen/pencil so that it goes through the paper and leaves a visable mark on the actual drawer. That is were you will drill youre holes.

Everything in order! As simple as that.

Thanks for stopping by:)

Pumpkin and fall vignette

I really love sundays. Except that after sunday comes monday. Dont love that so much.

Sundays are great days to fiddle around with your interiour, move things around and get lots of new ideas. 

I bought these really cute, little pumpkins for decorating. I see they are "all over the place", so I wanted to try them out. First I thought of painting them with chalkpaint like these that Kelly over at Jax does design made. I love the whole painted pumpkin consept! I might still paint mine,  but for now I`m going to enjoy the lovely fall colors.

My chalkpainted secretaire finally got its drawer handles mounted. The pine cones were picked by my little man at kindergarden, the basket is a thrift shop find, as is the cake stand. I found the mirror in the barn while looking for treasures (find one!) And then theres these cute, little baby pumkins. Dont they look lovely?

Have a great sunday!

Antique secretary make-over with homemade chalkpaint

In my very first post, I showed you this old, worn out secretary desk I bought.

I actually dont know what time-period it originates from, but I would guess some time around the 1950`s. 

It had a very dark sort of laminated color. I think the right woord would be plywood. 

Heres a before picture:

You can see here that I took off the handles, and plastered the screw holes.

I chose to this because:

1) The handles werent "all that" 

2) One handle was missing

So I figured that the smart thing to do would be to just remove them and replacee them with the perfect ones (still have`nt found them, though....).

There was allso a couple of places on the drawer that the plywood had chipped of, so I put som plaster there to.

Just look at all those tiny drawers and the pillars. They make a beautyfull detail. Unfortunately the keys didnt come with. 

Look at this paper the former owner put in the bottom drawe. This was a very common thing to do, maybe to protect the wood?

                                                                                           

Here is the secetary desk closed up. The desk can be pulled out or in. Offcourse in this case it is pulled in. All in all it was a quite functional piece, except for one VERY tricky drawer....

Will have to work a little on that one.

So.... after a good cleaning and a little sanding (I try to avoid that as often as possible. Simply because I hate sanding) the secretaire was ready to be painted. And with what else then chalkpaint?! 

I love chakpaint. For so many reasons. Will make a post of that some other time, and how I make my own.

I had allready decided, after spending quite some time on Pinterest looking for inspiration, that I wanted the piece to have two colors. One for the cabinet it self, and another one for the drawers. Here`s a color palette I took inspiration from:

(source)

I first gave the whole piece a layer of a light white-ish color called "mist". Then I painted the drawers with a green color called "prism green". It fits perfect with my other interior. 

Getting inside this compartment here was a bit tricky. In fact, it was impossible to get in there with my brush. So I took a cloth, dipped in the painting and rubbed it all over. 

I made shure that the green didnt cover completely, since I wanted the white to shine through. So I started of carefully, allmost drypainting the drawers. The thing with chalkpaint, is that it dryes so fast! I was done in a couple hours, and then I could start sanding. This is a great way to make furniture look old and distressed. When I sand, I try to think of wich areas that would get most worn and torn the naturally way. You know, if this was a really, really old piece. 

Then it is time for the waxing. This is where the magic happens! I love the affect that waxing makes!

It really gives you the impression that the piece has a history and a soul. And it looks real! I do this by using first clear wax, then go over again with dark wax to make the wanted effect. But it is very important that you give all the surfaces a really good coat with the clear wax before putting on the dark wax. Or else you could risk the paint to suck up the dark color, not being able to rub it off again.

And here it is! I love the detailing on the pillars. The sanding and waxing works perfect together.

And there you have it! Only missing the hardwear now, then it is complete.

What is youre opinion? Would love to hear about it:)

Shared over at Prodigal Pieces