q is for quandie

Today I’m bringing you several super simple makeovers.  None of them felt ‘big’ enough to deserve a blog post of their own, but all of them felt worth sharing in some fashion.

Let’s start with this wooden bowl that has been in my stash for a while.

I’d been hanging onto it because you just never know when you might need a wooden bowl to corral some items, like some vintage croquet balls for example.

I don’t actually have anything to put in the bowl just yet, but I really wanted to paint it in my favorite blue milk paint, Soldier Blue from Homestead House.

I love this gorgeous vibrant shade of blue.

To prep the bowl I scuff sanded it lightly all over and then simply wiped it down with a damp rag.  To be extra cautious about chipping I could have washed it well with Dawn dish soap and hot water, but I was willing to take my chances with this one.

Next up, I simply gave it two quick coats of Soldier Blue.

Once the paint was dry, I sanded lightly again and then added a topcoat of Dixie Belle’s Howdy-Do Hemp Oil.

I got the perfect amount of chipping, and ended up with this gorgeous blue bowl!

Hopefully I’ll come across something to put in it while out garage saling or thrifting.  This weekend kicks off neighborhood garage sale season in my area, so fingers crossed that I find some good stuff!

But meanwhile I just staged it up with an ironstone pitcher and some vintage books in almost the same shade of blue.

Next up is a vintage flour sifter.  Now, I have to confess, I hadn’t really planned on sharing this project so I didn’t take a good ‘before’ photo.  However, I did dig up this old photo and the sifter in question is the one at the back with the green knob.

I thought this particular sifter was rather boring though, so last Christmas I added one of I.O.D.’s holiday themed transfers to it without first painting it.  I disliked that look immediately however, so it got shoved back into the ‘makeover’ pile.

I pulled it out the other day and used a heat gun and a razor blade to remove that Christmas transfer.  Then I painted the sifter in Dixie Belle’s Cottage Door.  Once the paint was dry, I sanded lightly to distress and then added some apple blossom transfers from I.O.D.’s Lover of Flowers set.

Oh my gosh, I just love that color.

And if you take a moment to actually read the little poem, it’s perfect.

Why do those apple blossoms fall so fast?  I do wish they’d stick around a bit longer.

Next up I have another cupboard door sign for you.  I’ve had a stash of cupboard doors in my workshop for a while now, so I’m going to try to get through them all before my sale.

This particular look was inspired by a project I saw on the Ginger Chick Rehab YouTube channel (you can find that video here).  She painted a small dresser using Sweet Pickins milk paint in a color called Curry.  Then she added some florals from the new I.O.D. Collage de Fleurs transfer …

followed by a Funky Junk stencil.  Now, I have to admit, I never would have thought to put these florals over a mustard yellow on my own.  But it worked beautifully on Yvonne’s dresser, so I decided to give it a go.

Although I didn’t have the Sweet Pickins milk paint, or the Funky Junk stencil, I had a couple of substitutions on hand that worked quite well I think.

First up, I gave my cupboard door a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Coffee Bean.  Then I mixed up some Homestead House milk paint in a color called Garden Seed.  I’d used this color once before when experimenting with shades of yellow for a Jenny Lind bed frame I was painting (it’s the color on the bottom pot, no. 3).

After applying a couple of coats of the Garden Seed, I used my heat gun to encourage a little crackling.

Next I chose a few florals to add.

I stayed away from the darker red versions, using mostly creamy or pale pink blooms.  I very lightly sanded over the transfers with 220 grit sandpaper to make them look a bit more aged to go along with the crackled paint.

Finally I added a simple Fresh Cut Flowers stencil in more of DB’s Coffee Bean.

I feel like I’m taking a bit of a risk with this one.  It’s far from neutral, isn’t it?  And shades of yellow have always been hit or miss for me when it comes to sales.  But it was a fun project and hopefully someone will give it a new home.

Last up, while I had the Fresh Cut Flowers stencil handy, I decided to add it to a small chair.

This chair was one of my friend Sue’s finds.  While I loved the authentically chippy paint finish, the color was quite dirty and dingy.  After attempting to just clean it up with the help of a Magic Eraser, I ended up deciding it needed a refresh with some paint.

So I pulled out the In a Pickle milk paint from Sweet Pickins and applied two coats to the chair.

I then added the stencil to the seat using DB’s Drop Cloth.

As you can see, I still got plenty of fresh new chipping!

It’s a little hard to judge the size of this chair from my photos.  It’s a bit smaller than the usual kid sized chairs I paint at 21.25″ tall x 12.5″ wide x 11.5″ deep.

I finished it off with a coat of clear wax.

There is one element that unifies all 4 of these small projects, color!  None of them are painted in my typical neutral shades.  Clearly I felt the need to inject a little color into my world recently, lol.  How about you?  Do you like to add a bit of color, or do you usually stick to neutrals?  And which of these 4 projects is your fave?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Oh my gosh you guys, this one has been around for a long time.

I purchased this clock more than 5 years ago.  I paid $5 for it at a garage sale.  It was going cheap because it didn’t work.

I mainly purchased it for the case.  I planned to gut it and turn it into a little hanging display case of some kind.

But for some reason it became one of those projects that I never quite got around to sharing here on the blog.  I did eventually remove the clock parts, and I sold some of them separately.

Then I asked Ken to add a little shelf inside the case.  Next up, I painted it in Fusion’s Little Black Dress milk paint.

I added some Eiffel Tower paper to the back and filled it up with some clocks and silver salt and pepper shakers.

But I didn’t love it.

I think I just wasn’t feeling the black, and I also really wanted this piece to be crackled and chippy.  But for some reason I didn’t get any chipping out of that black milk paint.  So I tucked the clock case away for another couple of years.  I finally decided to give it another go a few weeks ago.

But this time I also decided to try adding some heat.  If you aren’t familiar with this technique, you can use a heat gun to dry your milk paint quickly which can promote crackling and/or chipping.

I had two shades of white on hand, Homestead House Sturbridge White and Fusion London Fog.  The Sturbridge White is too white for me, but the London Fog is too creamy, so I mixed them to create the perfect off-white.

I mixed my paint up on the thicker side (because that tends to aid in crackling as well) and tested it out on the bottom part of the clock case.  Once the paint was on, I hit it with the heat gun for a minute.

It started to crackle beautifully, so I turned off the heat gun and gave it a couple of minutes to dry.

And … well … you can see the results.  It started chipping.  A lot.  Too much.  Eventually almost all of the paint came off.

I suspect that’s because I had added a hemp oil topcoat over my black paint back when I first painted it (more than a year ago).  Theoretically you can paint over hemp oil once it is cured, which takes about 4 weeks.  That would probably work if I was using a chalk style paint, but not so much with a milk paint.  Fusion recommends that you give hemp oil several months to cure before painting over it with their acrylic paint.

So back to the drawing board.

I had a couple of options at this point.  I could remove the hemp oil using mineral spirits or rubbing alcohol.  I could paint over the hemp oil with a chalk or acrylic paint first, and then follow that up with the milk paint.  I could add bonding agent to my milk paint, but then I probably wouldn’t get the crackling that I do want.  I could also try scuff sanding the clock to rough up the surface, I’ve had that work fairly well in the past.  So I went with that approach.

Once I had it the clock case sanded down, I decided to thin out my milk paint a little too.  Just to hedge my bets.

I repainted with two coats of the milk paint, and I still got quite a lot of chipping.

Too much chipping for you?  I get it.  This look isn’t for everyone, but I was creating this piece for myself and I still happen to love a chippy finish.  So I decided to just go with it.

Rather than sanding the final coat of paint (which definitely would have taken even more of the paint off), I brushed it lightly with a dry cloth and then vacuumed away any really loose paint.  Then I very gently brushed on three light coats of Dixie Belle’s Flat Clear Coat.  It will act as a sort of ‘glue’ to hold the rest of my chippy paint in place.  This will work on a piece that doesn’t get a lot of wear, but if it gets handled at all you’re still going to lose paint.  In addition, the surface is very rough to the touch, so that’s something to keep in mind.

Now for the fun part!  As I mentioned in my last post, this project was inspired by my visit to the Rijksmuseum and all of the fabulous miniatures that I saw there.  I purchased three miniature ‘painting’ magnets in their gift shop including one of my favorite Vermeer, The Little Street.

And I needed somewhere to hang them.

I ordered some miniature wallpaper from the same Etsy vendor where I purchased the barn lights for my miniature barn makeover.

There were so many pretty ones to pick from that I had a hard time deciding.  They were all less than $10 each, so I ordered three different ones to give myself options.  I have already cut up the two I ended up using in the photo above.  There is enough left of each that I could change my mind later and wallpaper both levels the same if I want to.

I used the Bradbury & Bradbury Wallflowers on the lower level

and the Bradbury & Bradbury Colonial Williamsburg on the top level.

Isn’t that fantastic?!

I also ordered an unpainted bench and chair from the same vendor.

The sliding door was from Hobby Lobby, and I ended up not being able to use it for this project.  Also, I’m fairly sure the bench was not intended to arrive unassembled,  it was broken.  But it was fairly easy to glue it back together.

I painted the bench and the chair in Sweet Pickens’ In a Pickle milk paint.

And you’ll remember the little cupboard that I painted a few weeks back, I told you I had a plan for it.

After ‘wallpapering’ the ‘rooms’ and ‘hanging’ my ‘paintings’ with some two-sided tape, I furnished the two levels of my clock case.

They are a little sparsely decorated at the moment, but I figure I can always add to them as I find more fabulous miniatures that I want to include.

I had to hang the clock case out on my front porch to get decent lighting for these photos.

But its real home is hanging in my q branch where it looks amazing on my Globe Artichoke colored walls.

But you’ll just have to take my word for that.

I think it was worth the over 5 year wait to see this project come to fruition, what do you think?

I’ve had this faux crocodile suitcase in my stash for quite some time.

As you can see in the lower left corner, it’s a little beat up.  It’s also one of those cases that are tapered, so it doesn’t lend itself to stacking because it becomes an angled surface when you lay it flat.

So I couldn’t really add it to my stack of vintage cases.

So I decided to paint it up to include at my occasional sale this summer.

After giving it a good cleaning, I applied two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  I painted the handle as well, but not the rest of the hardware.

Then I went through my stash of transfers to see what I could add.  I ended up choosing the I.O.D. Flora Parisiensis transfer.

I had to cut it up and rearrange it a bit, overlapping some of the elements, to fit my suitcase.

But that wasn’t difficult.

Once I had the transfer on, I went over it gently with one of Dixie Belle’s 220 grit sanding sponges to both distress the transfer and to bring back a little bit of that crocodile texture.

I finished everything off with some of DB’s clear wax.

This suitcase would be perfect for extra storage of things like Christmas decorations, or even off-season clothing because it does not have a musty fabric lining.

This interior is easy to wipe clean.

I have to admit, using a $30+ transfer was probably not a wise investment for a vintage suitcase that I plan to sell.  It’s unlikely that I can charge more than $45 or so for it.  In other words, I’m not expecting to make much of a profit, if any at all.

But I have an embarrassingly large stash of unused transfers that I’ve had on hand for a while.  Many of them are several years old or more.  At this point I think it’s wise to just go ahead and use them.  It’s not like I’m making any money on them sitting in my cupboard.

What I really should do is quit buying more!  But I can’t seem to help myself.  However, if I enjoy revamping items with them, and in the end I’m not actually losing money, I count that as a win.  For those of you who may actually have to make a living at this, then this probably isn’t a good idea for the use of an expensive transfer.

I also used this transfer on a tackle box last year, and I didn’t regret it one bit.

So if you’re just creating for your own enjoyment, I say go for it!

I think this suitcase turned out lovely, but I think whether or not it’s an improvement will be a matter of personal preference.  I’m sure some of you may prefer the original faux crocodile look over this floral one.

What do you think?

I can’t even begin to tell you guys how often I make the same mistake more than once.

You’d think I’d learn from my mistakes the first time around, but that is definitely not always the case.  Today’s project is a good example.

I think I found this flower bucket at the Goodwill.  Or maybe it was a garage sale.  I really don’t remember.

It’s a nice solid galvanized metal (not the flimsy ‘new’ sort of stuff).  I knew it could benefit from a paint job though.

So after giving it a good cleaning, I painted it with Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage.  Over time I have learned that chalk style paint is your best bet over metal like this.  It really doesn’t need any extra primer to help it stick.

Once I had the paint on I went through my embellishments to decide what to add.

I considered using a simple transfer, like I did on this flower bucket.

Or the one I just brought home from thrifting …

Or this one …

But as I was going through my stash I remembered the gorgeous paint inlay from the I.O.D. Melange set that I used on the trunk on our front porch last summer.

It looked like the perfect fit, and I’d only used it the one time so I should have been able to get a 2nd use out of it (like I did on the wooden box I shared earlier this week).  I knew it would be a bit more faint the 2nd time around, but I forgot to factor in whether or not it would work well over the Dried Sage paint, which is a bit on the darker side.

I do think this could have worked over a lighter shade, like Drop Cloth.  But it was really just too faint over the darker color.

That being said, other than the very faded look of it, I loved this design on the bucket.  And I just happened to have a 2nd set of the Melange inlay on hand.

So I scuff sanded over the faint inlay just to smooth out any texture, added another two coats of the Dried Sage, and then tried again with the fresh new inlay.

Ahhhh, so much better!

I just love it.

I did save the used paint inlay …

and maybe next time I’ll remember to use it over Drop Cloth!

Once the flower bucket was dry, I gave it a quick spray with some Rust-Oleum matte spray sealer to seal the inlay.  Once that dried, I went over it again with some clear wax.

I filled it up with some old paint brushes and some vintage wooden rulers for my photos.

But I really think it would be perfect for some dried hydrangeas.  Unfortunately, I didn’t harvest any this past fall because at the time I couldn’t think what I would use them for.

I guess that makes two lessons learned from this project.  First, don’t re-use a paint inlay over a darker color and second, always dry your hydrangeas, you never know when you’ll find a use for them!

In other news, my sister and I are off to visit our mom again.  But this time around I have some blog posts pre-scheduled to keep you entertained while I’m gone.  So be sure to stay tuned!

Today I’m bringing you a wooden box makeover.  Actually, two wooden box makeovers.

These two have been waiting patiently all winter for a makeover and I’m finally getting around to them.  The box on the top is a small recipe card holder and the bottom box is one of those cedar Lane boxes that were given away to girls graduating from high school from the 1930’s through the 1980’s (read all about that here).

After giving both boxes a scuff sanding and good cleaning, I gave each two coats of Dixie Belle’s clear B.O.S.S.  They were both pretty orange in color and I was worried about the potential for bleed-thru.  I’ve run into bleeding boxes before, so ‘better safe than sorry’ so I simply started with the B.O.S.S.

Next up I painted the smaller box in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, and then I applied a section from the I.O.D. Melange paint inlay.  This was my 2nd use of this section of the inlay, I first used it on a similar recipe box back in December.  Here’s a picture showing that first use of the inlay for comparison purposes …

I.O.D. says you can re-use their paint inlays 2 to 3 times, although the image will get more and more faint with each use.  I have experimented with that with mixed results (more on that here), but I thought I’d give it a go again.

It’s definitely more faint.  Also, the inlay ended up tearing quite a bit when I removed it, so I won’t be getting a 3rd use out of it (and that has happened to me nearly every time I’ve used an inlay twice).  But that being said, I still think it worked out nicely for this 2nd use.

After sealing the inlay with some Rust-Oleum matte spray sealer to make sure it wouldn’t smear, I pulled out some scraps from the I.O.D. Floral Anthology transfer to apply to the box.

I love being able to use up these bits and pieces!

I think the recipe box turned out pretty sweet.

Next up I painted the Lane box in Dixie Belle’s Guacamole.  Once dry, I added some transfers from the I.O.D. Lover of Flowers set.

It wasn’t until I had the florals applied to the box that I realized there was a flaw in the transfer.

Do you see it?  Here, let me give you a close up.

There is a white shadow around the florals that is not supposed to be there.  I’m guessing that the transfer wasn’t lined up properly during the printing process.  I think they must print a white base first, and then add the color image over that.  Maybe?  I don’t really know how that process works.  But that white shadow is not the look I was going for.  It’s also definitely not how the transfer is supposed to look.

So far this seems to be the only page from my set that was effected, so that’s good.  Also, as I mentioned in a previous post, I did order two sets of Lover of Flowers and this same image in the 2nd set seems to be fine.

I purchased my transfers online from Vonda at The Painted Heirloom.  So I emailed her to ask about this.  She agreed that there was a flaw in the transfer and then sent me a replacement at no charge.  So if this ever happens to you, you should be sure to reach out to the retailer that sold you your transfer.  And I highly recommend The Painted Heirloom if you’re ordering online, she always ships orders super fast (I usually get them within 3 or 4 days), and clearly her customer service is excellent.

Unfortunately, if, like me, you already have your transfer in place before you notice a problem, you’re stuck with either living with it ‘as is’ or sanding the entire piece down and starting over which could be a bit of a bummer on a piece that is larger than this box.

Therefore, I would advise all of you to check your transfers over for this flaw before you apply them.  It can be hard to see since the transfer comes on a white backing sheet, but ‘better safe than sorry’ definitely applies here too.

I’ve decided to go ahead and try to sell my box ‘as is’, so I’m putting it in the pile for my occasional sale.  If it doesn’t go I may have to sand it down and start over again, we’ll see.

But in the meantime, let me know which of these is your favorite.  I’m not gonna lie, I much prefer the smaller box.  Hopefully someone out there will love the more saturated colors on the Lane box, but if not, I can always go back to the drawing board.