Little Red Riding Desk

Holy Crap! It has been 3 weeks since I last posted. Sorry bout that. We have had a birthday, a death of a dear friend and some teenage angst and knuckleheadness to deal with so I haven't exactly been feel in' the blog mood. I also have been asked to start teaching some painting classes at the Antiques Mall on Ohio River Blvd. where I sell my pieces so I have had to get ready for that and gather ideas of what I want that to look like and then create some rockin' brochures to entice people to come. Free food is always good right??

I do have a little desk to show you that I created for my little Tessa for her birthday. She was completely smitten with the Roll top Desk (below) I had made for the shop and was so disappointed when I told her I was selling it!

you can see it here

She kept asking for that desk for her birthday so ya' know I had to find something that would make her smile.

The search was fruitless and I was seriously panicking when I happened to stop by a Goodwill I don't normally frequent. Because I was strapped for time I totally forgot to take a before pic but it was bland let me tell ya'. AND it had huge casters on the bottom that weren't workin' for me so thank goodness they were easy to remove and will be used elsewhere at another time. Picture this desk as a very dull boring brown and look at how boxy the lines are.

Boxy  and boring no more!
Here she is…
(trying to get good light in my house and a free wall is like trying to raise the dead so sorry if these photos are either too bright or too dark…plus Pittsburgh can't make up it's mind if it wants to have spring or let winter stay like an out of town guest that has worn out it's welcome...)

 I used MMSMP in Tricycle but was not happy with how it looked. Just kind of blah. 
The drawer did not have any hardware originally so I thought maybe that is what it needed to make it sing so off to Hobby Lobby I flew! No one knob stood out to me and I was about to leave empty handed when I spotted the yellow knob and then the green one. 
Well, maybe two different knobs? 
Let's get a little crazy said Prince in my ear..
 yes three, knobs!
I just love how this looks and I love how they kinda smile at you since a row was not going to look quirky enough for me. Now once I had these on, that's when I decided to try out my hand painting skills and see what could happen. I still thought the desk looked a little plain. 

I used a tangerine, a bright pale yellow and a sea glass blue to add some dots, splashes, sweeps, and whatever you call the rest (none of the pictures really do these vibrant colors justice.)  I was going for a middle eastern/ Indian inspired look. Not sure I pulled it off but 
they make the table pop and were just the thing to take the table from plain to fun and fabulous.
(I am going to add a piece of plexiglass to the top for added protection)

 Most of the dots were just touching the tip of the paint brush to the table or putting the brush on it's side to create an elongated tear. I just played around with things until I liked the final product.  
Here are some more pics so you can see the detail. 

sorry about the red here, I had to monkey around with the red so you could kinda see the blue better

See how some added details make a plain straight lined desk into a fun funky piece of art that might just still be used as a 6 year olds desk. 

She said she loved it more than the other desk….

best compliment EVER

Always being renewed,

Please see the link party page to see where I link arms with those blissfully beautiful bloggers that host every week. So gracious they are along with these other sweet ladies!

Read more at http://diyshowoff.com/2013/04/01/that-diy-party-10/#xgMAcRCgRocl5vmh.99       

 

 

http://www.remodelaholic.com

I Must Have Arrived in My Blue Period…...

I love a good round table, especially one with fancy legs and beautiful details that have been forgotten by time and wear. They are just begging to be made new.

This was the story of the table my cleaning man has been saving for me in his house for almost a year. After I did my little side table in Flow Blue, I thought this table would look great in a blue as well. A much deeper blue because she was so sad at her state.

Well here she is now….Very Blue but not depressed!

(Do not check your monitor….this table does look lopsided but that is because my floor is lopsided (100 year old house and all) and it is the only place in my house with good light)

I wanted to try Artissimo by MMS Milkpaint as soon as it came out. It is such a lively rich navy blue. The thing that I like about Milk paint is that it looks different on each piece that your paint it on. Now for people that like predictability, this is not the paint for you. But if you like a little madness, then go for it. I knew this was the perfect color for this round table. These round tables lend themselves to rich paint colors because I think they look a little regal. This one had a bit of tarnish on its tiara.

Let's take a look at some close-ups of the poor wreck:

missing brass feet covers

missing trim and veneer issues

 I was really fretting about how to fix this and then I remembered my missing moulding frame fix.

I am not going to go into the whole tutorial again here. You can click on over and see for yourself this amazing stuff and a full tutorial on how to use it.

What I did do is make a mold of the existing trim and then make a new piece using Sculpey clay. 

You can sand it and cut it to fit your piece. If you notice in the close-up of the missing trim, the existing piece had a raggedy edge. I used a hack saw to cut a fresh, slightly angled edge to butt the clay piece up against. Why angled? Because it allows you to blend the two pieces together much better than if both ends were at a 90 degree. You need to make your clay piece angled as well, but in the opposite direction. See the above photo if this doesn't make any sense. 

You can sand once it is secured in place. I did this a little in the grooves to  make them deeper. This isn't a perfect match but once it is painted it will be hard to tell. 

This is how I clamped it to the drawer while it dried from the glue. I folded a piece of fabric over a few times and then added the clamps because I wasn't sure if the clamps would leave a mark in the clay.  Better safe then sorry!

The leather top was completely intact so I tried some Leather Restorer for shoes on it! The leather just soaked hit in and looks great. See here how I have used other shoe products for antiquing!

Now that you know the tarnished story of this lady..let's see her coronation!

I wanted to give you a close up of the drawers so you could see the fix full on. I can tell obviously but what do you think?

Love this top. 

If you do have a leather inset that can't be saved, check out this little black side table for some ideas on restoration.

I know you can purchase those little brass foot covers online but I was worried they wouldn't fit exactly so I filled in the dings with wood filler and sanded them smooth. Then they got three coats of gold paint like the rest of the accents on the table.

I did seal this with Hemp oil first, wiped off the excess and then added a coat of Fiddes wax. This is my favorite wax because it is like butta, goes on easily and is buffed easily. 

Irony: 

after I sent the after pics to my cleaning man, he called  me to tell me he had that broken piece of trim……

DOH!

Always being renewed,

Please see the link party page to see where I link arms with those blissfully beautiful bloggers that host every week. So gracious they are along with these other sweet ladies!

Read more at http://diyshowoff.com/2013/04/01/that-diy-party-10/#xgMAcRCgRocl5vmh.99       

 

 

http://www.remodelaholic.com