Upcycling Old Furniture - After pictures

So I've been busy this week and weekend completing the items from my previous blog, Upcycling Old Furniture, http://savardstudios.blogspot.com/2012/01/upcycling-old-furniture. I love dramatic finishes so I think these turned out awesome! For the old teacart, I decided to target those with little girls. It's a treasure cart to display their knick knacks, hang their treasured jewelry or their favorite ballet shoes. It's a very unique accent table. I decided on pink, black and silver shimmer for the color theme, with animal prints and Swarovski crystals.The pink paint is another of my favorite products that gives the shimmer of raw silk (once I have an audience of 1000, I will begin to reveal my sources, so tell all your DIY'er friends to tune in). It's a very versatile and durable paint. Not too flashy, but beautiful! It also has a teeny bit of texture, so it really helped float out the flaws in this vintage piece. To the bottom shelf, I added leopard print in a black pearl metallic. The top of the cart is in the same black pearl, but in a fabulous zebra print!
  

On some of the black pearl parts of the legs, I've added clear Swarovski crystals in varying sizes to add a little more sparkle. The ends of the cart seemed a little blank, so I added 3 clear glass knobs on each side. These can be using for hanging small items.

The wheel spokes are silver leafed and topped with a black glaze. What little girl wouldn't be ecstatic to have this in her room!

The burgundy leather french chair was not nearly as old and it was in great shape. But, I couldn't see any reason not to add my bling to it. This was a custom order for an Etsy client, but I do have another chair just like this on that I will be starting on soon. This client loved the leopard, but wanted a french frame design on the back of the seat, with the leopard inside of the frame. She also wanted the wood to be painted black. So, a little sanding on the wood and a few coats of my trusty furniture grade primer and basecoat in one, finished with a satin polyurethane and we were off to a good start. Next, I used a gold wax metallic to stencil the leather. It requires some cure time and some final buffing, but looks fabulous upon completion! Would love your comments on this piece. It's truly unique and one of a kind!

And finally, the upcycling of the old cabinet door. This door was a crackled sample with two different colors on it. I decided to paint right over the old sample finishes in a bronze metallic. I added a black glaze, a smidgen of gold highlights and the words "coats and hats" in english, french, spanish and italian around the outer border. I found 4 vintage iron coat hooks and mounted them in the middle of the door.Viola! A really awesome coat rack to hang in a back entry, mudroom or foyer. Great accent piece for any decor.

Close up of crackled finish

All of these pieces are available in my Etsy store, www.Etsy.com/shop/SavardStudios or at the BLACKLION Dilworth at 1408-C East Blvd., Charlotte, NC.

Upcycling Old Furniture

So this week, I have some wall painting projects that aren't going to be as dramatic as last week. So I thought I show you some old furniture/cabinet pieces I'm working on in my spare time (chuckle).

I have this very old, rickety teacart that a dear friend gave me. It had been in her family for years, but she didn't have a need for it any longer. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it, so I've been staring at it for months! I decided I just needed to get working on it. Got my hubby to look at it and with his manly tools, was able to tighten it up and make it not rickety. One of the bolts for the wheels was bent, so he went to our local Indian Trail Hardware store. They were stunned! "Where in the world did you get that? It's really old!" No kidding. They found a suitable replacement (It will likely be silver leafed as well). So this picture is without the wheels attached. This thing was wood at some point, and had been painted various colors over the years.

My vision for this is for a little girl's room. I think it will make a great accent table. Definitely some pink shimmer! I know I'm silver leafing the wheel spokes. Needs some leopard print, just not sure if I'm going black or brown yet. There will be crystals! (Wonder if that could be an academy award winning movie title? Like, There will be Blood, only "There will be Crystals") Bling girls will understand that. So anyway, you'll have to check in for my next blog to see what I decide. I would love some comments or whether to go black or brown with the pink.
I also, have an old painted cabinet door that was used to show some crackle samples to clients. My vision for this is to turn it into an awesome coat rack. I don't have a photo of this, but I'm sure we can all visualize an ugly, painted cabinet door. You are going to love the finished product!

And finally, I have a very cool french chair. Actually, a pair.

They look pretty nice as is, but wait until you see the final. One is sold to a custom order customer, but I'll talk about that process and show you how it turned out. The other is still up in the air. If you're dying to see what we did to this chair, you can see it in my Etsy store.  http://www.etsy.com/listing/91368120/upcycled-french-chair-burgundy-leather
Otherwise, wait till the next blog  (http://savardstudios.blogspot.com/2012/01/upcycling-old-furniture-after-pictures.html) to see the details and pictures. Hopefully, I'll have it up over the weekend. Thanks for stopping by! Can't wait to hear your comments!

Formal Room Transformations - Final Product

Our team has worked hard this week to transform the three rooms from Mondays blog. I'm sure you've been anxiously awaiting the final pictures. All three ceiling are dramatically different, but flow very well from room to room. The dining room ceiling is fantastic! A warm silver metallic blend with a chocolate glaze. Very elegant!

And the green on the walls is the perfect complement. The drapes aren't in yet, but will really pull the chair fabric and wall and ceiling colors all together. They are a black silk with scrolling leafy vines in taupe, red and green embroidery.

The foyer ceiling carrys the dining wall color along with the bronze from the study and the study drape fabric design. The green metallic plaster gives a beautiful silky shimmer inside the coffering. For the scroll design, I enlarged this picture of the study drapes to print on 4 sheets of paper. I taped them together and taped carbon paper to the back. I centered and traced the design into each of the foyer ceiling panels. Then using a chocolate glaze and a blend of bronze and gold, handpainted the design.

We also painted and glazed the wood trim to blend with the wood front door. Much more dramatic than the flat white before. The final product!

And finally, the study ceiling is a perfect blend of the chocolate, gold and champage. We used the same brown base color on the walls and ceiling. In the tray, we trowelled on three wax colors in champagne, gold and chocolate bronze. This was finished with a chocolate glaze as well. The medallion was painted with bronze metallic and lightly dry brushed with a metallic gold.

With the new uplighting, these ceilings will be conversational, showstoppers. Another happy client! For more great visual ideas, check out my website at www.paintingthetown.us.

Formal Room Transformations

Our challenge this week is transforming the walls, ceiling and some trim in the formal dining room, study/home office and entry foyer. It's a stunning house in a beautiful neighborhood, south of Charlotte, NC. We have some artwork and window treatment fabrics that have guided our color selection.

Here is the before shot of the dining room ceiling. Just a big boring rectangle.

Our homeowners have choosen a beautiful sage green for the walls Benjamin Moore color 2142-40. To add some drama to the space, they have choosen a beautiful warm silver metallic for the ceiling with a warm chocolate glaze. The picture to the left is a sample of we plan to do.



For the study, we wanted some warmth and depth. The beautiful trey ceiling barely noticable as is.

We chose a chocolate brown (Benjamin Moore color HC-73) for the walls and soffit. For the trey ceiling, we chose a multi color trowellable metallic wax finish with a glaze.

The foyer walls we are leaving for another time to flow into the rest of the house. But the ceiling is going to be fantastic! It's pretty unnoticable now. It's a barrel coffered ceiling. But all one color and light.

We are going to paint and glaze the barrel trim to look like wood. Inside the wood coffers, we will use a sage green similar to the dining room wall color. But it's a spectacular green metallic plaster! This sample does not do the finish justice (or maybe it's my phototgraphy skills or lack of?).

This is a trowelled finish and there are numerous metallic plasters out there. Someday soon, when I have enough followers asking questions, I will reveal my sources. This sample shows a beautiful stencil done in glassbeads. We didn't want the raised texture of the glass beads, so we will be using a sheer bronze paint. Once the plaster is complete, I have a custom design we will hand paint in the center of each panel. The design has been pulled from the pattern in the study window treatment. This will keep us busy this week. (Please send massage therapy gift certificates if you are feeling generous.) I hate to leave you hanging, but we must finish before I can show the final product. If you need some immediate visual drama, check out my decorative painting website at www.paintingthetown.us. Otherwise, please check back on Friday to see the finished room transformations.  See after pictures here http://savardstudios.blogspot.com/2012/01/formal-room-transformations-final.html.

Love a Silver-leafed Bath Vanity

While looking for fabulous, new bath vanities I found this site http://www.trendir.com. They have some incredibly unique, bath ideas. Some very modern and contemporary vanities, sinks and cabinets, all very unique. Many of the finishes could be replicated to any existing bathroom. The lights, mirror and lines of the vanity are very simple. How awesome is the contrast of the brown and silver? Love IT!

Silver leafing the cabinet and adding the crystal knobs would be pretty simple for a professional. I love to do some silver leafing and gold leafing. It would also be a fun project for a motivated do it yourselfer. Be warned, it is messy. You will find silver flakes around your house for weeks! I haven't created a tutorial for leafing, but I found this awesome tutorial from Lindsay Ballard. This is from her Living with Lindsay Blog. http://livingwithlindsay.com/2010/03/teach-me-tuesday-how-to-silver-leaf-a-table.html
The walls could easily be achieved by starting with a flat brown paint, then picking your favorite damask stencil to add some beautiful silver pattern. My favorite resource for stencils is Royal Design Studios http://www.royaldesignstudio.com. They have a huge selection of very current stencils and supplies.
Choose your favorite silver paint, but don't get one with a steel, or blue undertone and you'll be on your way to a fantastic, new metropolitan bathroom!

Distressed Turquoise Buffet

For my first ever blog, I thought I would talk about a beautiful piece of furniture that I just posted to my Etsy store www.etsy.com/shop/savardstudios  and will also be placing it in my Eeeklectic Town booth at the Dilworth Blacklion www.eeeklectictown.com .  I love refurbishing old, solid wood furniture. I picked this piece up from Craig’s List for $65. It was solid maple and very heavy.  A steal!

 But I quickly had buyer’s remorse. It needed some re-gluing, one of the bullet catches was broken and the hardware was horrible and not a standard size. It was requiring more work than I had hoped. So I let it sit…for months. Finally, I had a vision. I didn’t want to go with same old same old antiqued ivory. I wanted something bold and spectacular! Turquoise! And bronze! Perfect! I found some time to work on it. I decided I wanted the top to remain stained, but it was pretty scratched up. I retrieved my trusty palm sander and striped the top down to the bare wood. I wanted a warm but dark finish. I started with a coat of cedar stain. Looked a little like the original early American style (yuk!) When that was dry, I put a coat of jacobean stain over that. Jacobean is a dark brownish black. It was perfect to tone down some of the red, but still beautiful and warm. I also strategically placed the Jacobean stain to be darker in some areas. I varnished it with a satin varnish. I thought it turned out great!

For the base, I wanted the boldness of turquoise and bronze (love some metallics!).  I used a bronze metallic base paint that’s actually a primer and basecoat in one. One day I will turn you on to my favorite place to get my furniture primer. Of course I scuff sanded the old finish so my primer would bond properly.  I also filled the original hardware holes. I measured and redrilled new holes for the new hardware.  I coated the base and inside the drawers and doors in another primer tinted to Porter/PPG Calypso blue. I used a primer for this also, because I didn’t want to do the bronze inside the doors and drawers. Just saving a little time.

After this dried for a few days, I used a 100 grit sanding block and lightly scuffed all the high points (areas that would naturally wear). I also add some in the body of the doors and drawers and sides. To tone down the blue, I made a glaze using van dyke brown acrylics and latex glazing liquid. I brushed on the glaze and buffed it off with some cheeseclothe. After drying for several days, I top coated the finish with a flat latex varnish.

I searched the web for new hardware, which I found in two different places online. http://www.etsy.com/shop/WenziPlace
http://myworld.ebay.com/alforu2buy

 The final product!

Obviously, it’s not for my dining room. It wouldn’t match my turquoise silk drapes. But it’s available at the local Dilworth Blacklion in Charlotte, NC or online through my Etsy store. I would love to hear your comments!