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!