Silver Leafed 1900's Chest of Drawers

As you all know, I love to bling out some furniture! I found this fabulous old chest of drawers that needed a facelift. (Or maybe just a little "faux-tox".) 

As always, I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to take it. After weeks of consideration on how to revamp this piece, I decided "I yam what I yam, so I'm going silver foil with a slight tarnished look". I call it champagne leaf, because it's not bright silver, but a slightly warmer version like the color of fine champagne. The final picture is at the end but photos do not do this finish justice. It just glows with beauty in person! I sanded this piece in preparation for a tinted primer. I wanted little "cracks" of color to break through the silver in random areas, as well as where some of the square sheets come together. For me, the distressed feel adds to the beauty of the silver leafed finish. Some prefer a totally solid silver finish as well. To save a step, I used a brown tinted primer.

Brown primed dresser drawers



I then added my leafing size on this. Size is what dries sticky so the leafing sheets adhere to the surface. Oil tends to level and give a smoother finish. I use a water base since I prefer that aged, imperfect look. This goes on milky, but dries shiny and clear.

Dry size for foiling

Once dry, I added the silver sheets one at a time. Silver leafing is very shiny!

Once this step was complete, I added a chocolate toned oil glaze to tweek the silver tone. The hardware was in  decent shape, but I decided I just wanted it to be gloss black. I sprayed with a glossy black that was for direct to metal finishes. The final product!! Would love to hear what you think!

Antiqued silver leafed 1900's dresser

I currently have this dresser in my Blacklion Booth in Dilworth www.eeeklectictown.com  and in my Etsy store online http://www.etsy.com/listing/96779441/silver-leafed-chest-of-drawers-vintage. 

French Chair and Crackled Lamp Transformation

So I finally found some time to transform the other burgundy leather French chair I aquired in January. One was for a custom order you may remember from a previous post http://savardstudios.blogspot.com/2012/01/upcycling-old-furniture-after-pictures.html . This one I decided to give a Hollywood Regency feel. I used  a wax metallic in an antique gold finish. The process is very simple. You rub it on, let it dry then buff to a high sheen. It seals itself and doesn't require primer. I used this on all of the wood frame of the chair. This is also what I used on the leather to stencil the leopard print. So heres a before shot, in process and the finished piece.

Complete Royal French Chair! Everyone needs one!

As always, this chair is currently in booth #409 Eeeklectic Town at the Dilworth Blacklion and online in my Etsy store. www.etsy.com/shop/savardstudios  Free local delivery!

I also had another challenging little project for one of my clients. She had a lovely pair of crackled finish outdoor lamps. The finish was coming off in sheets. 

So rather than replace them, she asked me if I could redo them. Since I never say no, I took them home. You would think since so much of the finish was peeling, it would have been super easy to get the balance of the paint off. Wrong. I used a green, environmentally friendly paint stripper. I finally had to enlist the help of my husband's eternal patience and muscle. He finally prepped them down to the metal!
I used a "green" metal primer from one of my favorite online vendors. I used a dark brown because I wanted it to show through the cracks. The picture is one coat, but I did two coats.

I used a crackle size (which is what makes the cracking paste crack) from another fav online vendor. I randomly applied it so that I wouldn't have cracking all over. The shiny, darker areas in the picture have size on them.

After the size dried, I applied my tinted crackle paste. It comes white, so I added a little raw umber to tone it down.

After drying, this is how it looked! Cracked beautifully!

It still needed to be toned down and given some dimension. I mixed a glaze in a dark putty color and appilied it all over the lamp, wiping it off to soften the effect.

Once dry I applied 3 coats of exterior sealer. Lots of layers and labor, but we saved the lamps from the landfill and now they are just as beautiful as before!

Blooming Wisteria

So I know I always write about painting stuff, but I just had to share these glorious photos of the wisteria blooming in our back yard this week. We planted this beautiful weed 11 years ago. We had alway intended to create a large arbor for it to grow on, but everything we read said wisteria can crush structures. So we just keep it pruned like a small tree. It was a transplant from one that my mother had in her yard. We just love it! Even though it has to be pruned heavily several times a year and it grabs the small children as they walk by, we just love the scent of the spring blooms. The purple color is amazing!

I took this photo a few days later. The purple of the wisteria behind the glowing red of a recently planted Japanese Maple. Great inspiration for color on an accent piece of furniture or wine glasses! I would love to see photos of YOUR gardens in bloom! Feel free to send in your best!

French Side Table and Whimsical Coat Rack

A couple of other small, upcycled projects completed recently, include an awesome side table perfect for that Paris style apartment and an old, solid wood cabinet door upcycled into a fun coat and hat rack with an inspirational Dr.Suess quote. I also did the top of an old Duncan Phyffe drum style table. I painted it to look like my favorite distressed clockface. I completed that for "Remember Me Antiques". Scott and Dara have a great little antique shop in Monroe, NC. You can check out their stuff and follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/remembermeantiques . Both side tables were transformed using the same paint colors. Typical preparation included rough sanding, wiping down dust and priming. There are some new products out there that allow you to skip these steps. I'm still old school on this process, but will be doing some pieces in the near future using these products. If you are a DIYer, make sure you follow by email so you don't miss this. My basecoat is a satin finish, antique white. A little creamy and warm, not bright and harsh. For the clock table, I printed out my Roman numerals on the computer in the size that I felt was appropriate, using Times Roman font.

Clockface table in process

I also used the font Harrington for the word Paris to go on the side table. Using carbon paper, I duplicated the letter/numbers onto each table. Carbon paper is  my new favorite way to duplicate text. It works very well. The scrolling around the border of the Paris table was hand painted, but you could also use carbon paper for that also. Below picture is before distressing and glazing. Next, I always love to add a little distressing! A firm sanding block with a touch here and there. Lovely French country, cottage chic style.

Paris table before distressing and glazing

Once I am satsfied with the distressing, I rub on a chocolate glaze. It further tones the white and makes the text and distressing a little more subtle. I finish it off with a 50/50 blend of my favoirite flat and satin varnish. You can see the dramatic change below after the distressing and glazing on both tables. I hope these transformations inspire you to transform and old piece of furniture you have or allow me to breathe new life into it for you.

Completed Paris table!

Clockface table after

Clockface table after



The coat and hat rack was a similar process, except that the old door had been used as a crackled finish sample for a client and it needed to be freshened up. It had been previously prepped and painted so I just added a fresh basecoat in a canvas white color. My crackled texture was still visible which was perfect. I envisioned a little more drama and color, so I did a soft wash of a champagne metallic glaze and a very soft wash of an aqua glaze. Overall, still going for creamy neutral, but with a pop of fun color! I found an inspiring Dr. Suess quote that I wanted to wrap the border on the hat rack. "Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way.." I found a whimsical font called Viner Hand that I printed in the appropriate size. Using my new favorite carbon paper, I traced the quote around the border.

Tracing text onto coat rack

Text imprint on coat rack

Once the I had the border imprint, I used a sheer champagne metallic wash with some chocolate glaze to fill in my text. The effect is slightly dimensional.

I also added the metallic on the higher points of the cabinet detail. Once dry, I polyurethaned the coat and hat rack. I found some slightly whimsical hardware. I tweeked the color of the hanger hardware by adding a little of my champagne metallic. I measured and lined up the coat hangers, drilled my holes and installed. I also added two D ring hooks on the back for hanging. I though it turned out great! You can also see these items in my online shop. http://www.etsy.com/shop/savardstudios .  Thanks so much for looking!

Murals - Hello Kitty Princess and Planets, Moon and Rocket

A few fun children's murals to work on the last few weeks! It's so easy to make a three year old happy! (Until they are unhappy and then it's impossible!) Fortunately, I have teenagers now. Haha! (If you've raised teenagers, you know why this is funny. If you have toddlers, you probably don't get it.) We started with the little boys room. He loves space and planets! We decided to paint the room in a beautiful sapphire blue to simulate those beautiful mornings just as the sky changes from pitch black to dark blue. We selected a Sherwin Williams color called Commodore SW6524 in a Matte finish so that it would still clean well and look beautiful on the wall. Then, the fun began. Robin (my trusy, fine art assistant) and I laid out the location of the planets, in the order we learned in school, minus pluto, since it's not a planet any more. (I think there's a few new ones but we're old school, so those don't count.) We used paint buckets, paper plates and bowls to draw our circles in varying sizes. Robin loves detail, so she began to paint the planets in the appropriate colors. I went to work creating galaxies, the milky way and lots of stars and shooting stars. And we couldn't forget the red rocket! Winston was soooooo excited when it was complete! Check out the final pictures.

Next up was the little girl's room. They are twins by the way and she loved the space theme! But Hello Kitty is her favorite. Mom and Dad didn't want to get too crazy with the princess theme, so we decided to do a beautiful bubble gum pink pearly shimmer on her walls. We picked a cute Hello Kitty Princess to replicate above her bed. I printed the picture on multiple sheets of paper and taped them together so that Kitty was about two and half feet tall. We wanted to "bling" her out a little, so I mixed up a irridescent silver glitter for her princess banner and added Swarovski crystals to her crown. Here's a few pictures in process and the final. So perfect for a little girl's room!

Hope you love seeing these simple murals as much as the kids did! To see more examples of murals check out this link http://www.paintingthetown.us/murals.shtml. Check back in, I'll be featuring Robin next with an awesome Peter Pan mural!

Bronze Verdigris Mirror Color Match

I had a small color match challenge this week. My task was to transform an already beautiful and very ornate wall mirror, to match a stunning, bronze verdigris pair of wall sconces. I could tell there were alot of layers of color, most of which I knew wouldn't be an issue. Here's the mirror before, on the left. It was more gold and bronze with some silver and a gray wash. Very nice, but it needed to match a pair of sconces that had more red and bronze with a verdigris wash.  So I mixed up some of my awesome furniture grade primer base coat to be a reddish brown color. I was my basecoat and my primer to ensure adequate bonding. Here it is in process, below right. I would say the color is pretty close to a PPG Porter Paint http://www.ppgporterpaints.com color called Chianti.

The bright metallic gold was easy. I used Modern Masters  http://www.modernmasters.com/  metallic paint in "olympic gold". I used a very dry bristle brush to add a touch of color to all the high places in the ornamentation. I then used a burnt umber glaze to tone down the red and the gold and give it a bit of a tarnished look. I was getting really close to the final product. The sconces had an overall satin finish, but the verdigris was very flat. So, once the glaze was dry I applied the satin polyurethane to the entire mirror frame.
Now the fun part! Getting the right color of green for the verdigris. The illusion against the darkness of the mirror is that the green is pretty light. But once you start making the green wash, you realize it's actually a fairly dark green. I used a flat paint base and just kept adding until I got it dark enough. The color actually ended up being very close to a Porter color called Griffin Gray. I mixed one part paint to parts of my favorite flat glaze. I washed on the verdigris and wiped it off all the high points. Artfully adding a little more here and there. Here's a few shots of the finally match, mirror beside sconce. The client was thrilled with the match!

Whimsical Tree of Life Wall Mural

Another fantastically fun project I completed last week, was a tree of life wall mural. My wonderful client with fabulously, eclectic taste had a vision for a beautiful painted tree on a very bare hallway wall. She has plans to fill the tree with vintage family photos framed in small, unique frames. Her vision was for the tree to blend in style with her worldly and unique collections. When I first meet with her at her home, I arrived to a dining room table fully set with delectible desserts! Mmmmmm! For me? Yes and no. They were resin/polymer clay replicas! How cute! (But sadly, no dessert for me.) Her items were similar to these I found online at www.etsy.com/shop/FakeCupcakeCreations
 
So we discussed the tree size, color and definitely a few lady bugs. I love scrolls and had found a tree of life picture with scrolling branches. She loved it! So that's what we decided on.

With a plan to start this, I spent several hours laying out the "bones" of the tree. The photo at the left is just a a sheer underlayment of the final product. It allows me and the client to see the scale and location of everything very quickly. My client was at work, but I was able to photograph this and send it to her. (Loving technology!) With her approval, I continued to the details. I added some dimension to the branches and trunk, using lighter and darker acrylic paints. Then added the leaves and grass blades, using 3 different colors. And of course the lady bugs! Finally it was complete!

This a was a quick fun project. I hope you enjoy seeing it! If you want to see more of my murals, check out my decorative painting website at www.paintingthetown.us. Thanks so much for stopping by!