Here's Your Sign

Last year I had a buffet that had wonky doors.  In an effort to salvage the buffet, I took the doors off.

See how the doors didn't meet?

So I took the doors off.  You can see the rest of the buffet make-over here.

Well I took the doors and made signs out of them.

I started off by taping off the border and painting the panel of the door in Old White.

Then I cut stencils out of contact paper with my Silhouette.

I decided to paint the first sign by stenciling the letters.  

I painted them black

then removed the stencil.

The second was was stenciled in relief.  

I applied the letters to the white base, painted over them in red, then removed the letters to reveal the white below.

Both pieces were then topped with a coat of clear wax.

I'm so glad I was able to take a buffet that redeem her issues!

Graphic Black and White

I've had the itch to do something a little more "out of the box" (as if my "normal" is in-the-box!).  Anyway, I found this dresser at a garage sale this summer and have spent quite a bit of time staring at it, looking at picture in Pinterest, and flip-flopping on design ideas.  It really was a blank canvas, suited for just about anything.

It didn't come without issues.  Why do kids feel the need to leave their mark in the furniture?

No worries! Nothing that a little putty and sanding can't fix!

So I finally settled on a plan: black and white.  That's when the heavens parted and the angels sang!  See, I was walking through an antique mall a few weeks ago and that's when I found it.  A chalk paint in black!  Now I'm an Annie Sloan junkie. It's by far my favorite paint.  But Annie's Graphite is a dark gray.  Great for lots of things, but no substitute for black.  I've got a few quarts of CeCe Caldwell, too.  But she doesn't make a black either!  Well there's another sister out there making paint, Maison Blanche.  And she makes a black!

So after repairing the artwork on the top, I gave it two coats of Maison Blanche's Wrought Iron.  I painted the body of the dresser in ASCP Old White.

The drawers were painted in black, too.  Then I primed and painted the pulls in black so they would blend in.

I liked the black and white combo, but it was missing something.

See that big empty space crying for attention?  Ask and it shall be given!  I turned to my Silhouette Cameo to create a stencil.

Each end panel got a skeleton key!  And while I was working on adding graphic black and white elements...

I added a graphic image to the top, too!  It's very Art Deco!

I painted the mirror frame white, but it was too stark.  So, I taped off a stripe and painted it black.

I love it when it all comes together!

A couple of coats of clear wax and she's ready to go!

Isn't it striking??

Party Hearty-

Kid's Chalkboard Table - Is it a Keeper?

Since my grandson was born a few weeks ago, it seems I've got kids on the brain.  Everywhere I go I notice baby clothes and kids toys!  So when I saw these kids chairs at a flea market, they had to come home with me.

They're adorable but a little plain. And you know how well me and plain get along!

But first I needed a table to go with them.  Sometimes it takes months to find that perfect piece.  This time, just one day later I found a great kids table in an antique mall!  And it was already painted white!

I was so excited about it that I forgot to take a "before" shot of the table!  Go figure!  You've never done that, right?

Well, you know my affinity for numbers!  I've numbered things here and here and here and here.  So these little chairs needed some numbers, too.  I cut a stencil with my Silhouette and used black acrylic paint to fill it in.

Adorable, right?  Well I snatched up that little table and painted the top with chalkboard paint.

Here's the final product:

Now the question is, do I sell it or keep it?