Chairs and Light Bulbs

I have a hard time sticking to one design scheme.  I'm drawn to vintage, retro, industrial, early American, primitives, French country...  There's too much cool stuff out there to pick just one!

I've been looking for some of these old school chairs and found one this summer at a flea market.  I thought it would be a great piece to combine some mid-century and industrial looks.

I used my Silhouette to cut a stencil of industrial filament light bulbs.

I used Mason Blanche's Wrought Iron black chalk paint to paint the stencil.  That way I didn't have to worry about priming or sanding the previous finish.

Once it dried, I pulled the stencil off.  That's always the fun part!

 I topped it off with two coats of wipe-on poly.

The black and white graphic bring new life to this chair.  Of course, the turquoise legs don't hurt!

Hoosier Baby?

My name is Cyndi and I've been a bad blogger!  I've had a busy fall getting school started and haven't posted in over a month!  But I had a minute today and decided I'd get something posted today.  

I had time a few weeks ago to get a quick paint project done.  I'd found this Hoosier cabinet base that was tired and in need of a make-over.

She's begging for red, don't you think?  So two coats of Emperor's Silk later...

I wasn't in the mood to wax, so two coats of wipe on poly later she was ready to go.  I kept the original hardware and lined the drawers with "vintage" newspaper gift wrap.

She's ready to be somebody's baby!

Buffet Jr. and a New Paint

My summer is officially over.  I go back to work tomorrow, though I've spent most of my summer working so it's a bitter-sweet day.  Before I get consumed with the back-to-school activities, I wanted to get this post written.  I finished this buffet a few weeks ago, and it sits waiting patiently in my garage for an opening in the shop.
I know I won't have time in the next few weeks to shop or paint, so I've got a few pieces in the garage ready to go.

I found this buffet at a flea market during one of my summer travels.  I loved the lines and the unusual size.

So I piled it in the car and brought it home.  I started by stripping and refinishing the top.

Then I noticed a funky odor.  Oh my!  This baby had been in a smoker's home.  

I let it air out for a couple of days.  No change.  So I did some research and went to the Internet.  Several websites suggested washing it with vinegar and water, and letting it air dry.  I did that three times, and it was better.  But the odor was still present.  Evidently the odor settles into the topcoat, not the wood itself, so by stripping the top, I had taken care of the top surface.  The remaining odor could be "locked in" by painting.  

Good!  That was exactly my plan!

So I gave the whole thing two coats of Annie Sloan's Old White.

It was so pretty against the new dark top!

I'd found a new brand of chalk paint while on my summer travels and decided to break it out on this piece.  It is Amy Howard's One Step paint.  And I must say, I love it!

It's thinner than most chalk paints and goes on very easily.  Two coats covered well.  It can be applied without sanding or priming.  Perhaps the best thing is that unless you want to use dark wax, you don't have to apply a clear wax! 

So I gave the inside two coats of Cartouche Green, which is really more of a blue.

I even painted the inside of the drawers!

And I didn't have to wax them!

Giddy-up!

I distressed the white, and applied a coat of clear wax and dark wax  (to the white only) to accent the details.

It was the perfect contrast to the blue!

Rather nice, don't you think?

And the best part is there is NO odor!

Hallelujah!

I'm a Big Girl Now!

So I've been blogging for over a year.  The initial learning curve of getting my blog set up was a struggle but once I figured out all of a few of the quirks of html code, I felt more comfortable.  

But I never got around to making a blog button.  I looked at a few of the tutorials and it seemed so complicated.  So I put it off.  Until today.  Today I decided it was time.

I read several blog tutorials and then used PicMonkey to edit a photo and Photobucket to host it.  I use PicMonkey all the time to edit my blog photos, but had never used Photobucket before.  Some tutorials recommended Picasa but I couldn't figure it out.  Photobucket was simple.  

Then I followed the tutorial instructions to add the code to a widget to create the button with grab box.  I ended up with my cute button but the grab box was empty!  Well it seems that lots of people had the same issue with Blogger but then I found Grab My Button Code Generator.  So simple!  It generated my code, and all I had to do was copy and paste into my widget.  Ta da!  I now have a button!!

<div align="center">
<a href="http://bluestarantiques.blogspot.com" title="Blue Star Antiques"><img src="http://i1349.photobucket.com/albums/p747/cyndismith1/BSButton_zps769e3f16.jpg" alt="Blue Star Antiques" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

I'm a big girl now!  I do wonder, though if the button works???  Anybody wanna try it out for me??

Perfect Little Bistro

I've had a productive week!  After spending most of the past month out of town, I got three pieces done this week!

I found this folding bistro set and knew it had potential.

It was definitely worn and had seen better days - exactly my kind of piece!

I decided to layer some color, so began by painting some of the slats yellow and turquoise.

Then I gave it all two coats of red.

Then distressed to show some of the color through and topped it off with two coats of wipe on poly.

Just in time for a cup of coffee!

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