TRANSFORMED, from broken to beautiful
Sometimes all we need is a little bit of a makeover to feel pretty. True for people and true for shabby little French chairs as well.
I thought it was about time to give you another look at some of the Old Things New projects I’ve been doing around my house.
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“Gold, pure gold.” THOSE were the thoughts in the mind of the creator of this old mirror of mine.
Okay, maybe not pure gold but still, I believe that in the beginning the creator of my thrift store mirror had every intention of making this mirror quite beautiful. A mirror to be displayed and admired.
(Keep reading to hear a little secret about this mirror 😉
Eventually she was purchased and probably did have a stint at living life as the mirror she was created to be. Then time passed and, as often happens, circumstances for this mirror didn’t turn out as expected. Life happened. Lots of life apparently as this mirror eventually became a lady most colorful. And not in the best of ways. 
I was so excited when I saw this mirror sitting on the Goodwill shelf with the $4.99 price tag that I added it to my cart in a heartbeat. The checker though! I could tell by the look on her face when I placed it on the checkstand that she was a bit surprised that anyone would dole out their hard earned money for such a hideous piece.
A painted lady, gaudy in iridescent purple, blue, and green, hiding the gilded beauty of what she was originally created to be. I get that. I believe that we are all created with unique gifts and talents and the potential to be what God designed us to be. Life circumstances can change us though, shut us down, make us fearful to pursue God’s intended path for our lives.
Some of us seem to push through to fulfill our dreams early on in life. Others may need a lot of healing to get back on the right track (that’s me, a late bloomer). Unfortunately some may never get there because they have no one in their lives to see through to the beauty beneath and walk with them toward their full potential.
I decided that I would not take this mirror back to her former glory because she wasn’t the same mirror. She had many layers now and, though they were indeed gaudy, I didn’t want to hide them completely.
I began this project by toning down my colorful mirror with a few coats of homemade cassein paint that I learned to make in the online painting course Farragoz, The Art of Patina. This simple-to-make paint creates great texture!
To add even more depth I decided to give my mirror a crackled look by randomly dabbing wood glue over the cassein paint.
After that was nearly dry I painted the mirror using my Homemade Chalk Paint Recipe with latex paint that Home Depot custom matched to Annie Sloan Chalk Paint’s French Linen (taken from my ASCP color card).
You can see here how nicely the paint is cracking as it dries.
A dry brushing of a lighter color Homemade Chalk Paint (a Home Depot match to Annie Sloan’s Old White) followed next.
Last of all I used a clear soft wax to seal the layers of paint, pressing Amy Howard’s Dust of Ages into the crevices while the wax was still somewhat tacky. Have I told you how much fun this stuff is to work with? It comes in a large 10 oz. jar which should pretty much last me forever. For ordering info you can click on the picture below.
Now for a little outdoor photo shoot . . .
. . . with Sasha stopping by to check on her appearance. She is none too happy with all the new grey in her muzzle.
More close ups to show the depth that the milk paint and crackle medium give a painted piece.
Here you’ll see a little bit of the old color coming through because sometimes a little peek of where we’ve been can remind us of how far we’ve come and make us grateful.
It’s hard to believe now that this was once an atrocious looking mirror, shunned and discarded at the Goodwill.
Maybe it takes one who has experienced the feeling of being shunned and discarded to see the beautiful potential in one like this.
Now for the little secret I told you I would reveal: This mirror, underneath all of it’s Old World charm, is plastic! Yes, PLASTIC. Who would ever guess?
For more furniture painting ideas and techniques please check out my Pinterest board, and follow along if you like. To enroll in an awesome online painting course where you’ll learn to make your own paints and be guided through the process of learning several different finishing techniques please check out the Farragoz link here (or on my sidebar).
“For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother’s womb . . . My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery] . . . Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them. How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I could count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awoke, [could I count to the end] I would still be with You.” Psalm 139:13-18 The Message Bible
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
And just in case you were wondering . . . it is never too late for God to redeem the wasted years of our lives.
You are loved so much!
TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays, SundaysAtHome, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, GiveMeGrace
Yesterday I sat out on my back deck enjoying the warmth of the sun shining down upon my skin and warming me all the way to the bone. I love it when the weather is in the 70’s and all of the trees and bushes in my neighborhood are bursting into bloom. It really is the most beautiful time of the year here in South Carolina. I knew I had things to do but I couldn’t get myself up and motivated until I began to feel the burn on my fair arms. Alas, I am “pigmentally challenged” (my hubby’s name for very white) and I can only stay a short time in the sun without sunscreen.
I got a call from one of my doctors this morning and it turns out I’m Vitamin D deficient. So much so that she is starting me on prescription strength Vitamin D! Hallelujah! This might be just the excuse I need to spend more time lounging in the sun – with my sunscreen of course 🙂
So this is one of my French Country style bar stools and this is how they looked before. The wood color was kind of orangey and didn’t go with the look I’m trying to achieve in my kitchen. The wood is hard but not anything special SOOO . . . chalk paint to the rescue!
I started by painting the chairs a light color first and then trimmed them out with a darker color. I had Home Depot color match Annie Sloan Chalk Paint’s Country Grey and French Linen (I have an ASCP color card and I take that to the store whenever I want to get a color match). I purchased sample size containers and used my favorite homemade Chalk Paint Recipe.
After the base and trim were painted I used a small brush to dab darker color into the crevices of the chairs . . .
. . . and lightly dry brushed over the Country Grey with French Linen.
I wasn’t at all careful about how I applied it because I knew it would all come out just the way I wanted it to look in the end.
I used a sanding sponge to sand back back any unwanted dark color.
I finished up with my new favorite wax mixed with stain for added color (this gives it the same look as a dark wax and, like dark wax, any excess color can be removed by rubbing clear wax over it). Can you see the sheen on the chairs? They also have a very smooth feeling finish which I like better than the finish I get with soft wax.
A “real” furniture builder friend recommended Minwax Paste Finishing Wax. It contains carnuba wax which apparently creates a very hard finish.
By the way, I may have heated it just a tad to make it a little softer for mixing and applying. Shhh . . . this may be a dangerous thing to do . . . at least as dangerous as things get in my world 🙂
I did use some soft wax though, on the leather chair seats. Unfortunately, I splattered the seats with paint when I was painting the caned backs. The seat surfaces became dull when I cleaned off the paint so I decided to see what a little soft wax would do.
I waxed, let them dry for about 15 minutes, and polished. I love the sheen and even after a few months they are still shining bright!
I thought of making ruffled drop cloth seat covers but it would be a shame to hide such pretty legs. Maybe in the future.
Now – the wall color – the yellow in this room is still bothering me and I’ve been picking up paint swatches with thoughts toward a future change. I’m leaning toward Agreeable Gray by Sherwin Williams. Sigh – not until I whittle down my long list of to-do’s though. Priorities you know 🙂
Now it is on to outdoor projects. Filling planters with flowers, cleaning patio furniture, scheduling a lunchean on my deck. What Spring projects are you up to where you live? Is your weather warming too or are you still in a winter chill? Time flies so quickly and we will be feeling the heat of Summer in no time at all.
Blessings friends,
TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays, SundaysAtHome, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, GiveMeGrace
Do you ever have times of feeling SUPER motivated . . . with great bursts of energy to tackle projects you’ve been carrying around in your head? Times of enough forward incentive to conquer two, or three, or six undertakings at the same time?
That’s what sunshine does for me.
When it’s dreary and drizzly outside my window I seem to lack ambition but with the long sunny days of summer here in SC I’m on a roll!
As promised in my post Adding the French Country Look to Your Kitchen, I’m back to share:
Some of what I’ll be sharing I learned while taking the Farragoz Painting Course seen on my sidebar (if you haven’t it checked out yet you should). It has been a great course for learning things about painting that I’d never learned anywhere else, as well as teaching me to make my own paints from natural products.
For this project I’m using some items I had on hand from previous projects (items the course teaches one to make from scratch), Americana Decor’s Chalky Finish paint in black and white Liquitex Gesso.
On a pre-cut board from Michael’s I began by painting on a few layers of Gesso and then layers of black paint, drying between each coat with a hair dryer.
Can you see all the cool cracking caused by my hair dryer? Next I took a cheap candle and smushed it on the surface, wherever I wanted the black paint to show through my top coat. Note the big chunks of wax left behind.
I painted over everything with Behr’s knockoff of the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (ASCP) color Country Grey. This color and all the remaining paint colors used in this tutorial were mixed with my Homemade Chalk Paint Recipe #3. One coat covers well but I used two for an even more layered look.
Lettering was next and this picture on Facebook was my inspiration.
I eyeballed the picture and drew it by hand on a piece of paper about the size I thought would work for my sign. You could use a stencil but I rather like the not-so-perfect, hand lettered look.
After a bit of drawing, erasing and drawing again I was finally happy with my penciled lettering and transferred it onto my board. Tracing with graphite paper is one way of doing this or, if you are too lazy to go looking for the graphite paper up in your craft closet, a simple Typography Transfer tutorial can be found HERE.
After transferring my letters I lightly distressed the board, mostly around the edges, and used a knife point to “pick up” the paint that was over the wax, revealing the chalky black beneath.
This extreme close-up shows an example of the kind of depth you can achieve with layers of paint and wax.
The next step was to dry brush around the outer edges of my board . . .
. . . using Behr’s ASCP knock-off of French Linen.
Painting the lettering was done with a tiny brush and a steady hand . . .
. . . using Behr’s knock-off version of ASCP Greek Blue.
The shadowing was not done in an ASCP color but is a Behr sample that I bought to try on a BIG future project (one of the things I’m working on this week).
This is a picture taken during the shadowing process. I had to keep reminding myself that my shadows needed to fall to the right and below my letters. No worries about perfection though because any goof is an easy fix with more paint. Wink, wink!
After lettering I used my tiny brush to freehand some embellishments on my board. Not worrying too much about keeping things uniform or perfect makes it super simple for anyone to do!
Finally I waxed my board to protect it. I added dark wax first . . .
. . . then a little soft wax to “erase” some of the areas I didn’t want to be quite so dark.
I used dark wax only on the sides, allowed all the wax to dry for an hour or so, then buffed the entire sign to a nice sheen.
That’s pretty much it . . . MY favorite tips for creating Rustic French Signage. Below are several shots of La Creperie Bleue on display in my French Country decorated kitchen.
Cute “vintage” signs are sold everywhere right now and I have one that you may have seen in my last post. I like it a lot but I’d much rather have something that is original and not mass produced. Maybe you’ll try your hand at creating some rustic signage of your own. If you do I’d love to see pictures or answer any questions you might have along the way.
If being crafty isn’t your thing but you’d love to check out some beautiful rustic French signage to purchase, I think you’ll be delighted by what you see at my friend Janice’s online shop, French Velvet Horses.
Janice’s heart goes into everything she creates and that is the mark of a TRUE artist!
And now, since we’re lovin’ on all things French lately, a little language lesson:
Blessings to you my friends and *bonne nuit!
*Bonne nuit – That’s good night before going to bed, which I’m not, because I’m on to another project while the motivation is strong!
Timeworn, aged, faded, shabby. All words to describe those well-worn flea market baskets that catch my eye and pull at my heart. So I was excited a couple of years ago to receive my mother-in-law’s old wicker laundry basket. Mr. OTN, who is no youngsta’, has memories of being pulled across the floor in this basket by his older brothers.
How sweet then, that it came home to live with us. Here is a picture of said basket as shared in our Den Reveal last Fall. It is perfect just the way it is and I wouldn’t think of touching it with a paintbrush!
However . . . some of the baskets I have around my home are neither old nor precious, so this past week I decided to touch up a few of them with paint to give them that well worn look that I love.
Ageing baskets is one of the quickest and easiest projects you’ll ever do!
First, a “before” view of the baskets I painted . . .
. . . and here they are “after” painting.
On my powder room trash can I used my Homemade Chalk Paint recipe and paint that Home Depot mixed to match Annie Sloan’s chalk paint color French Linen.
For this flower basket I used Home Depot’s match to Annie Sloan’s Country Grey.
For the rest of my baskets I layered both colors, French Linen and Country Grey, by dry brushing on alternating layers of paint. You can see the beginning of that process below.
French Linen . . .
. . . followed by Country Grey.
I simply kept layering alternating colors until I liked what I saw. My kitchen baskets were sealed with a bit of dark wax for added protection and to age them even more.
These are the Home Depot colors I used.
That’s it. A simple afternoon project that makes a big difference in how things look.
I’ve been adding a few new touches to my kitchen and my aged baskets fit right in. I’ll be back later this week to share more pictures in Adding Personality to a Kitchen. Until then, thank you dear readers for stopping by. I hope you have one fantastic week!
Blessings,
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