Before and After: Vintage Double Bed

This vintage bed was a cherished designer piece decades ago.  A friend's teenage children worked at a consignment store in the East Bay area and they grabbed it while at work one day.  It served it purposed well while my friend's daughter attended the University of Nevada-Reno but was surrendered to me when she graduated,

to see if I could give it new life and purpose.

 The rounded foot board gives it classic styling and the groove along the top of both the head board and foot board adds some extra detail. But the front was still pretty plain and I decided it needed some embellishment.

So I set out looking for the perfect piece that would fit the arch on both the head and foot boards.  This was no easy task since the curve of the headboard was a bit more gradual than the curve on the foot board.  After numerous trial and errors trying to find two identical pieces to fit, (and a small fortune!) I realized I was going to need to different pieces. 

The bed needed lots of sanding to get the old cracked varnish off, and then a couple coats of primer to make sure none of the stain that had been used previously would come through when I gave it a new coat of antique white.  The embellishments really added that extra flourish to make this bed a standout piece.

Sanding between coats of paint kept the paint nice and smooth.  Next I distressed it to accent the curved lines and the details, which is hard to see in this picture!  Finally, I sanded, primed, and painted the wood side rails.  This double bed is now ready for a new life in a new shabby chic, cottage, country or french themed room!

I moved it into my space at Melange and topped it with a new bed canopy from Pottery Barn to really draw attention to it!  I strung one of my "Princess" banners across the canopy to set the stage!  I absolutely love this bed!   It is so much fun to see the excitement something I have worked on so hard brings to our customers.  It is going to be hard to part with it but I love it when a customer loves something as much as I do.

I know it will be cherished once again.

 




I will be linking up to these parties so check them out!





Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style

Faded Charm Cottage White Wednesdays




Before and After: End Tables

Multiple tiered tables make great end tables, either bedside or next to a couch or chair.  This one, found at a thrift store, was sturdy and sound, though is had multiple scratches and the varnish was peeling off.  Nothing that a little elbow grease, sandpaper, and paint can't cure!

Now its all freshened up!

This end table has great lines and detailing - perfect for a shabby project!  However, it needed a little extra work as the drawer had swollen wherever it was stored so the drawer would not push in all the way.  I pulled out the drawer and sanded down the rails and sides of the drawer and it worked fine!  It was also missing one of the screws that held the drawer handle, and needed lots of sanding to get rid of surface scratches.  But after sanding, primer, paint and then some extra sanding to shabby it . . .

. . . it is now ready for a Victorian parlor, a country cottage, or a seaside bedroom!

This simple end table's top was badly scratched and the varnish was flaking off.  Again, lots of sanding, some tightening of the leg screws, and this table was ready for finishing.  I always wrangle with color choices in my head, but the simplicity of this table just reminded me of calm times sitting by the ocean.  Blue is a calming color so . . .

Now it's in my space at Melange- the centerpiece of my summer display! The vintage picnic basket is filled with some petit-point vintage dishes, there's a beachy striped runner, vintage flash cards, vintage hand embroidered linens, and of course some starfish!  If you look closely on the left, there is a mosaic cream colored vase that sits atop my handmade mosaic porthole mirror done in blue beach glass.  The paper parasol is perfect for keeping the summer sun of fair-skin types like myself, and I embellished that birdcage with seashells as well!  Ahhh, summer!!

Before and After: Shabby Beach Chair

Spring cleaning!  I've been trying to clean out one of my sheds and I am happy to say I have put a dent in the project!  I found this old chair in the back of the shed - I think it has been there about 18 years!  I've used it to stand on when painting rooms in my house so there was a little "history of our paint jobs" on it!  Not to mention, spiders, dirt, mud, and everything else that comes from living in the country!

It is extremely well made and there is not a wobble to it so it is a perfect candidate for a makeover! There are metal rods embedded into the rungs where your feet would land while you are sitting so it is extremely sturdy.  This chair was deserving of a new life! So I promptly began cleaning it up, first with just water and a brush, but then I ended up with a sander!  The years of paint splotches were not coming off with just my elbow grease so to the power tools to the rescue!

To prevent any of the stains on it to bleed through the paint, it was primed with some gray spray paint because that was all I had left in the shed and I thought to myself, "It doesn't really matter what color you put underneath if you are going to paint over it." Then I had to decide, always the hardest part, what color should I paint it?  This chair was a relic from the 50's and had been a teacher's desk chair.  Perhaps red?   It is just a simple chair, no embellishments, so it would fit into a cottage, country or coastal setting.  Tiffany blue!  The color has become much more popular lately and this chair seriously needs brightening up!

I started brushing on the paint really thick at first, wanting to get this project done and into Melange for our sidewalk sale.  The paint was wearing thin and the brush needed to be redipped in the bucket - but I liked what I saw.  The dry brush was creating a great shabby dry brush effect and texture, with the grey primer coming through underneath the tiffany color. It was beginning to be reminiscent of an old beach chair that had sat out for years so I continued with a dryer brush and covered the whole chair.

This shabby beach chair  had been freshened up and ready to be brought back to a life.  Gone are it's days sitting in the front of the classroom and in the back of the shed with the spiders and dust.  A whole new life awaits this chair to whomever cherishes it from Melange!  And you can imagine the new stories this chair will have to tell!