Beachy caribbean blue china cabinet makeover

July 2, 2014 By

Hope you had a great Canada Day my fellow Canadians and, to my American readers, hope your Independence Day is fabulous!

We had such great hot weather here that it was hard to get all the jobs done but I did get this accomplished.   I’m thrilled with the little brightness it adds to this dark corner.

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If you don’t remember this is how it looked before the mini makeover.

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Such a cute little cabinet but it needed a happy colour!  P.S. Sorry for the all the reflections, it’s really hard to take a picture of a glass cabinet with three windows reflecting all around it.  You can even see my purple floral sundress that I was wearing when I took the photos 🙂

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And it brightens up this corner perfectly.  And if you were really paying attention, you’ll notice that I also changed out the hardware.  I had a cute crystal knob on hand that I used on the top door. But for the bottom I decided on a tiny brass knob instead of the larger crystal one, it just seemed a tad too big on the bottom door).  I also had great fun styling it.

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Some faux coral, a pretty glass aqua starfish, a little white canister from Indigo to add some texture and a trio of small blue bottles I picked up in California last year.  I may add some blooms to them as well.

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And last but not least a glass dome with some green moss and a few seashells to add to the beachy theme.

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P.S. Since a lot of people asked, I thought I would include the recipe for homemade chalk paint that I used for this piece and in these furniture makeovers as well – China Hutch and Buffet (click on the name to read those posts).

Here’s the recipe (which I found online here).

Homemade Chalk Paint

2 cups of latex paint (I used eggshell) in the colour of your choice
5 tbsp plaster of paris
1 1/2 tbsp cool water (the original recipe calls for 3 tbsp, I like the thicker version of the paint)
Mix the plaster of paris with the water, stir thoroughly till there are no lumps.  Then add latex paint and mix completely. It should be just as smooth as the plain paint when you started.
 

The beauty of chalk paint is that very little prep is needed.  I very lightly sanded the piece because it was so dark and then I used a small foam roller to apply two coats of the chalk paint.  For the tight areas I used a tiny foam brush, letting the first coat dry for about an hour.  I then let it dry completely for a few days, before I applied  The Fat Paint Company Wax in antique.  I spread a very light coat  over the entire surfaces, buffing it to a shine, after waiting 10 minutes.  After a half an hour,  I used The Fat Paint Company Wax in natural,  to cover the entire piece and buff it to a shine, once dry.  If more shine is desired, another coat of wax can be used.  It goes on so nice and easy with a clean dry cloth.

If you have any other questions, I’d be happy to answer them to the best of my amateur painter ability 🙂

Lisa

Filed Under: COLOUR, Cottage, decor, DIY, Furniture, furniture makeover, Haven, inspiration, makeover Tagged With: , , , , ,

Exterior cottage love going on

June 25, 2014 By

Well, now with the warmer weather finally here, at least in my neck of the wood, I hope you are enjoying it. School is almost out and I’m sure that is a relief to end all the lunch making, homework checking and routine. Here’s to a great summer for everyone!

I have a bit of progress to report at the cottage.  Hubby has been determined to get the fire table finished, so here’s where we are now, and by we I really mean him.  I’ve done nothing, except help with the design and the finishes…of course 🙂   Can’t wait to try it out.

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And I received my fabric order from a few weeks back, so I’ll be sewing up a storm, whenever I can get a second.  These will be exterior cushions for the cottage deck.   Can’t wait for them to liven up the wood chairs, wood deck and log exterior of the cottage….you get the idea…so much wood…and so0000 much brown.

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And kind of another exterior update, Hubby got the terracotta tile laid in the sunroom, right at the entrance to the deck.  It still needs to be grouted, I’ll share the progress once it is completed.  He’s been a busy, busy, boy.

While he was working away, I kept myself busy making over this lovely little china cabinet that a neighbour gifted to me.  I know it’s not really related to the cottage exterior theme of this post, but I’d thought I’d share it anyways.  It’s a perfect fit in this somewhat dark corner of the cottage, so I decided it should be a nice bright colour to liven up the corner.  This is how it looked:

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And in the process:

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I told you it was bright….and quite lively.  I used homemade chalk paint (Cyan Sky) and I will be giving it a going over with some antique wax (which will tone it down a little) and then of course, some clear wax to finish it properly.  I love, love, Fat Wax in case you are looking for a recommendation. Check out their website for locations near you.  I’ll post a picture once it’s completed, hopefully soon.

We also went to the Pontiac Artists’ Studio Tour a few weeks ago. I posted about it last year, when all the TBBs went.  Hubby got an adorable candy dish for his office (sorry forget to snap a pic before he went off with it) but I did get this great shot of an old barn on one of the properties.  There is just something about old, timeworn barns that appeals to me.

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Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians and an

early Happy Fourth of July, to my American readers!  

Have a wonderful long weekend!

Lisa

Filed Under: Art, COLOUR, Cottage, decor, DIY, Events, Exterior, Fabric, Furniture, furniture makeover, Haven, makeover, nature, The TBBs, vintage Tagged With: , , , , , ,

And we have a Refinished Table!

January 6, 2014 By

Happy New Year! Hope you had a restful and fun filled holiday! Mine was great, very relaxing, spent a lot of time with family and definitely ate and drank too much. But then, that’s what the holidays are all about.

We spent some time at the cottage and I managed to finish my table makeover, finally.  It was more of a job than I thought, but isn’t that usually the way.  I had to make a compromise or two on the way but I still am very happy with the way it turned out.  It’ll be perfect for our card playing evenings come summer time.

So to refresh your memory this is how the table was looking. It was in pretty rough shape.  To read my original post, click here.

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I sanded slightly and painted the base in chalk paint (made by myself – click here for the recipe) in this bright green. I wanted to bring some lightness and freshness to the sunroom.

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 Sherwin-Williams – Dancing Green 6716

Next up, I sanded the top which was much more arduous than I originally thought. The original finish kept gumming up the belt sander and then we tried the palm sander, which unfortunately due to our over zealous sanding caused many ripples in the surface and horror of horrors, went down to the plywood base…so much for it being a solid wood top.   Luckily, most of our boo boos were in the leaves of the table which I usually do not leave in place, as I prefer the smaller footprint in this room.

So after finally getting the top sanded, it looked like this.

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I had originally intended to sand the apron by hand and stain it the same as the table top, but after trying to do just a small area, I was totally discouraged and decided on the simpler and faster route of painting the apron the same as the base.  I know a bit lazy, but I really don’t have that much patience.

So I painted the apron and then stained and varnished the top (with a satin polyurethane) and here’s the finished result.

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I love how by painting the base and apron the details show up so much more than just staining the wood.  Sorry to all the wood lovers but there is definitely enough wood in this home!

Lisa

Filed Under: Cottage, decor, Dining, DIY, Furniture, furniture makeover, Haven, makeover, natural, Projects, vintage Tagged With: , , ,

Mixing up fabric textures in a room

October 28, 2013 By

Last spring, I started redoing my family room, I shared my new sofa and coffee table in a previous post, shown below.

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I have always loved tufting and classic chairs so I went with this very traditional style.  Very different styling from my sofa and exactly what I was looking for.  I wanted large and comfortable for tv watching.

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But  since I was lusting over velvet,  I went with a hard wearing velvet that is cosy and practical.

This photo below shows the sofa fabric on the right, the floral fabric I had chosen for the throw pillows, and  the blue velvet sample.  As you can see I didn’t match the blue exactly in the throw pillows, it just references the blue.  Notice how different the fabric textures are? A woven for the sofa, a linen for the pillows and a velvet for the chairs, this makes the pieces much more interesting together.

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Did you notice the nail heads accenting the legs? Details, really make a piece sing.

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So would you do velvet or do you think it is too traditional?

And on another note, I did get back to my table this weekend. Hubby and I worked on the sanding down the table top which was much more time consuming than we thought.  Here’s how it looks now.

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Obviously we have a little more work to do…..dreading having to sand the intricate apron, as that will have to be done by hand…sigh.

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But I did get finish putting the dark wax on the base.  I’ll follow it up with a coat of clear wax when I’ve finished sanding the top.  I think you can see the depth the dark wax gives the finish (please ignore the sanding residue on the stretcher, I guess I didn’t clean that off too well).   Signature-00133

Filed Under: COLOUR, decor, family room, Furniture, furniture makeover, Haven, makeover Tagged With: , , ,

Refinishing a table – Step 1

October 16, 2013 By

I inherited this table when we purchased our first cottage and found it left in the unheated bunkie on the property.  I loved the base and we brought it with us to our current cottage. However, as you can see the finish is in bad shape and it has been on my list to redo since then.

DSC_0774 Here it is in the sunroom, with the original finish.

I decided I wanted to paint the bottom, again with some chalk paint (being addicted to the soft effect the paint has on furniture).  Next up, what colour? I originally thought perhaps an off-white, then I went to blue and finally I settled on a bright green. Yes, a bright green.  I wanted something bright because

1. the log walls are quite dark and tend to suck in colour,

2. it was the only going to be on the base and therefore in shadow and

3. it would be usually covered by chair legs.

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Sherwin-Williams – Dancing Green 6716

As far as steps go, I sanded the base lightly to help the paint adhere, remove any loose bits and because it is such a dark finish.  Then I painted three coats of chalk paint (using the home made recipe that I shared on my buffet makeover).

DSC_0106 Step 2 and 3 will consist of waxing it as well as sanding the top down to the natural wood and then I’ll be deciding whether I will stain and varnish the top or just varnish the top.   Certainly freshens it up and it looks really great with the blues in the rest of the room.

I’ll be sharing the finished table once it’s done, which hopefully will be in the next few weeks.

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Filed Under: COLOUR, Cottage, decor, Furniture, furniture makeover, Haven, makeover, Projects, vintage Tagged With: , , , , ,
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