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Retro Restyling - Restore - Restyle - Repurpose
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Monday, March 21, 2011

Say hello


....to Elizabeth, my new addition to the Retro Restyling family. She is a very old Tiger Oak dresser that has great detail in the wood grain. I named her Elizabeth because I have so many in my life that are beautiful and complicated creatures that I love dearly. This Elizabeth needed a lot of TLC to get a side to side shift fixed and there was a lot of veneer that needed to be patched. She was originally bought and restyled for a benefit trivia night for a friend of mine who is struggling with breast cancer. I had a ton of compliments (some girls there were actually almost drooling over her - ha!) but no bids. That's ok though because there were so many other items that brought in some good money for my friend.


All the locks actually work and I have an antique skeleton key I found in another piece of furniture that turns the locks! Of course you have to be ginger with them, but it's so cool they still work.






Look at that beautiful pin and crescent drawer joint! This dresser is almost 100 years old! The blue gray color is awesome and the glaze I used really brought out the grain of the wood. I hope you enjoyed my furniture transformation. If you are interested in purchasing Elizabeth she is available in the Etsy store.

**** Update! Elizabeth didn't hang around long! A mommy-to-be has snatcher her up and will be using her in a nursery for her baby! Pictures of Elizabeth in her new home will come later this summer! :)

Furniture Feature Fridays

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Monogrammed Chalk Board - Decorative Tray Tween Gift

A couple weeks ago we were invited to a birthday party for a family friend, and of course I love to make some hand made gifts so I came up with a great idea for her. Plus, I never really do anything girly because I have boys so I had fun making a tweeny girl gift! So hang on tight, there's gonna be lot's of photo's today just in case you would like to make something like this too!
(sorry for the first few dark pictures, I started at night and finished the next morning)

I decided to make a monogrammed hanging chalk board and decorative tray based on the colors of this gift bag, and the card... my kids and I loooove these crazy cards!


These are the numerous supplies, most were bought at Hobby Lobby, some I already had on hand from previous projects. I'll go into more detail with each ones corresponding picture. First off I started with the bare wood tray (seen below on the right).


I hot glued the underneath bottom piece for added support in the joints.


I used some acrylic paint I already had on hand to mix this pretty bright pink color and I painted the tray except for the bottom.


I picked out a few sheets of cute "not-so-girly-yet-still-girly" scrap-booking paper. I cut it down to size, which can be a little hard because unlike wrapping or wall paper this stuff doesn't want to bend.


After wraaastling with the paper and getting it cut to the right size, I painted a thin layer of Mod Podge on the bottom.


Then came the part where I had to work quickly.... getting the paper in straight and getting the bubbles out. This spatula worked really well to get in the corners and to flatten out what was bubbling. After I got it all nice and flat I used a glossy water based polyurethane to seal the paper and the pink paint.


Next came the chalk board. This was a rather large piece of birch craft wood, I'm guessing it was about 12" wide by 24" tall. I wanted to thread ribbon through the top so I marked some holes to drill.


Holes drilled. :)


Using painters tape I sectioned off where I wanted the chalk and colors to be. It is very important to use a flat edge and push that tape down well. I used my spatula just like I did on the tray paper to get a nice seal on the wood or believe me, your paint will bleed.


I started off with brush painting on two coats of blue acrylic paint. I let each layer dry well, then pulled the tape, lined up new tape over the blue and painted one good layer of the chalkboard paint on with a 1.5 inch paint brush (I use Purdy brushes).


As you can see the tape is over the blue and sectioned out for the green to be painted on.


I know you can't see it but the tape is covering up the green layer I painted so I could paint the pink that matches the tray on the top.


So while all that was drying, I got to work on the monogramme letters. I picked out a font that I had on my computer (1001freefonts.com is where I get all my free fonts)... nothing too girly, yet girly... there's a method to this madness...


This is how I layered this: 1 layer of scrap-book paper taped down, another layer taped down on top of that, then the printed letter taped down on top of that on top of a small cutting board. It wasn't moving... period. I used an X-acto knife to cut the letters out, and by putting two layers of scrap-book paper in there I had an extra letter just in case I messed up. I removed it, flipped it and went back over it again in the corners before I tried to pull out the letter. I wanted crisp corners that weren't torn.


So... being in a hurry I kiiiiinda forgot to take some of the last pictures... :(  Sorry... but.... basically all that was left to do was line up the monogrammed letters in the middle of the top blue part, paint some Mod Podge on the back and stick them on the there really well. After they dried I took a white paint pen and lined the paper to make it pop off the board a bit and I painted some dots on the bottom of the board just to add a design. I used the poly again and painted it on the board everywhere except the chalkboard. Note to self: make sure the paint from the paint pen is VERY dry or it will smear when applying the poly.

And....TA DAH!!!! This is the final result! I threaded the satin ribbon through the top and tied it together, bought some chalk and packed it all up!

(click on the image to see a larger view)

What a great gift for a 12 year old girl, and she really liked it!

If you don't want to brave making one of these for you're tweeny girl (or boy - I'm sure I can make it boyish) lemme know! Thanks for stopping by my blog today and checking out my project!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Hand Painted Stools

I bought these cute little bare wood stools for my "nephews" (my cousin's little boy's) awhile back. I thought it would be a great idea to give them a personalized gift, and if they turned out well I would go ahead and put them up for sale. Well, I gave it a shot and in the end I think they turned out great! So they were packed up and shipped off to the boys and now I'll have a couple examples for the etsy store too!


I wanted them to have a "handpainted" look so I didn't tape off the stripes to make sharp edges. Plus each side is unique in the colors and widths of the stripes.


I adore Halen as a boys name. I have to admit though, the S is a bit wonky here and the H and the A is touching! Curse you OCD! HA!


Sweet baby Ty!


Cute polka dots! Again, all of these circles aren't perfect and the sizes and colors vary on each side.


T is for Total Cuteness!


These are for decorative uses only though, no stepping on these stools just for safety reasons!

So there ya have it!
If you are interested in a hand painted personalized stool, please contact me. These stools are now available in the etsy store. Designs are not limited to what is shown above. I am open to suggestions on what you would like!

By the way, the "Halen" stool has my new favorite color on it!

Resurrected 50's Wallpaper

I am beside myself right now....
I already have one post ready to be published today at 2 pm, but I just had to get on here and share this wall paper that is FABOOSH. Design Sponge put up this post about this resurrected 50's wall paper by Sanderson.

Insert my drools here, here and here.....




I can totally see some of this swell paper in a drawer to a little girls or boys dresser, though I don't see it going on my walls any time soon. Maybe in the future some day!

What do you guys think? Too funky or funkalicious???
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