Sophisticated Black Desk

    

Sophisticated desk

 This desk is going to be a lot different than other pieces I have done. I have painted many pieces of furniture in my own home black, but have yet to do it for my business. This desk is going to be very clean and sophisticated when it is done.

First I am going to strip the top because I am going to re stain it with a dark stain. I love leaving some of the wood showing if the wood if it is high quality wood.

I am also going to  be stripping and staining the drawers too.

First coat of paint. I am using oil base paint for this one, because you can get a deeper richer black than with anything else, so this is going to need to dry for a day before I can put on another coat.

Stained top and drawers and after that was thoroughly dry I waxed it with dark wax by Annie Sloan

I think this is one smart and sophisticated desk!

Painted Lady Cottage Chic Desk

 This desk started off a hideous blue, so we could only go up from here!

 

It has great detail but I felt like I needed to add a little more. I was able to take apart the letter holder that mounts on top of the desk.

Out of all the stencils I own I did not have one the right size, so I used my new machine, the Silhouette to designs and cut out the shape I wanted. I use a little spray adhesive to hold the stencil in place.

I have this great product that is an embossing cream and it kind of looks like chocolate pudding.

 I use a small pallet knife to spread it over my stencil

When you lift your stencil it leaves a raised design. You let it dry for a good 24 before you paint over it. It makes it look like there it carved wood detail where there was none.

Here is my painted lady!

I used Annie Sloane chalk paint. Colors are Versailles green and cream. I also added some more dimension in the paint by adding a bronze gold antiquing glaze to certain places.

Personalized signs

I have gotten to do some special order signs lately and one as a gift to my sister. Let me tell you there is definitely more pressure to get it right when you are making them for people you know, but so gratifying and fun all at the same time.

This one was for my sister and it was so fun to do. She loves bumble bees because it rhymes with her last name. I was just bursting at the seams waiting to give this to her for her birthday, I think it turned out even better than I imagined.

Another fun sign I got to do was for a friend, she wanted a special sign that would go outside her front door.

After getting to this point I just felt it was still missing something. Since it was going to be outside her front door I couldn't put my usual embellishments on it. She suggested painted Pansies, which I thought was a wonderful idea and I got busy.

So here is the finished sign!

Fun little sign to add style to a front door.

Gone Fishing Sign

I am so lucky to get to live somewhere where we are surrounded by water, and fishing and crabbing is a big deal. It has been so fun to see all my girlfriends get into fishing so I thought it would be fun to make a Gone Fishing sign that was more girly and less masculine, but still rustic.

So the first pictures are with the signs more basic

I thought it would be fun to add some embellishments to one of the signs and leave the other simple.

I mean who doesn't love sea shells?