Custom desk painted in black and red with grey accents

Black and Red Desk with Grey Accents

This was a desk I saw over at the habitats for humanity restore. It was in pretty good shape and had some beautiful detailing that I could work with. I had a client that was looking for a desk to be painted all black and red but when I bought this one I asked if she wouldn't mind some detail work in a dark grey because I knew it would really make it different and make those details pop. 

Here's the before and after 

And some close ups. Don't mind the poor backdrop...that's what I get for asking my 7 year old and her friend to help me take a picture lol. 

Antique Buffet Painted Grey & White with Black Accents

Antique Buffet Dark Grey and White with Black Accents

Another one where I forgot to take a before picture but plenty of afters. Again using that dark grey I made and white. The top is down with a paint pen. The details are hand painted and a pain in the butt...but so worth it.

Grey and White Paris Bedroom Set

Pretty in Paris : Grey's and White with a Paris Skyline on Top

I'm still stuck on grey, which is nice when I'm not doing a custom order because it is a neutral that almost everyone can go with. Very unlike some of the crazy pieces I've done in the past and was stuck with for 3 years till the right person came along. The before and afters are crazy because of the way I got the set in the first place. It was spray painted bright purple blue and green. It had a missing middle handle which was impossible to find at an ok price and the ones I did find were cheap and snapped when I tried to screw it on....so in the end I changed out all the middle handles and I like them even better. 

Here's some close up and a view of the top which was a large print out from kinkos, black and white only costs about $7 :) but beware with all the white this design had it was hard to keep it white and the front edge was grey so the cutting was a bit difficult to make it look smooth against the white border. And just FYI it is pretty darn hard to cut the shape first and then glue because it is so big no matter how close you get the cut, when you glue it's always off and you have to cut more. With the desk I didn't cut at all before I glued and was just careful not to let the be glue build up around the edges. Then cut with a very sharp razor blade making sure not to cut into the wood

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Antique Side Tables or Night stands revamped

Bought these gems at a garage sale...this sale was a dream for any person like me. It was like a horders house but with nice old stuff and kinda like an estate sale without the estate sale prices. I bought these a dresser or two and two antique headboard which I just sold as is and made a quick profit. I love redoing stuff but right now I don't have the storage or time to refinish everything so garage sale days I pick up stuff I would like by also post it as is so that if someone wants it I just make a profit on it and get it out....that is of course if it's not something super cool lol. 

Here's what they look like

And here's what they looked like before. 

And some close ups 

I painted them with my own mix of grey paints and white drawers. Just good ole behr paint and watch those brush stroke. Also added the clear coat to make sure that all that work doesn't get ruined. Make sure when your clear coating to go over it each time you change sides to make sure you didn't miss a drip. The drips will turn yellow and you end up having to sand out that whole area and paint again and clear coat again. 

New York themed French bedroom set

Black and White Vintage New York theme French bedroom set 

After doing the New York table my manager at my real job lol saw it and said that he is 40 and has never had a bedroom set before. He saw the pictures of the bedroom makeover I did for Kerri and said I want do you have a set like the French ones that you can paint like the New York table and it just so happened that I had literally picked it up that morning before work. So before I could even post a picture it was sold. 

It took us a while to come up with the images for the top because they had to be high enough resolution and he wanted a certain baseball field. We never did find the right field in the right size but instead we found a pretty cool baseball player hitting a home run. So we used that and some other vintage images of New York. 

I painted them grey...a grey I made with a bunch of left over greys and blacks. Painted the drawers white and top black just around the edges. Make sure you get the back edge just incase the image is a little smaller or like me when your gluing it down it isn't quite right. Also there was a bubble in the dresser that layer down after a couple hours and when I clear coated came back up and layer back down so don't worry if that happens to you just try not to rip or tear the paper because there really is no going back from that. I used regular mod podge and an old library card to push it on. Then made sure all the edges were good before clear coating. Oh another thing....sorry I didn't take pictures of this I was too excited to get the images on there, but to make it fit a curvy dresser like this I took some of my mis prints and turned the dresser upside down on top of them and drew a template. I ended up just using half the template so that if a curve was too big or too small it would be the same on both sides. Use your template to cut the real thing.

I used wax on the drawers because I have turely found that clear coats on white just don't work out for me. There is always dust or something in it. Wax was easier to work with and made it very smooth but the highest shin your going to achieve is going to be satin. I clear coated the grey areas with poly satin and all the black details were done with a sharpie paint marker....ADVICE! Use the oil based and not the water based because the water based bled when I added the poly. You can also just use regular paint and a paint brush have plenty of q-tips around to wipe the areas you go over and if you are using the oil based wipe it off QUICKLY or it's not coming off. And there we go. 

His and Hers Nightstands

I have had these night stands forever it feels like, before the twin pregnancy. I held onto them because they were just so different, but the problem is with holding onto furniture and storing it here and there and moving it from place to place, it starts to get pretty beat up. Beat up furniture is usually not a problem but this one had some water damage that made some areas bubble a little. I fixed most everything but one of the tops just wouldn't return to flat so it is what it is. Everyone tell me they can't see it. I reply with BUT I CAN!  The perfectionist in me just can't allow it but since they came out so well I still put them up for sale just not at what I normally would. 

First my plan was to do something simple lol, like a black top white base with a simple stencil down the front....haha quite the difference to what the final project turned out to be. 

I started out simple with all white and black top and it wasn't enough so I added the black base....well the line where the wood meets wood wasn't straight and very noticeable when it was black against white so I decided to make the frame grey and leave the inside white but I couldn't get a nice straight line with that either but that was mostly just impaicenece. So that's when I decided to do the lines. The measurement inside the square was 11.5" and the tap was 1" and so it was a pain in booty to get them straight and the same size. After spending about an hour trying that I had an epiphany.  I decided to use my silhouette cutter and make lines that way I could at least figure out where I wanted the middle line to go and line up the next. 

I taped and painted it again with white to fill any holes that might still be there with the tape then painted with grey. I didn't tape well enough apparently and next time I will use frog tape so I had some leaks.  So I had to touch those up and it still wasn't the perfection I was going for so I decided to cover up the imperfections with some paper images. I used flowers for the girls and stop watches for the boys. 

Antique dresser makeover - Greys and black

                Little antique dresser up cycled into beauty! 

Here's a cute little dresser I got off craigslist. It's definitely a real antique, heavy and all real wood. Here is the before picture.

I decided to go with a black and grey coloring because I really feel like the neutral colors sell the best, so if I am not doing a custom piece for someone I like to use neutrals and since I'm not a huge fan of beige I went with the black version of neutral.

I added little details in black between the drawers and on the side detailing. I used tape for some parts, but most of the time it's easier just to do it with a small ain't brush and maybe just use the tape as a crutch. When it was done and time to put the drawers in of course they didn't fit. I don't know when I will ever learn...always belt sand the bottom of the drawer and really sand the top and sides. This helps prevent the drawer from sticking after you have painted on layer after layer.