Emily's Jewelry Box

Last year for Emily's 2nd birthday I had wanted to make her some things for her new big girl room. I made her this pillow and my intentions were to make a little jewelry box that would be complimentary. The pillow I finished in time for her birthday...the jewelry box not so much!

I wanted to stencil it with a cute little paisley stencil, but either I super stink at stencils or the quality of the one I had purchased for this project was very bad. Then I ended up sanding and re-painting the thing about three times. I finally decided to stripe it. When I got started though (almost a year later) stripes just seemed so boring! 

What about PLAID! 

I painted the outside with ASCP in Old White then painted the inside with some craft paint.

Then I whipped out the painters tape and got busy!

I waxed and buffed it when all the paint was dry. I imagine that it will get banged up and loved on, but that is exactly what I made it for!

I think the final product was pretty cute

I think she liked it ;)

Dining Table

I've avoided doing this post for a while. You know when you do something and you like it, but you don't LOVE it? I have always loved how the top of this table turned out...the pedestal on the other hand was the first issue to tackle. But to truly start at the beginning you have to see what I started with.

I never realized how few pictures I had of my dining table before until I started looking for one to show you. This was the old butcher block table painted high gloss black and set for Thanksgiving dinner...a long time ago according to how small my son looks in the background. The living room is also a clue as to the date: no color on the walls, red curtains, and walking into the back of the sofa. Oh the mistakes I made on my way to finding my style.

A while back I did this post about making a coffee table out of this dining table because my father was cleaning things out and I wanted this table

I loved the table to bits, but the finish was disgusting and it was about 2 inches too short to sit at comfortably.  I also had the problem of finding chairs. The somewhat modern ladder back chairs in high gloss black just weren't doing it for me at this table. My husband wasn't going to buy new chairs though so that meant finding old chairs - sorry...vintage chairs ;) That will be a completely different post though because I'm still working on those.

I knew what I wanted to do to this table, I just had to find the time to do it! So I finally got started by striping the top.

This took 3 times to get down to the wood and then I had to sand it. I love that this table has a large crack in it, I love that my grandfather worked on this table and that it was in their house, I love that my father used it as an extra desk for a while, I am just totally emotionally attached to this table! Even more so now, after giving it a new life in my home.

Next came the staining

With that all finished up the pedestal was next. At first I painted it too white and used the wrong color glaze for it. It was nice but not great. So then I repainted it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White and used clear and dark wax. Now I LOVE this table! It's exactly what I had in mind. I could not be more pleased!!!

The chairs were purchased over a few months and I love each chair. I thought I had an idea of how I wanted them and so I dove right in. My children changed my minds when they wrecked the upholstery so quickly. All the different colors on the chairs wont make sense with a different upholstery so they are being changed right now. Hopefully I will soon have the chairs complete and get them posted. For now though, the table is PERFECT and I'm so happy I have it in my home.

Shauna's Desk

When Shauna first asked me about doing this desk I was extremely excited, I mean the chance to work on an antique executive desk...who wouldn't be excited? I could see so many possibilities in my head. I hadn't seen the desk yet but in my head I was visualizing some sort of Craftsman or Victorian style greatness. When she delivered the desk to me, I loved it immediately. However, two things became quite clear to me: It was Art Deco gorgeousness and it was in a bit of disrepair. I've never before had a project come to me in pieces.

As I got to working on it I had to remove dried mud, spider webs with their inhabitants, and a wasp nest. Once it was clean I began to evaluate how much work actually needed to be done. The drawers were dovetail joints and almost all of them were loose. It was time to take apart, label, and re-glue.

Can I just say this type stuff drives me nuts...don't nail a dovetail please

Unfortunately, the drawer bottoms for the majority of the drawers disintegrated into nothing. So that added cutting new ones to the overall scope of work. So I took all the labeled pieces and went to dad's shop.

I spent over 7 hours in my fathers shop that day alone.

I sanded, glued, cut new bottoms, and clamped every single piece of every drawer. Then I had the desk bases almost completely repaired and assembled. I even had one of the drawer fronts stained as a finish had not been chosen yet.

This piece was missing, so I had to cut a new piece and my father came up with a clever way to install it. It took some chiseling and customizing but I finally got it together.

I had to rough up the new piece a bit...it was too perfectly square. A finish was chosen and I got to work. I new I loved the desk because of the intricate panel work and the carved wood drawer pulls. Those things take a really long time to paint, even for a fast painter. I have literally 35 pictures of all the different steps - I look through them in awe, but I won't bore you guys with all that. 

So, after 41 hours of labor (that's right 41!) the desk was finished! This is what Shauna ended up with. I think she loved it ;) 

Sweet Shauna is still settling into her new house and has things stacked around the room in these pictures. I promise you her house is incredible and looked fabulous just two days later, but I didn't have my phone with me then!

Couldn't you just swoon for the drawer pulls? This is yet another piece that I am envious of. One day maybe I will have a fabulous desk like this too, le sigh...

I know I know - I need to take better finished photos. But, I'm busy people! Summer has been insane this year. Most of that is due to me taking on too much - that is one thing I am totally consistent with...biting off more than I can chew. But that's how all of us creative people thrive right? Now on to the next project!