Simply Stone Creek : March 2015

Mar 25, 2015

The Pea Soup Dresser Makeover

I believe that you should never let the exterior of a piece scare you if the bones are good. Finishes can always be improved. Minor structural imperfections can be fixed. In the end, you can have a fabulous piece of furniture for little investment!

This piece is an example.

I'll start with a picture of the after:

Below is the before....

The bright green didn't scare me because I knew it was a solid piece. Sure, back in the day, I would have stripped and refinished this. However, these days, the fair market price on it would not cover the time and labor I'd have to put into it.

At first, I planned on painting it in Miss Mustard Seed's Boxwood. After I did, I just didn't like how dark it all looked. I made myself live with it for a day, but just couldn't do it. So, I went over it with a couple of coats of MMS Mora, using the boxwood as a layer. LOVE IT!

I wasn't sure how the green layer would look, but since Mora is a combo of grey, green and blue, it worked beautifully. I do think the white wax helped in toning it down and blended it better.

I sanded and re-stained the top. Wood and Mora is a favorite combination of mine!

The white wax helped define the lines on the drawers.

I highlighted the center detail with MMS Ironstone and finished it off with new knobs, including these adorable birds on the top drawers.

Much better!

Find it in our booth at R&R Antiques in the beautiful downtown Fredericksburg, VA!

'til next time!

I'll be sending this beauty over to party at:

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Mar 16, 2015

The Mustard Seed Dresser

I hit the jackpot over the weekend and got three vintage dressers and an art deco nightstand! The nightstand just needs a little TLC with Hemp Oil, but the chests are getting bigger makeovers.

The first up was this 1940s dresser. I painted it Miss Mustard Seed's Mustard Seed and added hand painted scrolls in white to the top drawer and bottom skirt.

This is how it started out. Someone had stripped off all of the veneer and refinished the sub-layer wood. Even though the dresser itself is in great shape, it was not very pretty.

Now it has a little more style.

I did not add bonding agent - but it didn't chip much, anyway. I distressed a little bit here and there to bring out a little of the brown wood.

I left the top and knobs wood, which contrast with the yellow very nicely.

If I could paint everything in milk paint, I would!

Find this in our booth at R & R Antiques located at 1001 Caroline Street, Downtown Fredericksburg, VA.

'til next time!

Mar 14, 2015

My Birthday and a New Member of the Family

This has been such a good weekend so far! Yesterday was my birthday. My last birthday in my 40s. How is that possible? I sure don't feel like I'm almost 50.

I spent yesterday having a wonderful lunch with a dear friend in Alexandria, going to our youngest grandson's last basketball game of the season and having dinner with the family at Pino's. Oh, and Dean and I also went and picked up three dressers and a nightstand from an auction. Oh, yeah! :)

Today was another special day. Though this isn't a birthday present for me, we adopted a very sweet black lab from a local animal shelter. Practically all of our pets over the years have been rescues. It is such an amazing experience to see how much they truly appreciate it and the return they give is beyond amazing. Shelby (we named her in honor of the Shelby Mustang) was a stray and had to endure the the bitter cold for a while before they brought her to the shelter.

We can tell that she was from a home, but who could have done that? It's so sad. She came off of stray hold today, and we woke up extra early on a Saturday morning to get there when they opened. It didn't take but a few short minutes after meeting her to know she was coming home with us. She's getting to know the cats and I think they are all going to get along just fine!

Shelby's first trip to PetSmart. Can you see that smile?

She has an appointment to get spayed on Thursday and I'm really nervous about putting her through surgery...but I know it needs to be done. There are too many unwanted animals in this world and we all should take a step in stopping that.

I have a feeling that she will bring us many years of happiness and I hope that she feels the same about us!

'til next time!

Mar 12, 2015

Some Bunny Is Ready For Spring! -- A Little Chalkboard Art --

Spring has Sprung! Well, almost... The warmer weather is a sure indication that it's just around the corner!

I promised our daughter a chalkboard months ago and Dean was finally able to work in the garage without sub-freezing temperature. He put this together for her yesterday using an old dresser mirror frame and plywood. I painted the board with a couple of coats of chalkboard paint, then doodled with the chalk to bring this bunny to life. OK...I am not a great artist, and I will admit that I found one similar on-line that provided inspiration, but this is all freehand. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. :)

The frame is pretty tattered and I'm looking for an applique to put back up at the top. Our daughter is very much like her father and prefers wood. Luckily, this is a beautiful piece of oak, so I actually agree....on this one.

I used Miss Mustard Seed's Hemp Oil to bring the wood back to life. It made a huge difference!

On the drawing, I focused on the face and made the body a mere shadow in the background. Kind of like he's putting his nose up to a camera.

I probably could do a little better on the shading, but the more I messed with it, the more I had to re-do - so I just stopped. It will get erased eventually, anyway.....

This should add a little whimsy to their home for a little while!

'til next time!

Mar 11, 2015

Oops!...I Did It Again...

Are you singing it, now? :)

Yes, I did it..... I said I wasn't, but I did. It is truly in my blood. When I closed down our last space in December, I said I was done except for shows. Or, I thought I was. Well, after two months of not having a daily interaction with the business, I was missing it terribly and had to jump back in. So, I contacted my good friend, Laura, about coming back "home".

Home being the largest Antique Mall in downtown Fredericksburg, Virginia. R&R Antiques. We have been vendors there before, so I knew exactly where I'd be going. The only difference is that this time I'll be doing a much smaller space with pieces that I can take in myself because Dean still has to be careful about heavy lifting. Since his neck problems began last year, I've learned to handle a lot on my own - which isn't a bad thing! His job is our bread and butter and he can't risk it - so this time I'll handle most of it myself. It's really kind of liberating in a strange sort of way. Of course, he still wants to help as much as he can, but I promised that I will not drag him there every weekend.

I plunged right back in and have had a very busy week. Moving in, building walls (with my hubby's help), painting and getting things set up. When we closed the last booth, I sold the whole trailer load of our inventory to an auctioneer. In some ways I kick myself, but in other ways, I get new stuff! Slowly, but surely, it's coming together and I'm going hunting for more tomorrow!

Here's a little sneak peek...and I still have a lot more to bring in!

Remember the Lane record chest from yesterday's post? Here's the after!

I used Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in Flow Blue. LOVE!!

And here is the chest of drawers....

I used Real Milk Paint Co.'s Light Turquoise.

It chipped more than I had planned, but that's o.k. It's part of what I love about Milk Paint. I call this a Coastal Cottage Chic look - and the sides are tongue and groove giving it an even more cottagy feel. It's perfect for a kid's room or in a beach home. Find it at R&R Antiques (Booth 13), 1001 Caroline Street, Fredericksburg, VA.

I took in some things that I had planned to take to Lucketts - and I've already sold that fabulous oak table!

Oh, darn....now I need to go shopping for more! :)

'til next time!

Mar 9, 2015

Busy Week and Feeling Creative

For the past week, my life has been a whirlwind of activity. I have a lot of things going on, but one by one, I am getting things done! Tomorrow will be a post about my biggest "project" and a little bit of an announcement. In the meantime, I am over-the-top thrilled that my Mora Milk Paint Table was featured on both the Silver Pennies and Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint blogs this week! That definitely provided me the shot in the arm that I needed to boost my sliding self esteem.

As I had stated in a previous post, I had to tone down my creativity dramatically over the last year as it became almost a necessity to keep paint schemes for my furniture either white or neutral for selling at my last space. Not that it was a BAD thing....I sold a lot, but I yearned to do my fun stuff again. I love playing around with colors and different mediums - creating one-of-a-kind pieces. I am happy to say that I am doing it again! Since the beginning of this year, I have completed several unique pieces and a Valentine bedroom makeover - which I was super excited to have them each featured on other blogs!

I had been feeling like the proverbial bird in a cage. Nowhere to go and not sure what to do. However, after two months of some soul searching and getting back into a creative outlet, I feel so much better...and the warmer weather this week has helped a lot!

So, until tomorrow, here is a quick peek at the before pics of two pieces that I have already finished. I'll share the "afters" tomorrow.

I never knew these existed....a Lane Record Chest! This one has been transformed into a piece that I think would be perfect for a child's room using Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in Flow Blue. It turned out adorable!

I also got this chest of drawers recently.

This isn't much to look at, but it's an older piece with tongue and groove sides. It has also been transformed using Real Milk Paint Co.'s Light Turquoise and turned out to be chippy coastal cottage chic. See it tomorrow!

'til next time!