10,226

I planned for when I reached 10,000 page views I would do something to celebrate. I don't know how, or even why quite yet, but it means something special to me. It means almost as many people who live in the town I grew up in found something I created worthwhile enough to click on it. 10,000 is really small potatoes in the blog world, but I'm proud of it! Thank you. Profoundly. And to the 16 brilliant people who follow me :).... You guys are the cool trendsetters!

Okay, enough sappy stuff. Remember this post?

Well, if you love it (or maybe just love me) I've got an awesome way for you to show me. I've linked up to this cool competition through East Coast Creative.

The contest is partially based on link views. So that means, the more people who go HERE  and click on my "Tutorial: Tufting a Headboard the Easy Way" link, the better my odds are. I'm not a social media girl, or really a computer girl at all, so I know it puts me at a disadvantage. So I'm appealing to all you wonderful people. Spread the word. Tell everyone to check out East Coast Creative and the Creating with the Stars challenge. Thanks again!

-Elisha

Mixing Custom Glaze

I know, I know... it's been a little while since a post. I'm in the middle of a custom built-in project for a client and have been a bit consumed. I'll have before and after photos of that  project coming soon! I was working in the garage this morning and I started to think of my tools and projects I can't live without. Glaze quickly came to mind.

I LOVE glaze. Its so versatile and forgiving! If you're not familiar with this product, glaze is simply a translucent, typically water-based medium that can be used to create numerous effects on almost any surface.

It can be used to age paint and bring out detail like this:

It can be used to create shadowing like this:

Or as a white-wash like this:

It can even be used as a toner to cancel unwanted colors in the finish like this:

Glaze is also used in "faux bois" or creating faux wood-graining techniques. Currently, in my garage I'm using this glaze medium.

I don't love it. In fact, it is my least favorite of the three brands of glaze I've used. It has a weird, thick, snot-like texture and it dries too quickly. I really like both Valspar's and Behr's glazing medium.

To mix the glaze, Open the glaze can and pour some glaze into your container. Add a small amount of tint and/or paint. Use a paint stir-stick, or pencil or whatever to stir the mixture until it reaches the desired translucency and consistency. Test glaze on a scrap piece of wood to make sure you have your desired result.

You can buy pre-mixed glaze in a variety of colors, but I ALWAYS custom mix mine. Depending on the look and opacity I'm going for (how opaque I want the glaze) I'll use either liquid Universal Tint, and/or acrylic paint. You can use powdered pigments as well. I never have, but I'm itching to try it.

This is my standard glaze-mixing vessel. Classy, I know.

Another nice thing about glaze is that it doesn't require fancy brushes or equipment. Often, a good 'ole chip brush will spread the glaze just fine.

My go-to antiquing glaze always involves Raw Umber Universal Tint, and depending on the desired color, either light brown or black acrylic paint. Raw Umber is a dark, cool, brown.

A bottle of tint this size is pretty cheap, versatile, and will last you FOREVER! One day I'll stop being so cheap/broke and pony up for a full set like this one.

That would make life so great!

If I'm applying over a light color, or just want to lightly accent the details, I'll blend a weak mix of tint and glaze. Glaze goes really far, so on a medium sized piece of furniture I may use 1/2 cup of glaze. So a weak mix would be 1/2 cup glaze and maybe 1/4 teaspoon of tint. Like I used on the Rope Trim Console Table.

The strongest blend I mix is when I want almost a black finish. For that I mix 1/2 cup glaze with 1 teaspoon raw umber tint and 2 table spoons black acylic paint. I almost never mix straight black tint. When using paint, black tint looks too fake for me. I like when a piece looks like it aged naturally, not like you smeared black paint all over it. The dark blend I used looks black, but just not as harsh.

I often use glaze to slightly cover the harsh wood grain of pine, especially if I use a dark stain. Some people love the "rustic" look of heavily grained pine. Its not really my thing, but I'm not about to shell out 5 x's the price to get a different species of wood. Take this bench top I'm working on for example. After wood conditioner and 2 coats of Minwax "Dark Walnut" it was pretty streaky. Something like this.

Here's the arsenal I used, plus some Raw Umber.

After two coats of glaze (wiping the first and leaving the second to dry) it now looks like this.

When Mixing glaze, it helps to have a basic knowledge of the color wheel and know what colors neutralize each other.

I've been a  hairstylist for 9 years and specialized in color for 2 years. I got to know the color wheel REALLY well. I could lecture you on tones and tertiary colors, etc, but you really just need to know the basics. Look at the wheel. The colors across from each other cancel each other out. Red- green, blue-orange, yellow- purple. So when you get your highlights and your stylist says she's going to "tone" your hair and is holding something purple, now you know she is just canceling any yellow. Or when you stain a beautiful oak table top and it looks orange-y, now you'll know how to fix it.

I recommend using acrylic paint to mix a toning glaze and start VERY weak. I also wouldn't recomend using the colors straight. Look at your oak table top. It's not true orange, more like a orang-ish brown. So mix up a weak blue-ish brown glaze to neutralize it.

My glazing tips:

1. Start of mixing a weak batch. You can always add paint or tint and go over the area again, but it's more difficult to take away too-dark glaze.
2.Work quickly, and in small areas. Different brands of glaze have different drying or "workable" times.
3. Make sure your paint or stain is VERY dry before applying glaze, otherwise all the rubbing will make the paint lift.
4. If you don't want your paint to absorb much of the glaze, use a higher sheen. For example, if I glazed over a semi-gloss paint, the glaze would slip right off the flat surfaces and just collect in the recesses. If I glaze over flat paint, the paint will absorb some of the glaze quickly and have more of the "dirty" look. That may be what you're going for.
5. If you are using a wiping glaze, make sure you have LOTS of clean rags around. If you are wiping with a saturated cloth, you won't remove enough glaze and the glazing will look uneven.
6. If the glaze does look too dark, or maybe just dried too fast in an area, don't panic. As soon as possible, grab some Floetrol and a clean rag, and rub off the dark areas.

Floetrol is great for several applications, but I have discovered that it works great as kinda a "glaze eraser" on water-based glaze.

Have any of you tried using glaze? Let me know what you've learned. Linking at:

The Shabby Creek Cottage
Throw Back Thursday

Ruffled Slipcovers

One of the skills my very beautiful and very talented mother taught me was how to sew. I grew up sewing prom dresses and curtains alike (yeah we were poor). Have I mentioned that I dislike sewing? Well, I REALLY do and this last project has just reminded me of that. I guess if someone is offering me a sizable amount of money I can push past my extreme dislike for a few hours.

Due to my love-loss, I chose not to make a tutorial for these slip covers. If you are really interested in learning how, email me and I'm sure I could help you.

Recognize the chairs? They are the french twins I posted last weekend (see here). The lovely lady who commissioned the chairs also bribed me into sewing the slipcovers.

I'm not really and "bow and ruffle" kind of girl, but I do love the detail they give the seat.

What do you think? French and feminine?

Linking at:

From Old School to Old World...& Homemade Chalk Paint

I've been wanting to try some homemade chalk paint recipes for quite a while now.

 Most of the ones that I saw that made logical sense were the ones using Plaster of Paris. Since I couldn't guarantee my results, I wasn't going to try it on a client's piece, so I dug around my storage room and found this puppy.

I have to be honest, I got a little choked up when I pulled this nightstand out. When I was a teenager my mom surprised me by decorating my room while I was at church camp. At the time I was obsessed with contemporary design and although it was completely opposite of what she liked, she bought this night stand and painted it gloss black for me. Mom passed away from brain cancer last year and has left a big hole. I know how much love goes into refinishing furniture, so when I look at this nightstand, I see my mom's love and work (sniff sniff). I have plenty other mementos from my very talented mother, so I decided this one can move on.

Sorry I didn't get some better before photos. It was late. I was trying to get the kids to bed. Yadda yadda... It was your typical Mid-Century Modern piece. Straight lines and tapered legs. I remember it looking something like this once upon a time.

Not that anything is wrong with Mid-Century,.it's actually really hot right now. Just not my style. I knew those skinny legs had to go. On a side note, when I went to remove the legs I discovered flat-head screws and these super cool, square nuts. I guess she's a pretty old broad.

At first I went to the hardware store looking for turned bun feet, but was disappointed with the selection and price $9 bucks a pop?! That would be over $40 with tax! Wasn't going to spend that on an experiment. I started to brainstorm again and I thought of another experiment I was wanting to try for a while. Can you guess what these are?

Yep. Fence post finials. The where the perfect size/height and only $6 each! I removed the old tapered legs and played around with my placement. I quickly decided the little apron along the bottom would have to go. I pocket-holed the two inside sides of my legs, removed the lag screws and screwed them to the underside of the nightstand. It looked better, but I kept having the image of this in my head.

I guess that's what happens when you have kids. Not wanting my nightstand to look like a walking television, I created some small corbels to brace the legs with. They are primarily decorative, but they actually stiffened up the legs some and made the whole thing more sturdy. Win/Win.

I wasn't digging the clean lines so much, so I also attached some small trim, using glue and finish nails along the top and bottom edges. Since the original part of the piece was painted black and I planned on distressing, I did a quick coat of black spray paint on all the raw wood, just to even everything out.

I was imagining a really primitive, rustic finish for the final result. To give the piece some "character" I used a small sledge hammer and some nails. I even created some faux worm holes to age the look of the wood.

Time to mix the chalk paint. I used one 7oz  latex paint tester

4 tablespoons Plaster of Paris and 2 tablespoons baking soda.

I mixed the baking soda, water and plaster all together first, till smooth. The baking soda created some pretty serious bubbling at first, but eventually went away. I liked that the plaster and baking soda didn't really change the color or intensity of the paint.

I covered the nightstand with come crackle medium I had in my craft stash and let dry before brushing on the paint. I loved the way the paint dried. Matte, thick, and chalky. It had pretty good coverage, but since I had black underneath and used a crackle medium, it did have some bleed through. The areas I did brush over a second time changed color a bit. Lighter and chalky-ier.

 I spare you the gorey details, but my first color choice was a disaster  I kept sanding a glazing to try to make it look better, but I just chose a terrible color of green for this piece. It started to look dirty and cheap.Too bright. Too contemporary. Too ugly.

I was NOT looking forward to painting all the little nooks and crannies again, but the green had to go. When I bought my tester from the hardware store I also picked up a gorgeous Peacock blue sample too. I brushed on two coats over the existing mess. Already so much better!

 Using 100 grit sandpaper, I generously distressed all over the nightstand. I love the way both green and black came through. I glazed everything with Martha Stewart Faux Effects glaze that I had tinted black, applying twice on the edges to create some shadowing.

It looked good, but needed something more. I pulled out some medium brown craft paint and did the ole' 'thumb on a toothbrush' technique to get some small splatter. Any of you not familiar with this trick must not have been involved with the Toll Painting craze of the 90's.

Source: www.scrapjazz.com

Using the toothbrush, I lightly brushed a few spots with the brown which I quickly wiped off. It just made the distressing look a little more authentic.

Two coats of PAS (Polyacrylic in Satin) to seal everything, a brass cup pull, and she's done!

From mundane Mid-Century to Uniquely European.

I love the new legs! Their scale is much better to the whole piece now.

On my monitor, the color looks very blue. In real life it's much deeper and more green.Very pretty with the brass pull. It's almost a true teal color, like this

Mom would be proud. Despite my poor choice in the first color, I really liked the homemade chalk paint. Will be using it again. It didn't adhere or sand much better than normal latex paint, but it covered very well and gave the piece some texture. Next time I may use more Plaster of Paris to see if it helps with adhesion.

She's available for purchase. Check out under the shop tab.

Linking at:

Whisper Berry

The Shabby Creek