Pewter Herringbone Dresser Tutorial

This is my favorite piece I made for the doomed boutique last weekend. Here's what it looked like before.

Anyone who refinishes furniture probably has come across a little dresser just like this at some point. Beautiful, solid wood, but a bit on the orange side and screaming 1980's French reproduction. I decided to try some metallic paint.

I've seen some amazing furniture make-overs using Modern Masters metallic paints, but haven't been able to find any locally. Its still on my "must try" list. In the meantime, I found a pretty pewter color from Martha Stewart at Home Depot.

The first step was to sand down the drawer faces.

 Once all the old finish and stain was gone, I wiped on one coat of Antique Walnut stain by Minwax. After it was completely dry, using a measuring tape, I found the center and ran a strip of painter's tape horizontally.

I dealt with the top half first.

Next, was time to bust out the speed square. If you don't have one, get one. They are SUPER cheap (like $1 at Harbor Freight) and are pretty much essential if you want to build anything square. I talk about it here.

I wanted my diagonal lines to be at a 45 degree angle, so the speed square made things really easy. I just started at where the drawer edge and the tape intersected, lined up my square and drew a line with pencil. 

The next step was to slide the square down so the inside of the bar lined up with my pencil mark and draw another line. I repeated the process of ascribing the inside and outside of the bar, sliding all the way down the drawer face.

When I was done, it looked like this.

Time for more tape. I simply filled in every-other section with tape, and made sure to tape around the outside edges. For clean tape lines, make sure to really press the tape down and maybe even use a scraper to rub the edges.

I brushed on 2 coats of  paint and immediately pulled off the tape. Once I had allowed it to dry for several hours (depending on the paint, you may need to wait overnight), I repeated the process with the square and pencil lines to the other half of the drawer face.

I then filled in the opposing sections with tape. This took a little concentration and peeking under to tape to make sure I was covering the right section. I painted another 2 coats of paint, pulled off the tape, and allowed it to dry thoroughly.

Several hours later, I taped of the front of the drawer face, and brushed 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of paint around the outside edge.

The body of the dresser got 1 coat of primer and 3 coats of paint, brushed on. I then sealed everything in 3 coats of semi-gloss PolyAcrylic by Minwax.

I added some glass knobs I found at Hobby Lobby for 50% off, and here is the final result.

I wanted simple hardware that wouldn't distract from the herringbone pattern. I like the bit of sparkle the glass brings. In real life, the wood is a much cooler, almost grey brown. 

I was really happy with the way the metallic paint applied. It seemed to self-level and hide brush strokes.

So what do you think? I'd say it's a pretty big improvement for this little, ho-hum dresser.

I felt pretty confident taking this to the boutique, but unfortunately, it was one of the pieces damaged by my collapsing tent during the rain, so it didn't sell.

 Its not too bad, just a couple of chips on the top. I'll be able to fill them in and paint over it without too much difficulty. I had the thought of putting it in my boys' room, but then I decided it was WAY too special to me to have it destroyed. So, once its fixed up I'll list it on craigslist.

Have you ever fixed up something that's too nice for your own house? haha


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Mother Nature is a Real "B"

des·ert (dzrt): 1. A barren or desolate area, especially:

a. A dry, often sandy region of little rainfall, extreme temperatures, and sparse vegetation.

b. A region of permanent cold that is largely or entirely devoid of life.

c. An apparently lifeless area of water.

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No, I'm not dead and I haven't given up on blogging. I've been SUPER busy the last couple weeks and haven't had any time to post. I'll explain why.

Many of you know that I live in the Phoenix area. Phoenix, as you've probably heard, is nestled in the geographic area called the Sonoran desert.

Just as the definition above (pulled it right off the internet) describes, we get an extremely small amount of rain each year. Aside from the summer "monsoon" season, it is a rare occasion to see rain in the Valley of the Sun.

I've mentioned here that I was a vendor this past weekend at the Vintage Charm Holiday Boutique.

 Let me share a Doppler image of Arizona from Friday.

source

No, I'm not kidding. I wish I had doctored this image, but it's true. The sky decided to un-zip right on top of my furniture.

Here's a photo taken just a few miles down the road from the venue.

And the best part is, it lasted for 3 days. Yep. In fact, Friday was the rainiest day we've had in 10 years. This is the second wettest November in recorded history. So, you can imagine how my OUTSIDE booth at the boutique fared. 

Thankfully, I sold a few items on Thursday before the rain started. Friday, I was stuck at home waiting for a client and watching the kids while my husband went to school and work (the venue was about 45 mins from our house). I asked him to stop by on his way home to survey the damage.

The good news was, only 3 of my most valuable pieces were destroyed (did you hear the sarcasm in my voice?), and everything else had been thrown into a pile under my tent, which was now sitting in 3 inches of standing water. 

We borrowed a truck, grabbed the trailer and drove off to try to salvage what we could. I made sure to grab my camera to document the devastation, but when we got there, I went into panic/survival mode and completely forgot to snap any pics (sorry).

It was great fun wadding through the mud and flooded driveway to retrieve my soggy, wet work! Thankfully, some wonderful person grabbed my white tufted bench and placed it inside before it could get soaked. Other than that, everything looked like you had pulled it up from the bottom of a lake. 

Apparently, my tent had also collapsed as some point in the night landing on my furniture and destroying my tent. I wanted to cry. All I could see was the hours upon hours of work, the time ignoring my kids, the dirty house for weeks. That was all washed away. Not to mention the financial investment. 

I'm going to get real personal for a minute: The money that I planned to earn at the boutique already had a destination. Since we don't have medical insurance, last year I incurred a medical bill that has been looming over our heads. It has now been sent to collections and is perpetually damaging our credit. The money from the boutique was supposed to pay off the bill and get the creditor calls to stop. Now, the little bit of money I made will have to go to repairs and buying a new tent.

Sorry to be such a downer today. On the bright side, I did take photos of everything before I took it to the boutique. So, I'll have posts showing all the "before and after"s. I was REALLY happy with the way most of the pieces turned out. I'm excited to share them with you guys! So, look forward to some update posts coming soon. And thanks for letting me complain about my crappy weekend!

Faux Tarnished Brass Finish

As promised, I finally got the Faux Tarnished Brass tutorial together.

Its a great way to take shiny, new brass and make it look old and weathered.

When doing this technique, your object needs to be clean, and as close to that tacky, yellow brass from the 80's as possible. I've done this with wood before with good results. You just need to prep the piece with a glossy, bright gold paint. 

These box corners that I put on my hope chest were originally the same gold color. With these, I wanted a really grungy look. I used the same technique, but just went a little more heavy handed with the paint. 

The first step is to paint the entire piece with black chalk-based paint. Does it have to be chalk-based? 

Yes. 

Why? A couple reasons. First, it sticks to just about anything. The polished brass is very slick. Regular, latex paint will slide right off. Also, you need to be able to wet distress it. Which is the next step. 

*I've never tried homemade chalk-based paint with this technique, so I'm not sure if it would work. In my experience, the homemade stuff, while nice, just doesn't distress the same. I would recommend buying a sample pot of the store bought kind.

Once the black paint is dry,  use a damp rag to rub the piece, removing a large portion of the paint. Try to keep it in the area that would normally collect junk in "real life". 

After that, it's time to start layering colors. Start with the bronze/brass paint on the left, and work your way right.

DON'T WORRY! I know it's a lot of cans but its easy!

Place all your pieces close together on a piece of paper, scrap wood, etc. Hold the can approximately 24" away, and lightly start to spritz the paint. Build color slowly. The idea is to create a blended, translucent finish, not to "spray paint". When in doubt, start further away and spray very lightly.

Its actually very easy. I promise. First, spray the bronze. Let dry 30 mins. Then the flat black. Let dry 30 mins. Then the clear gloss. Let dry 30 mins. Finally, mist the flat clear over everything.

The clear gloss step is the only exception to the "spritzing" rule. Spray that stuff on fairly thick. That is what's going to protect your piece.

Once it's totally dry, you should have something that looks like this.

Dirty, worn, and awesome! Because of the topcoats, its very durable too. I've banged pieces around with this finish on it and rarely have had a chip. Just remember to let the paint cure for a couple days. It helps it bond and harden.

What do you think? Do you have something you're dying to tarnish? Please let me know if you have any questions.



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