Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Thonet Bentwood Cafe Chairs: Redo


Happy New Year! I hope you are all staying warm. Here in St. Louis we have had below zero temps and quite the snow fall! The kids winter break has been extended and we have had to make an unplanned trip to Indiana because my mother-in-law fell and broke her wrist. It was great to see her though, and even better to spent New Years day with her and my sister-in-law.

I've been trying to keep as busy as possible with 3 kids home. One project (or two) that I was able to get finished, are these cute little chairs that I found on the side of the road downtown a few weeks back.


My first thought was to paint them because I recently picked up some new colors of Milk Paint that I was excited to try. But the back of the chairs had such deep scratches in them, I decided that they needed to be stripped down and refinished first. I re-stained (only the backs) using Minwax Gel Stain in Brazilian Rosewood, and my vision changed. I didn't want to cover the beautiful wood finish any longer with paint. I cleaned up the rest of the chairs really well using ammonia and water and added a few coats of a high gloss clear acrylic. I recovered the seats in a yellow and white chevron fabric and here are the newest addition to the shop.








Thanks for stopping by!



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Saturday, November 9, 2013

Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint Buffet: Tricycle

Today I want to share with you a piece that is so special to my heart.  I shared this post on I Know the plans I Have for You (notice my watermark ;) ), and just couldn't pass up sharing it here. My grandmother passed away 10 years ago. Although I have many things of hers that she left for me, it wasn't until long after her passing that this buffet came into my home. 


 I have always loved it, but the color {for me} not so much. I love its masculine shape as well as the quality of the piece. It has made a great stand for our TV,  but I've had great plans for it. I was just getting ready to redo it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (which I just ♥), UNTIL...I found out that I could get Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint only 5 minutes from my house!! Red Posie is THE cutest little vintage furniture shop in old town St. Charles. If your local, you MUST check it out!

My original plan for the buffet was to paint it black and stain the top walnut. But, I have to say that every red piece that I have ever seen in blogland, just jumps out at me. So, I decided to paint it using Tricycle.

It's a little shocking at first sight, right?? I know. Don't be afraid!! You won't regret it.
I'll start from the beginning....
It has a veneer top that's chipped in a few places, but I knew that I would be able to strip it down easily and thought I would just repair the chips. I first stripped the top of the buffet using {spray} Klean-Strip Stripper. It is so easy to use, and so much less messy than the brush on kind, and in my opinion much less stinky (and I had to use it inside). Spray it on, let it sit about 15 minutes, and scrape off. Easy peasy!

 What you scrape off REALLY looks disgusting (and is!). Make sure you wear gloves. It will burn your skin pretty quickly.

I didn't take pictures of the staining process, but once the top was stripped, I gave it a good sanding and 2 coats of Minwax dark walnut stain. The chipped parts took the stain so well, that I didn't even need to repair them. I love that it isn't perfect, and the stain really hides the imperfections. Before you paint, you want to fill in any knob or pull holes that you won't be using. Then it's time to paint!

If you aren't familiar with Milk Paint, the first thing you should know, is that it comes in powder form. You just mix it with warm water. The second thing you should know, is that it has a mind of its own as far as how it will adhere to your piece. If you know that you don't want that chippy look, there is a bonding agent that you could mix into the paint. I really love chippy furniture and wanted that for this piece, but like I said before, I'm not fond of the lighter wood. So instead of adding the bonding agent, I first applied a coat of ASCP in Graphite so that any of the milk paint that didn't stick would show a darker layer. (Don't you just love the top??)


I have to admit that I was a little intimidated by mixing the paint, but you can find a great video here. I'm not sure where I read this next tip, but somewhere I read that the red powder was a little hard to mix. You can add a little liquid soap to the mixture to help break it down and using just a little does not affect the way the paint adheres. I found out that it was hard to mix, and added just a drop of Palmolive. Worked great. It still took a lot of mixing and you will still have some lumps but that is ok. Another thing to remember is to CONTINUE TO MIX THROUGHOUT THE PAINTING PROCESS.  The powder will settle at the bottom, so you want to make sure that you keep mixing it. Again, I didn't take pictures of this process, because it was late and the lighting just wasn't good. I brushed on 2 coats waiting about an hour between coats. The paint dries pretty quick and I didn't sand in between coats. Once both coats were dry, I used a little sand paper and a sanding block to bring out the darker paint in areas. The paint goes on SO smooth, there really wasn't any brush marks. Along with the paint, I also purchased the Antiquing Wax.

This was my favorite part! I love this wax! It is a soft wax that I applied with a brush pretty much on the entire thing. It really toned down the red and and the color is amazing. You brush (or wipe) it on, wait about 5 minutes and buff to a nice satin sheen. I also used it on the top, but I'm not sure that I would recommend that, only based on the price of the wax. I also added glass knobs. Here is what I ended up with, and I have never been happier with anything that I have redone! Get ready for picture overload:





Did you notice my book pumpkin?? Cute right?











Pin It!

I get SO much use out this little lovely! It stores all of the kids toys, dvd's, books, and any other mess that 2 kids can make when a quick clean up is in need. I'd love to hear what you think! Thanks for stopping by :)





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Thursday, November 7, 2013

Antique Chest of Drawers Makeover

Hey guys! It has been so long since I've blogged about anything, and I have has SO many changes in my life over the last year, but I will have to update you in a different post. This blog is still new, and I have a TON of stuff to still add to it, and it's a bit under construction, so please forgive me. If you're not already a follower of my other blog, I Know the Plans I Have for You, I'd love for you to check out tons of my other projects! I've been getting back into refinishing furniture full time, so I will be sharing lots of projects to come. I've also opened a new Etsy shop, Funkin Junkin, where you can find this little lovely!. Today I want to share with you one of my new favorite pieces....a 1040's chest of drawers.



I stripped the top and stained it with my go to stain, Minwax Dark Walnut. Mahogany is a very hard wood, so it took 3 or 4 coats to get the color I was going for. Then I mixed together 2 Annie Sloan Chalk paint colors, Antibes Green and Louis Blue, to get a beautiful mint-e-ish green. One coat was all it took. After a little distressing, I applied 2 coats of clear wax, and a coat of dark wax as well as dark wax for the the top.






This one was a bit hard to put a tag on, but I know that it will find a very special home :)
Thanks for stopping by!

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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Reupholstering an old Chair (Black, White and a Splash of RED)

I told you that I would be sharing my favorite past Funkin Junkin projects from my blog,  I Know the Plans I Have for You, and this is one of them!

Of all of the junk that I have brought home, this is my favorite by far! This one was left over from an estate sale...who would want this one?? This girl right here!!


I fell in love with the claw arms...

Because I knew that it could look like this.....

 At the time that I upholstered this chair, I really had no experience, but I wasn't afraid to try. YouTube can teach you anything! It took me just a few days, and the hardest part for me was the piping sewn into the back. You want to make sure that you line up the pattern, which was so frustrating! That part isn't perfect, but was close enough. Here are some pictures of the process...

The legs first needed some attending to. This leg had a huge crack and the leg in the second picture, was missing an entire edge that I had to build back up. Nothing that wood glue and wood filler couldn't fix. 



I carefully took off each part in sections, so that I could use the old fabric as the pattern for the new fabric, but also (even more importantly) so that I new which order to put it back together. I started with the seat, and found this old feather pillow used as the "foam". It was pretty nasty! As you can see, I decided to paint the arms and legs before I put any new fabric on. 


The webbing on the back had fuzzy molding...GROSS!


This was my little helper, double checking my measurements...







This is what you call Funkin Junkin!!

So after some wood glue, wood filler, Kilz, glossy red paint, new foam, new batting and dacron, new webbing , and new fabric.....this beauty found a new home
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