I hope you’ll join me on my never-ending search for beautiful pieces, with history, for your home. Find my curated treasures, in Booth #154, at the Antique Trove, in Roseville, CA. ~ Barbara
I found this beautiful antique dresser on Craig’s List. I removed the mirror and drawers, but you can see the gorgeous lines of the piece. I’ve been looking for just the right piece to take my maiden MMS Milk Paint voyage with and I think this is a great candidate. I could have added an additive to keep the paint from distressing, but I decided to go au natural and let it distress to its heart’s content! Best of all, the color, Shutter Grey, is so pretty! I can hardly stand it, I love it that much! I know I…
Read the rest >>Most of us have heard the term “hot mess”. At first I thought it referred to a pile of you-know-what at a dairy farm, but according to the Urban Dictionary, this is what they say: “When a situation or ones thoughts or appearance are in a state of disarray but they maintain an undeniable attractiveness or beauty.” Mind you, I am not complaining, because I was the instigator for this project. You would have thought I was lobbyist for the Hardwood Flooring Association! (if there is one) Last night, I returned home, from a wild and crazy gathering with my…
Read the rest >>While visiting Aunt Jewell and family, in St. Charles, Illinois, we stopped in a favorite shop, in Geneva. It’s called Artemisia, and they have a wonderful mix of products, both old and new. I noticed two pieces of furniture, dressers actually, with ticking and burlap skirts. I don’t know how practical they are, but they sure are cute! I think it would be a great option for open shelving. It went into my mental idea file to use down the road. I also thought that these baskets, converted into hanging lights, were pretty cool as well. I liked the galvanized…
Read the rest >>Hello Dear Blog Sisters , Thanks so much for all of your wonderful support, of The Blog Sister project! I was thrilled! If you didn’t get there yesterday, check out The Blog Sisters page! Now, I’ve been experimenting a bit with my new Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paints. It almost never fails that furniture, that I’m going to paint, usually needs some repair work. This includes a beautiful old dresser, I found on Craig’s List last week. A couple of corners will need to be re-built a bit and I wanted to make sure the paint would cover the filling…
Read the rest >>Every now and then, one has to put the paint brush down and have some fun! So, I tagged along with my dear friend, Joaquin, to the big city! On our way home from San Francisco, we stopped in Berkeley and checked out the action on 4th Street, a favorite shopping destination. Our first stop was at Rejuvenation, Classic American Lighting & House Parts. The store, which only opened 3 weeks ago is a wonderful spot, especially for home lighting! I saw this window, at Z Gallery, and am going to try to do something similar, in my store window.…
Read the rest >>Greetings, Blog Sister!, Since I am painting a fair amount of furniture these days, it was time to do a latex paint-off! Sprayer vs. Roller. Well you all saw last week’s fun, hot pink masterpiece, painted by Mr. Wonderful, with his manly HVLP paint sprayer. It turned out beautifully, with a smooth, shiny surface, using an interior semi gloss paint. The contender for a roller brush paint job, was a very simple dresser from the 60’s. The surface was in great shape, but it was an awful color. I’m sorry I can’t show you a complete package, drawers included, but…
Read the rest >>Happy beginning of a new week, to you! We’ve all heard about being open to opportunities, to “open doors” that lead to new adventure. I feel like I am at that place, right now. Let me give you an example. Like everyone else, I had heard about the soon-to-be-released, milk paint line, by Marian, aka Miss Mustard Seed. (Now there’s a woman finding lots of “open doors” these days!). But, it wasn’t until I attended her painting class, at the Haven conference, that I learned she was choosing retailers, to represent the line around the country. Then, as happens when…
Read the rest >>How much thriftier than free can you possibly get? True confessions time. I picked a table out of the garbage dumpster once, when we had our San Francisco condo. One darling little table, came home to be saved by the master of furniture repair projects. We have a half-house, giving these pieces new life…another chance at being…beautiful. Isn’t that all any of us ask? Seriously, this little, once-upon-a-time, dark cherry wood desk, was being shuffled to the side of the road, when we just happened to be at the right place, at the right time! I showed off one of…
Read the rest >>Months ago, I went to an estate sale at a beautiful home in Sierra Oaks, one of Sacramento’s nicer neighborhoods. I found a number of things to buy, including two small scale, dark cherry chairs, that were in the master bedroom. Do you remember when dark cherry wood furniture was so popular in the 80s? It was the “cat’s meow”! Later, Lora, the fearless leader at Veranda Antiques, was ready to leave a small-scale, dark cherry desk, on the curbside for free! This was our lucky day! It didn’t take us 30 seconds to say “we’ll take that!”. Well, tonight…
Read the rest >>Warning! If you stand still, in one place, for too long, I just might paint you! It’s a furniture painting marathon over at my workshop, this week! What else are you supposed to do, when it’s a hundred zillion degrees outside? I repainted these two pieces because the lattice piece got banged up, when it fell off the wall (long, sad, boring story!) and the piece in front, because it was chipping. Both pieces were originally painted in latex, but I hadn’t followed the important rules. First, wipe the piece down with TSP, followed by an oil based primer and…
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