One year ago today I started working at the Minnesota State Fair. During the two weeks that I worked there the weather was unbearably hot and humid. Luckily this year I am not working at the fair. This year I am able to work in my garage on some projects that I am really excited about. The humidity has finally dropped and so today was a great day to work on the settee I had started last week.
Last time I worked on this I found that under the fabric there was beautiful knotted bamboo on the one side. Fortunately, I discovered today that the bamboo was in great shape on both sides of this piece, so I decided not to recover it in fabric.
My go-to when I paint a piece of furniture is the Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in the color Trophy. I went with this color on the settee piece as well, and as it was drying I started on another project. We all know how exciting it is to watch paint dry, so please take a moment and enjoy this picture of paint drying 🙂
Here’s the back story for you about this next project.
Last week, my friend Alyssa’s mother-in-law had a garage sale. After the sale was over, I received pictures of some of the items that were not sold. Initially, I got a picture of a single chair but what I really needed was four chairs to go around this table that we bought last week.
So I asked if she had any. And she did! Those chairs were what I started working on while the paint on the settee dried. (There are actually four chairs, but I was too lazy to pull them all out into the back yard to take a picture.) Bonus points for honesty.
My plan was to paint the legs of the farm table the same color as the chairs surrounding it. The chair pads also had to be reupholstered, so I went to take them off before painting. I flipped one of the chairs over to find this tag.
I looked up Tell City Chair Company. After some digging, I found these exact chairs on Ebay. They were selling for $229 PER CHAIR!
I almost fell off my chair! 😉
This changed things a little bit. Now I want to keep them as close to original as possible. They are in pristine condition already so it shouldn’t take much! I’ll show you on Saturday what I came up with.
When I was in Texas last month, my parents and I went shopping at HEB. While checking out, I found this DIY magazine and knew that I had to have it.
I read it while in Texas and then when I got home I forgot all about it, because I couldn’t find it. Well, today was packing day and **BAZINGA** there it was tucked in the outside cover of my suitcase.
So happy!
This article is why I bought the magazine in the first place.
I thought I was going to make some patterned pillow covers, and I might, but I started out with some fabric coasters because they are quicker to make than pillow covers and I was supposed to be packing.
I do not like packing – could you tell? 🙂
Anyway…I have yards and yards of cotton canvas fabric so that was my fabric choice for this little project. I had also purchased this stencil from Joann’s last week just knowing that inspiration would strike me somehow and I would use it.
I cut a 5×5 inch square from the cotton canvas and green frog taped the stencil onto the fabric at an angle. I put things at an angle because it makes me feel artsy. ha.
Next I mixed up 1 tablespoon of Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint powder Typewriter with 2 tablespoons of water. I had this milk paint left over from this project.
After mixing the paint and letting it sit for 10 minutes or so, I used a round stenciling brush to apply the paint (A simple up and down tamping motion does the trick).
Remove the stencil and let the fabric dry while moving on to the 3 remaining squares repeating the same process.
The magazine instructs that after letting the paint dry for two hours you should then heat set it with an iron using a pressing cloth. This will be a shock to no one, but I didn’t wait two hours and I have no idea what a pressing cloth is. Goggle said that a pressing cloth was a cloth that allowed you to see what you were pressing and help prevent scorching.
Good to know.
I used a cotton dish towel that my Grandma had embroidered a cow on. It worked great.
But before pressing, I had to make my coasters. I cut out 4 more matching squares to be used as the backs of the coasters and also 4 pieces of interfacing to be placed between the cotton canvas to give the coasters a little strength.
Then after sewing up the fourth side, I ironed them to set the paint.
Something different and a little bit elegant.
What do you think?
Wendy
If you are also packing or trying to avoid something you don’t like to do….you can purchase the coasters here. 🙂
I bought this vase at an estate sale. I loved the shape, I loved the appealing texture and I loved that it was green.
Then I got it home.
Wait. What? I don’t love the green! It was kind of pea green meets sea foam green mishmash. Maybe that is why it was for sale on the last day of a three day estate sale, marked down 50% and still no one had bought it. Maybe I had a weak moment and felt bad for the vase. Maybe I just felt like I wanted to buy something because I needed to justify driving 45 minutes to an estate sale and coming home with nothing. MAYBE…..I made a mistake. A home décor mistake, I should’ve known better.
So the vase sat here and there and I tried to fall in love with it. It never found a home, in my home. When that happens it needs to go to someone else’s home.
However, the philosophy behind items I create or purchase for resale is that I need to love them also. That isn’t to say that everything I love is what everyone else should love. But, I have found that sticking with this concept keeps a cohesive vibe in the shop.
Summarizing those last words of wisdom means that this vase needed to change.
As soon as I received the sample of Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint named Typewriter, I knew it was meant for this home decor mistake vase makeover. This entire 30g sample package covers approximately 10 square feet, it is environmentally friendly and contains no VOC’s. (Volatile organic compounds are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary room temperature)
Miss Mustard Seed milk paint comes in powder form and is easy to mix. Measure equal parts powder and water and stir. For darker paints such as Typewriter (black) let the mixture sit for about 10-15 minutes giving the pigments time to develop. I then used the Miss Mustard Seed paint brush – which I love – and applied 3 even coats letting them dry for about 30 minutes between each coat.
I took a chance and didn’t add a bonding agent to the powder/water mixture, nor did I lightly sand the vase before starting to paint. I wouldn’t suggest doing this but I like to bend the rules sometimes to see what would happen. 🙂
Now what started as a home décor mistake has become an elegant nod to home décor take me home delight. Don’t you love how the gold texture peeks through and the rumpled texture remained?
I left the inside of the vase as the original color. For whatever reason, the inside color didn’t translate to a not so wonderful color. It is a pleasant light spring green.
On Friday I will be sharing with you the newest items listed in the Old Lake George Shop. This typewriter black vase will be one of the new listings!
I hope to see you on Friday!
Wendy
Happy Birthday to my best friend in the entire world. I love you Lizzy. Have a great day!
I am a visual learner. I sometimes have to read something two or three times before fully grasping it. But draw me a picture and I am good to go.
Maybe that is why I can look at something like these,
and turn them into something like these.
I knew when I saw these metal candlestick holders that they needed to come home with me. Here is the back story how that happened.
I could see that each one of them needed to be a different color. They would work together but still have the strength to stand alone.
After removing all of the paint, I spray painted one of the candlesticks with a Rustoleum Pure Gold. My intentions for the other three were to paint them with Miss Mustard Seeds milk paint. I ordered online 4 different sample sizes. I have worked with this brand of milk paint before and I knew that a sample size would be more than enough.
I forgot one little thing. I didn’t order the bonding agent which would allow the paint to hold onto the metal.
So what does a girl do when she forgets? She Googles.
Googling Miss Mustard Seed milk paint took me to the site where I found all of her product line. Plus, I could locate a store near me that also sold her products.
The location closest was called the Round Barn. Sadly, I knew that the Round Barn closed last summer. 🙁
But I drove by anyway because it was on my way home and I wanted to see what had taken its place.
There was a new Round Barn! Not an actual new Round Barn Structure, but a shop now called The Round Barn Trading Company. How did I miss the re-opening way back in November? No matter, I was here now.
I zipped into the parking lot. It was 14 degrees outside so I grabbed the closest spot to the door and ran inside. I literally ran. It was…. 14 degrees outside. 🙂 After looking around for the Miss Mustard Seed line and not finding it, I asked the nice person at the counter where it was located.
She did not think they carried that line of paint, BUT as soon as Julie was finished with a customer she would answer all of my questions.
Okay, that gives me more time to look around. Bonus. Such a great boutique.
And what I found instead was the Country Chic chalk paint line. But still no bonding agent. ugh.
Then Julie turned my frown upside down.
Julie, the owner of The Round Barn Trading Company explained to me that The Country Chic line had recently released a new product that is an all-in-one décor paint. It is a clay based mixture that has great adhesion and a durable finish. And so many color options!
I was sold.
I bought three small project size jars and a new brush.
Cobblestone, Pebble Beach and Cheesecake. Otherwise known as gray, light gray and off-white.
The candlesticks themselves are not very big but if I had to guess I would say I used about 3-4 tablespoons on each of them which allowed for great coverage. That being said, I do like how you can see the actual brush strokes on the candlesticks, but I did give the Cheesecake candlestick a second coat only because I didn’t stir it enough before starting to paint. 🙂
Note to self: Stir paint, just don’t shake it three times because you are excited to get started on a project.
I already have something else that I want to paint with the chalk paint. I love the flat finish look.
I think I am going to put the candlesticks for sale in my shop. I say “I think” because I am practicing patience and letting them dry over night. I’ll let you know when they are listed. 🙂
I am working on a HUGE pillow cover order this week. So if you get a chance to stop by on Friday, you can catch a glimpse how that is progressing.
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