Here are some of the things my granddaughter Grace and I painted this weekend:
This little shelf (it really is little, about 6 inches wide and 10 inches tall) was plain wood with a very small little lily of the valley painted on the top. The problem was that although the flower was pretty, the rest of the shelf needed a lot of help. I reluctantly painted over the flower with a fresh spring green color, then cut wallpaper to fit into the back of the shelf to dress it up. What is funny is that I gave all this effort for a little shelf that I paid 25 cents for, but it came out so well that I am glad I did.
The black tray behind the little shelf was in a bad way too. It was wood with stained, faded green velvet lining in the bottom of each of the three sections. I tried to remove the velvet but it was well glued, so I decided to just spray paint the whole thing with Killz black paint and see what happened. What happened was very good. The tray looks great and, like the little shelf, is once again attractive and useful.
Some of you might recall this photo of some thrifting finds last December. The 4-drawer shelf wasn't exactly pretty, was it? But I thought it might clean up well...
and it did! We chose soft pink and cream for our paint job on this unit, and I am pleased with the result.
Our last project was a small stool I found at a thrift shop. The top was painted with roses but someone had dripped white paint on them and I wasn't sure I could clean it off. I decided to try dabbing it with nail polish remover and it worked. Whew. The base of the stool was wood finish that was not in good condition. Since we already had the pink and cream in use, we went ahead and painted the edge of the top with pink, and the base with cream.
Next project was a wood basket that Grace painted. This too was a wood finish, and it had a red rose drawn on it with magic marker. We sanded it and then painted over the rose. We were dismayed when we saw the marker had bled through the paint but then decided we liked the softened look of the rose so we left it that way:
This chair is a work in progress. It will need several more coats of paint before it is ready for the seat to be replaced.
I still have things to paint but it was good to get some of it done. There is nothing quite like a fresh coat of paint to brighten up a worn piece, is there?
All of the pieces look beautiful! Nice job, G-Sue!!!
ReplyDeleteI think the paint job on the chair as it is gives a distressed look that looks neat in the picture, but maybe in person not so much? I like the distressed type look that sometimes one coat of dark paint can give though.
ReplyDeleteYou do so well finding the possibilities in lost pieces.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Liz and Mary :) I do love doing this kind of work; the instant rewards are nice!
ReplyDeleteIt looks like so much fun to buy things & make them new again like this. My favorite is the black tray.
ReplyDeleteL.M. Tea, that's a thought. I had planned to leave it as it was when I got it, but I thought it looked a little too distressed. I may try working on it a little to bring out that look and see what I get. I have several more chairs to do, all different. I seem to have a thing for old chairs!
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