Before and After : Antique Carved Wood Mirror

This project was super fun, and didn't take a million years (but it looks like a million bucks!) It's a gorgeous antique mirror frame that was a dark gold color, and I gave it a fresh new look with a dry brushing of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Duck Egg Blue, followed by an lightly applied coat of Old White on high points. The trick (for me) to all those details is to try and find a fulcrum on which to rest a part of your arm - I often put my wrist down on the surface of the mirror or some dry part of the frame. That really helps me to keep a nice, even line. But with a vintage look, your lines don't *have* to be perfectly straight and 100% evenly saturated, and they shouldn't be! That's part of the hand-painted charm that distinguishes it from a factory finish.

Ain't she a beaut? Here's a close-up of some of the detail. I am just in love!

Normally I would put wax over a finished piece, but in this case I opted not to, because I can see this potentially being repurposed as a fancy frame around a chalkboard outside a boutique! However, wax coated pieces need to be climate controlled and it gets HOT in Texas in the summer, so I refrained. I also figured that there really isn't a lot of hands-on interaction with a mirror frame in the long term, so oil transfer from fingers or paint erosion wouldn't be as likely. But if we do wax it down the line, the colors will just become a little deeper and more intense. It'll be gorgeous either way!

Here's the inspiration behind the refinish - clouds! It was next to impossible to choose a photo because there are so many amazing options; these colors are in the clouds, sea, waterfalls... They must be perfect together, since they appear together so often :)

What inspires you? Leave a comment with your favorite color in nature, and I can help share your Color Story!

Before and After : Vintage Henry Link Dresser and Mirror in Paris Grey, Duck Egg Blue, and Old White

Today's projects is one of my favorites! We found this gorgeous Henry Link Dresser at an estate sale, and it is just amazingly beautiful. I kept the original stain on the dresser and vanity tops to make it feel more grounded and neutral, but added Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Paris Grey, Duck Egg, and Old White for a super lovely color combination!

Yummy, right? I put Paris Grey over the whole shebang, then dry-brushed Duck Egg over the body, and used Old White for the trim. I distressed the high points and around the drawer faces to finish the vintage chic / shabby chic look. I love the completed look, especially with the hardware patina!

Curious about my inspiration? The absolutely stunning light-and-cloud interplay of blue, white, and gray! Here's a sweet side-by-side with a photo taken on our Montana trip last year. There's a reason they call it the Big Sky State, y'all!

 I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Before and After : Vintage Four Poster Bed

My daughter wants EVERY color in her room (but still managed to pick a sophisticated neutral for her walls! It's a Behr color called Gourmet Mushroom.) So how to incorporate fun, bold accents? We found this great vintage French Provincial four poster and it occurred to me that it would be PERFECT for a certain someone's space. I used one of my favorite colors, which is Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Florence, for a (long) one-day project to surprise her!

Feeling inspired? The next home project is a Murphy Bed for our guest room, so stay tuned! We also have several client requests coming in the next month - some stunning highboy chests of drawers :) never a dull moment! I'm so excited to see the end results!

Before and After : Vintage Rolltop Desk

This rolltop desk is near and dear to my heart, since my Dad stained it originally when I was a child, and I lugged it to Austin with me and around various apartments. But now it has a forever home in my son's baseball-Americana-meets-dinosaur-and-car themed room! I left the original stain, but did a solid clean and shine on the drawers/interior with polish, and painted the body Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Aubusson Blue, with clear and dark waxes.

Here's the before and after - what a facelift! I love the modern / classic juxtaposition :) as always.

Here's a photo with great sunlight so you can really see the Aubusson Blue gorgeousness!

Before and After : Vintage Hand-Carved Writing Desk

So technically this isn't the true "Before" on this desk, since in all actuality, I'd already refinished it with Annie Sloan Old White. But it just didn't *feel* right. So it sat. And things sat on top of it. It actually lived for a while under my work cabinet and housed various sandpaper sheets and drawer pulls, waiting for inspiration to strike. Then one day, inspiration hit in the form of some blue glass knobs I found on Etsy.

If you haven't shopped on Etsy, you're in for a whirlwind. You can find anything on Etsy - and I mean anything. This weekend I found unicorn-rainbow-robotic-tyrannosaurus-rex yoga pants. They were labeled as, among other things, Christmas leggings. I want to drink the egg nog at that family's Christmas reunion! But I digress. As it turned out, the white desk and blue knobs still wasn't working for me. Then along came a friend of mine who envisioned a shabby chic, distressed look with Florence chalk paint. She decided she wanted to really accent the hand-carved details, so I used Aubusson Blue in the recessed area. We started to distress one of the legs, and she decided she preferred this graphic, bold look instead. This totally doesn't sound like me at all (just 100%), so we changed plans and repainted the leg!

Since she really loved the color this way, I didn't wax finish the piece (this step intensifies and deepens the color). Instead, I ordered some matte polyurethane that gave a soft look and feel, but preserved the brightness of the hue. I'm loving the bold update! And we made a super cute coordinated chair cushion with some fabric that just-so-happened to match exactly.. it was clearly meant to be!