Feeling Blue

So I'm not really feeling blue...I'm more feeling THE blue. I took a major step this week. I bought this cute little cabinet from a friend and my first thought of course was to paint it in Annie Sloan Old White. My instincts just always steer me towards the simple and clean elegance that Old White provides. It fits into any decor, but I am trying to change things up. So I took a leap of faith and painted this in my favorite aqua blue. 

This is a picture of the new treasures I brought into my booth this week. As you can see I am feeling the blue hues right now. 

So I guess I should reveal all that surpassed with this piece. She almost didn't make it. I would like to offer a few pointers of advice for painters. I had to learn the hard way so here goes: first, make sure you mix enough color before you start. Second, don't paint late at night because you will invariable make mistakes that may cost you the entire piece. And third, don't under any circumstances, unless you know exactly what you are doing, remove veneer. This lady may look cute now, but wait until you hear the whole story.

This picture is more true to the color of this piece. It is bright and cheery although its beginning was gloom and doom. So where to begin with this little lady. She was a comedy of errors it seems. I started by painting her in this beautiful blue hue. It is a mixture of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint colors Pure White and Florence. I don't have an actual recipe to achieve the same color every time, so I just mix until I like the color and call it good. I feel like having no specific recipe allows for more creative variance. Well, there in started my issues.

I am usually pretty good at guessing how much paint a piece requires. The paint goes so far that I thought no big deal for a piece this small. First mistake. After 2 completed coats on the body I went ahead and used Artisan Enhancements VP Antico on the door for a raised stencil effect. It looked beautiful...at least for a little while. I kept painting and re-painting the top because the bleed through was horrible. So, I then got the very bright idea at 10:00 pm to try removing the veneer on the top. The veneer was already lifting in the back and with the aweful bleed through I thought what do I have to lose... right? Apparently everything! So I took my hammer and my paint scrapper to try it out and see how hard it would be. After 10 minutes it was going pretty well...then the storm hit. I took out a huge chunk of the wood top along with the veneer! NNNNNOOOOOOO! After over an hour of chipping away little by little at the veneer and occasionally the wood top :( I knew I had made a huge mistake. So I thought, no big deal, a little wood filler and we are good to go. Bad idea. I am really not gifted with wood filler. This was a fact I already knew going into this project. Once I had bandaged her up the best I could, I then decide to check out the stencil on the front to see if it was dry. Not only was it dry, but it was not the color it was suppose to be...it was turning a grayish color from the demolition debris. I took my handy dandy paint scrapper that had already caused so much damage, and I chipped that stencil off, but not without ruining the paint on the door as well. So after assessing the damage to the patient and acknowledging the possibility that she was probably a lost cause, not to mention that my paint was GONE, I left her to sit over night and to gather my thoughts on my course of action.

The next day I came out to re-inspect her in good natural light, hoping and praying that it was either a bad dream or that she was not nearly as messed up as I thought. Yep, it was just as bad as it was the night before. Oh boy! I mixed more paint trying to match it and I didn't do half bad. I fixed the paint on the door and thought I would try painting the top, because sometimes paint can hide a multitude of sins. That was another botched idea. So I tried another coat, thinking that it might fill in some of the divots and you know...look good...yeah not so much. I just kept digging myself deeper into a hole with this one.

Finally, after so many failed ideas, my last ditch effort to save this piece was to enlist book pages and modgepodge. I first sanded down the top and then wiped it down with a baby wipe to make sure that the dust wouldn't interfere with the glue. I laid down one page after another, then at the end covered the whole top in a sealer coat of modgepodge. I stepped away to let it dry and pray that this would work.

Score! It actually looked really cute and I think fit the overall look I wanted to achieve. The last piece of work to do on this little lady, was to re-stencil the front. I decided to just use Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Pure White for the stencil. That is about the only thing that I didn't screw up on this piece. In fact it is probably the best stencil job I have ever done, because as I have stated before, I am terrible at stenciling. Once the stencil was dry and she had received a finishing coat of wax, I picked out a glitzy, large crystal knob from my stash.

So there is the very long tragic story of this sweet little cabinet. I always say a piece will tell you what they want to be and this is not the first time I have had protestations from a project.

Since I was determined to put that cabinet in my booth, I went ahead and restocked and re-arranged things as well. I brought in lots of doilies which are always great sellers.

That large blue bottle is probably one of my favorite finds ever. It is so unique, huge, and extremely heavy. I can just imagine this on a mantle above a fireplace for a bold statement. It could be filled with some kind of unique décor as well, like wine corks, dried rose buds, or cotton bolls...the possibilities are endless.

Lavender is probably my favorite scents. It just adds a beautiful feminine touch of country to any space. This jar is one of my favorite jars as well because of the unique toile like print on it.

Last, but certainly not least are these sweet vintage porcelain chicken napkin rings. I don't normally buy chicken décor, but these just spoke to me and I had never seen anything like them before. They would be the perfect addition to any farmhouse style table set for a casual dinner party.

That is all I have to share. I am sorry the blog was so long winded today, but that cabinet was going to be the death of me. I still can't believe what she put me through. Good thing I can look at it and giggle knowing what we both went through together. I know she definitely taught me some tough lessons. I will miss her when she goes to her new home. I hope you all enjoyed the story and that you will continue to check back for new projects, new lessons, and most of all just good fun.

Vanessa

I Believe in Pink

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