My favorite transformation to date - Maple Hutch

Hello and Happy Fall,

I don't know about you, but I for one am more than excited to welcome Fall this week!  As a 40 year old woman, with the wrath of menopause coming on, fall and winter will be a wonderful change here in Northern California.

There have been many changes in the last few months, which I will save you from the boring details.  Needless to say, I have been way behind in my projects and updating this blog.  I have done my best to keep my Facebook up to date, so hopefully you have been getting those updates.

This next transformation was just finished last week.  I bought this Maple Hutch on craigslist about 3 months ago.  It is on wheels and in solid!  I used my custom chalk paint recipe (using Plaster of Paris).  The grey was a mistint I picked up at Lowe's for $5!  Gotta love that.  The white was one I used on a custom job I did a couple months ago (Valspar).

Without further ado...

Before

I took all the doors and hardware off, I wanted to spray paint the hardware black...and I think it made a huge difference with this piece.  

Here she is ready for her new home!  I put 3 coats of chalk paint on her and 3 coats of wax.  This piece will last for generations!  

Miss Mustard Seed's Tricycle Red Milk Painted Pressed Back Chair

4th of July is just around the corner...and it inspired me to do some bright colored chairs.  I used Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint in Tricycle Red and Annie Sloan's Old Ochre Chalk Paint.  I started the first one (Red & White) with the intention of getting funky and doing a few different colors.  I ended up just painting one of the chairs the 2 colors (I am still planning on adding a 3rd color, possibly blue to some of the spindles).

Moving my family of 4 and 2 dogs

Hello there...

Well we are in the first leg of our journey.  We are moving!  

Renting a home is always a risk that someone else is for the most part in control of certain aspects of your life.  We have loved renting the adobe brick home that we have called home for the last 2 years...but the owners have decided to put it on the market for sale.  To make a long story short, we made the decision to move as soon as we discovered that they were exploring this option.  We have ran into a couple issues and just plain bad luck with some homes that fit our needs!

So...we have decided rather than rush into a home that would be a temporary situation...we are moving our belongings into a storage unit.  Not only do we have a 3 bedroom home to move, but also my inventory of furniture (which fills our 1 car garage currently and a work shop full of my tools & supplies).  The "His" of H&H Restoration has been working 60+ hours a week...so I am doing most of the packing.  We have moved quite a bit in our marriage, so this is nothing new to us.

This time, I am being completely organized and have been purging our "stuff" for the last couple months and am continuing to do so.

Here are a few tips that I am finding helpful that I thought might come in use for you:

Vintage Buffet - Old Ochre & Duck Egg Blue

I bought this huge Buffet/Side Board from Craigslist a few months ago.  I roped my son and a friend in to help me go get it one evening and it sat for a couple months on my back patio.  I just had to wait for it to talk to me!!  :) Well I really like what this buffet had to say!!  hahaha no seriously...I am in love with this color combination.  I used ASCP Duck Egg Blue & Old Ochre with some distressing and light and dark wax to bring out the details.  I replaced the original hardware with some I picked up at Hobby Lobby.

Here's the before (please excuse the mess on my back patio)

This piece is in the shop waiting for a new home!  If it doesn't sell soon, it will be coming back home with me to use in my craft room!!  It has tons of storage inside it!

  Your comments really make my day!  Let me know you were here.

First time using Maison Blanche Chalk Paint~ honest review!

I love trying new brands of chalk paint.  I have been making my own for about a year now using the Plaster of Paris recipe and I am very happy with it.  I buy all sorts of paint brands including mis-tints at Lowes and Home Depot.  Recently, I have also been using Sherwin Williams sample pots.

Oak Pedestal Table Make-Over (for a client)

I was bringing a new dresser into the shop last week, and a customer was interested in one of my tables that had already sold.

Here's my Oak Pedestal Table that everyone seems to love!  I have about 5 different people that have wanted to buy the table, but only if I painted chairs to match it.  I was just too busy with other projects to get to the chairs, so I just put the table in the shop without the chairs.  Just last week, I agreed to paint 4 chairs to match it for a client and it is sold.  Note to self, "always paint chairs to match the table, never just a table".  Everyone wants chairs with the table.  I hadn't really thought that one through, all the way.

She was telling me that she has a pedestal table and 4 chairs that she'd like to have painted...one thing let to another and here it is all finished.

I got ahead of myself and did not get a before picture...but here is one that I have in the shop that is very similar.

Her table is a 48" with a leaf and 4 pressed back chairs.  It was in good shape, she just wanted to have the base and all but the seats of the 4 chairs painted white and then distressed lightly and antiqued (Annie Sloan's Dark Wax).

I have to say, this was only my 3rd custom job so far and it is becoming my favorite part of my business!  Working with my clients so far has been amazing in more ways than just the business aspect of it.  I have got to meet some awesome women so far and it's exciting to see their vision come to light with my art!  I am really looking forward to growing that part of my business!