Check mate!

I have been through battle and come out alive! And no, it was not with my kids ;) I met my first piece of furniture to nearly do me in. Nearly. I can honestly say I shed blood, (cut a fingertip), sweat, (the sanding alone), and tears, (when a cabinet door got jammed stuck and would NOT come out), over this beautiful beast.

Looks like a pretty simple buffet to refinish, right? Large, definitely, but difficult? Nah...

{Before}

If furniture had a mind of its own, I would have thought this grand buffet most definitely did not want to be refinished. It put up a good fight! But I fought back.:)

First, the sanding alone cost hours upon hours of back breaking work. But, that's only because of the sheer size, height and intricate detailing along the bottom and the legs. Once I started painting, it started giving me trouble. This piece was for a client - she picked it out herself and brought it to me with a somewhat unusual request. Glossy black exterior, whitish-blue interior. And when I say interior, I mean everything. The sides of the drawers, insides of the drawers, inside the cabinets, the backs of the cabinets, the little silverware tray... She loved the vision of the contrasting black and white. And when she was explaining it to me I was getting excited right along with her! But as I got to the painting, it became apparent that this request was going to be one of my biggest challenges thus far.

If you have never painted the sides of drawers, it is a tricky, tricky task - especially on old antique pieces such as this where the drawers do not run on nice metal tracks or runners. They simply fit right into the opening and slide on either wood rails or the floor of the shelf. Even when not painted, the shelves did not pull in and out very smoothly. So, I had to sand down the sides of the drawer openings and sides of the drawers so that there was a little 'wiggle room' between the two. Then I had to go out to the store and grab the color my client had brought over for this piece in flat. All I had was the color in semigloss, but that was just sticking too much and peeling whenever the drawers were pulled out. So I had to sand it back down to wood, and keep on sanding to create more space between the drawer and the sides of the opening. Between the sanding and the flat paint on the drawer sides, the drawers open and close like a dream now. Thank goodness!!

Then came the issue with the cabinet doors. Once those were done and I reattached the hinges, one of them wouldn't fit back into it's space. It was too big and too sticky. The paint had made it too wide. Mind you, this was after a lot of hours and frustration, so I pushed a bit harder than I knew better to, and it went right in....and kept going. The door was inside the cabinet. Over closed. I couldn't pull it back out. I got a wire hanger to try to pull it, but that didn't work, (of course it scratched up the paint). Then somehow I pulled it back out using blue tape. I'm still not exactly sure how in the world I managed it, but it worked. So, I sanded it all back down to wood and repainted in a thin coat of flat black, which I happened to have handy from another project, (I love it when that happens!) My client will be choosing hardware for this piece once it's back in her home, so until then I won't close the cabinets or drawers for fear they'll refuse to come back out.

This piece gave me a run for my money!

 

With it's fancy silverware tray and all - it thinks it's important ;)

 

 But, thanks to my DNA, I do love a challenge. I know that sounds cliche, but it's absolutely true. I am competitive to a fault, (working on that), and admitting defeat to this piece was not an option.

 

I hope I gave justice to the vision this piece's owner had! Perhaps I'll be able to post some photos of the hardware attached once she picks it out!

 

Have you conquered any tricky projects lately? How did you do it?!

 

~Chelsea

 

Headbands galore!

I recently had the pleasure of making some fun headbands for my dear niece, Bella, for her 2nd birthday. Her mom requested them, as her sweet little girl doesn't have a whole lot of hair yet and keeps getting confused as a boy by people who neglect to notice her girly outfits, let alone her pretty face!

{The tiny tulle one in the middle is for Bella's baby sister who will make her debut sometime in January!}

 



Now, as only women know, we never have enough spots for our stuff. It is impossible for me to feel completely organized! From make up and hair accessories to medical records for each member of my family...*sigh*...I try to be organized, but my efforts seem lost in the accumulation of all these tiny little items in my life. As a Momma to a daughter, I know all too well how easily Shire's hair accessories get strewn about and eventually lost. Rather than throwing these headbands in a bag with tissue paper, I thought I'd help a girl out and give her a place to keep her fun new headbands.

I painted this medium sized cookie tin and added a tulle flower to the top with craft glue. Now Bella has a cute place to keep her headbands, even if she doesn't want to keep them on her head ;)

 



 

This project was so much fun that I can't wait to go find more cookie tins at the thrift store! I can think of several items around my home that need their own little spot, and why shouldn't their spots be pretty?! I'm learning, slowly but surely, how fun and beautiful organization can be.:) Do you have any clever organization tricks for any particular item in your home? I'd love to hear!

 

~Chelsea

One step forward, two steps back

Hi there! Please forgive me if I've been a bit MIA recently. I've been doing a whole lot of this

 

And not as much of this

 

Though, that's just a little sneak peak of a project I am trying reallly hard to have finished for a sweet client by Friday!

 

It appears we have a nap strike on our hands around here. It took my daughter about 40 minutes of hard, loud crying to settle down and fall asleep this afternoon...and in that time she woke her little brother up, (miraculously her twin brother slept through it all. Boy likes his sleep!). Mason then spent about the same amount of time doing the same thing, and I finally just threw my wet brushes in the sink and nixed my afternoon plan of painting. At first I was completely frustrated. I am already 2 days off of when I had predicted this piece to be finished for it's owner, (embarrassing!), but as soon as my little meatball, Mason, was snuggled up against me, still hiccuping small sobs from his 45 min of crying for his life, all was right in the world and I knew I was exactly where I should be. Some days are just like that. I try to plan out what I am going to do and when...but God has something completely different in mind. And what choice do I have but to roll along and go with it?! Is it the worst thing in the world to be interrupted from your work to lay with your sweaty, sleepy, snuggly baby? Most definitely not.:)

 

So, we are in a little rough patch right now, as I like to call them. The furniture is piling up in the garage. I am slowly chipping away at pieces brush stroke by brush stroke, instead of feverishly moving from one to another like the Tasmanian Devil. But, my first and most favorite job is being their Mom. And if I don't get done what I had planned to on a given day, that's A-Okay.:)

 

And fortunately I have the kindest, sweetest, most patient clients ever. Just saying.

 

Hoping for some awesome before and after pictures of the piece above for you on Friday!

 

~Chelsea