Showing posts with label secretary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label secretary. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

The Refreshed Secretary Part 2

The other day I told you about my painted secretary.  Today, I'm just going to show you some of the steps I went through to get it to the version you saw in the original post.


 That's a bad picture of how it looked for YEARS.


I first painted it black, using a homemade chalk paint with a pre-mixed black paint and calcium carbonate powder.

I then half-hazardly slapped on a little red paint.




Then I painted over that using a khaki color, thinking this was how I was going to leave it. 



 And yuck!  It was NOT a good color at all!  Too peachy.  It's a good thing I didn't paint the downstairs bathroom with it like I had originally planned!


So I decided once again to paint it black.  I didn't try for total coverage.  I used alot more of the calcium carbonate this time around, too. 

Below is a sorta accurate pic of how it looks in real life.  :)  I LOVE the mix of blue and blue and gray.  Well, and touches of red and khaki and wood.  ;)


You can see in these pics where I touched it up again - lightly this time since it was one top - with the red paint.  I also distressed it with sandpaper - not my sander.


 Playing with pic monkey in the picture below.  It's fun!! :-D










 I used the original handles and went over them with rub 'n buff and in case you forgot, 


this is what Mickey looks like.  I know, I know, it's just been two days.  :)

 I painted the inside also, but did it very lightly.


This is in my dining room and I store place mats and other table items in the drawers.


 
And the finished product.  Soooo much better than it was before!  :)

Monday, June 4, 2012

Old Secretary Gets Refreshed

The ladies at Ivy and Elephants featured this secretary!  Go check them out AFTER you finish reading!  ;)

I have a couple - make that lots - of different pieces of furniture that have been given to me over the years.  One piece I've been wanting to paint for a long time was a secretary I received from my mother-in-law.  I talked to my husband about it and he said he would love for me to paint it because he had been looking at it all of his life.


So I took the plunge. 

It was scary.

I'm not sure why...but for this piece it just was.


And now.... I just love it.  It's something I enjoy looking at now, instead of cringing when I see it.  My hubby even comments on it quite often.

 

I used a homemade chalk paint.  At this point I hadn't bought the real stuff yet.  I thought about changing out the hardware, but ended up just using rub-n-buff to freshen it up.


I have lots of pictures of this old lady and it was a major process to paint since I changed my mind a few times.  :)


I had a hard time getting pictures from the floor because someone thought all of my attention should be focused on him.


It's not like he's cute or a snuggler or anything.  :)



In a separate post I'll go into detail on all of the paint changes, but for now, I wanted to go ahead and post a few pics.

**Update**  You can find that post here.  :)

I'll catch up with you soon - take care,

I sometimes join the following parties - 
Thursday