i have been on a furniture kick as of late. i bought this cool writing desk at work with spindle type legs that was this ugly brown color. i primed it and painted it black with metallic silver accents and came back and sanded it down in places to make it look antique. then i took a lacy wierd indian looking kind of motif and stenciled it on to the drawer front and top of the desk. i then refinished the bronze hardware and gave it a grey metallic finish. the hardware design goes perfectly with the stenciling pattern. i am now going to start on a matching chair so that it will be a 2 piece set and then i am thinking about reselling it. i could probably sell it at work for at least 100 dollars. it turned out much better then i expected.
my next project: i found an old square nightstand with elaborate molding and some 3ft tall queen anne legs. the nightstand didnt have any drawers, so i knocked out the divider and put a door on it. i found these old woodwork swirly things and am going to put a few on the door to make it look hand carved and then refinish it with robin's egg blue underneath and milky white on the top and then sand through to the blue and in some spots sand all the way to the wood. it will look like an antique cupboard and i am very excited about it. it would also make a great bathroom cabinet. i am even thinking of possibly knocking out the door insert and putting in a coordinating fabric curtain in a sheer bronze to pull together the earthtone of the sanded down wood.
my boss gave me some beautiful stencils of flowers, so i am going to experiment with those and make prints to hang on the wall. we have many different types of molding and odd glass at work, so i am going to construct my own picture frames and hang them using ribbon to coordinate with the stencil paints.
i am also becoming interested in glasswork, and after attending the spoleto festival (which was amazing) while in charleston, i am going to do more research on how to do this kind of work. apparently with the right tools it isnt that difficult.
i bought some wicker chairs to go on the porch from work and they have these cushions that are fabric so i am going to paint one of the chairs an orangey red color and the other either lime green or classic blue then on the chair cushions take silver paint and do the indian stencil motif on them. then i just need to come up with a side table to put in between the two chairs to pull the look together.
adam left today. i am not going to see him for 3 more weeks because i will be going to florida sat night and not coming back until the third. then it will be almost time for school to start so i will be super busy preparing to be president and stuff. and adam is almost done being discharged from the army so he can come live here and help pay the rent. cant wait.
stencil pattern here. this one is kinda like the one i used, but mine is more intricate.
haylie