Hello! Since I’ve started doing more furniture pieces in between kitchen projects, I’ve been getting more questions about the tools, techniques and products that I use.  So, when I was laying in bed one night, the idea of doing a “Painter in Your Pocket” series popped into my mind.  The idea is simple – think of me being in your pocket, ready to answer any questions that you have as you’re tackling a painting project, from start to finish.  So, here we go, I’m kicking it off today with the first installment – A Painter in Your Pocket: Painting Furniture.  This post contains some affiliate links. Finding Your Furniture Piece The first step in the process is to find a piece of furniture that you want to paint.  If you have a piece of furniture in your home already, great.  You can skip to the next step.  Otherwise, stick with me here.  There are lots of places that offer solid furniture pieces for a reasonable price.  Here are some of my favorites: Salvation Army – (by far my favorite thrift store for furniture – my local shop has a great selection of furniture that turns over often, and is reasonably priced, […]

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I have been on a roll with refinishing thrift store dressers lately, an this one is probably one of my favorite furniture makeovers to date.  You know that I love trying new brands of paint, new colors and new techniques, and this Queenstown Gray dresser makeover is one that I think you’ll love as much as I do.  This post contains some affiliate links. The dresser itself was in great condition – one of the drawers needed a little adjusting, but that was it.  Solid wood, made by Stanley Furniture – good stuff. I have used General Finishes paints in the past, and I really love how easily they spray, and the final finish once dry.  They have a great selection of colors too.  Because we all want great colors, yes?  I spotted Queenstown Gray with a stained wood top, on a side table in a local Woodcraft store that sells and refinish furniture, and fell in love with it.  I knew it had to be mine, and would be a perfect color for this piece. So, I got to work.  I have been doing a lot of stained tops and painted bottoms on furniture lately, and I think it […]

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Hello! I’ve finally made the leap from Blogger to WordPress, and I’m feeling a bit like a fish out of water right now, so bear with me.  If you ask anyone who knows me, they’ll tell you that I’m not a big fan of change, so after over five years on Blogger, you can imagine the anxiety this move created for me. 🙂  I hope you’re still following along! I figured I’d kick off my first WordPress day with a quick furniture redo that I did for a client.  I love taking these old orange-y pieces and turning them into something pretty, and this one was definitely dated. Orange everywhere, people. And here it is now: I love how the top turned out –  The knobs still need to be added, but you get the idea.  I used General Finishes Lamp Black for the bottom portion of the buffet, and General Finishes Walnut Stain for the top.  I learned a little trick about staining the top – it’s called toning.  You mix one part stain with two parts poly (I use the High Performance Polycrylic in a satin finish).  It helps to tone down the stain a bit, and I love […]

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Hello! I hope you’re having a great week!  I have been a busy bee trying to finish a desk redo so that I can get it out of my garage sell it.  I’m really thrilled with how it turned out, and I think you’ll appreciate the transformation as much as I do.  This post contains some affiliate links to products that I use (and love). I have wanted to redo a furniture piece like this one for awhile, so when it came up for sale on a local Facebook page, I snapped it up right away.  It wasn’t in great shape, but I knew I could make it pretty. This is sadly the only “before” image I have – it’s the one that was provided in the listing.  You can see that it wasn’t in the best of shape, but I loved the style, and it’s a solid piece of furniture. Originally I was planning on going with Coastal Blue by General Finishes.  It’s a gorgeous navy blue, and I used it for a table and a set of chairs for a client.   But I had a change of heart midway through the project and decided to go with Lamp Black (also […]

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Hello! I hope you’re having a wonderful week and are gearing up for a great holiday weekend.  I can’t believe it’s almost the 4th of July – it’s been far too wet and rainy around here, and I feel like summer hasn’t gotten into full swing yet.  Bring on the sun already! You may remember that I quit my corporate job of over 20 years back in 2013, to stay home and pursue the things that I love (for which I am eternally grateful), and in my excitement, I hit local garage sales, scooping up furniture pieces to redo.  One of those pieces is this desk.  And yes, I’ve worked on it, but then procrastinated, worked, procrastinated.  You get the idea.  I am the Procrastination Princess sometimes. The desk was pink, and pretty beat up, with the paint chipping all over it. Underneath the pink paint, there was green paint, so I figured the best way to redo it would be to strip the paint and get down to the bare wood.  This is where the procrastination took hold.  I hate stripping furniture.  You can see the detail work around the drawers, so it made it even more tedious. It […]

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Hello! Like many of you, I love painting – whether it’s a wall or a piece of furniture, paint really has the power to breathe new life into just about anything.  As a result, I’m always on the lookout for new tools to make the painting process a little easier.  So, when I stumbled upon this product at Sherwin Williams, (for less than $12), I was intrigued. A portable sprayer?  Where I can turn any paint into spray paint?  Yes, please! I love the finished look that spraying gives, and while my HVLP spray gun of awesomeness is one of my all-time favorite tools, sometimes I don’t feel like dealing with the hassle of lugging out my air compressor, and cleaning up the mess.  I’m thinking for smaller jobs, this little tool could come in handy. And I just so happen to have a little project to put this baby to the test.   This table was a garage sale find awhile back.  This is where it started. I transformed it once, ala the power of paint. And it found a place in my son’s room. While I still like the table, now that we’re changing things up in his […]

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A few weeks ago, I decided to finally start working on this craigslist dresser I bought awhile back.  I had liked the dark stain when I got it, but it had taken a bit of abuse since my initial purchase.  The veneer on one side had been torn off (thank you Mr. Carpet Cleaner Guy for dragging your equipment through the house and damaging my craigslist find!).  Plus, the bottom drawer did not work very well at all, veneer was chipping off, etc…, which you can see by looking at the before picture: My Lovely Lady, in need of a lift Of course, once I finally decide to tackle a project with enthusiasm, something usually comes up to derail me.  In this case, it was an offer on our house. 🙂  So, while it’s all good, this project ended up taking much longer than I had originally anticipated.  Honestly, part of the reason it’s finally done is because I need to clear out the garage to make way for boxes, garage sale items and miscellaneous crap that I refuse to pack up and move! So, here is the much-delayed reveal of this pretty piece… Lighter and Brighter I decided to […]

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