Here Comes The Sun...

                  Here is a Christmas story...that sort of missed Christmas and has now become a New Years story!  A very dear friend of mine has a brother undergoing agressive treatment for neuroendocrine cancer.   She decided that for Christmas she wanted to have the guitar that he loves painted with things that are important to him in his life; music, Beatles, his "I love my oncologist" baseball hat, to name just a few things.  I was honored and delighted that she asked me and I set to work painting.  I was finally able to finish it up on Friday and it is on it's way to her now.

The Guitar - Before



                  Now...that is the story that my friend knows about, here is the back story...

                  In order to paint the guitar, I removed the screws for the "pick guard" - which is the plastic plate that is under the strings.  When the time came to put them back in, they were nowhere to be found!  Like many families, Christmas time at my house is the typical crazy fun with a touch of holiday stress mixed in. Trust me, I am very careful with parts, but somehow these little babies were either thrown out with the wrapping paper or possibly mailed with one of my packages, I have no idea.

                  I was frantic, and as I tried to unscrew one of the other screws, thinking it matched the missing ones and I could take it to Home Depot, I inadvertently released the "set screw" for the "pick up" - now I can't tell you what the "set screw" does for the "pick up", but please take my word for it that it does NOT like to be released!  It's a little spring held in place with the screw I removed.

                  My husband and I took off to Guitar Center to see if we could get the spring put back in place.  We went in and met "Dave" at the front desk.  After telling Dave my friend's story, he not only took the guitar apart to fix the set screw and replaced all of the strings, but also told us that if we couldn't find the correct sized screws to replace the lost ones, we could FOLLOW HIM HOME so he could give us some from his own guitar!  Anything to help us out, he said.  He was wonderful and so was his co-worker, Breanna.  They could not be nicer or more gracious to us and I thank them so much.      



Dave working on the guitar.



                 Our next stop was at Home Depot to find the correct sized screws.  Ladies, if you are ever in the market for a do-it-yourselfer type of guy - carry a guitar into Home Depot, it's a bit like having bacon in your pocket at the pound and we were noticed by alot of would-be musicians that apparently shop at Home Depot on the weekends...who knew?  By the time we found the screws, there were two HD employees helping us on our mission, tearing open packages and offering up their screwdrivers to test if we had the right size.  Again, I am warmed by the willingness of others to help out.

                  I wanted to head over to deliver the guitar right away, but my husband insisted he take it home, tune it and polish it to make sure it was perfect for her brother when he received it.  I love that man!

                  And so, with my heart full of admiration for the fighter (her brother), a loving sister (my lovely friend) and the kindness of strangers and my husband, I wish you all a Happy New Year filled with hope and miracles and love and I thank you for allowing me to share these stories with you all!                  

 

"Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles was the inspiration...



His hat and homage to his lovely oncologist whom he calls Dr. Hottie.

The symbol in the tree has a meaning for him.

The Yellow Submarine towing his license plate..

Ringo hanging out at the train tracks in Harpers Ferry where he and his sister have some fun memories.



Um, let's just call this one "Medicinal Purposes Beneath the Magic Tree"...the poster on the tree is from a concert he and his sister attended.



                                        

Here is  

H

Big Mildred and Sparkly Wine Glasses!

Good morning!  I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season!  I am still working on the last few projects in my sitting room and, as promised last week, I would like to introduce you to Big Mildred...



Big Mildred is our enormous old fashioned tv that has been taking up way too much space in our sitting room for way too long!  She sticks out from the wall about 3 feet or so and is roughly the size of a boat!  Big Mildred won't break and I finally made the decision to buy a little flat screen for the room.

My friend Paula gave me this little stand not too long ago and I decided to use it for the new tv stand, but it is a little "country" for the room with the two plank shelf on the bottom. 





The top was bowed slightly and if I'd wanted to keep it as is, I could have easily replaced it with a new one I could get from Home Depot, but I needed to "contemporary" it up for the room.

 A coat of white paint (naturally) and I removed the top and bottom shelves and replaced them with glass.  I already had a piece of glass for the top that I had bought at a yard sale for about $1 years ago.   I hired Reston Glass to cut a piece for the bottom and voila, a simple but updated stand for my new flat screen!

In other news, I found a little wine glass project on Pinterest and decided to do it for some holiday glasses - this is such a quick easy project, even if you aren't "crafty" at all!

Take some plain wine glasses and tape around the stem about a 1/2" from the base.

 I used sandwich baggies to protect the glass I didn't want to treat and used another piece of tape to attach it to the rest of the stem that needed to be covered.

The directions on Pinterest said to use a product called Modge Podge, and I'd recommend it, but since I had some matte medium on hand, I used that to paint an even coat on the base of the glass up to the tape on the stem.  You can use any kind of glue that dries clear (Elmers might even work)

Working quickly while the glue is still wet, sprinkle the base with glitter.  Once it is dry, tap off the excess glitter and spray them with a spray polyurethane sealer.

CHEERS!

Wild Cherry!

 I am still working in my sitting room and am getting close to being done!  One of the items of furniture I was desperately in need of was bookshelves and some storage.  So, to combine the two, I started combing Craigslist for a china hutch with some storage below.  My challenge was that the wall where I would be placing it was only 43" wide, so it couldn't be very large.

I found this beautiful cherry hutch with a bowed front that even matches my vanity and so I contacted the owner to see if I could get the price down from $160 to within my $100 budget I'd set.  We finally settled on $110 and I set off with my lovely friend Terry to pick it up (in Terry's gigantic SUV).  The couple I purchased it from could not have been nicer, and even showed Terry and I around their gorgeous hand painted kitchen area!

Vintage hardware - just gorgeous!

Because it would be placed on the other end of that window next to my vanity (pictured), I chose not to do the two-toned, blue and white finish because I didn't want it to look like I'd purchased it as a set

I really love the cherry wood, but I needed white for my sitting room, and so I removed all hardware and primed and painted it in Benjamin Moore's white satin paint.  Sorry the photo is a little blurry - a good reminder for me to take it off the "close up" feature prior to taking the photo next time...

 Now for the texture - how about tone on tone zebra stripes?  BINGO!  I used Benjamin Moore's latex metallic finish in Pearlescent White and just freehand painted the stripes with a small artists brush.  The result is a beautiful, subtle finish that changes as the light moves around the room.

In go the books and a few of my vintage evening bags to add some sparkle to the interior.  I spray painted the hardware silver and really like the matte finish of the silver handles.  The little ornament tree on top is for the holidays, but afterwards I will go and buy a large silver or mercury glass vase to set up on top.

I love this piece!  You can see I continued the stripes on the sides and the small strip of wood up near the top.

Heading for the finish line now!  Next week I will introduce you to Big Mildred...

Dear Regan Billingsley Interiors, in gratitude!

Woo Hoo!  Looks like my ornaments have hit the Big Apple!  I received an email yesterday from Interior Designer Regan Billingsley (http://www.rbhomedesign.com/) stating that her Aunt had purchased one of my ornaments and she was going to feature them on her blog (http://rbhomedesignblog.com/2012/12/04/christmas-ornaments/) as one of her "Morning Finds"!  Thank you so much Regan (and thank you Regan's "Aunt Susan" for passing my name along!). 

The Writing is on the Wall...

 Words on the wall have become so popular that even Walmart is selling sayings that you can just rub onto the wall with a little popcicle stick.  It can personalize a home by letting people know exactly what you feel is important.  There are some pre-made sayings that I love; "Always Kiss Me Goodnight" above your bed is such a nice thought.  "Dream" above a guest bed or childs bed is lovely.   But what if you want to do something completely personal?  Here's how to do it yourself for almost no money! 

You will need to know where your nearest copy store is located (Staples, Office Depot, Kinko's, etc) and the following:
-carbon paper - you can purchase this at Michaels or another craft store, and you can re-use each piece many times before it is all used up.  It comes in blue or black carbon color (I like the blue because it's so light, it's easier to paint over)
-level - after you cut out your words, the edges of the paper are probably not level anymore.  You will want to make sure the line directly under the words (not the paper's edge) is level on the wall.
-fine point pen to trace your letters
-paint

This project was for a client of Interior Designer Karen Dunlap (kmdinteriors.com).  The client wanted this phrase surrounding her children's school photos on the wall.  I measured the framed photos and cut out rectangles to size so I could easily move them around on the wall, then I arranged the words around it.  For the words, I simply printed them on the computer and took them to Staples and had them enlarged to the size I needed.  

Base paint in colors to complement the wall color.










I traced the words onto the wall as well as the moon and stars by taping my copied words on the wall and slipping the carbon paper between the copy and the wall, then tracing it.  ***Please make sure you are using the correct side of the carbon paper!  So many times I have spent 15 minutes tracing something, only to discover I had it the wrong side down and nothing went onto the wall!***

The photos to the right are of my own bedroom.  "In My Life" is my husband's and my song and I thought it was perfect to put up above our bed!  I used the same method as above, but after tracing, then painting the words in white, I went over them again in Benjamin Moores Metallic paint.  It is subtle but it shimmers! 
 





I love it and so did my husband when I suprised him with it!  **You can just see the blue carbon paper sticking out of the bottom of the phrase in the photo with the paper still taped to the wall **

The finished product.

You actually don't have to even use words for this to work.  For another client, Karen asked me to duplicate a wall clock that she'd found at Martha Stewart's website.  You can buy the clock hands and motor online (they had not arrived when I took the final photo but Karen said they look great!) 

I used the same technique.  Enlarged the clock at Staples, taped to the wall making sure it was level, then moved the carbon paper around as I  traced it onto the wall.  Once it was traced, it was just a matter of painting it.  I will say it can be an arduous task, so if you are just beginning, I would suggest a simplified design first.

The inspiration photo from Martha's website is above.

The lesson here is that if you can copy something and trace it, you can transfer it to your wall with the magic of carbon paper!  It could be fun to paint a cartoonish thought bubble above a child's bed with a saying in it that they always use or perhaps a nice "Welcome" at the front door.  How about writing "His" and "Her's" above you and your hubby's side of the bed with an arrow pointing to where your head would lay on the pillow?  Have fun with it! 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  The Painted Squirrel is taking this week to  travel north to celebrate the holiday with our family. 

I hope you had a wonderful holiday as well and I am thankful for all of you!

Andie

State Your Porpoise...

Don't you just love this type of furniture?  Solid, functional, and versatile! Dressers especially are popping up all over the house holding everything from coloring books to linens to occasionally even clothes!  The trick is to see one of these beauties and be able to envision it looking completely different with paint.  Enter designer Karen Dunlap (http://www.kmdinteriors.com/).  

Before

Before

Karen saw these two pieces in a distressed "Anthropologie" style for her clients daughter's room.  Of course, the hardware needed to go (seriously, 15 years ago, did they have any other hardware for furniture besides these little black winged birdie looking drawer pulls???)  At the end of this post, I am going to add a step by step guide to filling holes in your drawer so you can change the hardware.

The final color will be a Sherman Williams color called "Porpoise" - it's a lovely gray - but first I needed to fill holes, sand and prime the dresser and side table.

 Karen provided me with a sample of the final finish she wanted on a small piece of wood and it was obvious that the wood showing through the distressed areas of the sample was not the same brown of the original wood on these pieces.  I decided to have Benjamin Moore tint my primer to this brown, which has a bit more red in it than the natural wood of the furniture.

Another thing I noticed on the sample wood was that there were some whitish "aged" spots here and there.  It was very subtle, so I decided just to add a bit of white satin paint here and there on the pieces so when I sanded it back, just a bit of the white would show.
 It looks I frosted the edges!

After this step, it was just a matter of painting the top coat.  I had Benjamin Moore color match the Sherman Williams Porpoise color (SW7047) in their Advance product.  When the paint was dry, I took my sander and sandpaper to it to sand away areas that would normally show wear on an old piece of furniture; the edges, around the drawer pulls and corners.  I guess I got a little carried away because I "over-distressed" it!  I'm showing you the over distressed pieces so you know that you can always go back and fix it as I did.  It's a lesson in standing back and taking a look at it every now and then.



Distressingly Over-distressed!

Some areas I kept - can you see just the bit of white that came through on the drawers?  Love that!  I also love the reddish brown base coat against that gray.  So I repainted the areas I felt were too distressed.  When completely dry, I used a mix of burnt umber artists pigment and extender (extends the drying time) to age it further.  Simply paint it on and gently wipe it off and the dark brown of the pigment will settle into the lines and creases, giving it an even more aged look.

 Karen had to use her phone to take these shots for me as she was in the middle of the installation of the room, which is an exceptionally busy, sometimes stressful time with everything coming in at once.  Thank you for taking a moment to take them for me Karen!

HOW TO FILL HOLES

 You will need:
Small plugs the size of the hole (purchase at the hardware store)
Wood glue
Wood filler
Sandpaper or Electric sander (I use a palm sander)

Add a bit of glue to one of the plugs, making sure some of it goes over the edge and onto the sides.  Gently tap the plug into the hole on the inside of the drawer, being very careful not to split the wood of the drawer.  If your drawer starts to split, you likely have too large of a plug.  Pull it out and replace with a smaller plug.  Repeat in all of the holes.

I mean gently tap the plug in!  Also, make sure you've protected the top of the drawer and you aren't scratching it against the floor or table while hammering the inside.

 Plug should be flush against the inside.

 Turn the drawer over and fill the hole with wood filler.  There are many brands and I haven't found that one is any better than the other.  You do want to make sure you don't keep the container exposed to air for any length of time - it's fairly fast drying.

 You'll want to over fill the hole with the wood filler slightly and gently smooth the top out with your finger.  Let dry.

After it's dried, sand it smooth.

 Can you see the pit that formed in this one?  That happens sometimes as it's drying.  Just ad a bit more filler, allow to dry and sand again.

Holes filled, sanded and ready for a new hole to be drilled!