My first blog post! Here we go…

My first blog post! Here we go…

by | Sep 17, 2015 | Blog

Hello everyone! I will start my first blog post by stating the obvious – I am not a writer! Forgive any grammatical errors (I use way too many, commas) or rambling on (my husband will say that I do that from time to time, a lot, almost always). I will try to stay on point and only state the obvious if you promise not to criticize my writing skills too harshly. Thank you very muchly! 😉

Years ago, when blogging became the in thing to do, I thought to myself “who would ever want to do that?” fast forward to my new-small business and all of your questions. Simply put, this is the easiest and fastest way I could think of to share with all of you. I love that you are equally as passionate about transforming neglected, destitute, forgotten furniture into show stopping beauties and I really want to hear from you!

I promise to TRY and blog about things I think might be useful but there is bound to be some useless stuff too and for that, I am truly sorry. Nevertheless, I hope to receive your feedback and questions so please, keep them coming!

I would like to thank my wonderful friend and co-worker extraordinaire Mélanie, who designed this website and patiently worked with my impossible theme that I bought (it is pretty and really feminine…ugh!) but finally gave me this really great place to start. THANKS MEL!

We will add content as the weeks unfold so please check back often. I look forward to getting to know you better and to learn from you as well.

To a wonderful blogging relationship with all of you. Cheers!

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Beautifully restyled vintage mahogany sideboard with carnation bone knobs

Beautifully restyled vintage mahogany sideboard with carnation bone knobs

by | Sep 13, 2015 | Blog

There was just something about this sideboard with her simple straight legs and unadorned, bowed front that drew me in.  Even I never anticipated that she would turn into such a beauty!

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I started by stripping the top down and sanding it with an orbital sander. Since I already knew I wanted knobs instead of pulls, I filled in the pull holes with some wood filler. Next came a lot of sanding followed by a bath in TSP.

This is when I drilled the holes for the new knobs. I was able to see where the original pulls were located by looking inside the drawers. I drilled the new holes in the center of the previous ones. I also had to reposition the door holes by about a half-inch since the knobs would have hung over the edge. 

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Once the prep work was all done, it was time to first stain and then paint the piece. I stained the top and the cupboard space. For the body, I chose charcoal gray chalk paint so that the knobs would really pop. 

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I wanted the body heavily distressed to show off the richness of the mahogany underneath. I used an 80 grit sanding block on the entire body (not the top!) then used a finer grit (120 or 150) to go over the entire piece.

Then it was time to put on the top coat. I put two coats of Minwax Wipe-On Poly on the body and four or five on the top with fine sanding between each coat. Whew!

The finishing touches were to add these beautiful carnation bone knobs and drawer liners. Voilà! She’s a stunner, isn’t she?

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