French Buffet ~ A Favorite

Since the start of the year, my husband and I sat down to discuss this little painting past-time of mine. 

In a good way. 

What would All Mimsy look like in 2013?  How would I keep track of materials, time, expenses, and profit?  What would my painting schedule be?  What was my plan for conquering the many pieces of furniture potential in his shop?

One of the things we decided was to put me, this momma, on a schedule.  Every Tuesday afternoon between 4-8pm, Momma goes to "work."  The last three weeks I've planned crock-pot suppers for these nights so everyone can more or less fend for his or herself, and I can count on a good four hours to conquer a few things.

This is working so much better than my hit and miss approach to painting.  I do still try to fit in another coat right after lunch, or a sanding right before bed (which tends to be the nature of this business)....but knowing I'm on a more regular schedule has been tremendously freeing. 

And motivating!  I took inventory of all the potential in my proverbial wings (aka husband's shop) and put each piece on a weekly schedule.  LOVE this idea, and it's working great for me so far.

Last week I worked on quite possibly one of my favorite pieces to date:

The details on this buffet ~ trim, moulding, fretwork in windows ~  made the transformation incredibly rewarding.

I met a woman last summer who began following my blog.  We emailed back and forth often about furniture, chalk paint recipes, polyurethane, current projects, etc.  In July she emailed and asked if I'd be interested in finishing a piece she'd begun weeks earlier.  Unhappy with the results she was having, she was ready to throw in the towel.

If I picked it up, she'd let me have it for free.  Oh, yes yes yes ~ !

Here's the Before picture.  When I picked it up originally, the glass and fretwork were wrapped in brown sack so I didn't know how pretty the doors were.  Then, like a crazy lady, I attempted to unload it out of my Suburban by myself and broke one of the doors off.

Completely.

Thank goodness for handy husbands.  That's all I'll say about that.

After a very, very thorough sanding, I painted with two coats of Sherwin Williams Creamy (no primer since I mixed up a chalk paint),

 then lightly distressed all the edges to bring out the beautiful moulding, curves, and details,

 

I mixed a glaze using 4 parts Home Depot brand Faux Glaze to 1 part deep brown (French Roast by Behr, I believe), which I brushed on, then rubbed off.  I then coated with spray-on water-based Polycrylic in Satin.  The water based poly is a good choice to keep lighter paints from yellowing.  I sprayed three coats of poly on the top since I knew this piece would be used as a buffet for serving food.

These After photos were taken after the piece was delivered and placed in its new owner's home.  She was away at the time so my moving partner and I opted to let her style the surface herself.

Although ya'll know it was hard for me not to snag two lamps and a plant from her living room for a good photo shoot.

I'll let you guess whose home this might be.....

Hope to finish a cottage dining set in the next couple days.  It was scheduled to be finished last week, but after attempting to spray paint spindles of dining chairs with less than optimum results, I opted to hand paint all four chairs.

Which hasn't been that bad.  I limited myself to only one chair every day or two, and simultaneously listened to one of my favorite speaker/teachers of all time, Beth Moore:

 http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/living-proof-with-beth-moore/listen/ 

Beth  just started an engaging study on Romans, so if you, too find yourself in the middle of a tedious project like handpainting spindles on 4 dining room chairs, you've just found your sanity and delight.

Blessings!

Jaimee