26 September 2008 – 5.30 pm
here is the “after” of the table found at the flea market last month (please see a few posts below for the “before”):
i used my fab new rattan stencil from stencil library (#MD18) on the top, and layers of benjamin moore’s hc-172 (revere pewter) and pratt & lambert’s colonial williamsburg #819 (pelham gray light), along with some tinted glaze [...]
24 September 2008 – 5.16 pm
mrs. jones’s super-clever friends karen klawinski and katherine kaelin just rescued these bookshelves from a store-closing sale. after a good scrubbing and sanding, they were given a layer of glaze to soften and age them, and camoflauge their little flaws. now, they will just melt into the background as a display for the yummy gifts and antique treasures at le [...]
16 September 2008 – 8.28 pm
if you were to have a treasure map of downtown memphis, there would be a big red “X” on the corner of south front at talbot street, on south front antiques. inside this 100+ year-old building are treats and treasures that my lovely client (and friend) karen nielsen scatamacchia’s family have brought together…all manner of salvaged architectural elements, doorknobs, hardware, columns, [...]
8 September 2008 – 8.22 pm
a lovely and clever antique-mall-shopping, bargain-finding client requested that this 20’s style vanity set (including a mirror and bench, pictures to follow soon) be done up in a high-gloss white for her daughter della. a true-blue hannah montana/jonas brothers fan deserves no less than a lacquered finish and silver leaf on the hardware:
also above: an armoire similarly [...]
even after $3 for parking and $6 for sno-cones (the little joneses deserve a treat at ”the flea”) i spent far less than my $100 budget and came home with great things to fix and paint. two of my favorite vendors, martha virginia (from trenton, tennessee) and bill yost (from atlanta) were among those there with some great treasures (and [...]
please accept my apologies for not having a “before” photo of this little project. the chair is a favorite handed down to my lovely client by her grandmother. painted, lined and aged just a little to match their knockout wallpaper, it’s the perfect perch for putting on shoes in their master bath/dressing room. here are some details:
well, since there is only one choice left in each category, this question is a giveaway…the chest from a grandmother’s attic that had been painted sassy, glossy black needed sweetening up, to work with a different scheme: a young lady’s room with pretty toile and plaid fabrics in pink and green. here’s another “before” close-up (for the full “before”, [...]
if you guessed that this cute and curvy victorian chair (pictured “before” in a post below) would be finished in high-gloss white, you would have been correct…except that a last-minute change of mind on color occurred, and the rescued and repaired chair ended up being painted pale blue (pratt & lambert’s #24.26, “boucle”) and then lacquered, destined for re-upholstering in white duck-cloth and [...]
this cute hanging shelf was badly water-damaged on top…a situation mrs. jones remedied with the help of the big alligator crackle. the pagoda-red color under the gold leaf will help it play well with the beautiful collection of chinoiserie and lacquerware that it will be hanging out with in my lovely client’s butler’s pantry, on gorgeous leaf-green [...]
so, did you guess that the sofa (picture #5, 2 posts below) would be finished in creamy whites & gold leaf, distressed and aged? very good! but i bet you couldn’t have guessed how fab it looks now that my lovely client had it upholstered in white duck-cloth.
here are some details:
bullet tells mrs. jones that he likes [...]
okay, turn your papers over and pass them to the front…let’s see how you did. if you answered that photo 4, the chest & hutch, would be painted in two shades of gray-blue, rubbed and distressed, you are right!
my lovely client had used this piece in several places before it ended up in storage, where little be-whiskered visitors took up [...]
wow — all of a sudden, things are a little stacked up at the studio (in an exciting way, i mean, gratefully) with “befores”! since i know you’ve been paying close attention, here’s a little quiz:
match each photo to the finish mrs. jones is planning for that particular piece…
1. hanging shelf 2. chest 3. victorian chair [...]
another clever changing-table that will change back into grown-up furniture later…
this lovely and very resourceful couple found a fabulous old kitchen work table, with deep storage drawers (used for flour & sugar in its previous life, now perfect for diapers and blankies.) they engaged a carpenter to fashion a ”box” with high sides on it that fits snugly right over the existing [...]
22 February 2008 – 5.20 am
mentioned previously, but worth repeating: mrs. jones totally hearts the talented ladies at a little english interiors. lovely gwen erb needed this mirror (perfect shape and size, wrong finish) to match wallpaper she’d chosen for a client’s powder room.
here it is, before and after, with a sample of the paper for you to see.
[...]
10 November 2007 – 7.43 pm
in an article titled “au revior, armoire”, this morning’s wall street journal reports on “why the furniture mainstay is being driven to extinction” (culprit: flat-panel tv sets) and includes a feature on re-purposing and painting an entertainment armoire to a wardrobe. a-hem… we’ve been doing that for a while now in memphis, tennessee!
this summer, i repaired and [...]
9 November 2007 – 8.48 pm
my friends know that i have serious landfill guilt about having used so many disposable diapers on the little joneses. i strive to be ”green” in my painting practices, using acrylic and low- or non-VOC products whenever possible, and environmentally correct techniques always.
of course, being green can also involve re-using or re-purposing existing materials. one of my favorite re-use projects was [...]
