a flavor that gets a too-plain rap, sometimes a taste of pure, restful, unpretentious vanilla is just what a room needs. another piece from the my lovely client’s attic that is headed to her beautiful lake house, this little chest will sit between beds (you’ll see the much more lively headboards, coming soon.) in a guest room. it had been painted before, but not prepped or primed (oh no!), and so the old finished flaked right off with a scraper and a tiny bit of chemical stripper. now it’s covered in benjamin moore’s palace white (#956) with a little glaze for depth. here is the before and the not-terribly-different-but-much-more-durable after:
raspberry-red cocktail table
mrs. jones found this table on a recent junque-ing expedition. it is sturdy and a perfect size, but the finish was dull and nicked-up, and it seemed to want some snazzification for the next chapter in its life. wearing a fresh new combo of glossy raspberry red with bird’s egg blue tucked (secretly) beneath, it’s now available at market central and on etsy.
before & after:
the details: the red is a custom-mixed formula that my colorist crush, emmett fiore, whipped up, but is in the neighborhood of pratt & lambert’s deep cerise (#2.11). benjamin moore’s bird’s egg is #2051.60. the dimensions are 20″ wide x 28.5″ long x 18″ high.
the disclosures: the glossy finish is gorgeous, durable, and as flawless as possible, but is by its nature is unforgiving, and reveals all the little imperfections beneath. and, two of the delicate little fretwork pieces that give this table its chinoiserie flair have been slightly damaged in a very character-adding kind of way:
take me to the lake (please.)
clients of lovely lela smith’s are freshening up their weekend home, and wanted to use these side-table-ish pieces (nightstands?*) from their attic. request: a simpatico scheme using a pale green in these fabrics for the guest room:
after a thorough, varnish-removing rub-down, and then layers of pratt & lambert’s parakeet feather, #17.24, with a little linen white (benjamin moore #912) along the edges, they got some gentle distressing, and then glaze tinted with raw umber for softness.
before:
after:
and of course the minute mrs. jones wangles an invite to heber springs, there will be on-site photos for you to see. fingers crossed!….i can have a bag packed in a matter of minutes.
*extra credit: each one has these identical little holes at the back of the top shelf. what are they for? telephone cords, perhaps? anyone know for sure?
half-moon, with boxes
here is a sneak-peek at another fairfax designs piece done this week…a beautifully crafted demilune chest that we treated to benjamin moore’s almond bisque (#269), gold banding on each drawer and on the leg details, and a coat of paste wax for sheen and protection. coming soon: photos of the assembled piece, with gorgeous gold knobs in place. until then:
and a few hints that i hope will be helpful if you’re considering a similar project…for adding lined details, if you haven’t already, you might read the straight & narrow. to create “boxes” like these, you’ll simply need to add nice neat corners. the duck “quick corners” pictured below can be difficult to find (and why oh why? they are so brilliant!) but are at some hardware stores. as an option, you can cut 2-inch painter’s tape (i prefer the 3m orange core) into squares and carefully apply those in your corners, then (the easy part) run tape between them.
when measuring, i find it helpful to tape my straight-edge at the correct spot, like this:
(it makes it so much easier on mrs. jones’s tired peepers to just scan for the tape instead of seeking the 1/4″ or 5/8″, or whichever, mark. all those tiny little lines start to kind of run together.)
another way to get crisp corners is to mask the vertical and horizontal lines separately, and fill in – once the first ones are dry, of course! – like this:
and don’t forget to burnish (smoosh) the tape down firmly on the edge that is to be painted. good luck! let me know how your projects turn out.
pretty powder room
this lovely client has a newly-remodeled powder room that is as serene, beautiful and chic-ly understated as she is. she requested an old-furniture look for her new cabinet, and chose a yummy green scheme for a little interest. here is the before and after (which will eventually include fab hardware, and better photos):
for those of you playing the home game: the color used is pratt & lamber’s burr, #17.20, with a slightly lightened shade as a first coat, revealed in some rubbed-back spots. in the edges of the panels is a darker version of burr, along with some distressed gilding wax. over the whole thing is a little raw umber tinted glaze.
extra credit: what would you have used to seal the newly-constructed wood & mdf cabinet first?
one for the road
this elegant little chair doesn’t know it yet, but it’s about to earn its road warrior chops on a trip with furniture designer kent hughes. after a swank upholstery job, he’ll be showing it off to designers and clients in houston, san antonio and austin, texas. good luck out there, sweet chair!
here is the before, after, and details:
(the base coat, under some almost-hershey’s-special-dark-chocolate glaze to accentuate its curves, is benjamin moore’s baffin island – #243.)
well, aren’t you the fancy ones?
another yummy project for kent hughes of fairfax designs…this pair of nightstands got the full-on fancy treatment. after sealer, coats of cameo white (benjamin moore #915) and a little gilded highlighting, they received two layers of glaze – one raw umber, one a sort of charcoal-y gray – to give the aged, water-spotted look requested. here is before:
and after:
they were then placed into chris garner’s gifted hands for the addition of antiqued & mirrored glass inserts on the top and drawer fronts, along with hand-crafted drawer pulls, before being bundled up and shipped off to little rock:
where i hope they will live happily ever after.
book ’em, built-in
lovely clients of robin selberg’s requested a warmed-up look for these wonderful bookcases, something that would complement the beautiful stone fireplace and the rustic mantel that they flank. here is the before:
rubbing back the paint on a few edges, and then adding stain and tinted glaze has gotten the project this far:
the cabinet doors will have woven wire fronts with gathered fabric behind that…once they are completed and installed, and robin has those shelves fabulously arranged and accessorized, i promise to get some truly good “afters” to show you.
gilt tripping
as you know, mrs. jones loves some gilded glam, but this beautiful chair had been given a heavy-handed makeover at some point along its way with too much gold paint, and my lovely client wanted a softer finish. after rubbing it back, flaking it off in a few places, adding some color highlights here and there, and toning the whole thing down a little with glaze and stain, it still has some shimmer, just a bit more subtle:
much better.
baby boom, con’t.
this chic & serene nursery is done up in calming, restful cream and gray…with a touch of pink or blue to come shortly. can you imagine the lovely naps to be had in here? mrs. jones is feeling as if she might just sink in and rest her eyes for a minute as well. oh wait!…there is furniture to tell you about!…the sweet scalloped shelves hanging above the sofa, and the dresser…one from an antiquing adventure, the other from the expectant mother’s childhood bedroom….both sanded down, cleaned up, and given a fresh start with cloud white (benjamin moore #967) and paste wax.
befores…:
….and some preliminary afters…final editing and accessorizing still to come:
lovely and clever caroline v. smith, talented interior designer and gorgeous mother-to-be, found these fab knobs – just the thing to update the dresser. caroline has made her way to memphis from atlanta via manhattan, and will be a wonderful and most welcome addition to the design community here…but she has her own addition to welcome first.
gilded age
seeing past the chipped-up finish, lovely clients of local designer robin selberg’s got this great chandelier for a song. (thinking this may not be a coincidence….robin’s always running across something wonderful…!) they requested a similar, less “destroyed” look, with deep espresso brown under very knocked-back gold leaf, and some dark, crusty-looking aging. so here is the before:
and a little bit after, with an installed, truly-after photo to come as soon as the electrician gets there:
bob’s your uncle, too
handsome, well-built, solid, and perfectly suited for all manner of places and occasions, this table (from a recent shelby county flea market) reminds me of a particular dear brother-in-law. a favorite combination – benjamin moore’s ballet white (#oc.9) edged with pratt & lambert’s lambswool (#11.30) – a little tinted glaze, and bob’s your uncle.
before*, after, and details:
it measures 34″ wide by 24″ deep by 30″ high, and is on its way to market central. (pending the shipping quote, it will also be listed on etsy shortly.) and now, it’s friday afternoon, and quite possibly time for an uncle bob (a cocktail concoction mr. jones has adapted from and named in honor of our aforementioned lovely brother-in-law.) happy long weekend, everyone!
(to make mr. jones’s uncle bob: put lots of ice in a tall glass, add 1 ounce-ish vodka, tonic water to almost-full, a splash of red grapfruit juice, a sprig of mint, and a squeeze of lime to finish.)
*finally, a plea to fellow diy’ers…help stop fake-y faux! if a power sander must be employed to get a particular job done, plug it in. however, for authenticity, try not to leave tell-tale little loop-de-loops, like these on the “before”:
thank you!
in perfect symphony
mrs. jones is thrilled to bits to have one of her pieces on its way to the richmond symphony orchestra league’s design house, september 13th through october 11th. lovely kent hughes (of fairfax designs) had a beautiful table custom-crafted for a particular designer’s assigned area. working from her sketch and with the soft oyster-white and raspberry red she specified…(for now, the rest of the details must remain under wraps, so as not to steal any show-house thunder!)…here are our eeny-meenys, a detail from the designer’s sketch (more here on p. 20) and the before and the after…
(the shininess is the sanding sealer, not quite dry.)
…and some details:
the table is right this minute swaddled up and en route for the designer’s approval, then on to richmond. and of course, as soon as there are some on-site “afters” to show you, i’ll post them! (edit: 9.24.10…see more details in this review from the washington post.) all the best wishes to the designers and their teams for a wonderful event, and nothing but beautiful music for the symphony.
(you may have picked up on the fact that the work took place in our very own living room…that’s just the kind of week it’s been, my little studio space being crammed with other treasures…and a table in the works in our guest room….anyway, the table did look sort of good with the colors in there, didn’t it? wonder if it will need a home after the design house ends?)
before, before, before.
after several recent (and enormously frustrating) calendar upheavals, it is bliss to just have some quiet studio time for a cleansing breath, and a nice little pile of “befores” to tackle. please check back for the “afters”, and some other wonderful reveals coming very soon.
thank you for the opportunity to vent.
let them eat cake
it’s a big compliment when meg tells me that a particular project looks like something that buddy might have made. (have i mentioned that we love cake boss?) my lovely client wanted a whole new look for this mirror…a high-gloss rendition of benjamin moore’s white dove. so here is the before, and the delicious-fancy-icing-looking after:
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