Night table makeover: Who says blue & green must never be seen?

Not me! I love blue & green together! Especially bright green with turquoise. While the paint on the bedroom ceiling was drying last weekend, I worked on a smaller and much easier project. This side table has been at the cottage forever – probably since the mid 1950s when the cottage was built.

It was only after I’d painted it that my dad mentioned that my grandparents had the night table and a matching dresser custom made for my mom when she was a little girl. I had a sudden feeling of guilt over painting it, but my dad said not to worry, he loves the new look. Whew!

This was a super-fast and easy makeover. The night table is in perfect shape and only needed a quick cleaning with a damp cloth to remove some dirt and cobwebs. A couple of years ago, I accidentally discovered that sanding brass with a fine grit sandpaper is a great way to get rid of the tarnish and gives a beautiful brushed metal finish. So with a little bit of elbow grease, the drawer pull went from this:

…to this in about 5 minutes:

Painting the table was almost as fast and easy! No need to prime because I used chalk paint. I painted the shelf and drawer front Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Provence, and the rest of the table FAT Paint Apple.

I cannot begin to tell you how perfect these two colours are together. Obviously whoever said that blue & green must never be seen never ate an Apple in Provence! ;-)

After one coat…

Two coats of paint and a coat of clear wax later, and this is the final result :-)

The brass pull stands out so nicely against the turquoise.

I think my mom would approve :-)

I bought two dressers off Kijiji for the cottage bedroom as well. I’m going to try out some other colours from FAT Paint – gotta support my friend and former blog buddy Victoria :-)

Sharing with Inspire Me Monday

PARA Paints Blog Crew project: Beautiful in Boysenberry

When I saw the PARA Paints Colour Forecast Palette, I fell in love with some of the new colours and just had to try them out. I picked up quarts of Boysenberry and Tahitian Pearl from Bonds Decor with the plan to paint my dumpster dive dressers. But they’re going to need some work before they’re ready to paint, and I didn’t want to wait – I’m just a little bit impatient ;-) So I decided to paint this black cabinet that I bought at HomeSense a couple of years ago – brace yourself for the mess!

Ummm, yeah, so housekeeping isn’t exactly high on my priority list ;-) Anyhoooo…. I’m kinda lacking in the “in progress” photo department – this is apparently the only picture I took. I primed the whole cabinet with Zinsser BIN primer and the painted the inside of the cabinet my favourite green, PARA Paints Leek.

And now let’s move right on to the “after" pics. I love that when the door is closed, there’s a little clue to the green surprise inside. I used my never-fail painting trick to make sure the line between the green and purple is clean & crisp. Click here to find out how to do it.

The finished cabinet.

I love the quatrefoil design on the mirrored door.

A little painting tip – melamine paint is more durable, but it also shows the orange peel effect from a roller a lot more than eggshell paint does. I really didn’t like the bumpy finish that the roller left, so I sanded the bumps down and painted two more coats of Boysenberry with a brush. Much better.

A few baskets from HomeSense inside the cabinet to keep things a little neater than in the “before” pics!

I didn’t really like the pewter knob that came with the cabinet. I was going to buy a new knob, but then I thought, why not try painting the pewter knob and see what happens? Some paint and some foil and voila, brand new colourful knob for free :-)

I’m planning to put a non-breakable dish on top of the cabinet to hold keys and change. But for now, I dressed it up a bit with some of my glass floats.

It always feels great to get another DIY project done :-)

Thanks to PARA Paints and Bonds Decor for the paint :-) And speaking of DIY projects and thank yous… a big thank you to Mary Beth at Cupcakes & Crinoline and Heather at Setting for Four for featuring my capiz chandelier on their blogs today :-) Check out their weekly linky party to see lots of great DIY projects… {I just found out the Heather isn’t hosting anymore, but Mary Beth is}.

 

Linking up to…

My home for wayward furniture

I think I need to open a home for wayward furniture :-) These are the two most recent additions to my collection:

My cousin-in-law Susan’s aunt had these pieces for over 30 years. No idea where they came from or how old they are, but when Susan asked me if I wanted them, I said sure :-) Her aunt was in the process of refinishing the chair, but gave up with just one side of one leg left to sand.

I love the shade of blue of the original paint, and I think I’m going to incorporate it onto my makeover by doing a little something like this…

Image via Little Green Notebook

Or maybe this…

Image via House & Home

Robin’s Egg / SR17 from the Sarah Richardson Designer Palette for Para Paints looks like a pretty close match to the original blue on the chair.

Although I really like Para’s Tropical Lagoon P5018-44 – it’s such a fresh, happy, fun colour :-)

Which blue would you choose?

When Susan sent me a picture of the mirror, it looked huge. I thought it was a massive 5 or 6 foot tall floor mirror. Well, not so much – it’s actually a small table mirror. Whoopsie, should have paid attention to the picture of the mirror next to a ruler! It needs a good cleaning and sanding, and some repair work to one side of the base.

Hubby did a great job rebuilding the backs on two of these chairs and the base on this table, so I’m sure he can work his magic on this baby :-)

Then I’ll need to decide how to finish it off. I’m thinking I might make some homemade chalk paint for the base and mirror frame, and zincify the metal rings.

How would you make over the mirror?