Dining Table Re-do for My Son

I have been busy running around with my twenty one year old son, who is getting ready to move into an unfurnished campus apartment at the University he is attending. He has lived at home during his first three years of college, other than living in a dorm for two semesters. I am happy for him but I am also SAD, but I don’t let him see.  Anyway, other than bedroom furniture, neither my son nor his roommates have any furniture to speak of. I figured that a dining table was one of the more important items to address so I pulled out an old oak pedestal table that was my husbands when he was single. I think I have seen a gazillion of this same table on blog posts. The finish was a yellowing Oak and in pretty poor condition. I forgot to get a good "before" picture but below is one I took after I primed the top... you can see the original finish on the pedestal base.

So I cleaned, sanded and primed and then painted it black. To add a little interest I wiped on some metallic paint (Faux Effects MetalGlow in Toasted Coconut) on the pedestal base and legs.

Because the accenting seemed a little too THERE, I went over those areas with some dull black paint and wiped/blended to bury some of the metallic. (Below shows the dull black paint just applied, and then after blending).

I decided to add metallic paint along the bottom edge of the apron, see below. I was tempted to add some metallic along the top perimeter but decided to edit myself. Here is the table:

...plus chairs.

.
The table seemed too small for young men. I remembered we had a leaf to the table, which took me 40 minutes to find... good thing young ears were no where to be found.  Below is a picture of the expanded table.  I like the size and shape, so did my son.

...plus some upholstered end chairs.

Finally, I topcoated with 3 coats of polyurethane. My son is not sure if he likes the upholstered chairs… now that I take a step back I understand that they are probably not the taste of most twenty one year old boys. I seriously don't know what I was thinking. I'll need to get more simple end chairs.

Also linking to:
The Shabby Nest         My Romantic Home     Blue Cricket Designs
Chic on a Shoestring     Funky Junk Interiors
Life in the Fun Lane

 

Metallic Glazed Sideboard

I decided to bring up the sideboard I had in storage.. I thought I would use it in my birds' room... something to put their TV on.  I purchased this piece nine years ago and used it at my old house for a awhile but retired it after I moved. I kept it because I liked it’s bones... the carved detailing and curved feet. The piece is wood with wood veneer and hada cherry stain, which had kind of yellowed and discolored due to UV exposure.

I cleaned, sanded, primed and painted it (SW Antique Linen). Here are pics showing the primed piece...

  

and Antique Linen on the architecture against the white primer.

I decided that a metallic taupe color glaze would look nice. I applied the glaze with a brush on/wipe-off technique using a 2 inch chip brush and cheesecloth. The chip brush is a great tool for getting glaze into tiny crevices.

Here is how the architecture looks after wiping off with a cheesecloth... a nice, subtle effect.

To add a little more interest, I applied the metallic paint to a few edges here and there to give the piece a slightly distressed look without actually distressing it. For the hardware, I primed the pieces with a metal primer and did a tonal finish with some glazing.

Here is a close up of the curved feet.

Finally, I topcated with two coats of polyurethane. I think it turned out fine, the problem is although it fits in the room I was going to place it, I'm not loving it scale-wise and I really have no other area in my house for it. One drawback of having an open floor plan is decreased wall space . So it will probably be taking a trip to my Mom’s house… her neighborhood is having a garage sale in a few weeks. I probably need to mount the TV on the wall for the birds anyway.

UPDATE:  September 27, 2010

I ended up keeping the sideboard. I decided to add more metallic to the carved detailing. I dry brushed a concentrated metallic silver (Faux Effects Faux Metal Silver) over the high points and then glazed the areas with Metallic Pearl White (Folk Art), which added shine and pearlescence.

Here is a picture with the flash... you can see the silver detail, but not so much the pearlescence of the metallic pearl white glaze.

Without the flash, you can see more of the pearlescence and shine.

The "Sample" Table

A told a friend of a friend I would refinish a couple of furniture pieces for her daughter's bedroom,with the request being some sort of distressed light to medium light blue finish. I haven't seen the pieces but was told that they are stained dark and have some architecture. So, instead of experimenting on a sample cabinet door, I decided to practice on a side table that I had not used since for awhile.

After cleaning and a light sanding, I distressed it with a metal kabob skewer.  Other distressing tools that are good are screwdrivers, hammers and even banging keys that are strung together, however, sometimes depending on the wood, the "key bang" techniquecan end up looking like a bunch of chickens ran across it.  I didn't do any priming because I painted it with Behr's All in One Paint and Primer. After the paint dried, I distressed some of the edges using a razor blade.

I then brushed on and wiped off a chocolate colored glaze to sort of tea stain the piece (very subtle) and highlight some of the architecture.

I then dry brushed a cream colored paint over the piece... 

and wiped off  and  softened the areas.

To darken the feet, I rubbed on some Antique Mahogany Stain and Seal. You can see some of my skewer distressing (holes).

Below is the finished table. Since the piece is a "sample" table (I am not going to keep this finish), I did not topcoat it with polyurethane like I normally would.

It's All About the Sofa

This is my new sofa. Warning, one may get "textile overload" viewing this post. One thing I love about the sofa is that the seat cushion is reversible, which can make it seem like two different sofas, depending which fabric is facing up.  One seat fabric is a raised crushed velvet damask (the raised part is cognac colored crushed velvet).

The other seat fabric is a chocolate brown crushed velvet.  What about that tufted leather....

The fabric on the back and sides of the couch is also a crushed velvet damask in a burgundy/brown and dark gold.

These are the views of both the seat fabrics with pillows in place.

These pictures show the embossed leather arms, twisted rope trim, the bamboo frame detail and the claw feet.

Here are some close-ups of the pillow fabrics.