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Leggy grey desk named “Cassandra”

By Meagan Tucker on April 21, 2014 in Before and After, Furniture Makeover

I picked up this leggy grey desk while driving my sister to her new home in Ohio. I didn’t realize what was wrong with her until the ride home. She smelled so bad (the desk, not my sister), I had a massive headache after about an hour in the car. Thankfully, it was a chemical smell. The only thing to do…strip her with some Citristrip. During the process of stripping her, I realized that this lady had been stripped before and someone had put a couple layers of gel stain on her with out waiting for the previous coats to cure. Bad idea, people. Bad idea! Please don’t do that!!! The previous owners also didn’t remove the top arch to fully strip the piece and they took an orbital sander to her legs….My mind was a whirlwind of bad words when I saw the sanding marks. After stripping, sanding all the curves/crevices, and replacing the underside (because inside, underneath the drawers she was gross), this lady was finally ready for a makeover! Here she is before:

I’m sure you can see why I could resist the potential! She was sturdy, but had just been mistreated. You might think that I sanded out those imperfections in her veneer…I didn’t. Even after all that other work to undo the wrong’s done to this lady…I embraced some of her imperfections. The word that came to mind… “wabi-sabi”…

via my pinterest (because I was too tired to find the original link)

Isn’t that what we want from others… for them to discovery beauty in our imperfections…to love us imperfections and all….I may be getting too deep for furniture, but that is how I love people and that is why I do what I do. Here is a during picture I posted to my facebook page.

And here she is after all that work…

I used a dry brush technique on her with one of my very favorite grey paint colors. After the paint dried, I decided the color was lighter than I wanted, so I did a coat of stain over the paint, and then waited a few days for the stain to cure. It wouldn’t have taken so long for the stain to cure over the paint, if I had remembered to turn my whole house humidifier down. Duh! Finally, I sealed her in three coats of flat polyurethane for a nice subtle sheen.

My son named her “Cassandra,” he said something about her leggy-ness (he’s eleven) and that she looked like a Cassandra. I went with it! I painted her drawers in Salmon milk paint and updated her knobs with these beautiful pink/salmon/grey floral knobs I found a couple years back. “Cassandra” will be for sale in my Etsy shop later today. xo Meg

Deep green/blue empire dresser named “Ian”

By Meagan Tucker on April 10, 2014 in Before and After, Furniture Makeover

This empire dresser was put to work over the last 89 years. Yup, it had a sticker that dated it from 1925. It must have been used for storing tools and motor oil in someone’s garage at some point, because no matter what I did to clean the back of one of the drawers the black oil would not come out. Anyone have advice for that kind of problem? That same drawer looks like some one used it to chop wood on the side of the drawer slide. This piece will not be for sale, unless it is local. Because of those items mentioned, I really want someone to be able to see this piece in the “flesh” before buying. It’s still super sturdy and the drawers slide great, but I wouldn’t put clothing in one drawer. We actually used this piece as a TV stand before I gave it some ‘Estuary’ style, and we stored dvds and remotes and paper in it without any issues. My sweet pup Alfie really turned on the charm for that first photo. Poor thing looks a little naked, because we had him shaved for the summer. He gets overheated in our muggy Southeast, Missouri summer weather. Health before beauty for our pup.

Ian, pronounced “Ee-an,” was painted in a deep green blue, distressed, and sealed. Guys, I absolutely love this color!!!! I’m seriously considering painting my honey oak kitchen cabinets with it. The lowers only, because we have a small kitchen. Alas, that is just another project that I don’t have time for at the moment. My original plan called for replacing the knobs, but when I got to that point, they just didn’t feel right. So I took the original knobs and refreshed them with a couple coats of danish oil. They make him have an understated and rugged kind of handsomeness. Don’t you think? xo Meg

PS. Apparently, feed-burner is not able to distribute my posts due to some plugin conflict. I hope to have that worked out soon, but nothing is working at the moment.

Triangles are her favorite shape….

By Meagan Tucker on March 24, 2014 in Before and After, Furniture Makeover

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This child size table and chair set makeover goes in the nursery room with “Josephine.” Baby “R’s” room will be the perfect place for creativity as he/she grows up. As I was photographing the pieces, I had the urge to sit down and color. You might think that I get enough of “coloring”, but the honest truth is most days are spent prepping pieces to transform. There was no time for me to do so, but it reminded me of why I love what I do…that desire to create, to release the images in my head. My hope is that baby “R” will cultivate the joy of creativity at this little set. Chairs always require a couple hours of prep work (each) for me, these were no exception even though they were mini chairs. Here is the before…

Before pictuer of child table and chair set makeover

and here is the after…Triangles are “Mrs. R’s” favorite shape…

Triangle child's table and chair set makeover

Child table and chair makeover in black, white and yellow

Triangle are her favorite shape table top

Triangle designed child's table top

Yellow painted child's chair

Triangle child's table makeover

I can’t wait to meet sweet baby “R.” All these nursery room furniture transformations give me a touch of baby fever. For now, my furniture makeovers, are my “babies.”

Meg