All my friends think I am so creative … and I do have my moments, but I also seem to be having a lot of uh-oh moments lately as well. I don’t know if this comes with age or if it’s because I’m stepping out of the box more. Or maybe I just spend more time analyzing it because I’m going to be sharing it here … or not. 🙂
But some of those uh-oh moments happened recently when I undertook the job of repainting my guestroom furniture. I’ve been talking about doing this for a couple of years now. I guess I’ve been working up the courage. But with guests coming in a couple of weeks, I was really motivated to get it done.
My first mistake was choosing the wrong paint. Well, actually I bought the right paint, but I bought it back in Oct. when I was on vacation … then I put it where I’d be able to find it when I got ready to use it. Yeah, you know the rest of that story. Couldn’t find it anywhere!
In Oct. I bought chalk paint, which is what I needed, but this time instead of buying chalk paint I bought regular latex paint. Don’t ask me why I did this … I just did. And I also bought primer, but that was ok because this is what I was painting.
The gold and white piece is a double dresser and part of a French Provincial suite that I got when I was 13 yrs old. It’s the only piece I have left. (I’d already started painting the dresser before I thought about taking photos, so that is just a shot of the drawer.) I bought the pink and cream night stand to go along with it from a vintage market … always with the idea of repainting them to match. The furniture pieces are not perfect matches, but work great together now that they’re repainted.
I’ll tell you just why the paint choice was wrong in a minute.
My second mistake was huge! If you live where I do … in the Deep South … and you have any sense at all, you don’t CHOOSE to do jobs like these in June!!
I had to do this in my garage (read that, no AC!!) and it had to be done during the daytime because if you tried to do it at night the bugs got in the paint. So, I had to get up at 5 a.m., leave the door to my house open with a fan drawing the AC into the garage for me to get this done. Luckily, the day I did most of the painting it was overcast and it wasn’t too bad in there. But the night we had to sand … miserable!
And there’s a big problem when you try to paint when it’s too hot and/or you’re using a fan … the paint practically dries before you get it on the furniture. That makes for a rough time painting.
So make sure you take into consideration your work space and temperature before proceeding.
But here’s a painting tip for you: When you have to paint several layers or pieces with drying time in between, you can place your paint brush in a ziplock bag to keep it from drying out in between coats. That way you don’t have to keep washing it out every time and zipping it into the bag keeps it nice and wet.
Now, back to the paint …
The reason the latex paint was the wrong choice is this: it made things harder. In the end, I liked how it turned out, but I think I would have liked it even better if I’d used chalk paint. But my motto with this whole project has been: If I mess it up, I can always just redo it.
So if at some point later on if I want to repaint it again, it won’t be a problem. I might have to sand this down (which I’m sure I will), but it has all been a learning process.
This is what the edges look like now. I think the chalk paint would have been softer and easier to distress. But I’m good with this. But for the record, my husband HATES it! 😀 And I know some people don’t think this is the way to distress furniture and I’m aware of the “proper” way … but this is the way I wanted it done.
My third mistake was not sanding the pink chalk paint off this piece. I mistakenly thought that just using the primer to cover the pink would be good enough. Not! When I went to distress it with the sandpaper, it took off the paint leaving the pink showing through. At first I was upset thinking I was going to have to start over. Then I got to looking at it and realized it looked kind of like pink cow print. Hmmm …. just so happened that I was hanging a cow print above that table. 😉 Works for me! Now I love it! But, I did just leave the distressing to the top of the table. I didn’t disturb the rest of the finish.
Wouldn’t work for everyone, but works for me!
So here are the finished pieces. I’m not totally satisfied with the styling in this room, but I’ve got to move on. I have other projects that I’ve GOT to work on right now. I’ll have to work on this room more later as I can. If you have suggestions, leave them in the Comments section. I’d love to hear them.
Oh, I do have a new light pink quilt throw for the foot of the bed that I’m excited about. Can’t wait for it to come in the mail!
My husband thinks this room is way too girly and wonders if I’m ever going to be finished with it. 🙂 And it is pretty girly, but I like it, and my granddaughter sleeps here when she visits. All the fancy candles were ones that I made for my daughter’s wedding celebration, so they’re special to me. And I did end up taking that pink plate off the dresser because after seeing it in photos, I didn’t think it matched well enough … although it’s really pretty.
The mirror I just purchased at Hobby Lobby and repainted as well. It was meant to be turned vertical, but I like it horizontal.
This was my grandmother’s bed. She purchased it from the Sears & Roebuck’s catalog.
The antique rocker is over 100 years old and belonged to my husband’s great grandmother. He wouldn’t let me paint it. 🙂
I love this little tray I just picked up on sale at Hobby Lobby for $10.
That cow print has to be one of my favorite things in the whole room.
I’ll pick up some new flowers. These are just some I already had.
So, I hope you learned from my mistakes.
- Choose the correct time and place to paint.
- Choose the correct paint.
- Sand your pieces.
- Look at your mistakes and see if you can love them.
Remember: It’s a learning process and you can always do it again later. 😉
Oh, and I found my chalk paint when I was cleaning out the dresser drawers. Perfect spot for it, but I would have never thought to look there!
Love it! The room came together really well, especially with such diverse pieces. Love the cow painting.
I am building up the courage to strip and repaint a couple of pieces myself (with chalk paint), so this is motivating! I love the room, especially with such family history. ?
Thanks, Liz. It still needs work, but it’s a good start. I just can’t spend any more time there right now. I think I was scared to do that furniture, so I’m glad it’s behind me. I hope you have it easier. It was a lot of work, but well worth it.