Please pardon the fuzz out, but I don't think my garbage bins make for great marketing photos. The darker first picture which was taken just as clouds passed over and began to sprinkle. I rushed some shots, and as we hauled it back in, the sprinkling of course stopped. Too heavy to have a redo session so here is what I was able to get:
My, my I love this set. Super sized and super sophisticated. I painted it in a creamy almond tone chalk paint with oil rubbed bronze hardware, a couple sparkly glass knobs and two beveled mirrors in spindle top frames. This piece has it all, is neutral for any decor and can be used for all types of purposes. The mirrors come off so it could be used anywhere. No more vying for mirror time with two to accommodate. I sanded the top down and stained it a rich brown then slathered it in polyurethane. The body is lightly distressed and clear waxed. Beautiful quality and dovetail joinery craftsmanship. Amazing storage with twelve drawers. I added a raised stencil to the front cabinet doors which house more drawers. To emphasize the stencil a bit more, I brushed it with dark wax. This piece is warm, luxurious looking and ready to grace your space. Please pardon the fuzz out, but I don't think my garbage bins make for great marketing photos. The darker first picture which was taken just as clouds passed over and began to sprinkle. I rushed some shots, and as we hauled it back in, the sprinkling of course stopped. Too heavy to have a redo session so here is what I was able to get:
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A gorgeous soft green make this already beautiful table even more decor-delectable. It is a large sofa table, console, buffet or side table. It could be used behind a sofa, as a divider between open spaces to define areas or with a couple of chairs on either side for a conversation area. Display photos and collectibles in style. It is truly a stunning statement piece which could go anywhere from a library or den to a family room to a foyer to a dining room as a buffet to wherever your heart is content. Painted in a custom combination of green chalk paint, I then clear waxed to seal it. I added dark wax in selected areas to enhance some features and simply because I love the tone it brings to pieces. I am a dark wax super fan.
The color was very difficult to get right in the photos. I took some in different daylight to try to capture the beauty of the green. The first few were in the bright sunshine and the last few were at dusk. This warm shade of green has a lovely, muted sage tone while being classy and compatible with many other colors/tones. Check out those legs. And the appliqués go all around them. This hutch was a custom order brought to me by a lady who had very strong sentimental ties to it. It was a piece which had belonged to her grandparents and the only item she would have of theirs. Her mother had passed many years ago, as well as her grandparents so this piece was her only remaining link to them. It had seen some very rough days during prior ownership, and was in need of several things to bring out its former glory. On the verge of being dumped as garbage, she saved it from unwarranted demise. I was honored an excited to be a part of helping bring this piece back to beauty for this client. I can be a tad sentimental myself, so I loved the story of this and was happy to assist in its recovery. The shelves were missing, the door hinges needed replacing/new screws, one lower door needed reattaching, the glass on a top door was broken out, there were large and small sections of veneer repair and the bottom inner shelves needed to be nailed back in place. An emblem had been painted on one side. The handles on the bottom were missing part of the bakelite pieces, and given the owner wanted to keep them, the missing sections needed to be filled. The poor thing had booboos everywhere, smack, knicks, dings and dents. I sanded, wood filled, glued and smoothed the essentials then played up the rest as part of its history by distressing the entire piece keeping its story authentic. Structurally, it was still sound. It was a unique looking antique cabinet with a mirror striping the front which had a floral design showing through. The client chose a deep rich green chalk paint for the outside with a soft gray shall paint for the upper inside. For the lower cabinet, I re-stained the shelving. I replaced the glass in the doors with chicken wire and installed new shelveson the top. I light coated the upper hardware with satin nickel which blended the tarnished handles beautifully with the chicken wire and gray interior. The bottom door pulls I filled in and the client wanted those to be the same color as the piece itself so they were painted in the green. Four coats of interior paint and four coats of polycrylic slathered the top interior for storage durability. A spray of shellac went on first to prevent that pesky yellowish brown bleed through which tends to happen with the old Art Deco finishes. Clear wax and light distressing finished it off. I couldn't get a full on front view because I was nervous to shift it due to the original mirror glass. It had miraculously survived through the years so no way was I going to risk it smashing on my watch. In fact, I kept it wrapped in foam the entire time it wa with me. This heirloom hutch was not at all trash, but a true beloved treasure. It is ready for generations to come for this family. From bugly brown to gorgeous green and gray - Here it is all perty and waiting to go home: Here it is cozy and beautifully displaying its owners treasures in its home: And here it was before its lovely transformation: I love to go to auctions. I hate to go to auctions. So much stuff to inspect prior to bidding is both exhilarating and exhausting. People breathing down your neck (or in my case because I am short, it cascades aaall down my face so I hold my breath or have to wriggle for fresh air) lurking to pounce on the item you have been waiting three hours to come to the auctioneer's podium. Then, when it does, if you are not raising your number before he even glances up, forget it. Try jumping into a bidding war. It's like those jump ropers who can pop in mid swing and not miss a beat or step. You need to be slick, quick and right on the click. Or someone else nabs your treat. So I get anxious in good and bad ways. This has led me to bid too high and on items I didn't thoroughly inspect. Then I'm stuck with it. But, I am getting better at this through the years even though the anticipation of bidding never feels quite relaxed. I see other people who seem so calm and confident, and I am like a frantic, wide-eyed deer in headlights when my item is up and I shoot my hand in the air. And I can tend to blind bid. Meaning I suddenly decide to go for something I saw in passing, but hadn't inspected. Like at my last auction. This was a blind bid to top all my blind bids. I was patiently awaiting some things to come around, and from amidst the rumble of dealers muttering about what they would or would not pay, I heard the word "shutters." I had not seen these. I had not known they were there. I knew nothing about them whether plastic, wood, short, painted, broken slats..nothing. My brain didn't have time to analyze or process what my emotions had just plunged me into before my hand shot in the air as I jolted into the front slot of bidders. I was 'smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy.' But still frantic. He saw me squished in the pile of elbowing arms and caught my flailing number to take over the bid. What am I doing? What! Am! I! Doing?! I won it. I won what? Shutters. Of who knows what sort or state. My stomach dropped. They were under a table and I still could not even see them. I owned them and could not tell you what they were. I felt sick and wanted to retract my bid of foolishness. I went about my auctioning business and at the end for pick up, I almost forgot to grab them. Probably blocking out my foolish auction anxiety that had propelled my into a blind bid. I bent down cringing every inch of the way till my knees clunked on the floor next to the heap of dark planks. I touched one and lifted it slightly. Stars exploded in my blinking bulging eyes at what they beheld in a heap on the floor under a table. I didn't even breathe. But I smiled. A big, deep smile that went all the way across my bestilled little heart. Let me tell you why. I have been searching for y-e-a-r-s for shutters. Antique shutters to hang inside my living room, bedroom, where ever I want. Yes, I wrote that right. Yes, you read that right. Shutters for inside my house. I have wanted to hang them by the windows inside just like if they were outside. Anyway, I went to an estate sale last year that had a bunch, but they were old and beat up just they way I like them, but they still didn't strike that gut chord which tells you you just struck junk gold. And as she wanted way too much for them. I got in my car sad and forlorn having to pass on them. I have been watching for them everywhere and have just not found the right ones. Peering at the stack before me, I still wasn't completely sure what I had gotten myself into, but it seemed like it maybe, just maybe, may be a good thing. I hauled one pair to the van and went back the next morning to get the rest. When I got them all home I spread them out against my house and got my first real look at them. I turned out to be a great thing. Glorious crackled, chipping wooden shutters. Complete with rusted hinges, clasps and an ancient bees' nest that disintegrated into a pouf of dust when I swatted at it. They are thin and long and a funky green and just perfect. I am scrubbing them, surface sanding for extra chips, and then I will paint them to go in my family and dining rooms. Oh my shutter heaven. I can hardly wait to hang these. Oh, and not a single broken slat. Here are my beauties... If anyone happens to have any of these lying around, pretty please with a huge rusty hinge on top, feel free to let me know.
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