A Feature Story

A few months ago I decided to start a second blog, The Turquoise Nest, to feature all of my furniture projects and house updates. I am excited to share that one of my furniture projects has become a feature story! Kathleen over at Between Blue and Yellow has a series which she calls Before and After Fridays, so today she featured my updated dresser! Click this link to see the story on her blog, or click here to see the full before and after story at The Turquoise Nest!

Garage Sale Finds

I just wanted to share with all of you some amazing garage sale items I found this past weekend! As luck would have it, a family was downsizing and wanted to get rid of a lot of furniture - lucky me! The first picture is a custom built wine bar, and the second picture is a buffet! I got both pieces for a steal, and I am excited to spruce these up a bit and get them in my shop! Stay tuned! 

{Painted Furniture} - China Cabinet

Hello friends! I hope you all are doing well on this lovely Friday afternoon! Even though the weather was terrible yesterday, it is absolutely beautiful today on the island! Not a cloud in the sky and 70 degrees - what more could you ask for?

Today I want to share with you my before and after pictures of my latest project - the china cabinet! I posted a few weeks ago about my next project, so here are the after pictures! 

Here is a quick picture I snapped after I placed it in the antique shop

And now with some accessories!

I am really pleased with how it turned out. The color is painted Sedate Gray by Sherwin Williams, and the inside is painted Creamy by Sherwin Williams. 

This is for sale at 1610 Antiques, so stop by and check it out if you are interested!

Sold!

I am happy to share that my first piece of furniture sold! I must admit I am relieved and excited at the same time - maybe this new business venture might actually work out! So, buh bye chest and onto the next project! 

Next Project

Here is a sneak peek of what my next project is! I know it doesn't look like much right now, but I have some great ideas for what I am going to do with this piece. Stay tuned!

{Painted Furniture} - Desk

Happy Friday Everyone! Here is a quick post about the desk I just finished last night. I found this at an estate sale a few weeks back. I thought it looks a little drab being the dark brown, and the hardware wasn't accentuated. Here is a before picture:

And the after picture:

I painted the inside of the desk drawers to give it an extra pop:

This will be for sale this weekend in our new booth at 1610 Antiques! 

{Painted Furniture} - Dining Room Side Table

I have mentioned before that my Mom is great at finding pieces of furniture for me to fix up! She did it again with this little side table that is perfect for one wall in our dining room that needed a little something more. I love the design on this piece! Here is a before picture:

There was a split in the wood, so I used some wood filler to fill it in

Next is my handy dandy Gripper! I don't know what I would do with out this!

And the finished product! I didn't take too many pictures of the painting process, but after the Gripper, I did a coat of light gray, then dry brushed on a light white, then distressed the sides. 

Oh, and I happened to find this cute candle set at Dutchman's on clearance for $10! 

What projects have you been working on lately? If your into painting like me, pop over to Valspar's website and pick up a free paint sample! They are only doing a few samples a day while supplies last, but you get a free sample, a $5 off coupon, and a free brush and paint pan! Not too bad, right? 

{Painted Furniture} - Mirror

The other day I was browsing around some shops down in the Village and saw this pretty mirror at the front of a store! I had to stop in and check it out. 

Then I saw the price tag - yikes! $395 is a little out of my price range. 

Then I remembered that I had picked up this mirror at a garage sale a few weeks back for only $20, so I decided I'd fix it up to look like the one I had seen!

Before Picture

 After Picture 

It's not exactly the same, but close enough, and fits within my budget!

{Painted Furniture} - The Hutch!

I am so excited to share this post with all of you! To give a little background, my mom has been amazing at finding great furniture for our house. She finds the best items at great prices, and we have had so much fun fixing up the pieces! A few months ago Mom told me she found a hutch for us, and at first I thought it would be too big and I wouldn't have anywhere to put it, but after some thought I decided to rearrange some furniture in the den to make it work! The hutch has been sitting in my parents garage for a couple of months now (so sorry!) so we were just able to get it during Christmas and bring it home.

INSPIRATION: In December I was able to meet Kim and Jill in Tifton for the day to do some shopping! We stopped into Turner's Furniture Store because they were having a 50% off store wide sale. I saw these hutches and loved how they looked so I took some pictures to look back on as I prepared to paint and decorate!

BEFORE: Okay, so here is the picture of the hutch in Mom and Dad's garage. Not too pretty! The hardware needs to be replaced and the color just doesn't work!

FIXING IT UP: First I removed all of the hardware, as well as the four doors. The hinges on each door were sticking and had rusted over a bit, so I fixed them by soaking them in paint thinner to remove the old paint. 

Taking it apart on the sun porch

Removing the hinges - not a fun job!

Next step (big surprise) I used Gripper to cover up all of the gross old paint.  After the Gripper dried I covered the whole piece in black paint. I considered painting the back of the hutch a lighter color, but it didn't turn out the way I had hoped, so the end result is that its all one color!

AFTER: And here is the finished product! I am so pleased with how it turned out. Even though it took a lot longer than I had planned to fix, I am so happy with the result. Now all of the doors open and close properly, and the new hardware really makes a difference!

Some of the pottery I added for a pop of color

My favorite cookbooks! I wanted to have them on display

A close up look of the hardware - I like how the gold pops against the black

{Painted Furniture} - Coffee Table

In additon to the chest in the den, I also wanted to update our coffee table in the living room. I like the piece because it helps fill up the room, but I wasn't too excited about the original color.

I used this picture as inspiration from Pottery Barn:

Here is a picture of the coffee table when it was in the large den (this was before I moved in - don't judge!) It t was scratched up pretty bad, and the color was the same color of our wood floors. 

Here it is in our living room after I painted it with the Gripper paint:

And here is the finished product!

I am really pleased with how it turned out - now it coordinates with the other dark accents in the room!

{Painted Furniture} - The Chest

Johnathan and I are very fortunate to have a lot of furniture to furnish our home, but some of the pieces are outdated! I wish we could go out and buy brand new things, but that isn't in the budget right now! So instead, I decided to freshen up what we have.


I originally saw this picture of a painted chest on the blog House of Turquoise. I thought it looked simple and elegant, and also would bring a pop of color to a room!

So, with that as my inspiration, I decided to redo the chest that we have in our den. Here is a before picture:

It had a lot of scratches and the hardware was rusty and outdated!


My first step in the process was to cover the chest in Gripper. This stuff is my new best friend! Its so great because you don't have to sand or strip the furniture, you can just paint on Gripper as your first coat, then once it dries, your coat of paint goes on perfectly! Gripper is normally white, but I had the guys at Home Depot tint it a bit since I wanted the option of doing an antique look.


Here is the chest after applying the Gripper: 

And here is the finished result!

I am so happy with how it turned out. The color is Halcyon Green by Sherwin Williams and I got the hardware from Lowe's. I wish my camera was better to show the true color, but it coordinates really well with everything in our den. 


Check back soon for more furniture updates!