Overcast

It's raining buckets today in "sunny" Florida

The skies are grey and cloudy

The perfect day to introduce you to our newest Real Milk Paint color

OVERCAST

This little wash-stand has the sweetest details...

Doesn't the detail at the top remind you of waves?

We opted for a slightly cottage/beachy vibe

(watching the clouds roll in at the beach in the summer is always AMAZING...

and those memories inspired this piece)

OVERCAST is the perfect grey, in my opinion...

mid-range, not too cool, not too warm

not too dark, not too light

as Goldilocks would say, "it's just right"!

We dry-brushed a bit of watered down white milk paint to provide a beachy feel

and add some contrast

As always, milk paint distresses naturally and beautifully

The outside might look old and distressed

but inside, the drawers are minty fresh and clean!

If you haven't checkout out the new colors from Real Milk Paint Company,

we encourage you to do so...and thanks for stopping by!

Gustavian Collection Pantry Hutch

 We've been drawn to Swedish and Country French antiques lately...

the neutrals that are soothing and beautiful

the weathered, aged paint...

yeah, it's pretty much all good! 

The paint on this piece was inspired by the antiques that 

we'd love to have in our own home

This piece took much longer than I anticipated...

funny how that goes, isn't it?

We opted for Pure White

from Annie Sloan

which contains no pigment

(cause, you know, it's WHITE...)

which meant three coats

Then, we clear waxed the whole thing

before using two different colored waxes

for an old-world look

After waxing and distressing the entire piece,

we decided to stencil a gorgeous French poem

on the back-board...

I wanted white words on Paris Grey

I used a stencil cream I purchased at the craft store...

and it seemed to work great...

UNTIL....

I applied clear wax!

Bye Bye white stenciled poem!

Moral of the story?

Only use stencil creme from Royal Design Studio!

(which is also where the stencil came from)

Did I mention I also painted the words upside-down?

It normally would not have mattered, 

however, 

this board is attached not only on the perimeter,

but also along each shelf

so the holes from the nails didn't line up

AT ALL

SOOOO....

We clearly had to repaint!

We changed to French Linen

and used Bronze Age Stencil Creme

then applied a dark wax glaze

As you can see, it worked out wonderfully!

This is such an unusual piece...

we love the fact that it's not huge,

but still tall and offers lots of storage

not to mention visual impact!

This piece is available in our Etsy Shop

Serenity Dresser

This dresser needed MUCH love

when we brought it home...

That's Kenny's department!

I knew I wanted soft, serene colors for this piece

It had already been through enough!

 We custom mixed this gorgeous, soft color

It was inspired by a color called "Sugar Cane"

I love the bow-front,  the pretty details on each side

I love the hardware...oh, who am I kidding, I love it all

In case you're curious, this piece was done

with milk paint with Bonding Agent added

We stripped the top, but haven't stained it yet...

Stain it, paint it...I'm leaving that decision to the buyer!

What have YOU painted lately?

Seeing Stars

Another piece from the Americana Collection

inspired by relaxed country living and

 American farmhouse style

 I've been wanting to do a piece using

Annie Sloan's Emperors Silk

and was inspired by the upcoming

Independence Day holiday...

 I wanted to avoid anything with too much of a "theme"

as I tend to tire of those pieces quickly

in my own home

but I loved the idea of a little hidden "something"

to make a special piece even more so...

 The red is so deep and rich...

I only used dark wax on this piece...

right over the paint...

(if you're going to try this, I encourage you to test first!)

 When we purchased this piece, it had issues.

many, many issues...

 now, the repairs all seem worth every second they took...

Wondering about that gorgeous navy blue 

on the drawers?

I custom mixed that color using Annie Sloan Paint

(click the link to find your local stockist)

Curious about mixing colors?

Miss Annie has a charming blog

all about color theory...

This piece is available in our Etsy Shop

Worth the Effort...

This pair of end tables...
we call them The Twins...
Good Grief did they give me trouble!

They had another paint job
prior to settling on this one..
it was "OK' but I didn't love it
and I need to love it
in order to sell it

We opted for Old Ochre
(one of my favorite ASCP colors)
Simple, old-world, and elegant
with a dark glaze
to highlight each paint stroke
curve, and imperfection

Pretty French original hardware

We sanded the top back down to raw wood
and decided to stencil the top
with a lovely French Poem

Let's just say I had "issues" with the stenciling...
stenciling over a painted surface is so easy...

if you have a little bit of bleeding, you can touch it up

Stenciling on wood means

you can't easily touch up your errors

It took three tries

but so worth it!

We painted the inside of the drawers
in ASCP
Duck Egg Blue
(they were clean, but we thought a shot of color would be nice!)

I'm REALLY happy with the outcome
and was already scheming on where to put these
in my living room...

I know I can't keep everything,
so hopefully these will sell quickly
and won't end up flanking my sofa...
(We need to paint things that DON'T match our house!)