Blackberry House, The Shop - random stuff

Where oh where has Polly been?????

Well let me tell you. I've been so neck deep in running a shop and a paint company that I haven't been able to come up for air for the last year. Seriously. 

12-18 hours a day, pretty much 7 days a week. I've been a tired puppy. :)

When I set out on this little venture to open a vintage shop I had no idea that we would hit the ground running and stay so busy all this time. We have been blessed without a doubt.

Blessed, and busy.

There are so many projects I really want to blog about when I'm doing them, but that means I have to sit down to do it, and usually when I sit down for more than 5 minutes I fall asleep.

So, instead of blogging about each project, how about if I give you a good pictorial of some of the highlights? All you really wanna see is pictures anyway, right? Sure you do. :-)

 

Does that give you a little bit of an idea of what we've been up to?

I figure that's plenty of pics for now. I wouldn't want to bore you. :)

I'll try to pop back in later and show you some more great projects.

I want to tell you all about our exclusive chalk FREE paint line in the next post.

Have you heard about Blackberry House Paint yet?

Check us out on Facebook if you've go a minute.

http://www.facebook.com/blackberryhousemurfreesboro

Until next time.......................Make it Beautiful!

Polly

Mod Podge Project - My Unique Spin on a Chest of Drawers

Meet Lil' Missy

She's sporting a new do!

 Around the shop we're always trying to take our furniture one step further than the basics. This little chest of drawers is no exception. We get pieces painted and then start looking around the shop for other things to add a unique spin to each piece. We've come up with some winners.............and some losers. lol. It's most always a win-win, well, unless you include the dresser I glued a bird's nest on top of and actually put in the shop for sale. lol (I did end up changing it though......eventually.)

It's very rare that we get in a piece of furniture that's already base painted.

I scored this one at an auction, and thought I could turn it around without having to put too much work in it. I don't know why I EVER think that - it's never been that simple. :)

Here's what it looked like when I bought it.

I have an unnatural love of brown and white polka dots, and I knew I wanted to add some to this little cutie somewhere. 

So, off to my craft supplies to gather some paper and Mod Podge because I

knew I had a few sheets of polka paper I could use to dress her up.

After a lot of playing and laying it out, I decided to follow the lines of the piece because it would look like a blouse in the end. But before I added anything to the chest, I took a 50 grit sand paper to it to rough it up some. It had VERY thick latex gloss paint on it, so it took a little muscle to take that look away. 4 layers of paint, but luckily they were colors that worked well with what I envisioned for it. I also applied a clear wax on the parts that weren't getting paper.

I used 6 mil poly sheeting to make a template of each section, and then I laid the templates onto the papers and cut them out. (I always use clear poly for templates because it takes the guess work out of it.) Better to be safe than sorry.

Once I got it all cut out, I painted the drawers with a heavy coat of Mod Podge and applied the paper while it was wet.

After it dried for about 4 hours (I wanted to play it safe), I coated the fronts of the paper with another (heavy) layer of MP.

(Note: I'm often asked how to get bubbles out of the paper as it dries. I just use a needle and poke holes in it and then flatten it with my finger. If it's a large bubble, i use a razor and put a small slit in it. Always works.)

  For the knobs, I cut 6" circles of fabric, wrapped them around the knob, and tied them on with jute string. Simple and quick.......(and I didn't have any knobs that I just loved in the shop that day. ) For a little extra pizazz, I added a grosgrain ribbon down the center of the drawers, and glued buttons on it so that it looked more like a blouse.   Here it is all finished!

This was VERY popular around the shop. It sold months ago and I still have people asking me if I'm going to make another one. The answer is yes - just as soon as I find another one like this.   Here's a close up of the bottom skirt.   

  Just a small punch of color really stood out. To make a piece successful and interesting, I personally feel like you need to use a mix of patterns...but that's just my opinion because I'm all about patterns and texture.    What do you think? Yay or nay? I can take it. :)   ________________________________________________________________ Be sure to click that "Follow" button over there on the right so you'll be sure to get our projects in your blog feeds.   Linking to: Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday    Next up, I'll tell you about my spin on a chalkboard dresser. It's not what you think!   

A Major Vanity Makeover - Chalk Paint Project

I love it when I find a furniture piece at auction that no one else wants to bid on.

One might think, if no one is bidding on it, then why do you want it?

Well, because I happen to know the power of paint.......

and this great find was certainly going to need some!

I scored this piece for a little of nothing, and then it sat for months waiting for a makeover because I was almost afraid to tackle it.

Here it is so you'll understand what I mean.

See what I mean? I think the Pepto-bismol color scared buyers away. :) 

But, since I'm in the business of selling furniture, I knew I had to get this painted eventually.

I rarely ever sand any furniture before painting it, but this one required it without a doubt. 7 80 grit sanding pads worth of it in fact.

There were so many layers of paint on it that I thought the piece was laminate. After sanding it down as far as I could, I saw that it was actually solid wood.

Talk about a coat of many colors - look at the layers!

    Anyway........

 I really try to think about a piece and what would make it stand out from the norm when we restyle them.

I always want to put a different spin on what we sell so that someone can have a conversation piece in their home, and not simply a piece of painted furniture.

I decided to use a yellow and white combination, and I'm glad I did.

Here's the finished vanity. It's one of my favorite pieces we've done.

 I decided to ixnay the mirror in lieu of something more "happening", so I grabbed an old window from our stock and made a jewelry and note organizer out of it.

I used Annie Sloan Old White and Maison Blanche Jolie Blonde. 

I also replaced all of the knobs. I originally wasn't going to, so we didn't fill in the holes from the old ones. After it was finished though, I knew it needed that punch of whimsy after all.

So I glued down buttons to cover the holes that were left behind, and it ended up looking pretty cute in the end.

(here it is merchandised to sell)

   Here's a side by side:

            

Linking to:

Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday

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Here's a sneak peek of what I'll show you in the next post. You'll want to see this one for sure, so click on that "Follow" button over on the right so you don't miss it! We'll be showing you a new piece of furniture every week from now on, and each week, we'll give you a sneak peek of the piece for the next week. We have a lot of great pieces in our portfolio, so we won't run out of transformations any time soon!