Hello!

Hi everyone!!  Welcome to yet another blog by ME!  

I have discovered a few things about myself in the last few years, and this is the place I have chosen to share some of those discoveries with you!!  I will warn you that I use "salty" language, but I will try to control myself.....well, as much as I can anyway.

I have a new obsession!!  I have discovered that I LOVE to combine my love of acrylic paint with a new found love of "upcycling" furniture.  At present I am working on my dining room (kitchen actually cause I live in a TINY house) table and chairs.  It's taking me a while, but I do believe that the results will definitely be worth it.  I will update y'all soon on what's going on with that project.

I have finished a bar stool that I absolutely LOVE.  My only issue is that I really have no where to utilize the stupid thing.  So at present it just sits in my living room and is used exclusively as a "cat perch" because my cat Atticus (yeah, I'm also a nerd!  LOL) thinks the stool belongs to him and he has claimed it.  I believe I will be offering the bar stool for sale soon. 

In case you're wondering what the thing looks like, I've added some pictures for you.  Please feel free to ask questions or add your thoughts about this project.

Like the dummy I am, I didn't take "before" photos and only began photographing the thing mid way through.   I'm getting better at remembering to do before photos now.....but I still forget sometimes, what do you expect from an "old woman"?

Here we go!!

I painted the entire stool with homemade "chalk" paint, although my paint is actually a mixture of baking soda and acrylic latex......yes, BAKING SODA!!!  It's grittier than actual chalk paint, but it sands down beautifully and has a wonderful "soft" feel to the surface.  

After I sanded the paint down, I began to do my "magic" as I call it.  It involves using artist acrylics to blend and highlight areas of the stool.  

The seat edge and the rungs are decoupaged over the base coat.

Here is a close up of the "magic" I am talking about.  I think it looks like a beach sunset.....which is sort of what I was going for.

But this is only the first step.

I then sealed the entire stool with Minwax Satin Water based Polycrylic.  

Then sanded yet again, and added one more coat of the Poly.

After that I made a wash of water based enamel paint and "aged" the entire stool.

Here is the final outcome.

Here is the final outcome.  Doesn't look much  the first set of photos, does it?  LOL

  

Notice how it now looks well used instead of freshly painted.  I love the way the was brought out the imperfections. 

I hadn't shown y'all the underside before, it's more of a purple/blue combo and a little bit more of a streaky look than the well blended top.  You can also see some of the aging details done with paint.

People were surprised by the decouple!!  Someone said they thought I had paint splatters until the looked closer and seen the butterflies.

Doesn't the colors on the bottom remind you of a stormy ocean??

You can see how the was made the legs look well used.  I don't like the "chippy" look of distressing, and am not a big fan of sanding some or washing paint off to get a distressed look (although I am going to do a little bit of that on the project I am working on right now).  I like the way older furniture that has been stored and forgotten looks, sort of stained and grimy, like the dirt wasn't cleaned off and was ground into the finish.....

I know, I'm a little bit strange.

I love the "soft" look of the top and the way the edges look old and worn....you can see the top of several legs and the way the wash left behind a "dirty" looking cast which gives it a look of being older than it actual is.

There it is.  The first furniture redo I have ever done.  I don't believe it turned out too badly.

What do you think??