Today I’m still in the garage working on projects that will be sold at the Market at White Barns in Hawkeye, Iowa.  I have a few other projects that need to be finished by then so expect a few more posts from the garage.

Today’s project…this.  I bought the little already painted gray shelf at the same garage sale that I bought last week’s table from.  This one was $15.

Again I think the person who painted it was going for a look but didn’t do the last finishing things.  Again with this piece I am going for more of a vintage farmhouse look.

The shelf was painted with a gloss paint and in general, that is not at all what a vintage farmhouse piece needs….

There were a few dings in it but nothing terrible.

By the time I’m done, those dings won’t stand out at all.  With the last piece I did, I opted to make more dings and sand off any gloss.  Here’s a close up of what I was going for. Continue reading →

Yesterday I told you about my fun extra busy weekend.  I’ve been having lots of those lately but have been loving it.  On my trip to Nashua garage sales I got this table.

I showed you a sneak peak of it and blog reader Donna asked if it was linoleum on the tops.  No…the pattern is stenciled on it with paint.

Kalissa and Hubby are gearing up for the big Market at White Barns.  Hubby and Kalissa both need more stuff.  The show is great and to keep it great vendors need to have products to sell…so, I thought this little table might be something that could be fixed up and sold.

Structurally the table is awesome.  It sits square. The size is nice.  Those decorating the Vintage Farmhouse style would likely love it.  The price was okay….the problem, it looked like someone tried to chalk paint but it needed more.

…and these big scratches were across the top…. Continue reading →

Hubby had his part of the new microwave cabinet done…now it was my turn.

When Hubby passed it off to me, it looked like this…

I decided to go with cream Annie Sloan chalk paint.  I used it for my kitchen island and want things to coordinate so that was my reasoning in picking cream.    I like the distressed look with dark wax so that’s what I tried to achieve.

Here’s the cabinet painted and waxed.  I opted to not paint the inside.  I like when they look old inside.  I’ll be cutting and putting linoleum on the shelves anyway.  I do that instead of shelf paper and love it.  Hubby is working on getting the hardware put on.

Hubby and I aren’t on a time schedule with our projects…when they get done, they get done.  He’s always busy at the beginning of the month with meetings plus they have been making hay and cutting oats on the farm which means long days and a tired Hubby.

Originally we thought we wanted the drawers to be stained.  We tried but we didn’t like the look so I had to go back and paint the drawers after I had painted the cabinet.  I thought I’d show you how I do it.

Day one…two coats of paint.  It dries quicker than any other paint so it’s easy to do two coats.  The next day I started the wax.  Before I can do that I “rough” it up.  I sand areas off the drawer.  Typically I work the edges and where the drawer pulls will go.

Then I’m on to to clear Annie Sloan wax.  You can see the right side is waxed and the left isn’t.

After all of it has wax on it, I rub it in and smooth the layer of wax out.

After that a little bit of dark wax goes on….See? Continue reading →