Getting ready for a Vintage Artisan Fair

SharSum Paint will be a vendor at the Vintage Artisan Fair in Eureka, MO on October 1, 2016.  We will be demonstrating Missouri Limestone Paint and will (hopefully) personally have quite a few painted and vintage items for sale!  Our niece, Elizabeth, has been busy painting with our Missouri Limestone Company’s chalk-based paint, too, and we will have her items for sale also.

We worked on furniture repairs and painted outside all day yesterday. It was so nice outside!  Here’s a sneak peek at an end table I’m working on for the fair. It will have an oval one to match. They will be available at the fair, if I don’t break down and sell them before. Shabby chic distress. Missouri Limestone Paint Company “Winter Gloves” dry brushed over the solid oak table. Drawers are painted with “Winter Gloves” then a coat of “Front Porch”. Distressed with steel wool to produce gray shading. Finished with Briwax. Waiting for painted hardware to dry. Ready to start the oval one to match. But not today.

shabbyoakrectangle


shabbyoakrectangle1

shabbyoakrecandoval

Here’s a few more items we plan on bringing (if they don’t sell first!

spigots 1880ssofatable groupofitemsforfair

spigots farmcabinet1 waterfallset vintage-chairs

Shabby Chic Desk/Hutch Set

My Shabby Chic Desk/Hutch has been one of my favorite projects so far using our Missouri Limestone Company’s Chalk-based paint.  I personally paint furniture to sell with this paint we distribute through our SharSum Paint company and really fall in love with some of the things I paint.

You can read through the transformation below, or if you are in a hurry and want to come back to this wonderful piece of writing later, just scroll to the bottom to see this Shabby Chic Desk/Hutch Set in all its glory!

I really, really would love to keep this one but just don’t have the room in my house.  As of now, it is for sale.  Like it?  Pay my too low asking price of $215 and the shipping charges (which would probably be astronomical) and it’s yours!  : )  I’ve often wondered how individuals on sites like ebay and etsy ship huge pieces of furniture.  I can just see me wrapping this up in brown paper and taking it to our local hardware store for UPS pickup.

Seriously, I do have it for sale on Facebook’s Marketplace.  If you are looking for projects to paint or have something to sell, this is a great place to do it.  Marketplace somehow finds all the swap sites on Facebook (according to your desired location setting) and puts them in one place .  You don’t even have to a member of those sites.  I have bought and sold several things through Marketplace.  I love this service!  P.S.  I just noticed this set has been viewed by 509 people in the last two days.  Wow!

But first, the history of the desk/hutch.  I found this set on one of the swap sites.  It sat smack dab in my living room for months!  As you can see a floor lamp is on the desk at this point.  I would look at that huge hutch and think, “How am I ever going to paint those little letter cubby areas” and then get overwhelmed with how huge a project like this would be.

I couldn’t think what I wanted to do with it, so I finally sold it to my friend, Michelle, who carries our paint in her store and paints projects right along with me.  We call ourselves Lucy and Ethel.  Funny thing, that’s not the first time a friend and I have had those nicknames and I always seem to be Lucy.  Hmmmm.

But then…..a previous customer who had bought a desk from me earlier for one of her daughters contacted me and wanted me to find and paint another for another daughter.  Sure!  No problem.  I knew just the desk. It even looked somewhat like the one she bought earlier. She probably wouldn’t want the hutch, but I sent a quick text to Michelle to see if she still had it in her stash and back it came. Only catch was, I had to take the hutch back, too!  I sometimes feel we spend more time shuffling furniture around than actually painting.  🙂  So then it was back in the living room again.

Now, to find inspiration for the desk.  I started searching and came upon this awesome blog.  Would you believe this lady had the same exact desk I had?  Not only was it painted with an absolutely beautiful shabby chic look, she even had a tutorial on how she did it!! Her blog is called “How to Nest for Less” and her desk tutorial can be found here.  Thank you, thank you, Erin!

Erin’s painting idea was genius!  Dry brush distress right over the desk as it is.  I painted the desk first and realized that it just had to have the hutch.  However, both pieces would be way too big for this little girl’s room.  I happened to have just finished another smaller desk/hutch in a blush pink and suggested this one instead to the customer.  She loved it for her daughter!  SOLD!  I’m going to paint a chair to match and….she is also buying a dresser to match the desk set she bought earlier.  It was a good week for furniture selling.

Back to the Shabby/Chic desk set.  I now had the desk completed, with new knobs (actually clear resin knobs I found at a yard sale and painted “Vintage Coral” and pulls spray painted silver with the wood part painted “Vintage Coral”.

finisheddesk

I was ready to tackle the hutch. As I was painting it, I decided to take the cork board off and paint it.  I had researched and found it was best to shellac it before painting, so Danny (my husband and partner in all of this) used our handy dandy Zinsser Bulls-Eye Shellac on it. That worked like a charm and the paint just glided on.  Then I figured it would be easier to paint the back if it was off.  When it came off, we discovered the shelves and letter cubby things all slid out and I was able to paint each piece separately!!!  Yahoo!  And I’d been so stuck on what trouble that was going to be.

corkboard

Corkboard – shellac first

openhutch

hutch without back

paintedcubbies

letter cubbies came apart

I finished up the hutch and if the desk looked pretty before, once we put the hutch on top the transformation was amazing.  This set is officially GORGEOUS! I added a shabby/chic chair to match and it was ready to sell!  Oh and did I mention, the hutch has a light?  Right now, there are two people interested in it, so it is going to sell quickly, I think.  But maybe not too quickly.  I like looking at it as it sits in my crowded dining room and going over every once in awhile and sitting at it and running my hand across the top.

I do believe I’m a little obsessed over this project.

Are you ready for the reveal?

deskhutchfinalpicatnightdeskhutch1deskhutch3detaildrawers

 

 

 

 

May 16, 2016 Make & Take It Class

We had a great time at our May 16th class.  It was even a mini reunion with two of my fellow high school graduates attending.  It was a lot of fun, especially when I flicked paint on several unsuspecting observers. Oops. Thanks so much to all who participated! Your projects are going to look great and I can’t wait to see pics of them on display. You all picked some beautiful colors. We even had one project using the crackle distressing technique.The class was held at Gift Emporium and Cafe‘ in Sullivan. Class started with learning painting, distressing, waxing, and sealing tips, then participants talked, ate, laughed, and enjoyed seeing each other’s projects and all the colors of paint being used.

Interested in learning more about chalk-based paint and tips on applying it and the best way to seal it?  These people and others who have taken the class will tell you it really isn’t hard to do and the transformation is amazing!  To learn more about our classes, which are usually kept to 6-8 participants, visit SharSum Paint’s Painting Class page.

Update:  Our June 20, 2016 class is now full, but we are now enrolling for our July 11th  class.  See our Painting Class page link above for more details on our classes.

An “Antiqued” table from the 1960’s Gets a Make Over

A few weeks ago, I talked about antiquing kits from the 1960’s.  The little table I was to paint for a friend had been “antiqued” by her grandmother and now I was giving it a new life for the  HER granddaughter’s newly painted room.  Love the passing down of a treasured heirloom.

I thought I’d post before and after pics.  I think it turned out pretty well.  I painted a mirror for her, too, and I think her granddaughter is going to use it as a little vanity.  I hope my friend sends a pic of them in their new home.  : )

It makes me so happy to make others happy.  This is my favorite part of what we are doing in our retirement years; refurbishing, painting, and selling with chalk-based paint.

 

A Desk Gets a New Life and a New Home

One of the things I absolutely love about our Missouri Limestone Company’s chalk-based paint (besides how easy it is to use) is the look of the final project.  I recently found an older solid wood desk from a company called American Drew.  I had never heard of this company, but looked it up and they make quality furniture.

I decided I wanted to make an “Ombre'” desk, using different shaded of gray.  So I painted the base of the desk with Missouri Limestone Paint’s “January” (white) then gave it a wash of “Winter Gloves” (light gray).  I painted the top and the bottom drawer “Gray Goose” (dark gray), the little band around the top and the two top drawers with “Winter Gloves”, and the middle drawer “Sunday Silver” (medium gray).  I love the color names!  Click here for a neat trick using essential oils in drawers!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I also had a nice solid yard sale chair that had been painted black so I painted right over the black using the same “Ombre'” color scheme.  I recovered the chair seat with a piece of laminated fabric I bought at Hobby Lobby.

The final touch was an old brass-plated desk lamp I bought at another yard sale and painted it with “Indigo” (navy blue).

I sealed the whole set with 3 coats of my favorite topcoat Varathane Crystal Clear Water-based Polyurethane after my research found this recommendation.  I purchased it on Amazon and at Menards. because I could not find it locally.

The “Ombré” desk, chair, and lamp are in their new home. The 9 year old owner is said to be very excited. I love making people happy with our paint and projects.

Ombre Desk in it's new home - 9 year old owner is said to be very excited. : )

Ombre Desk in its new home – 9 year old owner is said to be very excited. : )

Projects Painted and Sold Using Missouri Limestone Chalk-based Paint

It’s been awhile since I added sold projects, so thought I’d update and add a few.

This has to be my favorite piece I’ve sold. It was shipped all the way to Virginia. This was a watercolor technique I came up with, staining the wood with a paint wash. Read all about the Rags to Riches story of Sir Albert on my blog!

The unassembled parts of a hutch we recently finished for a client. Too big to put back together in my house. Don’t you just love the decoupaged knobs and drawer sides?

This dining room set is one of my favorite ones we’ve painted and sold.

Another favorite set.

We even paint and sell jewelry boxes.

Yes, this pink one is really a jewelry box.

This one was actually a gift. It is a memory box I made for my sister with a vintage photo of my mom and her sisters decoupaged on the top. Have a photo of your own? We have more jewelry boxes. We can copy your photo and make one for you!

This client owned set was just what she was envisioning. We even painted books to go in the basket we painted for one of the nightstands.

We paint and sell smalls, too. Like these vintage sewing machine drawers.

We have turned several Queen Ann captain chairs into colorful, whimsical works of art. This one we donated to my grandson’s kindergarten classroom.

Love how this one turned out!

We had fun with this set. Client purchased it to donate to a heart charity auction.

We painted a bunch of these cute little vases. Can paint these with your color choices. I love filling mine with fresh blooms from my yard.

This is a cute little cabinet we reinvented with a farmhouse look, custom painted with client color choice. We can do that. Just ask!!

This was a little bench I painted with Missouri Limestone Psint Company’s January and Crepe Myrtle. Stencils were cut using my Silhouette Portrait machine and contact paper.

This is another piece I really hated selling.  I was so wishing I had a 4 season room.  I would have kept this little table set in a heartbeat.

a4tablechairs

This 1880’s sofa table is very long.  It really needed a paint job so we gave it one.  I distressed this piece with vaseline.  : )

1880sofatable

The original use for this spool was for electrical wiring a Lowe’s.  We transformed this into a little table, just perfect for a beach house.  I called a friend who had just purchased a beach house as a second home.  She thought so, too.  It is now happily content in its new home.  : )

spooltable

I had this waterfall set and custom painted it for a customer.  She wanted the dresser to be gray with some of the wood still showing.  The wardrobe’s inspiration was from a piece she saw on Pinterest.  We even found the same exact vinyl design on Amazon.

dresserfinishedwardrobefinishedwardrobefinished1

Another Steam Punk look for a customer that loves the look.  The middle piece of marble was broken on this coffee table and had been replace by a piece of glass.  We covered a thin board with this map fabric from Jo-Ann’s and it fit perfectly under the glass.  Gave it a black paint job and sealed it with poly.

steampunktable

This was such a fun project!  This dated wooden nautical clock was blah, until I turned it into a Steam Punk look with a little black paint and wax.

nautical-clock

Love Pinterest.  That’s where we got the idea to take chairs and turn them into a bench.  The bench is 3 chairs put together.  We used the back legs of the 4th chair to create the sides.  This bench sold with a table and chair set my friend was selling. Love how it all turned out.

bench-12

bench-1

This is one of my first “restoration hardware” looks I did.  I really enjoy trying out different painting techniques.

restorationhardwaretablerestorationhardwaretable1

I loved painting the gray ombre desk so much, I painted the dresser that matched it the same way. The lady that bought the desk snatched up the dresser right away.ombredresser

I didn’t sell this one.  This is my front door, and my wrought iron furniture I have in my front yard.  The door is metal.  I did this about 3 months ago and still haven’t sealed it.  I’m not sure I will.  It is holding up well.

frontdoorplantstanddoorandfurniture

This hutch and desk was a drab, yellowish color and had seen better days.  Painting it with varying shades of pink made all the difference in the world.

pinkblushdeskhutch

This is one of my all time favorite pieces.  I would have kept this one if I had the room in my house.  finalpicfinalpicatnightdeskhutch3

We had another client who had 6 chairs that needed painting.  We took that project on and delivered them back home this past week.  They look gorgeous with the dining room table that was handcrafted by the husband.  A beautiful set at the fraction of what a new one would cost.

chairspaintedforclient

Painted chairs – Missouri Limestone Paint – January


This little vanity table was a family heirloom.  It had been “antiqued” by the client’s grandmother back in the 1960’s.  Read more about that here.  The client had admired the Ombre desk I had completed and so the vanity has the same type of look, with the addition of a stencil to give it a french-style look.


desk set

Ombre Desk Set – painted in varying shades of gray – Missouri Limestone’s Chalk-based Paint – Winter Gloves, Sunday Silver and Gray Goose. Lamp is painted with Indigo.

desklamp_indigo

Desk Lamp – Painted with Indigo


ombredesk_finalhome

Ombre Desk in it’s new home – 9 year old owner is said to be very excited. : )

bench

Piano/Storage Bench – painted with Trading Post

pet bed

Pet Bed – upcycled from a drawer – Painted with Coal Shovel

Lamp painted with Vintage Coral.

Lamp painted with Vintage Coral.

Spigot Planter

Spigot Planter – painted with “Clothesline”

Easter Candy Jars

Easter Candy Jars

fliptoptable

Small Tilt Table – Painted with Grannie’s Lace

cupboard green_memories

Memories Photo holder – painted with Coal Shovelv

sharsum_spigot1

Spigot towel rack painted with “Clothesline”

sharsum_smtable

Small Detailed Cabinet – painted with Dark Roast on top (with poly sealer)  and Zinc on bottom (with clear wax and dark wax in detail area)

smalltable_finalhome

The small table is sitting happily in its new home. Looks like the colors go perfectly with the decor in the home.

April 16, 2016 “Make & Take It Class

SharSum Paint’s April 16 class was so much fun!  It was held at Gift Emporium and Cafe‘ in Sullivan. The projects everyone brought in to paint were just perfect.  Participants were able to paint and wax/seal their projects in the 4 hour class.  In between drying times, they learned painting, distressing, waxing, and sealing tips, talked, ate, laughed, and enjoyed seeing each other’s projects and all the colors of paint being used.

Interested in learning more about chalk-based paint and tips on applying it and the best way to seal it?  These people and others who have taken the class will tell you it really isn’t hard to do and the transformation is amazing!  To learn more about our classes, which are usually kept to 6-8 participants, visit SharSum Paint’s Painting Class page.

Update:  Our May 16, 2016 class is now full.  See our Painting Class page link above for more details on our classes.

IMG_0228

Let the painting begin!

plant stand

Donna’s plant stand and…..hard to see…..but a concrete bird partially (hidden by the drink tumblers), painted in “Something Blue”.

bird

Here’s a better view of Donna’s concrete bird – he will get no wax or seal. Outside items do not need it. The sun and heat will cure the paint.

waxing

Christina brought in this beautiful claw foot bench. Painted, distressed just a bit, and waxed, she is thrilled with it and it is now going from basement storage to a prime spot in her entry way.

inspecting

Inspecting her wax application.

bench

This bench is just gorgeous!

lampshade

Megan is painting a fabric lampshade. Yep! Works great!

lamp

Paint a metal lamp to go with that shade? Why not? This color “Chicory” (first coat) is just beautiful. It was named for the little periwinkle color flower that grows along Missouri roads. You will see them usually sticking out of the asphalt. It looks like Danny is taking 5. : )

finished lamp

Beautiful final project – went from a yard sale reject to a prominent place in a little girl’s bedroom.

chair

Megan also painted this cute child chair “Something Blue”. Her kids use in their bathroom for reaching the sink. She used a poly seal on it for durability. Next up for her – painting kitchen and bathroom cabinets!

cabinet door

Danny is drying Mallory’s practice cabinet door so she can see how the Varathane polyurethane works and will look. She’s now going to paint her kitchen cabinets.

bathroom vanity door

Watching paint dry on Roxanne’s bathroom vanity door, which doesn’t take long at all. This picture shows it looking gray, but it is really a dark brown “French Roast”. With a light distressing showing the golden oak door underneath, this truly has that Pottery Barn look to it. She is now going to paint the rest of her vanity. Sure glad she liked the look or her vanity might have ended up with one dark brown door. : )

shelf

Wendy brought in this small shelf to transform.

Final look - After painting this shelf with "January, she did a light wash with "French Roast".  This gave it a little bit of a vintage look and broke up the pure white look of the shelf.

Final look – After painting this shelf with “January, she did a light wash with “French Roast”. This gave it a little bit of a vintage look and broke up the pure white look of the shelf.

A great time was had by everyone.  All the projects turned out great.  It was so much fun to see them coming to life.

A Cinder Block Bench

Great idea for making a cinder block bench, but I would paint it with Missouri Limestone Chalk-based paint. It is perfect for outdoor projects like this.

http://diycozyhome.com/diy-cinder-block-project-for-your-back-patio/

Paint a Patio Chair Cushion with Chalk-type Paint? Yes, Please!

I was with a friend at dinner the other night and she was mentioning how faded and blah her patio chair cushions were.  She wondered if she could paint them with Missouri Limestone Chalk-type paint.  I said, “Sure you can!”  But then we both wondered if you would need to seal them and if so, what you should use.  I told her I’d check it all out and let her know.  I’m so glad I did, and you will be, too.

paintedcushion1

First, I did some research and here are my findings:

Painting Tips:

  1.  Give your cushions a good cleaning before you begin. My practice cushion, sad to say, had some of that green gunk on it.  I took a Mr. Clean sponge and wiped that stuff off and was good to go.
  2. The best tip I read when getting started: Before painting, take a spritzer bottle of water to dampen the cushion.  The paint goes on better and gets into the fabric better when the cushion is slightly damp.  I didn’t need to do that.  I just went outside and found an old cushion that had been left out and it had rained some earlier.  Perfect dampness!  Sometimes it pays to be lazy!
  3. Some people took their cushion covers off (if able to remove) and used cardboard between the covers so paint wouldn’t bleed through.  My thought on this:  If your cushions were so bad you were thinking of throwing them out before you decided to paint them, then just leave those covers on.  Who cares if the pillow underneath gets paint on it?  Save yourself some time and energy.
  4. I noticed when I painted my striped cushion, you were able to see the faint stripe underneath.  I also needed to spread it out a little while painting to get into the nooks and crannies. I also noticed my brush bristles went right up to the cording on the sides.  On this pillow, the cording seemed to be a plastic type material and looked ok, so I just left it like it was.  I painted a second coat in one area, but still saw the faint stripe.  So, my conclusion on that was:  That stripe was kind of cool.  It gave the pillow a look I liked.  Why waste paint and time and cover it all up.  Patterns are good under a coat of paint.  In fact, they are very, very good.
  5. I saw some people added stencil designs to their pillows and some used painters tape and painted their own stripes in coordinating colors.

Finishing Tips:

  1. You don’t want to wax….my friend’s cushions are on a screened-in porch, but it does get hot out there.  We wouldn’t want to sit on those cushions on a hot summer day and have wax come off on our clothes….so no waxing outside….on any project.  The sun and the heat will cure your chalk-type paint projects.
  2. Some suggested sealing with a poly of some kind, some did not.  I would guess it would all depend how much they are left out in the elements.
  3. My finishing tip?  Don’t bother.  I’ll explain why below.

What a difference a little chalk-type paint makes, right?  It literally took me just seconds to paint the area I painted as the paint covered so well.  But then came the question of sealing.

I let the cushion dry for several hours and then tried an experiment.  I put a poly sealer on half of the cushion and let the other half stay as it was. My thought was the poly would not only give it more protection, it would make the cushion easy to wipe off.

After the poly dried well, I took a wet cloth and scrubbed it really hard.  No paint came off on the rag, and it was easy to scrub, so I thought that was very nice.  Then, I took a wet rag and scrubbed the area that just had paint. I scrubbed and scrubbed.  Guess what?  No paint came off that area, either.  It was easy to scrub and actually, except for the slight sheen of the poly area, you really couldn’t tell any difference.

Bottom line…..don’t bother sealing.  Bring your cushions in to protect them like you did when they were new (as you can tell from the beginning of this post – I tend to leave mine out in the elements at times) and your newly painted cushions should last the summer, at least.  I personally believe the heat of the summer will make the paint cure even more and they will last a good long while.  If they don’t, just paint them again next year.

I’m so glad I did my research and experiments.  I, too, have a set of patio chair cushions that I’m going to paint……now my biggest problem is choosing a color!

 

January Make & Take It Class

Another successful Make and Take It Class was hosted by Mickie Watkins.  Mickie has the perfect place for these classes.  It is always so much fun to check out what others are painting and seeing the variety of colors on the projects.  I thought I was getting pics of everything, but missed a few.  Hopefully, everyone sends us pics of their finished projects and we will post them on the site.

Each participant gets a starter kit with a sample of paint of their choice, brush, sponge, and rags.  The host will be provided with a starter kit and is not charged for the class.  The host provides some appetizers (because painting makes a person hungry).  Participants bring their beverage of choice and it is best to wear old clothes.

These classes are so much fun!  If you are interested in hosting a Make & Take It class, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.