Tag Archives: Refinishing Furniture

Essential Oil Tip for Refinishing Drawers

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As I was finishing up my “Ombre” desk set re-do, I thought about my collection of essential oils.The drawers of the desk were in very good shape and had no odor whatsover. However, I’m into essential oils and I have an oil from Young Living called Cedarwood. I decided I would wipe down the drawers with a mixture of water and about 10 drops of Cedarwood. I thought that might be a perfect scent for a wooden drawer, right? It smelled so good, I put a little oil on q-tips and put one in each drawer for awhile. I love opening the drawers and getting a faint whiff of Cedarwood. You might try a favorite scent in the drawers of something you are working on or purchased.  Another tip…..if your drawers do have an odor, paint or spray a coat or two of Zinsser water-based shellac to seal in odors such as smoke or a musty smell.  These odors won’t penetrate through the shellac.  This works on stains, too.

Q-tip dipped in essential oil and placed in drawer for a short time.

Q-tip dipped in essential oil and placed in drawer for a short time.

 

A Desk Gets a New Life and a New Home

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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!

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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. : )

Remembering “Antiquing” Kits from the 1960’s

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Up-cycling is nothing new…Americans have been doing it forever (and trust me 55 years seems like forever).  Does anyone remember the old “antiquing” kits from the 1960’s?

I realized recently that I had about 55 years ago, what was probably my first experience with up-cycling furniture.. A friend sent me a pic of a piece of furniture her grandmother “antiqued” around then. Look closely and you’ll see little flecks of paint.

table

Small table “antiqued” 55 years ago

It reminded me of an old vanity my mom bought for our cabin on the river and an antiquing kit. She probably bought the kit at our local Davis Paint store. I was just a kid, but remember helping to paint this vanity one summer.  I even remember where we put it to paint it. It was outside by the tire swing. Crazy things you remember. You first painted a base coat, which was off white. Then you somehow distressed it with this really, really ugly green. The final touch was putting the green on a toothbrush and flicking little dots strategically all over. I think that was to represent worm holes maybe. I just remember it looking like mold on a piece of off white furniture. That vanity would bring big bucks now. I’m sure I  have a pic of it somewhere. May have to look sometime. It had drawers on both sides of a lower shelf and a mirror of some kind attached.  It looked a little like this one, but not near so fancy.  At that time, it would NOT have been considered an antique, just an old vanity no one wanted and I’m sure my mother paid next to nothing for it.  It was for the cabin!

antique vanity

I wish the vanity we had looked as nice as this one.

It made me realize that, as a family, we’ve been into painting, upcycling, and refinishing, making things old new again for a long time. Mom and Dad went on to really refinishing furniture. They did a lot of really nice things. Kathy and I are still using furniture they refinished. Kathy remembers them mixing up some kind of concoction with linseed oil and a sealer of some kind. Beautiful wooden pieces like that, I would keep as is. But give me something that needs a new life and I’m ready to paint! So, maybe I should be advertising on SharSum Paint that I have over 50 years experience upcycling furniture. : ) Dad even made, by hand, bookcases for Kathy and me. We still have these. We can’t bear to part with them…they are not attractive at all, and not very sturdy, but he lovingly fashioned them for us out of the lumber from the outhouse  when he bought the rights to tear down the cabin and the outhouse from the Corps of Engineers. : ) Yes, he was quite the jokester.