Labor of Love

On my first trip to Blue Suede Shoes in Bryant, I fell in LOVE with a chest of drawers.  I despised the paint job and LOVED the lines of the mirror and legs.  That afternoon I was able to take Martin and show him my latest desire.  He was less than impressed with it.  The dresser was 100 dollars.  This is double my usual budget on a good "junking" day.  Needless to say, I had to beg and pester him with hints about how wonderful the dresser would look if I stripped it and painted it an antique white and distressed it.  In less than 24 hours, we were back at BSS purchasing the poorly painted piece of furniture.  Thank you Martin!

When we got it home I started to strip it with CitraStrip.  Immediately, the paint started to bubble.  This process usually takes 25-45 min complete.  With the first scrape of strip, a dark (almost black) varnish came through.  When we wiped it down, a beautiful cherry top wood was revealed.

Martin was suddenly and surprisingly willing to help out after finding out what a beauty we had :)

The process took longer than 20 hours to complete.  We ended up stripping the dresser 3 times.  Every surface was sanded with medium paper and a palm sander.  The palm sander is definitely my FAVORITE power tool!! We are currently borrowing our neighbor's and there are definite plans to purchase our own.  Maybe I can talk Martin into getting a pink one!

The pictures show the process.  We tried to document every step in detail.  With every step, we were flabbergasted at how great the piece looked and could only dream of how good it was going to look when we were completed.

Minwax Red Mahogany and SemiGloss Minwax Polyurethane was used in the staining process. 

We are still pleasantly surprised every time we walk into our bedroom and see this beautiful piece.  There will be may more labors of LOVE to come, but none will be as special as this first piece we completed together!  We will have this piece for years to come. 

Should be doing laundry..

Life is taking off for us right now! I am halfway through my orientation at the new job (that I LOVE!).  Martin is hot and heavy with his job right now.  It being 100+ degrees makes his job literally- Hot and Heavy.  We are getting excited about the wedding.  We keep talking about how great it's going to be to have all of our closest family and friends in one room!
The pups are doing great.  They are beating the heat by sleeping with me during the day. Then they hit the sack again with Martin at night.  What a life!
My next door neighbor/fabulous friend, Anna/Tryna,  has turned me on to "Junking".  She took me for my first experience in mid-June.  What a fun hobby!  Other's people junk have most certainly become our treasures.  The pictures are of the first few projects that we took on.
 In the beginning, Martin wasn't very fond of my new found hobby and the mess that it made.  I began driving across town to The Home Depot several times a week to build up my supply bucket.  5 quarts of paint and several cans of Citra Strip later, I have quite a starter kit.

The (now) blue primitive table was my first "revamp".  It is now a walk-in table in our dining room.  It was dry brushed with Martha's Agean Blue.  Once you go Martha, you never go back!  Her paint is fabulous to work with and has so much vibrancy to every color.

The vanity was something I had been searching for since we made the move to our Hillcrest home.  This was found at Blue Suede Shoes in Bryant, Arkansas.  It was in great condition and all of the drawers pull out (hard to find)! The mirror is three mirrors that are hinged together with smooth movement.  I turned to some oil based Killz for priming.  What a mess oil priming was!! Won't be doing that again.  Martha came to the rescue on this piece.  The faint yellow is almost a creme.  It goes wonderful with the grey and red of our bedroom.

The antique side table was definitely a pieced together piece of furniture.  We are thinking it was one half of a vanity.  It was stripped with Citra Stip, primed and painted with Martha's Heavy Creme.  The glass red knobs are darling and definitely give the piece character.  This serves as the perfect nightstand for our high king size bed!

Whew! How exhausting.  It is never a short process turning something drab to FAB!

If only all of the time I have put into the revamping process went to our ever-growing laundry pile.. What a wife I would be :)