Righting a Wrong

When it came to our dining room table, I had a vision. I knew what I wanted it to look like. At the time, I didn't want to paint it and stripping it was out of the question (I try to avoid that at all costs. I'm very impatient). I sanded a little...but, it pretty much remained that same.

So, I just went ahead anyway and applied liming wax, and ended up with this:

I wasn't entirely happy with it. It remained in the garage until about a month ago when we moved. Now, I see it every day. I glare at it. Sometimes I call it names. I had to do something.

First, I added some dark wax to the top. It covered and cleaned up the liming wax quite nicely. It's not back to it's original state, but it looks much better. You can see the difference in the pic below.

Then, I painted it. I used the Mustard Seed Yellow again from MMSMP. I've painted one other piece this color and it was a nice way to introduce yellow in another area of hour house (it also goes well with the chairs we painted and recovered). I didn't get much chipping at all, but areas sanded off really easily with a sanding pad.

Mustard Seed Yellow | Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint

Sooo much better! We'll be changing out the rug eventually, but it fits our home so much better now. Which is one of the things I love about painting furniture. It's ok if your original vision doesn't turn out as planned. Just pick up a brush and try again!

Exciting News: RDFCo. to Open Shop in Frenchtown

You know how it feels to be holding back a secret...and you just can't wait to blurt it out? But, you want to wait until all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed? Well, everything finally came together this week and tonight we officially wrapped things up: We are excited to announce that we'll be opening a brick and mortar shop in February 2014! Eek!

Our shop will be in the historic Frenchtown area in St. Charles, Missouri (it has the largest concentration of French Colonial style architecture in the Midwest, and is on the National Register of Historic Places). We'll be joining an awesome mix of antique shops, a country market, vintage rentals, bridal boutiques, florists, home decor shops and more.

We get the keys on Jan. 1 and will have one month to get our new space ready. (Oh, and build up an awesome stock). Here's what it looks like right now:

The space has some great hardwood floors and I love the exposed brick on the front wall. We have alot of cosmetic work to do to get it ready...but, that's all fun anyway, right?

At a little over 1,000 square feet, it has plenty of retail space and room for a small work area for Jeff and myself. Oh...and room to hold furniture painting classes. Because we are also excited to announce that we are officially a Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint Retailer. Yay!

I've been a fan of Marian's style and paint for while and cannot wait to work more with it and bring it to the Frenchtown area. I'm hoping to attend formal training in Feb. so we can offer workshops and DIY classes right away.

We've posted some additional info on our website (opening date, hours, what to expect). Of course, we'll also be blogging about our journey here.

We are so thankful to everyone who has supported us. This is a huge leap of faith for us. We are nervous. Excited. Maybe a little scared to death. But, we know that if we don't give it a try, we will never know! We hope you can come visit us in February.

DIY: Steel Wool and Vinegar Wood Stain

We are in home project overload right now. We're closing on our new house on Wednesday (YAY!) and it's a mad dash to get everything ready. One of the things on our to-do list was to freshen up our computer desk. We picked up this table several years ago at an antique store...it's already been thru a couple of makeovers since we brought it home. Here's what it looked like when we bought it:

I've been wanting to try a steel wool and vinegar stain for awhile. And, once the table top was completely stripped down, I knew it would be the perfect piece. There's tons of tutorials and "recipes" out there...here's what we did:

 1. Soak steel wool (we used medium) in a jar of vinegar. The longer it sits, the rustier it will get and the darker the result. This is what it looked like after one week:

 Here's the table top all sanded down. Nice, smooth and bare.

2. Use a paint brush (or cloth) and brush on the rusty vinegar mix. Don't forget to shake it up and get all the "good stuff" that settles at the bottom.

Here's what it looked like halfway thru. What a difference!

3) We let the vinegar stain soak in and wiped it down. The finish looked duller -- but, definitely looked like aged wood.

 

 4) Then, we applied one of our favorite wood conditioners/finishers: Howard's Feed-N-Wax. It's made from beeswax and orange oil and really brings out the wood and deepened the color.

5) Next up was Annie Sloan's soft clear wax (for extra protection)...and here's the finished look. The base and legs were painted with ASCP in Aubusson Blue, with Paris Grey underneath. I waxed it with liming wax, however I don't think it had much of an impact.

I'm totally loving it and will definitely be using this technique again. Super cheap and super easy!

Steel Wool and Vinegar Stained Table

Steel Wool and Vinegar Stained Table

 

Custom Work: Schulz Table

We have another busy weekend ahead of us. On Saturday, we're meeting some friends of ours who are wanting a sofa table. We've invited them along with us to help find the perfect door and be a part of the process (something we offer in our custom program). Which got me thinking, we never shared our first custom table we created! This table was completed earlier this year and remains one of the most unique so far!

 We met the Schulz's at one of our favorite local salvage shops. We arrived a bit early to scout it out and get a general idea of what they had (it can be pretty overwhelming). Initially, the request was for a window box table where the top could be opened and things could be stored inside for display.

We stumbled upon two nearly identical doors that they immediately fell in love with. One was a mirror and one was glass and both had the same leaded pattern. (It was also a similar pattern they had in the windows of their Clayton home). Some old spindles were found to be used as legs.

While the design itself was simple, the process to get there was time consuming. Both doors and the spindles had to be stripped. While we typically don't strip doors because of the time involved and chemicals, we did this time and used a stripper that contains no methylene chloride, is non-caustic and safe for indoor use.

 The oak wood on the doors was beautiful. The stain was chosen to match the other furniture in their living room.

Of course it got the signature "Red Door" treatment underneath.

Our custom program is available for dining room tables, sofa tables, side tables...whatever you need! Get more info here.

Liming Wax 101

I've been wanting to try Brimax's Liming Wax for awhile now. It promises to give an aged, whitewashed, "Restoration Hardware" look...without the hassle of the 1/2 paint, 1/2 water whitewash technique. All my searching online only brought up images of the wax used on lighter wood and not the darker stained table I was wanting to use it on. In the end, I decided to just go with it (and am now spreading it on everything I can get my hands on)...here's a few tips:

Liming wax is a smooth, white paste. It can be applied to bare wood, as well as stained and sealed wood. It works best when the paste can get into the grain, so some roughing up might be in order. Here's a before pic of the table I used it on. It had a good coat of gloss or poly on it, so I went over it with a sandpaper block. I also used a wire brush in a few areas to open up the grain and cracks.

Here is is halfway through. You can see how the liming wax is getting down into the grain and providing a whitewashed look to other areas.

The contrast of the limed top to the bottom.

Here's the finished top. There's one spot over on the right I want to add more to. They suggest putting a coat of clear wax on to seal it. I started to use my Annie Sloan Clear Wax and it acted almost like an eraser. So, I stopped.

I'm loving the driftwood, whitewashed new look it gives to the table. It took like 30 min. and I barely used any wax (it's a little pricey at $20/can. But, I barely put a dent in it).

Liming Wax 101

Then, I got this crazed look in my eye...what else could I put this magic paste on? We've had the table below for too long now. It's a simple coffee table on steel, hairpin legs. We've brought him to numerous shows, but alas, nobody wants to take him home.

Here's the top after a coat of liming wax and some of Annie Sloan's clear wax. What a difference! The white wax got down into some deep holes and cracks and the clear wax took away some of the hard edge of the liming wax. Leaving a lovely aged piece.

I would love to know...what do you think of the liming wax look? Would you try it?

Playing Around with Mustard Seed Yellow Milk Paint

The countdown is on...28 days until we close on our house. And, I have no less than five pieces of furniture to paint and seven chairs to recover. First up, this sideboard. Here it is in it's natural state.

It's from my mother-in-law and I painted it for the first time last year (painted sideboard reveal). At the time, in blended in with our walls and decor. I was only a little thrilled with it.

Now that we are moving into a new space, we are trying to work in some color. We've gone back and forth on palettes. Our first purchase was a navy, velvet couch. Next up, an earthy, green chair and blue/natural chevron rug. We contemplated orange for an accent color. Or, purple. Finally, we settled on yellow. Miss Mustard Seed Yellow to be more specific.

 

Since this paint is know for it's unpredictable chippiness and I didn't want any of the former finish to come through, I gave it a coat of paint. (Oh...and stripped the top).

 Also, since I am totally impatient, I painted it almost immediately with the milk paint. This ensued...

In some areas, the milk paint stripped the paint right down to the original finish. In other cases, it stripped off the last coat I put on, down to the coat I hoped to hide. In all cases, it took off the last coat I put on (I'm guessing I didn't let it cure long enough?). Lesson learned.

Here's what I was left with. I did no distressing. Just flaked off the chips and gave it a coat of dark wax:

Mustard Seed Yellow Sideboard

Here's a look with the newly stained top (please forgive me for the poor lighting).

Miss Mustard Seed Yellow

 

Miss Mustard Seed Yellow

 

The wax deepened and darkened the yellow and I love it. It will be the very first thing you see when you walk in our new house...I can't wait to move it in!

Linking to:
http://www.elizabethandco.blogspot.com/
Wow Us Wednesdays

Upcoming Show Preview: Boulevard St. Louis Etsy POP!up Shop

In typical RDFCo. fashion, we're making a made scramble to get ready for a show next weekend. I guess it's just a part of our creative process :-) 

We're looking forward to trying out a new venue here in St. Louis. The Boulevard is home to tons of great little shops and restaurants and a whole new potential client base. And, I can't wait to team up again with so many great STL Etsy shops, including:

www.kakabaka.com
http://www.etsy.com/shop/emkcreations
http://carriejeanhawkins.etsy.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/sewgoodandtrendy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Parsimonia
www.Etsy.com/shop/TheWeavingGuys
http://www.etsy.com/shop/PattySheppardArt
www.sticktoyourknittin.etsy.com
http://downzipper.etsy.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/AnnaOurthJewelry?ref=si_shop

The Boulevard St. Louis Etsy POP!up Shop will take place Saturday, Oct. 12 from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

The Boulevard St. Louis Etsy Pop!up Shop on Oct. 12

We'll be bringing out a few pieces we've had on-hand, as well as bringing along some new things we've been working on. Here's a sneak peek:

Live edge coffee table on stainless steel hairpin legs

Gold and Blue Tray

Footstool with recycled grain sack

Sofa table with reclaimed boat wood

Side table from old Paris door

If you're in the St. Louis area, stop on by and say hi! It's a great chance to get a head start on all that holiday shopping.