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.