copycat art

followup from my rendezvous with the craft den

i don't make art, i copy it

maybe one day i'll have either a true creative spark or enough money to buy the originals ;)

Heidi Malott

a table refinished... a first!

Done awhile ago, just now posting!  I needed a better side table for the guest room and wanted to experiment with refinishing and antiquing.  

Inspiration tables:

from Richard Tubbs

above...

from Interiors and Antiques in Vestavia Hills

and below....

The find:

The process (compiled from several you-tube videos):

Sand down the table, paint with a base coat (I chose Ben Moore's Coastal Fog, 976)

 

Put a coat of lighter-colored paint on top after base is dry (Waverly Snow White and Cottage Linen), and wipe off in line with the woodgrain with a rag.  You will be removing lots of the paint, and can do this many times.

Water down your lighter paint and continue to use the above technique to apply depth and the illusion of woodmarkings to your surface.

Sand down the edges in a subtle way to make it look less "new".

The end result:

Did that make sense at all??  I'm not the best explainer.  Maybe you should just you-tube it like I did...

Tada Table!

So last weekend I was inspired....despite Holland (and Cover) both giving me a TV mount for our bedroom (see previous post)... the quotes for us to mount our TV and speakers, which were wider than the space available, would be ~$500!!! So I decided it would be best to just bite the bullet and get a TV-table. And I was so lucky! I walked into Hannah's Antiques downtown Birmingham and found this fabulous table... It is an old singer sewing table that is castiron with white marble on top. See below my transformation! I painted the legs a grey color to go with my Duh theme.. my favorite store in Pensacola Don't you love it??

Darn TV table

Jimmy was so excited to get the opportunity to buy another plasma that now we have one that we basically don't use! It is in our bedroom on a too-deep piece of wood furniture, sitting too low for us to actually watch TV in bed (bad habit I know). We probably should mount this TV up on the wall, because the room is small and already has a lot of furniture in it (big bed and big dresser, all dark wood). However - I'm having a tough time justifying spending the $200-$300 it would take to mount this huge TV and speakers on the wall, when in reality it is a guest bedroom and I don't think future prospective buyers will appreciate! Here is the room and the space - I wasn't kidding!! So I'm debating adding a taller table in here to hold up the TV, since the same amount of mula can then manifest into a piece of furniture that we can take with us and have forever. Problem: not much space and lots of wood in this room already! I've been looking for a table that is either: 1) dark wood because I know I'll use it in a future house and this room will just remain cluttered 2) wood, but painted a lighter color so it is different (think shabby chic) 3) iron with either marble/granite/glass on top I'll be honest and say that #3 is my ideal option. I've been wanting an iron table for a while, it would go anywhere in the future, yada yada. However, they tend to be pricey when nice ($1800 for my favorite one) , and I didn't have too much success finding one in the lesser-expensive antique stores downtown. So here are my options that I found lately. I'll put the price and where they are from, and I'll mention anything that stood out to me about them. Please respond if one stands out to you as one that you would be jealous of if you saw it in a friend's house! I apologize for the blurry vision - Iphones aren't exactly the best cameras, but are much more discreet! The TV stand needs to sit on a table that is at least 14" deep and 30" wide. All these tables would work. 1. I can't remember actually how much$ this one is. 18'' deep, 36'' high. From Hannah's antiques. 2. Uh, not doing so well, this one I can't remember how much either, also Hannah's antiques. The knobs match the knobs on an old dresser I have. Good dimensions. 3. $190, At Home, this one is a shabby chic greyish color, about 16" deep. 4. $400, Hannah's Antiques. kindof swirly, marble top and iron base, if you can't see. 5. $360, Nadeau's. Less wide than the others, but still would fit the TV. 6. $327, Nadeau's, sliding front in wood, more of a solid piece vs a spindly table. 7. $350, Hannah's Antiques. I talked this booth-owner down from $525, this one is 18"x48", and is 40" tall (a smidgen taller than a standard console table). 8. $347, Hannah's Antiques, green marble on top with grey iron base, cut in a trapezoid shape, width at front is 3 ft and at back is 4 ft. 9. $218, Nadeau's, traditional but very solid and good-looking. 10. $80 with the sale they are having now, Hannah's Antiques, this one is shabby chic as well and is one of the smallest, (right height though), at about 16''x 32''. Which one?!?!

Room Colors!!

I posted the layout so that I can refer to it when I am deciding the colors of the rooms, other furniture, etc. Since painting will come first when we move in, I think it is important to consider all the colors sooner rather than later!

Kitchen as is:

I love the kitchen in the new place, and especially the fact that I now have a window ledge over my sink! However, it is a bit drab despite its brightness. It needs some contrast between the all white cabinets, backsplash, and counter, with the walls. I love greys with whites, they seem so crisp. But, I want to avoid the darker and more basic man-grey, which can seem way too much like a scary metrosexual bachelor pad! So - I may keep the color I have in the Chapel Hill house kitchen, Paris Rain, which is a green-grey! You can see it below, in the foreground. It looks really nice against the white. Following this picture is a picture of Allison Godwin's kitchen, with a similar look.

But I'm not going to lie, when I see the two pictures below (also from runner-up houses in Birmingham), it makes me want a color that is more grey than my Paris Rain!! I don't know which version! help anyone!!

Dining Room as is:

Ok, I hope they can't find me online, but I am really really glad that the people who lived in this house before wanted to take those curtains! I guess they are ok, but I don't want to be tempted to leave them up! So....since the flow from the den to the dining room to the kitchen is nice, I may try to go by the words of advice from Julie Lemen, my mom's best friend from the DC area, and let the colors flow as well! Below is a picture of the color of my dining room here in Chapel Hill, Texas Sage. I do really like it, and I like the idea of the dining room being a darker color (and I have a chair rail as well!).

The Office as is:

This office is so adorable! It gets great light during the day. I can picture a piano in here instead of desk maybe too, especially if we end up using bedroom #3 as a psuedo-office. We will need a good desk regardless... In addition to some paint! What does anyone think of the odd inverted ledge at the ceiling top?? Should this match the wall color, as they did, or be white? This next picture is of another house we really liked, and I loved this fireplace color! It kindof reminds me of raccoon hollow from Benjamin Moore but a bit darker. We have Raccoon Hollow in our study here in Chapel Hill. I might want to use it in the office in the new place as well. I actually really like this color for the outside of a house too, or maybe a color a bit greener.

Raccoon Hollow - in our Chapel Hill house

Bedroom #2 as is:

First of all, I hope you see the great plantation shutters! Initially I was thinking we could keep this color, as it is pretty similar to the color we would change it to (see the next picture). But now I am wondering if these two are totally different! The existing color is almost Carolina blue (yuk when it comes to walls), and the color upstairs in our Chapel Hill house is really a blue-green-grey, much more subdued. I might need to switch it, while we are at it! This color is Wythe Blue. Following is my awesome print that I now have framed to put in this room to tie it together.

Bedroom #3 as is:

Kindof grandma. I actually like the color of this wall. This is the room in the back of the house that you can get to from the kitchen or from the hall (you are looking at the hall door), so we can choose to use or not to use the kitchen door. Jimmy really wants us to put up our bookshelves in this room, and make it a reading room since we both will be studying our cases each night. I like that idea, otherwise we'd have to try to study in the den on the couch....zzzzz..... not so efficient. So, here is my corresponding room in the Chapel Hill house. Yikes I need to make some headboards too...

And this room - regardless of whether or not I do the bookshelves & reading area, I want to make a color similar to the study. Below are two prints from online some other blog, with the perfect palate of colors! The third picture is of Allison's fireplace, which also has such an awesome color! This room gets a ton of light, so I think this color will be safe.

You might notice - hey! no master bedroom or bathrooms! No den! just a little more to come. I will post it in the future when I have more time!