a dream desk

 

*Correction:  Apparently, while Windsor Smith DID manage the overall Veranda show house, this room was designed by Peter Dunham.*

 If you're a decor junkie (and if you're not, you wouldn't be reading this blog), you see lots of images.  Most are pretty, a lot are inspiring.  But through all that visual noise comes the occasional image that knocks you're socks off.  That image that inspires lust, burning lust.  This shot of a green desk in front of a leopardlike wallpaper comes from a Veranda showhouse designed by Windsor Smith.  And I love everything about it, but what really gets me is that shot of  kelly green  in front of that tobacco brown.

But I think that fact that's it's a desk is what seals the deal for me.  I've always liked to write, to day dream on paper, and it was the sorrow of my childhood that my bedroom was too small for me to have a writing desk.  Since then, I've dreamed of writing desks.

 I have one in my office, but it's a place for work (and reading blogs IS work, dammit!) and internet surfing.  I like that desk a lot (it was one of the first REAL pieces of furniture I bought), but the space itself is a public one, a utilitarian one.

The curtains have migrated to another room, but everything else is the same.

Lately, I've been dreaming again, specifically about writing fiction, something I haven't done with any regularity since childhood.  And like a good decor junkie, I plan to start my feathering a creative writing nest.  While I like my office, it's too close to the center of action in the house--too close to distraction.  Plus, it's a dark space.  I need someone airy, open, more secluded.

The perfect space:  the guest room.  While we do frequently have overnight guests, it is free most of the time, and it's flooded with light from large windows on free walls.  And most importantly, as it is off the main track of the house, it is usually free of clutter and visual distraction.  I do have a sewing table set up there, but I usually end up hauling the sewing machine downstairs to the dining table for more space to spread out anyway.  The sewing table itself is just white melamine and will continue to make itself useful downstairs in my studio.

The current sewing table in guest room.

Luckily, I had a  client give me a fantastic writing desk left over from a commercial remodel.  While not the same shape as Smith's desk, it has a great silhouette and will look terrific in kelly green.  I originally tried to turn the wall behind the desk into a magnetic board with magnetic primer...an experiment that failed miserably;  I plan to resort to good ol' cork squares.  Finally, a dream desk.  I can hardly wait.

Waiting for green paint.

How to Fake a Moroccan Chest: A Metamorphosis Monday project

Closeup of drawer and new knob.

Recently, I've just done a fun makeover on a client's existing piece of furniture, trying to replicate the look of a fabulous bone/ivory inlaid Moroccan style chest, which I thought would be a great Metamorphosis Monday (at Between Naps on the Porch) post.   The client owned an existing chest in the correct size for their foyer, but the dark mahogany finish on the sturdy imported dresser was much too casual and, quite frankly, boring to carry the entry:

The chest before.

An inexpensive piece from the client's previous home, it was in good shape and the right size for the space, but the homeowners wanted something more exciting, something more like this fabulous chest from Wisteria:

While Wisteria's price ($2,995) is fair for such an intricate and decorative piece, with a new house to furnish, the clients preferred to make-over their existing chest and use that money elsewhere.  Since the chests were of such similiar proportions, I was confident that I could mimic the feel of the bone inlaid chest with black paint and white stenciling.

Before I show process pictures, though, a note about using inspiration.  I knew from the beginning that I could replicate the feel of the Wisteria chest, but I knew that I could not completely replicate it.  First, and most importantly, the existing chest, while almost exactly the same dimensions and with the same drawer layout, was not as finely made or proportioned as the Wisteria one.  If you look at the above photos, you'll see the client chest has large bulb feet and thick, almost crude, moulding around each drawer rather than being flat fronted as the Wisteria one.    Secondly, the piece will get heavy use in the entry, so I decided to use oil-based products for durability:  that meant I would not be able to get as fine a result with the stenciling, and that I could not use my latex mother of pearl glaze over the white stencils.  Therefore, from the beginning, I decided to go for a more rustic, aged approach rather than a direct copy.

1.  First step:  Clean thoroughly, lightly sand, and apply a good quality adhesive primer.  Adhesive primers are designed specifically to stick to glossy, previously finished surfaces such as furniture and cabinets.  They adhere so well that there is no need to strip the previous finish...just rough it up slightly.  Since I was painting the chest black, I had the paint store add black pigment to the primer to get it to as dark a grey as possible to make the painting process easier.  Because of the dark primer, I was able to achieve full coverage with only 2 thin coats.

2.  Paint it black.  Use multiple thin coats instead of one thick one, and lightly sand between each coat with extra-fine steel wool---it does make a difference.

3. Add your white details with stencils and brushes.  Since I was going for a rustic look, I didn't tape the moulding.  However, taping would be needed if you were going for a crisp, inlaid look.

4.  Apply finish if needed.  I often find that if I use oil paint and sand the topcoat thoroughly with extra-fine steel wool, no additional finish is needed.  But in this case I wanted my finish to achieve two things--give a translucent finish to the white details to suggest bone and to add the look of age, so after polishing the chest with steel wool, I brushed on and irregularly wiped off wood stain to finish.

Detail showing mottled effect achieved by stain top coat.

5.  Add co-ordinating knobs.  To finish, I replaced the existing pulls with new knobs with an aged ivory look.  I did retain the original back plates for a more finished look.

After, and ready for delivery.  When the foyer is finished, I'll do a follow up post.

 To Recap:

Before

Inspiration

After

Metamorphosis Monday: From brown and drab to Swedish fab-a furniture makeover story

Forget English country, Tuscan farmhouses, and French provincial. Right now, the hottest look in design is a mixture of Swedish and Belgian influences. And why not? It's a pretty, delicate feminine look that can be easily adapted to many projects. So, for this Metamorphosis Monday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch, I decided to show a transformation of dated finishes to a painted Swedish look. Recently, I've been collaborating on a fun project, making over a rented cottage for a single female executive. One of her major issues was a lack of storage and dressing space (this is a client that sincerely loves her shoes). Our solution was to turn the room that adjoined her bedroom into a dedicated dressing room. Before, it was a mismash of passageway, home office, and den, but did not function well in any of those capcities. We relocated the desk to the guest room, closed off an unecessary door to increase privacy, and decided to add a dressing table and closed storage. At this point, budget, as usual, became a problem. How to add three large (and usually expensive) pieces of furniture at a price that would be appropriate? Especially since we had decided to do the room (and the adjoining bedroom) with a heavy dose of Swedish style? Paint and a local consignment store was our answer.

We found two of these large, well built, but dated armoires to flank the bedroom door. One became a laundry closet with a place for hanging clothes, a hook for ironing board, and storage for hampers. The other is an accessory closet, with space for handbags, shoes, jewelry, belts, etc. In both, we had full length mirrors applied to the inside of the doors.

The client already had a small set of these lyre back chairs. Even though the form is English, the delicate lines and lyre decoration do fit the Swedish asthetic. If these had been high quality antiques, I wouldn't have been comfortable painting them, but they were reproductions from the 30s or 40s with battered finishes. And finally, we found this writing desk to convert into a dressing table. Looking past the dark cherry finish, we noticed the fluted legs and moulding, as well as the applied carving motif. In fact, the desk has several characteristics of Louis XVI furniture, which supplied the inspiration for much of Swedish furniture.

After primer, paint, wax, and lots of burnishing with steel wool pads, a painted Swedish finish began to emerge:

The armoires were glazed in layers of beige and pale grey oil paint to achieve a pale, neutral appearance and act as a foil to the painted grey furniture.

The beautiful and delicate lines of the chair became more apparent with its lighter finish:s

And now, our client has a dressing table fit for a Hollywood star of the 30s. Miss Crawford would be happy--there's not a wire hanger in sight.

In the slow seat: A faux tortoiseshell finish chair re-do

For a large project I've been working on, I needed a chair to fill an empty space under astaircase. The chair needed to be small, graphic, Frenchy, formal (but not too formal) and well-priced. Oh, and I needed it yesterday. Well, luck struck twice at my favorite hotel liquidator. In addition to the great celadon crackle lamp, I scored this chair: A little battered, showing a little wear with the years (not unlike myself), but with good lines and lots of potential. Since the chair would be against light neutral walls, I wanted a darkish finish, but one that would blend with the client's existing small French burl wood bookcase. "Eureka", I shrieked, (Not really- well, maybe a little, but only on the inside), "I'll do a faux tortoiseshell finish."_I've been wanting to try it, but the opportunity had not yet presented itself. As you look through the following photos, you'll notice I did not remove the seat. That is only because I couldn't yet it out with unscrewing the chair and taking it apart. I've been done that road before, and it was a long and winding one with only a moderately happy conclusion, so since I was planning to reupholster the seat anyway, I just left it on. I first cleaned and sanded the chair. Faux tortoise shell calls for a medium yellow/tan basecoat, and since the existing finish was this color, I used it as my basecoast. Otherwise, I would have primed and painted. Next step, apply an ochre glaze. I used all oil paint and oil based products, and after doing this technique, I think they're crucial. I think latex would dry way too quickly and would not have the necessary "flow." For my ochre glaze, I used minwax's olde maple polyshade in satin. It's a mix of stain and polyurethane. It was the right color, I had it already, and I wanted a finished product that was quick glossy, so it worked well. Smooth on a light coat. (don't worry, I corrected the drips you see in the photos.):

While it's still wet (you have to work in sections: if you do each step to the whole chair, it'll dry too much), with a small brush apply a medium to dark brown paint in a diagonal checkerboard:

Then fill in some of the spaces with black paint in the same manner while the glaze and brown paint are still wet. Next, use a large, soft, dry brush to gently smooth the spots together. If you need to, blot occasionally with a crumpled cloth to lift paint or to blend.

Let dry. At that point, your object should look something like this: (i.e. a leopard with leporasy)

Now it's time to further blend the layers and add some translucence. I applied a series of tinted polyurethanes to blend the colors and add shine. First: Benjamin Moore's Colonial Maple:

If I had wanted a lighter finish, I would have applied mulitple layers of the maple. Since I wanted a darker finish; however, I next applied dark walnut.

If I had more time, I would have applied one more layer of dark walnut. After it dried overnight, I reupholstered the seat in a great cotton print. It's an almost zebra in aqua and white. I used a cotton to keep the chair from feeling too tight assed.

The finished result (the upholstery job is not perfect: it was hard to do with taking the cushion completely off):

Island redo

Before: 90's pickeled oak After: A rich, Pottery Barn inspired espresso. The top coat is Sherwin Williams Blackbean over a base of SW Tea Chest and a dark grey primer. The paint finish was satin, but has been buffed with extra fine steel wool to a duller sheen to give a furniture finish look

I believe in more than optimism and white paint. I believe in optimism and blue paint, optimism and beige paint, optimism and orange paint......I think you get the trend. All joking aside, a quick (or sometimes in the case of this project, not so quick) paint job can do wonders to revitalize a room, piece of furniture, or in this case, kitchen cabinets. The clients are giving their kitchen a cosmetic face lift, and I really felt that doing the central island in a different finish, a distressed espresso, would update the kitchen, espcially since they have a lot of cabinets, and the pickled wood was overwhelming the space. Painting kitchen cabinets is easy, but not quick. Since they have to stand up to a lot of wear and tear, for a painted finish to stay looking good, these steps must be followed after removing hardware (it is easier to paint if doors and cabinet fronts are removed, but for small areas it is not crucial):

1. sand--doesn't have to be stripped, just roughed up enough to accept step 2

2. High quality oil based primer- not kilz. I like XIM which is an epoxy primer designed to adhere to glossy surfaces such as factory finished cabinets. Can be tinted (as I did here) to a dark grey for darker colored paint. Let drive overnight.

3. a couple of coats of oil paint with steel wool sanding in between coats. Let each coat drive overnight.

4. For a distressed looked: sanding wear on edges, around knobs, and anywhere natural wear would take place.

5. Finish: buffing with extra fine steel wool, wax, or polyurethane. If waxing or using polyureathane, allow to dry overnight before using the cabinets.

Porch facelift

Our current project: front porch. In our MidCity New Orleans neighborhood, porch sitting is still taken seriously. Luckily our house has a decent sized porch, but it needs freshening. I've already painted the ceiling a beautiful yellow (as visual vamp has pointed out, yellow is the new beige) instead of the traditional blue. in fact, I'm going for a modified mardi gras color scheme: existing green trim, beautiful eggplant doors, and a pale buttery yellow (gold), on the ceiling and inside of awning. We just got the furniture from World market. Now I must finish painting the awning (a project that sucks so hard it's taken me months to get it half done), paint the floor, do a little accent painting, find pillows or fabric to make pillows to tie it all together, and landscape the front. At least the FEMA trailer is finally gone. I'll keep y'all posted on how it goes.

The Office: Where the fabulousness happens for others

Here are pics of my home office. I run a decorating and decorative painting business out of my home. It's a classic new orleans two-story shot gun, and I use the front two rooms for paperwork and client meetings. That's my hot secetary, Cleo, in the first picture.I salvaged this piece out of my father's barn. It was a plain grey metal office piece probably from the 60's. I gave it a fantasy faux bois finishOne of my friend's found this desk abandoned by the side of the road, and called me. It looks like a piece from the 70's. solid wood, but with a formica top. I painted it in two shades of deepest expresso brown, and painted the brass on the handles silver.