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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

A desk makeover


 One of the services we offer at Maison Decor is custom painted furniture.
Sometimes we track pieces down for customers to fit their requirements,
like this petite desk we just finished.  Our client had a small area in a 
remodeled kitchen that she wanted to put a desk, and she didn't want more
cabinetry, she wanted a unique piece to add personality to the space.
It couldn't be too deep or too wide~so I took her measurements and put 
it on our Maison Decor Wishlist of Customer Requests.
Sure enough within a week we found this pretty little charmer.
Of course it didn't look so pretty, or charming, but it had all the details
that makes a piece special and it was just the right size.
 Our client, Catarina, came up with the idea of having white peek 
through a mostly blue colored desk.
We call that two color distress technique and it was a great idea for 
this desk. Distressing it lightly would highlight the carved wreaths 
and the metal key hole as well as the pretty turned legs.
Catarina's pillow was our color inspiration.  
The desk was quite old and we decided to sand the top to make it smoother. 
 Normally we don't find ourselves using a sander~
but this piece had a lot of scribble marks and scratches 
that we wanted to take down a notch. 
 Then it got two coats of Old White Chalk Paint, with a coat of 
Zinsser Clear Shellac in between as this little desk had some 
staining coming through the paint (called bleed).  
The shellac will stop that and you can go right back to painting. 
Then we followed up the Old White with two coats of Duck Egg blue.
After that I started the process of distressing back the blue to reveal the white.

 This is a great technique to show off details like these pretty carved wreaths. 
 And no makeover story is good without the ugly before photo, right?
 The BEFORE shows a neglected beauty 
waiting to come back into the spotlight.
At least thats what I see when I find these pieces! 
 Catarins's desk~another piece of furniture
 saved by Annie Sloan's magical paint!
#chalkpaint #itsmorethanpaint 

Photobucket

16 comments:

  1. Beautiful, Amy! It's those little details that stand out on a piece like this that draw me to them. I'm hoping to find something this size to make over myself at some point. I love the colors and distressing you did.

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  2. wow, 6 coats, sounds like allot of work but so well worth it. It is beautiful!
    Did you do really thin coats?

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  3. A little true treasure!
    I like very much this tone of colour, it's beautiful for this kind of shapes!
    Have a nice day
    Silvia

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  4. Divine Amy! Such a beautiful makeover,i adore Annie's duck egg blue x

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  5. What a pretty transformation. I love that colour.

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  6. Amy you truly turn ducks into beautiful swans! A very discerning eye!

    xoxo
    Karena
    2013 Authors Series
    "Love Where You Live"

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  7. What a pretty little desk, and i love the color with the white showing through. You totally brought it back to life!

    Cindy

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  8. Gorgeous! What a beautiful little desk. What an eye you have for knowing the pieces that will look so amazing! Of course, you know we all want a desk like that now!!!! :D

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  9. another awesome recovery of a sad piece of furniture. I so wish I lived close by your shop!

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  10. Love the way it turned out. I really like the white showing through.

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  11. Gorgeous, Amy! Love that Duck Egg Blue!

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  12. Absolutely beautiful re-do of a nice lil' piece! The colors are amazing and quite soothing to look at! Love the subtle details and how the paint brings them out!
    Now....where can I get my crafty hands on some of those gorgeous angel wings! Mine have fallen off w/my moody menopause! ;-)

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  13. The desk is so beautiful and I absolutely love the angel wings over it, where did you find them?

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  14. That desk is so cute and you are looking fantastic! With all you do I expect dark circles under your eyes but I don't see any :)! Those angel wings are so pretty too.

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  15. That turned out awesome,Amy. I LOVE the color and you did just the right amount of distressing. xo Diana

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