Go With The Flow...Blue

Here at Eight Hundred, I present furniture with a story. The story might be the history behind a piece or the process I went through to give it a makeover. Other times, the story comes from the events that are happening in my life at the moment. This dresser makeover falls into that category.

Let's begin with some confessions:

I like details. Where? When? How long? How much?

9 times out of 10, I need to have a plan to feel settled and grounded.

I don't usually wing it.

When it comes to teaching and conveying information, I think things through.

My space needs to be organized so I feel organized.

Chaos makes me chaotic.

I detest feeling caught off guard.

Being unprepared to answer questions is the worst...ever. It makes me feel stupid.

Type A all the way, baby.

Can anyone else relate? Are there any other detailed-oriented people out there? Where are my concrete sequential thinkers? Holla back, fellow analyzers!

These aspects of my personality are definitely helpful but they can also be a source of conflict. I'm learning how and when to "lighten up" and "go with the flow".

It's not an easy process. It's like having a fan on high and changing the direction of the blades suddenly. It doesn't happen right away.

So to help me process through all of this, I think God let me to have a little furniture therapy session with a dresser.

Yes, that's right.

A dresser.

Enter said dresser.

This pretty girl is a depression-era dresser that had lots of potential when she arrived in the shop. Her beautiful details caught my eye immediately.

Her original finish was crackled from age (crocodiled as we call it in the shop) and she had oodles of personality.

While the dresser was on the brink of an amazing furniture transformation, she came up a bit short. Some of her trim work and veneer were missing. Can you see where?

Right away, I thought, "Girl, I totally feel you!" It seemed like I had been coming up short as of late. Deep down, I had been feeling really bad about how I'm wired and that I didn't have it all together. I was missing some parts too.

When I was given the green light to paint her, I went straight to Pinterest for inspiration.

During my search, I came across a piece that Marian Parsons of Miss Mustard Seed painted when she introduced Flow Blue to her line of milk paint. Her feature piece had pretty details like our dresser, and I loved how Flow Blue stood out against the white she used to highlight some of the trim. I wanted to replicate the look with our piece.

Source

My husband, Marc, picked up some Flow Blue for me over the weekend (because he's awesome) and I immediately mixed it up and painted on three coats. The color was exactly what I had envisioned it would be.

It came time to highlight the trim and I'm not going to lie - I got a little scared. As I was painting it on, it wasn't perfect. I was painting "outside the lines" and it looked messy. I was ready to give up on my vision and try something else.

God gently nudged me and encouraged me to "go with the flow."

I kept on painting and with every "oops" and "whoops" paint stroke, I got less and less confident that I would be able to execute it perfectly.

There was my problem.

I was trying too hard to be perfect.

I stepped back and let my eyes take in the dresser. It had missing pieces.

It was chipping in some spots.

But the big picture was totally stunning.

Maybe that's what I needed to do more often - step back and look at the big picture instead of zooming in so closely that I fixate on details that don't really matter.

As I pushed through, I painted the original hardware the same color as the trim,