Everything Else
Oh my word, humming birds...this girl is pooped!
Yesterday, my Mom and I finished up the last few pieces that are coming with me to the Twin Valley Food Pantry Fundraiser this weekend at Conestoga Mennonite Church. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about and you missed my post about it, you can catch up here.
Basically, I am participating as a vendor and will have a booth/stall/vendor space all set up with beautiful painted pieces of furniture, home decor items, Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint and antiques. It will kind of be like a church bazaar or a market type setting. You can shop my space that I'll have set up during the hours on the flyer above and take your items home that day. I'll be accepting cash and credit card payments. Plus, I'll be doing a FREE Milk Paint Demo on Saturday at 2:00 PM.
I've been sharing the pieces I'll be bringing with me leading up to the day of the event (which is two days away!) and I've got a few more left to show you.
First, I have this adorable rustic whitewashed nightstand.
I found it on Facebook Marketplace and it had the prettiest rustic texture. I loved its chunky style and I wanted to accent all of the character while still preserving the wood grain, so I decided to give it a wash of white chalk style paint. That may come as a surprise because 99.9% of my furniture makeovers are done with Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint. Every now and then, I sneak a chalk-type paint makeover in!
Using my brush, I worked in small sections as I applied a stark white chalky paint and then immediately wiped it back. The result was a lovely whitewashed effect.
All of the paint settled into the nooks and crannies that were on the surface.
Just look at that character!
The chunky feet add to the piece's rustic charm.
It originally came with round wooden knobs, so I drilled new holes and installed metal cup pulls.
I think they add a bit more interest.
In addition to the nightstand, the cow art is coming with me too.
The soft purple buds of the dried lavender bundle compliment his colors, don't you think? I'll be bringing bunches of dried lavender for shoppers to purchase too!
For my next piece, I whipped up a beautiful blend of Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint using equal parts Bergere and Grain Sack.
This Jacobean style cabinet caught my eye because of its versatility and it's shape. Those legs and the little medallions on the door made the choice to purchase it a no-brainer.
This piece had some natural "gatoring" on its surface, which is from the original oil finish expanding and contracting over the years. You can see some in the upper right-hand corner of the photo below. See those little bumps? That's all natural, baby!
This little cabinet comes to about waist height and the doors open to reveal basic storage inside. Check out those planks along the back. Pretty, eh?
The half-moon shaped medallion on the wall will be for sale at the fundraiser. It's creamy color will seamlessly fit into your decor at home.
Didn't the mixture of Bergere and Grain Sack make the prettiest bespoke color?
This is probably one of my favorite pieces I'm bringing with me. It's the perfect dimensions and color for our home, but I bought it to sell. Needless to say, I'm hard-core resisting the urge to keep it.
Next, I'm bringing two Grain Sack pieces that have similar shapes. They're both wooden desks/tables with one long drawer. One is made of oak...
and the other is very primitive
They both have long slender legs and a long drawer that opens up for storage. They can serve as writing desks or tables, depending on your needs. Let's dive into the oak piece first.
I was crazy about the wood on this piece. It was almost completely raw and it soaked up the Grain Sack Milk Paint like a champ. I distressed the edges to highlight its shape and details.
It has charming wormholes dotting the surface along the sides and the front.
They don't bother me one bit. That's nothing but adorable character in my book. The knobs are not original to the piece. It actually came with modern silver knobs, so I swapped them out with some carved wooden knobs I had in my stash. My Mom painted them to match, and I think they work well!
The drawer has lots of compartments inside to help you stay organized. I pulled up my office chair to help you envision how you could use it as a writing desk.
See those compartments I mentioned?
And look! It was made in Philly!
The cow art is coming with me because he is too precious to keep to myself. Look at his little nose!
Now I don't know if you caught this or not, but I had a copy of Miss Mustard Seed's Look Book One open on the desk as if the occupant had just stepped away. Can you see which page I have it flipped to?
It's Grain Sack! How appropriate?
Just below the book, you can see a small circle. That was actually a hole that was in the top of the desk when I got it. It's been filled with wood putty and sanded smooth, so you have a lovely surface to write on that's level and hole-less.
So that's one Grain Sack piece.
Here's the second primitive piece.
Oh my gosh, you guys, this piece is just the sweetest ever. Let's start at the bottom and work our way up, shall we? The legs have the best shape. The ball feet add visual interest and you can still see the grain of the wood through the Milk Paint.
I distressed the legs to highlight some of that texture, but not so much to create big bare patches.
The joinery on the drawer is killer. The wide-set dovetails are a dead giveaway that this piece has some age to it. The further apart they are, and the skinnier the triangles are, the older the piece is.
When I bought this piece, it only had one porcelain knob. I didn't have any to match in my stash, so I saved it for another day and used another set of those carved wooden knobs.
Now let's move on to that dreamy wood top. It's bowed in the front and there's a small gap between the body of the piece and the top.
I tried to gently coax it back down, but I was afraid to put too much pressure on it for fear of cracking the top clear in half. So I decided to let it be.
There was a backsplash that originally went half-way around the top in the back. When I bought the piece, only a quarter of it was left, so I gently tapped it off with a hammer and removed the rusty old square-head nails. That's why the back edge of the table curves in. It's where the backsplash was!
To restore the gorgeous age and patina of the wood, I sanded it with my orbital sander using 120 grit. There was a lot of melted candy or some other sort of crystallized sticky stuff on the surface, along with a lot of grime. I sanded to the point where the wood was clean but not pristine. I slathered (yes, literally slathered) the top with Hemp Oil to hydrate it and I barely had to wipe any off. The wood was that dry!
To stage this piece, I used the most primitive pieces I had in the smalls department - ironstone and flow blue china! I lined up a bunch of pretty blue and white bowls in an antique plate rack.
And offset them with an assortment of pitchers and other ironstone pieces.
The result is a lovely primitive piece with a fresh coat of paint that still maintains its age and character.
That ends the parade of pretty painted pieces of furniture for the fundraiser this weekend. I spent the evening packing up all of the small decorative items I'm bringing and made a big 'ol list of everything else I need to remember.
I'm so proud of all of the pieces my Mom and I were able to prepare for this event, and I can't wait to share all of them with you this weekend!
