Repaired and updated curio shelf

I come across old curio shelves like this quite often.  This one is missing the ‘decorative top piece’ (you can see where it’s supposed to be); which most likely had one of those wonderful country heart cut outs in the center.

Michael cut a new top piece and attached it for me.  If this one HAD still had the heart cut out top piece still in place, we would have just attached this plain one right over the top of it to hide the heart.

While the PLAIN top piece was just fine, and could have been left as it was; I decided to add a pretty wood applique.  I’ve also added decorative stamp designs on that top piece in the past.  Now it’s ready to paint!

My signature ‘beachy blue’ paint was my choice for this piece.

Close up of the wood applique.  Won’t this shelf look great filled with a collection of little white cream pitchers?!?

This, and the rest of the ‘beachy blue’ stuff I’ve been working on lately will be going to Stars by the end of this week.  If you’ve been thinking about buying some of the WHITE stuff, get it NOW; because I’ll be pulling it to make room for the blue stuff.

DOH!!! I forgot again!!

To take a ‘before’ picture.  sheesh!  I just get so ‘into’ what I want to do to re-make things sometimes that I totally space out on taking the before photo.  And if it’s something that Michael dragged home, it doesn’t get batched in with the ‘this weeks thrifting finds’ photos.  SO, this is all I have to show to give you a glimpse of this dresser’s ‘before’ look:

All the drawers had been spray painted this bright GLOSSY blue that you can see on the underside of this drawer.  The ‘shell’ of the dresser was glossy black.  It took a lot of sanding to remove all that gloss!

Used the pal grey MS (Martha Stewart) paint, which I am NOT impressed with at all.  This is what took the place of Ralph Lauren at Home Depot in the paint department and is supposed to be just as good.  It’s NOT!  From now on I will drive however far I have to, to get Ralph Lauren paint!  It covers SO much better and is so much easier to work with.

Knobs.  UG!!  WHY are new knobs so dang expensive?!?!?!  I just can’t afford to spend an additional $30.00 on knobs!  And there are some really COOL looking knobs and pulls out there these days; and they really ‘make’ a piece.  I just painted the old knobs, and a little carved wood aplique, a darker shade of grey.  Will leave the addition of new knobs to whomever buys the piece.  These are ‘okay’.  OKay will have to do in this economy.  I just can’t afford to shell out the ca$h for knobs that have the WOW! factor.

And here it is, in our space at Camas Antiques.

I’m gradually going from white to grey in the color scheme; and eventually will work into some black and silver decor for the holidays.

This 5 drawer chest is $79.00 at Camas Antiques.

Can I have a ‘do-over’???

 When I rearranged the store a few months ago, I ended up not having a place to put this shelf:

I took it to the fall shows and it didn’t sell.  It rattled around in the back of my car for a few weeks until I finally put it in the storage shed.  While I was rummaging through the shed last week pulling out some old frames to paint, this little yellow shelf was screaming “Pick me!  Pick ME!!”

Since I was painting a bunch of frames black, I decided to paint the little shelf black too.  And decided to add one of my handy-dandy wood appliques first!

And I sanded and distressed it a bit.  A change for the better?  The shelf found it’s new spot in our booth at Stars Antique Mall.

Isn’t it amazing how much those appliques ‘dress up’ the piece?

And just in case you forgot or missed the original picture of this piece . . . it was a country heart shelf.

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Carved wood appliques to the rescue again!

I sure do LOVE these carved wood appliques!  So much so that we will soon be carrying them in our store, and possibly even sell them here via our blog (if there is enough demand.  Is there???)  I’ve ordered about a dozen different sizes/styles.

So, here is another sadly outdated country heart accessory, this time it’s a quilt rack.

It’s in perfectly good shape, just very outdated.

I just glued on one of my handy~dandy wood applique to cover up the heart . . .

And spray painted it black.  Now it’s totally chic!

(okay, actually I wanted it to be WHITE at first, but after two GOOD coats of white paint, the pine knots were still showing through.  So I gave it a coat of KILZ primer, then a couple coats of some CREAM paint.  And the knots STILL showed through!!  Thusly I finally succumbed to using the black.  Which I am entirely happy with; but just learn from my mistake that light color paints will NOT cover pine knots!)

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Little boxes made from reclaimed wood

 

Michael built these simple boxes with lids out of reclaimed wood.

For the darker primitive ones, I base-coated the outside with black paint first.

Applied my second coat of paint color and sanded a little to distress.  I ‘just happened’  to be making some checkerboards at the same time and decided to use the stencil on a couple of the boxes.  Apparently it was a good idea because the two with the checkerboard sold right away.

I wanted a way to keep the lids in place that would be fairly simple.  Had Michael cut two little strips of luan which I glued to the underside of the lids.

I ‘thought’ they were done at this point, but as they sat on my work table and I kept looking at them, I decided they needed FEET and a knob.

So I went digging through my big box of assorted small wood parts and found some wood spools and candle holders that I decided would make nice little feet.  And some wood knobs (which I’ve also used as feet in the past!)

Just glued them on with tacky glue.

Measured and marked the center of the lid for the knobs, predrilled a hole and screwed them in from the underside.  They look much more ‘finished’ now.

Although I did go back and add a wood carved applique to the black one.

Then I decided to do a couple of lighter colored shabby ones.

Used the wood carved appliques.  And little wood ‘game pieces’ for the feet. 

Since these didn’t have as much surface area to glue, I predrilled holes in them and the bottom of the boxes.  Glued the legs on right over my predrilled holes; then screwed them on from the inside.

For the knobs on the shabby ones I used some little wood BOWLS!

SO, Michael and I were discussing what we should replace the scrapbook section with once all that stuff is sold out (it’s all on clearance right now) and we decided to put in a ‘do it yourselfer’ section that will contain things like these unfinished boxes, the stuff for knobs and feet, the carved wood appliques, unfinished wood napkin holders . . . like these:

Some wood boxes withOUT lids, like these:

All kinds of great things that you can paint and finish yourself!  We’re hoping to have the DIY section up and running the first part of February.

OUR WEBSITE : www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

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~ primitives ~ trash to treasure ~ shabby chic ~ cottage ~ Paris apartment ~ repurposed home goods ~ repaired ~ restyled home decor ~ reused ~ recycled art ~ handcrafted gifts ~ one of a kind ~ artist originals ~ second hand style ~ junk market style ~ flea market style ~ beautiful junk ~ beach cottage décor ~ unique home décor ~ vintage home décor ~ unique gifts ~ custom made gifts ~ custom made home décor ~ personalized signs ~ Sophie’s Cottage ~ grubby candles ~ how to craft books ~ Shabby Paris apartment ~ baby gifts ~ personalized gifts ~ AJ Finsand ~ upcycled ~ rebuilt ~ flea market chic ~ gift baskets ~ custom orders ~ vintage ~ collectibles ~