A Tale of Two Paint Projects: Part 1

Happy Day before Friday! How has your week been? It sure has been a real busy back to school week around here! Lindsay and Katelyn are all settled in their classes. Lindsay even found a friend from her old school in Mesa, that just moved out here. Katelyn is in a new 20+1 program, where there are only 20 students to a class. The classes are considered blended learning, since they are integrating the use of chrome books. So far she loves it! Joshua, we have his had to change his schedule several times, and hopefully today will be the last day for changes. It's been much more peaceful around here, but as much as I like the quiet, I do miss them, their laughter and the sound of their voices.

Growing up, we lived on a huge corner lot. In the back yard, my mom, not only had her patio for her flowers and shrubs, but 2 plum trees, an apple tree, and a very nice size vegetable garden in the back, for corn, tomatoes, spinach, and melons. She spent hours digging in the dirt, and we enjoyed the fresh fruits and vegetables that all her hard work provided for us. I remember, I must have been about 7 or 8, and I asked her one day, why she spent so much time digging in the dirt, and she told me, gardening was like therapy for her.

That's how painting has been for me the last couple of days. Not to mention how fun is it to get paint everywhere, I mean everywhere, in my hair, 3 colors of paint on my elbow and fingers. I found some on my cell phone case. Oh my, I was having a blast. It was just the kind of fun break I've needed from this busy week!

Tale 1: The IKEA Rast Dresser Hack that has been in the works, since the beginning of the year.

Two weekends, ago, I took Katelyn to Lowe's to pick out a paint. The basic dresser I painted white, and will lacquer it clear. For the drawers, she wanted an Orange color. You know I tried to talk her out of it, but she was insistent that she wanted orange, and not just any color orange, she wanted Sunny Orange, like Tang colored orange or even Halloween color orange.

For those of you that are looking forward to Fall, this post will remind you of the changing of leaves, Fiery Orange. I had initially picked up a lightly coastal / tropical color, Valspar's Coral Reef. She said it was not dark enough. So she finally chose, Valspar's Orange Pecan. It's looking like Fall, Y'all!!

I was wanting to finish Katelyn's dresser before she went back to school, but with the monsoon we had last weekend, set me back a little. We have managed to get it painted and I started stenciling the drawers.Now please don't laugh at my stenciling job. For one, I am pretty craft challenged to begin with, and I need to go back and touch it up. There is still more stenciling to do, and I still can not find the darn wooden knobs that came with it, I have plans for those. Look for an updated post coming soon.

Tale 2: Trash to Treasure, special project with the Hubby

Just a recap, my husband is a custom wood worker, and when he started his business he made something for me, that I've been storing, until we moved into our new house. I was looking at it and I wanted something softer, more romantic, and French. I had him cut out fleur-de-lis embellishments from scrap pieces of wood around his shop, and I found one Thriftique store in Tempe that sells Miss Mustard Seed milk paint. I bought three samples; Ironstone, Tricycle, and Arabesque.

I sampled the Arabesque, and it was more of a dusty, rose pink, and when it dried, it now is this beautiful neutral pink/tan color! Today, I mixed together 8parts of Ironstone to 1part Tricycle, and just some FYI, Tricycle is very red. The color combination reminded me of a Strawberry Milkshake.

 As the milk paint dried, it became more like a blush whitewash, which is what I was looking for. I love how the milk paint cracks and crazes, giving the wood that chippy antinque look.

This weekend, at one of the wood shops my husband is a loyal customer too, is having a Milk Painting workshop, that I'm planning on going to, so I am really looking forward to that! This is where I say, look for an updated post coming soon.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!

Until next time!

xo,