Knobbies

THOSE LOOK DIRTY.
I have bunch of small bronze knobs that were turning green/rusting.

I wanted to use a natural product to remove the green areas, so first I tried vinegar with a small cloth. After rubbing them a bit, I saw the green coming off but it wasn't happening fast enough. Online I read that you can either use an acidic remover (vinegar in this case) or an all-purpose remover. So I got out my Krud Kutter, which is considered all-purpose, and decided it might help to use an old toothbrush, and voila!

My knobbies are nice and clean! Don't you love the different shapes and details on these? In some ways I liked the green because it showed the age of the knobs, but when there are patches of it here and there it just looked weird. Now they're ready to be used on furniture that I don't yet own. Yay! Until then they're a nice decoration.

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The secret is out

WHAT? THIS WAS THE SECRET? THIS IS SO PAINTING 101.
I've received so many great tips from other bloggers that thought it was time to share one of my painting secrets. Okay fine, it's not a secret at all. Most of you have heard this before, but hopefully someone out there will still find this useful. So here it is. 


USE A HIGH QUALITY PAINTBRUSH.
That's it. So simple. And the best paintbrush out there? Purdy. And no, my blog is not popular enough to get an endorsement. This is just a post to share the brand of brush that gets the job done for me.

Many of you have heard other furniture bloggers recommend Purdy, but I've also been told by people who paint houses for a living that Purdy is the only way to go. When I first began the my furniture refurbishing venture, I purchased a run of the mill paintbrush for $3 at Wal-mart. I don't even know what brand it was, but I know it wasn't the cheapest but it also wasn't the most expensive. I had some issues getting the paint to evenly coat my tobacco cabinet and noticed after using it for only the second time, that the bristles were going in different directions (and it was impossible to correct it without cutting the bristles off entirely). I thought this was something that everyone dealt with so I continued to use the same brush for my next project. It wasn't until I happened to see and try my brother's Purdy brush that I realized that mine was complete utter crap.


For the tobacco cabinet, I had to paint 3-4 coats of paint before the wood stopped showing through. I thought it had to do with the quality of the paint, but I now firmly believe that the quality of paint doesn't make that big of a difference. I cut down 1-2 coats of paint by using the Purdy. Painting became much smoother and more even. The bristles get into the little nooks with ease. Honestly, I wouldn't have believed it made such a difference but now from personal experience I can say it does. The higher cost of the Purdy (about $9 for an average brush), is totally worth it. 


I'M NOT SURE I BELIEVE YOU, BUT I GUESS I'LL TAKE YOUR WORD FOR IT.
So again, although I sound like a sleazy paintbrush salesman, I'm really just trying to pass on some helpful advice for those who are sick of putting on coat after coat of paint. Get a Purdy brush and you'll save yourself hours of time!

A little table-ma-bob and St. Patrick's Day Foodfest

I'M FULL JUST LOOKING AT THESE PICTURES.
Today was a day full of cleaning, cooking, eating, and entertaining. We're completely exhausted now, but it was totally worth it. Check out the food my husband made!

Irish Soda Bread (one with raisins and one without).

Brown Bread.

4 meat pies. 2 French Meat Pies (ground beef, potatoes, onions, and cloves with a butter pie crust) and 2 Steak and Squab Pies (steak, substituted squab with chicken, mushrooms, onions, beer, and allspice with the same crust).

Leg of lamb.

He also made fish chowder, colcannon (mashed potatoes with cabbage), and an Irish apple tart. It was all so delicious. We ate a ton and have a fridge piled with leftovers, but our tummies are so very happy. Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone!

IT'S A SIDETABLE THINGY.
And just to make sure I actually mention furniture in this post, here's a little table I've been working on. My parents gave it to me because it didn't match the furniture in their home. It's a little rickety and the dark wood gives it a dated look, so I'm using a little wood glue and working on painting it white to go with one of the French chairs I recently reupholstered.

I'm not sure what you would call this kind of table or what style it is. If any of you know I'd be thankful for the info! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

For Japan With Love

Today is a bloggers day of silence for Japan. Please help if you can.

Proudly featured

INSPIRED.
I'm pumped today! Why? My first Frenchy, or La Belle Premiere, was featured at At the Picket Fence AND Stuff and Nonsense.

At the Picket Fence is a blog by 2 hilarious sisters who host the Inspiration Friday blog party. I know they look at each and every entry of the party because they came upon my brand new baby blog and immediately left me sweet comments about the chair. Thank you Vanessa and Heather!

Alison at Stuff and Nonsense who hosts the Friday's Unfolded party, was also extremely kind to visit my post and leave a comment about the transformation of the chair. She throws a great party full of furniture redos, food, and crafts. Thank you Alison!

I feel the way I did when I got a bonus or raise at work. A real sense of accomplishment knowing that people like what you do (minus the extra income). I'm punching my fists in the air right now because I'm that excited. Woo! Thank you again to both blogs for being so kind to feature me and bringing furniture addicts like us together!

Now I feel confident, refreshed, and ready to take on more projects but it will all have to wait. I have to take take a few days off from working on furniture because we have a big St. Patrick's Day party planned for this Saturday. My husband's the cook so he's making all the food. Meat pies, Irish soda bread, fish chowder, apple tart...mmm. I'll be too full to do anything useful anyway!


I THINK A TIE BOMB WENT OFF IN THERE.
And as promised, here are some close-up pictures of the suitcase displayed in my post about my first Frenchy. My husband and I bought this at a garage sale either in Massachusetts or Connecticut a few years ago.

After researching "Zephyrlyte Lincoln," I found out that this suitcase was an option on the Lincoln Zephyr in the 30's-40's. They were made to match the interior of the car and fit perfectly in the trunk. Look at this amazing ad I came across.

I'm hoping one day I'll be able to find this actual ad. And unfortunately, I didn't get much info on the stickers, but here are a few of the ones I like.

That's true vintage right there and they're still in great condition. And if any of you are wondering what we keep in the suitcase, my husband went through a tie phase before we met and he would always pick a few up at the thrift store or receive them as gifts. Some are nice but most are heinous. He keeps them in here and I don't even bother trying to tell him to fold them neatly. I pick my battles.

Maybe one day I'll do something crafty with them when he's not looking. Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!!!

Le Baron loves bums

EMILY HAS BRAIN?

The second Frenchy is DOOOOOOOONE! Here's the exciting side-by-side shot that you've all been waiting for.



Whew! Most of the sewing was new to me so I had to use my brain a lot on this one. That can sometimes be a problem, lucky for me my brain was running at full capacity tonight. You remember this chair I first mentioned in this piping post? Let's call him The Baron, which in French is Le Baron. I don't even know French. Impressed aren't you?

I purchased Le Baron at an estate sale for $8. The speckled paint was peeling off and sadly someone had left an iron on the blue velvet cushion cover. Here's what my brother's pug thought of the cushion.

The cushion was hot-glued to the chair so I peeled it off and found the cotton batting and foam underneath in great shape. Hooray! Finally it's coming up Emily! I always prefer reusing materials because it creates less waste and hey, it saves you money

NO DISTRESSING? I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO YOU ARE ANYMORE.

Starting with the chair frame, I decided to paint it Behr creamy white. I attempted to distress Le Baron but as you already heard here, he wasn't having any of it. Instead I kept him pure.

Once the cushion cover was ready (mentioned here), I put a layer of quilt batting over the existing cotton batting to create a smoother surface.

Next I turned it upside down into my cushion cover and adjusted the batting and foam to make it even.

AH! EMILY'S MISTAKES. THESE ARE ALWAYS AMUSING. 

Once I placed the cushion on the chair frame, I cut the back corners to make the fabric fit around the frame. I  was planning to hot glue trim around the edges so I wasn't worried about frayed fabric, however I realized that I was a little off when cutting the corners. Sigh! I was left with huge gaps on both sides. Thanks to my now useful brain, I decided to sew two strips of trim side by side to cover it up. It may not be perfect, but it would still look pretty.

Another issue I had was with the ends of the fabric at the back of the cushion cover. I cut off the fabric too soon and didn't realize that you need to have excess fabric where the ends meet. It doesn't matter if you pinned and measured ahead of time, once you put the foam and batting in the cushion cover the fabric gets stretched out and you need to have extra fabric to make the ends meet. So the back of my cushion ended up looking like this. To me it looked fine but to some of you perfectionists out there, I bet you're already trying to mentally correct my offensive stitches.

My favorite part was next. Stapling and gluing trim! I started with one staple in the middle of the front part of the cushion, followed by one in back, one on the right, and one on the left. Then I continued with 2 staples in front, 2 in back, etc. You get the idea. This made my cushion fabric stretch out more evenly on the seat of the chair. Once the excess fabric underneath the staples was cut off, I was ready to hot glue. Woo!

I THINK SHE SHOULD HAVE GONE WITH THE WHITE.

I had two kinds of trim, white and beige. I took pictures of what they'd look like before I settled on the beige. The weird thing is, the white looks better in the pictures because the paint on the chair looks white, but when you look at the chair in person the paint is off-white and there's too much of a contrast between the two.

The first thing I hot-glued was the extra pieces of trim I was adding to the gaps in the back.

Then I added the rest of the trim to line the edges of the chair. I love the way it looks, especially near the corner details.

SHE SEEMS TO REALLY LIKES THE WORD BUM.

I think a lot of the credit for this chair goes to my husband who let me work on her every night this past week. I know I drove him crazy with all the paint specks around the sink and noisily going in and out of our room while he was sleeping, so here's a big public "THANK YOU!"

And now for more pictures! Le Baron is ready for bums near and far. He'd like a bum on him near a desk, or perhaps a dressing table, he'd enjoy one with a bottle of wine...oh he's so versatile!

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