The rules of reality say the Bumble Bee shouldn't be able to fly...some rules were meant to be broken.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

I Can't Wait 100 Years

I don't have the time...or the money.  I can't wait for that "natural" aged, shabby finish and I can't really afford to pay for the real thing.  With a few tools I was able to give my old piece of furniture a wonderful aged look.  Wow!






 






It doesn't need wax or any kind of a seal because if more paint gets knocked or scraped off...GREAT!!  That's the point.

If you are adventurous you can do this too. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sunday, June 8, 2014

The old plastic grocery bags ARE good for something...

My daughter and I completed a paint project in the dining area that goes wonderfully with my Homemade table.  (Seriously, please ignore the junk on the floor).

This Harlequin technique requires good math skills and a firm application of the "measure twice, paint once" concept.  It also included 3 levels of paint and some skills with needle nose pliers and a hammer. 

 
 

First we applied a base coat in the lighter color on the connecting wall.  It's sort of an olive toned beige. The next step required some glaze medium.  I mixed this with the darker color on the bottom half of the wall with the glazing medium. 

Here is where those plastic grocery bags come in handy.  This looks so much better than that old sponging technique that you see occasionally on one of those house hunting shows.  Cringe!  But I digress. 

Just brush on a small section of the mixed glaze and paint, about the size of your plastic grocery bag wall then slap a plastic grocery bag into the paint.  Gently wrinkle the bag as you push it together making it smaller  (Be sure to wear some disposable gloves because it's messy)   Try a sample if you can because you'll want to decide how much wrinkle you want to your taste.  Then just pull the grocery bag off the wall and you have this great look.

 
 



After we applied this second coat we carefully measured and taped the wall.  Tape and trim, tape and trim, tape and... well you get the idea.



When all the taping was complete we mixed the glazing medium with the lighter colored paint and lightly brushed it over the darker paint in every other diamond.  This way some of the marbling in the darker color will be visible through the opaque glaze.





After all the paint was dry we finished the wall off by nailing furniture tacks into each point.  It's a great 3 dimensional addition.


I left a few inches on the top of the wall in the darker glaze to add a cute quote.  I painted this in but I'm sure a Sharpie would work just as well. 


And just to make sure we had a little bit of bling we finished it off by hot glue-ing some decorator trim to the wall.


And there you have it.  It's great to see what can be accomplished when we try new things, and aren't afraid to break out of those traditional decorating molds.

Have fun with this one.
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