Voting starts today!

The Tale of a Table by Slidely Slideshow

Go to vote in the contest at General Finishes here. There are a lot of great pieces entered in the contest. Have fun looking at them all. Share links with some of your favorites in the comments below.

What is the General Finishes contest? You can go here for more information, but simply put, General Finishes makes a lot of great products for using when you refurbish furniture and such. The winners will get to go to the Furniture Flipping convention in Chicago, and get a lot of great paint and supplies!

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day!

Okay, so no, I admit MY masterpiece isn't Rome. Although, you ask my family and I'm pretty sure they will tell you they thought I was building a new Rome during the time I spent on this table. :)

So where did this come from?

A neighbor asked me if I wanted this table, he was giving it away, and I said, "Yes! It's something I can paint." :)

I started out painting the top black. It has two coats. I sanded lightly after each.

I waxed with clear wax, then brown, but didn't like how it turned out.

So I added another two coats of black. I then Mod Podged the burlap ribbon around the edge. There are six coats of GF HQTC, very light sanding in between, with the last coat much thicker. 

The blue-gray on the chairs is a combination of many different colors. Waverly Pool, Waverly Celery, Deco Art Retro and Deco Art Chalky Finish.

I mixed the colors until I had it just right. Love the color! Painted it with a good solid two coats of the blue-gray, with heavy sanding for distressing, then dry brushed some white on. Sanded. Then almost a wash of the blue-gray...very watered down. Waxed with clear, then buffed. Waxed with brown then heavily buffed.

The seats and pedestal I changed the technique wanting it to look a little smoother. So I painted over with the blue-gray, then while it was wet added some white in certain spots and blended. Every few minutes I would add a little more white chalk paint and blend until I finally liked the outcome. I waxed it with clear wax and buffed.

I found some metallic paint that I wanted to add to the table, because although it was gorgeous, it was too plain for this absolutely non-plain-Jane-girl. I rubbed some copper in and then went over some of that with black shimmer. 

Toned this down with another coat of black chalk paint. I sanded once more and after three more coats of GF HQTC it looks fantastic.

This is everything drying after the GF High Quality Top Coat was applied. Mind you, this has to be done in an air conditioned room because heat and humidity...KANSAS...can ruin this application!

But it did turn out gorgeous. :)

Then came the "staging" process. :)

I bought this back drop and was very excited to use it. But as you can see, it's not quite big enough.

(Like the duct tape I used to hang it with...hehehe...too much MacGyver? Nah. Don't worry, no duct tape on the table or chairs. I promise.)

I screwed a bike rack to a picket fence post I had trimmed, sanded, painted, waxed and screwed securely into studs on this wall. Used a pcv pipe with curtain hooks from WalMart, they are kind of like shower curtain rings, but they have clips on the end. So actually, the duct tape you saw on the backdrop was not to hang it with, but to get it at the right length for this piece. After showing that to the experts at Flipping Furniture for Profit Q&A group, they said I needed the plain light wall behind the table.

After many pictures, almost a total of 200, and being squished into this small area between the dresser and plastic drawers...time to perfect that photo.

Here's where my years of designing digital scrapbook kits with Photoshop Elements came into play. Taking the picture above the previous one, I added more wall space, lightened shadows, painted my baseboards, and added more floor in the expanded areas.

Piece of cake! ;)

So, was Rome built in a day?

Do you have any Rome sized projects you've worked on recently? Please share in the comments below. I would love to hear from you and perhaps give you a guest blogspot some time to share in more detail!

French Country Table from Yesteryear

The French Country Table from Yesteryear

Painted in a combination of colors to create this silvery-blue, the table base and four chairs are also waxed in Waverly Clear and Brown to give it a nostalgic look. Two coats of General Finishes High Quality Top Coat protects the chalk paint.

Waverly Ink chalk paint is the base for the tabletop. Detailing is done with Deco Art Metallic Luster both in Copper Kettle and Black Shimmer. Black scripted burlap ribbon adorns the edge. This stunning tabletop is finishes with a total of nine coats of General Finishes High Quality Top Coat for protection.

This would look great in your kitchen, dining room, breakfast nook, or even a coffee house or bistro.
42” W x 30” H
$599

Watch for more details on how this came to be! :)

Follow on Facebook for sneak peeks!

It's official!

Lakeside Keepsakes now sells jewelry and refurbished furniture! I've been busy painting things all around the house since January. Sold one thing to a friend because she just had to have it this past spring. :) That would be this little cabinet here.

That was the second furniture piece I did in chalk paint. This was using Waverly Chalk Paint from WalMart. I love it!! And the price has even come down some since then!!

I will be posting more pieces to come. Stay up to date by "Like"-ing Lakeside Keepsake's facebook page.

Transformation!

I've been working on my craft office over the past few weeks. It got so bombarded with other household junk throughout the school year that I haven't been able to use it for months.

This room has been a guest room, turned nursery for son #2, turned play room, turned bedroom for son #3, turned bedroom for son #1, turned store room, then given to me for my craft office. Although I love plaid, I painted the plaid with a very dear friend 15 years ago, but has received creative kinds of crayon markings, finger nail polish, markers etc. that left a distasteful diSTRESSING on it. Needless to say, I had at least one son who really hit the terrible 2s hard, and stayed in that stage for a LONG time.

This collage is a picture of everything that was stashed in the room. Obviously, once I had it all moved out, I just had to paint before putting everything back in ... in an organized purposeful manner. As I decided that is a must!

I chose antique white, as it is what the top 2/3 of the walls already were, so easy peazy. Had to sand, prime, and put 2 coats on it. Looks great now!

Now...to my photo corner

This is where I will be taking pics of my finished products. The storage tub on the table is my diy light box for photographing the jewelry. I have a backdrop that will arrive in the next week to use here for staging my furniture pieces that I have started painting to sell. The black table you see in these pictures is one of them! So excited about this new venture. I will blog more about it soon.

Here you see the white dresser that had been in this room for a while...and will be painted with new drawer pulls eventually, in the corner. It stores things for painting furniture and scrapbooking. The shelves on the wall to the left of it has my jewelry display items on top, and general craft supplies that my kids use on the next shelf. (The shelf over the window also has some fun craft supplies for using with my kiddos.) The clothes pins are there to hang pics when scrapbooking!! (So can't wait to use that.)

The dark cabinet piece was a freebie...tv armoire...that I have plans to makeover, but was sitting in the garage. Now it houses my sewing machines, other pieces to paint, wrapping paper and gift bags, and sewing projects.

The top 2 pics in the collage shows more scrapbooking supplies and my beads. We get apples at Costco and they come in these cool clear plastic containers that are perfect for me to place my finished jewelry pieces so that when they sell they are easy for me to find for the customer.

Now for my Jewelry corner!!!

I have extra lighting under my cabinet...which is full of jewelry making stuff and things for the craft fairs. (Also some clay projects). Then two different sets of drawers under the table, and more storage things behind the drawers that I can take my jewelry making stuff with me.

Now when I need a moment of de-stressing... I can go and distress some painted furniture or make some pretty jewelry without worrying about where I'm gonna craft it all. :)

Etsy or no Etsy? That is the question.

So, I'm in the process of revamping my "shop". Thinking of closing the etsy shop and just selling through here and Varage sale. What are your thoughts on that? Leave them in the comments below.

Meanwhile, here is a pretty bracelet I thought I'd share with ya'll.

This is an adorable blue and (faux) turquoise bracelet on an elastic chord.

 With a nice variety of materials, stone, metal, plastic, glass, foil and fabric... so eclectic it's fun!

30% off Earrings!!

 30% off all earrings today!!

 Also take another $5 off your total purchase of $30 or more thru Saturday when you use the coupon code ChristmasShopping.