Maison Blanche Part Three – Le Dirt and Organza

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Heather

Remember those pieces of moulding I showed you in the first post?

Maison Blanche makes two products – one is called Le Dirt and one is called Organza. Both of the products amazed all of us!

Once you have painted and waxed your piece, you can add Le Dirt to it to give it that old, antique-y feel. The wax helps it “stick” to the piece!

(This picture was pre-waxing – I forgot to snap a pic after!)

Once we were all waxed and ready to go, we took our moulding and Le Dirt outside with a chipbrush. You definitely want to do this outside if possible, because it is a powder (much like dirt). You don’t want to inhale this stuff, and we made sure that Whitney did not do this part since she is pregnant. Annie @ Maison Blanche did not think there were any problems with a pregnant person using it, but we didn’t want to take the chance!

First, you’re going to pour some Le Dirt onto your piece. Wherever the wax is, that is where the Le Dirt will stick!

Once it is on there, start brushing it off.

Keep brushing until you’re happy with it.

Can you see how it has settled into the crevices? It looks like an antique piece you would find in your grandmother’s attic! It completely changes the look of it.

The Organza really blew us away, and was probably our favorite product we used that day. Remember Whitney’s faux zinc coffee tables? Yeah, she has been kicking herself since we learned about this stuff – this makes it SO easy to get that same look with almost no work at all.

This was the “before” picture of the moulding. No wax, nothing but paint.

Can you believe the difference?! I’m pretty sure a jar of this would last the normal person for years – we used VERY little of the product to get this effect.

It is a cream and we just dabbed it on with a clean rag. You can wax it afterwards if you want (I probably would just to protect it). These pieces that we have pictures of have not been waxed.

Organza comes in three colors – Pearl Gold, Silver, and Gold. Whitney can’t wait to try the faux zinc look with this!

That’s it for our Maison Blanche “Heather Has a Big Mouth” Tour! You can find Maison Blanche on Pinterest, their website, and Facebook. All of us really had a blast at their warehouse when we went, and we would all love to go back if they invite us! Thanks again to Annie and Nicole – you girls are great! (Go check out Part One and Part Two if you haven’t already!)

Barcelona Orange Nursery Dresser

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Whitney

Only a little over 9 weeks to go and I FINALLY got the nursery dresser painted!

Remember this:

My $30 Canton steal? It sat in our bedroom for WAY too long and I was finally motivated/energetic enough to get started on it. I knew it would be a longer process–I have learned this with Barcelona Orange. But if you can’t put a bright orange dresser in a young boys’ room (or craft room), where can you put one?

From our previous experience with this color of paint, I knew it was going to take several coats. For some reason, it just doesn’t cover as well. Now, I think I know the reason, thanks to the ladies at Maison Blanche! Apparently, some colors (usually darker ones, but not always) have a deep base (when you look at the paint cans in the big box stores, they will say deep/medium base, etc.) and that means it isn’t going to cover as well. The way to overcome that is NOT to use white primer, but rather a gray color as a base coat. Wish I had known that BEFORE I started painting this beast (5 coats later!). Oh well, lesson learned.

Do you see that? Not great coverage like I have come to know and love from my ASCP. But I persevered.

And 4 (or 5–I lost track) coats later, it was finally done to my liking. Well, pretty much. I like my furniture pieces more modern-looking and smooth, rather than chippy and distressed (at least for boys’ bedrooms), so other people may achieve that look quicker if that’s what they’re going for. I also did 2 coats of poly (no wax) since it was going to be in a high-use area and I didn’t want to have to worry about it or re-wax in anytime soon. Plus, I am 7 months pregnant and waxing is pretty labor intensive.

I reused the same hardware (don’t love it, but hardware is expensive!) and just spray painted it chrome.

I still can’t believe I have an orange dresser. I can’t wait to see it with the rest of the room all put together, which we are getting to soon! I will be working on some nursery crafts this weekend at our Pinterest Party, so I will post pics when they are done. But I will leave you with some sneak peeks/hints:

If I can find some fabric I love (Heather might kill me by then), the plan is to recover this. Or attempt it, anyway.

Say bye-bye to the hearts and wood tone.

Old decor will become new again!

And look at the cute whale my aunt found at HomeGoods! Love!!

There is more where this came from–can’t wait to get it all done and put together! And of course, show it off to all of you!

What do you think? Would you paint a dresser orange? What’s the boldest color you have painted a piece of furniture (or anything)?

Have a great week!!

Maison Blanche Part Two – Glacage

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Heather

If you haven’t read Part One of the Maison Blanche field trip, go ahead and check it out!

Our first project was learning how to use Maison Blanche Glacage. It’s kind of difficult to explain exactly what it is, so I’ll just say it is a texturing/embossing process. It comes in five different colors (Natural Wood, Oak, Cherry, Black, and Walnut), so you can match it to what you are working with.

Annie and Nicole from Maison Blanche, showing us just some of the effects you can get by using Glacage.

To teach us how to use Glacage, Annie and Nicole had cabinet doors lined up against the back wall. These can be bought for next to nothing, and would make cute gifts! We each chose the style we wanted (yes, they had a variety!), then chose the stencil we wanted to use, and then chose the color of Glacage we wanted to use.

Our “BEFORE” cabinet doors.

The first thing they had us do was lightly sand down the cabinet doors to take a little bit of the gloss off of them. Once that was finished, we used some stencil adhesive and laid our stencils out where we wanted them. (FYI: Stencil adhesive spray works SO much better than tape!)

Now comes the fun part (and the part that we basically managed to not get ANY pictures of!) – slapping that Glacage on. Glacage is a cream, not a liquid, so it is thick. We applied it to the outer front edges of the cabinet doors, and also onto the stencil. You can use whatever color you want, it just depends on the color paint you use and/or how you want it to look after distressing if you distress it. The Glacage takes a little while to dry, so Annie and Nicole magically had more for us that were already “Glacaged”, dry, and ready to go! It was like something on the Food Network.

You can kind of see what Annie is doing – she is using “Natural” Glacage over a stencil. She applied hers with a plastic scraper. It’s just that easy.

Here is my “during”. I used Cherry Glacage. You can see the texture! Another thing we learned is that Glacage is “sandable” after it is dried.

Once your Glacage is dry, it’s time to paint. I chose Pastille, Whitney chose Chicory Spice, Tarah chose Collette, Christie chose Cayenne (although now that I think about it, she could have used Cerise!), and Aunt Toni chose Robin’s Egg. (Collette is new and is not on their color chart yet!) Annie did a cabinet door in Bayou Blue. The paint was smooth, went on great, and covered just like I knew it would! I think I did maybe two coats on mine, and that is only because it was a really light color.

Maison Blanche Pastille, Chicory Spice, Collette, Cayenne, and Robin's Egg.

Maison Blanche Pastille, Chicory Spice, Collette, Cayenne (or was it Cerise?), and Robin’s Egg.

Cabinet Door painted with Maison Blanche Pastille over Glacage - RCHOTX

You can see the texture from the Glacage in this picture. Once the Glacage dries, it is raised and you can feel it – it looks like the cabinet door was made with that design in it!

We took our wet cabinet doors over to some fans to speed up the drying while we worked on some other things (that’s for another post, y’all!).

Once the paint was dry (maybe 45 minutes?), we took them outside and sanded them down a little (to distress them). You don’t HAVE to do that, it is completely optional. Then we chose our wax. Maison Blanche has Dark Brown, Light Brown, Amber, and Clear. The Maison Blanche wax was almost like a liquid, it went on so easily! I was amazed. It got in all the nooks and crannies and it really was as simple as brushing it on (we used chip brushes – cheap and you don’t feel bad throwing them away once they’re worn out!) and wiping it off with a soft, clean cloth. Some of the other waxes I’ve used are so thick it almost hurts to put it on – I’ll never buy the cheap stuff at Lowe’s / Home Depot again!

Robin’s Egg with Dark Brown Wax on edges

Robin’s Egg with Dark Brown wax during – still needs to be buffed more, but can you believe how much the wax you use can change the color of the paint?!

Collette before wax

Collette after Amber Wax. This is probably the biggest difference we saw!

Cayenne (or Cerise) and Dark Brown Wax

Annie is the quickest waxer in the west. You can see how easily this wax brushes on in this picture.

Annie told us that when we got home we needed to “buff” it a little with a soft cloth to make it shine a little bit more. I still have not done that since I have been a tad bit busy, but I plan to work on it next weekend at our Pinterest Party, and hopefully have a totally finished project to show you!

I still can’t believe how much fun we had while we were there. I seriously have thought about going back ever since we left! In the next post, I’ll show you some of the finishes that Maison Blanche carries, and how much they can change the look of your painted pieces. I couldn’t believe what a difference it made!

Read our other posts about Maison Blanche here! Part One / Part Three

Adventures with vinyl

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Tarah

Last week I tried something new – adventures with vinyl on my Cricut. It truly is a trial and error type of adventure. If I hadn’t bought some vinyl on Pick Your Plum for inexpensive, it would most definitely be an expensive one.

First let me say … I LOVE GOOGLE! I googled before putting the vinyl on my cutting mat. No, I didn’t google “how to put vinyl on the cutting mat”. I just wanted to be sure I didn’t get ahead of myself. Wonderful Google took me to YouTube, another great invention (entertainment and learning!). Google and YouTube brought me to a tutorial for cutting vinyl with the Cricut. Suzy’s Scrappin Spot has a list of tutes to view. I watched the one for cutting and then watched her cheat sheet tute. While her settings worked for her, they didn’t work for me, so I set mine differently. It’s good to know though!

Y’all remember the stool I painted at last week? I have finished it.

As we know, I don’t own a Silhouette. I have a Cricut. It works, I like it, I live with it.

I went back and forth with that I wanted to put on the stool. I asked Heather to help decide between “Mommy’s helper” or “Kitchen helper”.

Her reply – “Kitchen helper. Mommy’s helper = valium”

Kitchen Helper it is.

After messing up the first try because I used the “cheat sheet” settings. after changing them up a bit, it worked. I went with a simple font and a simple color – black.

Once I had the extra taken off and thrown away. I cut the block and placed them where I wanted them. I figured little feet were going to be standing on this, it just needs to be simple.

Being a first timer at this, I didn’t know I needed transfer paper. Maybe I should do a little research first before starting something like this. But really? Who wants to do that? I like to fly by the seat of my pants sometimes.

Google also provided me with a substitute material for the transfer paper that I didn’t have. Did YOU know you needed yet another material for this vinyl stuff? Yeah, neither did I, unless of course then you did know and I’m clearly in the dark about this stuff. The substitute is …. painter’s tape! Shocking, I know.

I know this is hard to believe, but I have had a semi-FAIL. What makes this a semi-fail? Well since the kids have been “using”* it, the L has flattened out.

*read – getting the stool and getting their own snack, mommy’s tape measure, a banana … I could go on.

and we’re done. Super easy, super cute and they love having their own stool. Too bad they’ve moved Savannah’s into the laundry room to help with the laundry.

Kitchen helper

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Tarah

Now that my kids are growing like weeds and getting up there in age, they want to help with stuff (whether I want them to or not!) Heather has given all 3 kids these cute personalized stools. She got them from Ikea and then painted them. Each have their names and designs on them. Jaxon uses his stool in his closet to get his school clothes and Trent uses his stool to crawl into his bed. We’ve been using Savannah’s in the kitchen for whoever decides they want to help with lunch/dinner. Its time for her to take her stool to her room. Now we will have a “kitchen helper” stool specifically for the kitchen helper that night!

Last month we went to J’s parents and made a trip to Ikea in Round Rock. I love Ikea. I had 2 things on my “need to get” list and a few on my “if I see it, I might get it” list. I quickly picked up the stool I was there for, then continued to peruse.

Jody was nice enough to put this bad boy together for me. It was amusing to hear him talk to the picture only instructions. This little guy was only $14.99, easy and comes in handy.

Of course I didn’t leave it natural. That’s totally not something I would do.

I’m the only one of the 5 of us that has branched out from Annie Sloan and tried a competitor. I’ve had this can of CeCe Caldwell Chalk Paint for a while. I’ve used it on quite a few things (a potato bin and a queen size iron headboard). This paint truly goes a long way. Since the stool is going to be used in my kitchen, Spring Hill Green is perfect for it.

BUT here’s the thing about this color – until you get the wax on it. It seems more pastel than bright. Also, I hate pastel. So.

Clearly, I’m the rebel of the group. Not only have a branched out from ASCP, I also went with some different wax. Everyone loves Home Depot and Lowes, and I do too, however, they are not conveniently located near me when I need to make a quick trip. And when I say “not convenient”, I mean it’s like 5 miles away and … let’s be honest, ain’t nobody got time for that when you only need 1 thing. We have a nice Ace Hardware located near us, and wouldn’t you know it, one of the employees loves to refinish furniture. He recommended Johnson’s Paste Wax. Its for floors, but works nicely on furniture.

I’m not patient. At all. Luckily, I was working on another project while waiting for the stool to dry. It dries quickly, so that’s always a good thing.

Aren’t quick little projects always great to get out of the way? There’s more to this little guy. You’ll see.

ANOTHER Faux Zinc Coffee Table

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Whitney

After testing out the process (using this tutorial) on my $20 Craigslist coffee table (that I later sold for $90), I knew that was what I wanted to do with my $65 Craigslist coffee table. I just knew that it was going to take A LOT longer due to the 8 drawers and extra details that the other did not have. I put it off and put it off until finally I got some motivation (in the form of my sister who was coming over to work on her coffee table).

This is my coffee table BEFORE:

Quite the beauty, no? Well, maybe not in this form. She was scratched up and a little worse for wear, but SOLID (aka heavy beast) and had nice details on the corners. And lots of storage (which my son promptly took advantage of with his coloring books and games).

Using my trusty Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Graphite, I got started and had the first coat done relatively quickly. Heather was painting her coffee table at the same time with homemade chalk paint (post to come later about that) and her first coat took way longer than mine and her coffee table was nowhere near as detailed/large as mine. The ASCP just covers so well and goes so far–it is worth the money in my opinion (especially now that I have seen the comparison firsthand). I didn’t even sand or repair any of the scratches, I figured that would add character and a more “metal” look to it once it was done (plus I was lazy).

After 2 coats:

Once dried, I sanded down the entire table using a 200 grit sanding block. I tried sandpaper, thinking it would be better for the crevices and details, but I liked the sanding block so much better–much quicker and more comfortable to work with. It has a totally different look after sanding.

After sanding it was time for the wax. Heather and I decided we wanted to try Briwax, as we had heard it was a good substitute for the ASCP clear wax. I had been using Minwax Finishing Paste and it was easy enough but definitely took more elbow grease than the soft-as-butter ASCP wax. I have to say, the Briwax was a *bit* softer but had quite a strong odor. I had to open doors to allow for plenty of ventilation, which I usually never have to do. And I may have started waxing too soon, but the Briwax also seemed to take off some of the paint as I rubbed it on. Again, that could have been my fault for being in a hurry, but it was something I noticed. I still used the ASCP round brush for the wax (LOVE) and an old t-shirt to wipe off excess.

After the first coat of wax was dry, it was time to start on the faux-zinc part by adding silver metallic craft paint (any will do–Heather happened to have some in her stash so I just used what she had; I think it was 2 different silvers too) to the wax. It seemed to take more craft paint to achieve the look than it did with the last table, but it could have been because I couldn’t get it to blend with the wax very well. I may be splurging on ASCP Clear Wax for my next project–I have been spoiled by her Dark Wax already.

Drawers and top of table AFTER:

Top drawer has just been waxed, bottom drawer has been waxed with the silver craft paint added. You can see the depth the craft paint gives it in this picture.

After doing a final coat of wax (this is a much-used coffee table, after all) and letting that dry, I buffed the entire thing (using a good amount of muscle/force) to get a nice smooth finish and shine. I love the buffing pad I got from the ASCP stockist. It is just a microfiber pad (for only $1.50) but it is wonderful.

It took me a while to find knobs to replace the original worn-out wooden ones because I didn’t want to spend more on knobs than I did on the entire table. I saw some beautiful ones at Hobby Lobby, but even $3.00 a piece was more than I wanted to pay. I decided to go with some cheap, black $0.97 ones from Lowe’s. It ties it back into my black entertainment center and work just fine. They even had a little detail to them.

And I was done! Since it is a table that we use (and couldn’t NOT have in our living room), I kept it covered with a sheet for a couple weeks to make sure it could properly seal without getting scratched up by my son with a race car or something.

So, just for fun, let’s see a before and after. I always love those!

I love it! Now, if I can get rid of my couches and rug and get that charcoal grey sectional I so desire, then it would look even better, but that will have to wait.

This was definitely labor-intensive but still didn’t take very long in the overall scheme of things. I could have knocked it out in a couple days if I tried really hard. Definitely worth it when you see the results though–my cell phone pics don’t quite do it justice.

Next up, a Barcelona Orange dresser for the nursery! Yikes!

Have you tried this technique? What do you think of it? What has been your favorite piece you have painted (any technique)?

I’ve linked up to Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday!

Craigslist Media Console!

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Heather

So, we bought a new TV. We bought it a lot sooner than I planned on buying one. Why? It was a great deal and we didn’t want to miss out.

The problem? Our current TV (at the time) was a stand-alone beast and I had nothing to put the new (skinny, beautiful) TV on, furniture-wise. I didn’t want another IKEA/Target ready-to-assemble piece of fiberboard, I wanted real furniture, and I had the perfect piece in my head.

Yep. My head has expensive taste ($2875!!!). I had to take it down a notch, since we just dropped big bucks on the TV. I took it to Craigslist. Five minutes later, I found something I liked. It was $169 on Craigslist, but it was at a local antique mall. Of course I forced Whitney to go look at it with me, armed with measuring tape and a plan! It had the coolest looking top two drawers – of course, the ones I was about to remove. I did save them because they have a lattice design, and I might want to use this as a real chest of drawers someday.

Turns out it was the perfect size! It was also $20 cheaper than it was on Craigslist (yay for sales). PS: This is who I bought it from – Vintage Shoppe Girl. They’ve got good stuff if you’re local! Since I don’t have a truck (I really should have a truck), I had them hold it and convinced my brother to “help” me pick it up the next morning. What a good brother I have.

They agreed to sell it to me for $130, which was awesome, so I made it mine. It sat in my living room for a week while I stared at it, panicked, and tried to figure out the easiest way to convert a chest of drawers to a media console. Finally, at about 7:00 pm one night, I figured it out and left my husband at home to make dinner while I went to Home Depot to pick up a few things. Ha!

Those “few things” were 1/2″ MDF cut to size, a hole saw bit set, oh, and a Ryobi Super Combo Kit. Yeah. I only needed a drill (my hand-me-down drill bit the dust), but for only $50 more I could get a reciprocating saw, a circular saw, and a big old flashlight thing. It all came with a huge bag to store it in, 2 batteries, and a charger. So awesome. The lady that checked me out was asking about it, so I told her about Haven Conference/Ryobi/DIY stuff – people are always so shocked that a *girl* can use power tools, it amazes me every time!

I guess you could say that once I get motivated to do something, I don’t mess around. I got home, plugged the charger in, and let the battery charge while we ate dinner. Once that was finished, I realized that one of the shelves I had cut would not fit because a notch needed to be taken out of it. I KNEW I bought the combo kit for a reason!

Yes, folks, I used a reciprocating saw in my living room. Sure did. I wasn’t even scared (it was my first time). It was awesome.

Then it was time to use the saw hole bit – 2 1/2″, to pull all of the cords through the back. That was a little bit scary, at least the first one. I wasn’t too sure of myself so it was a little choppy, but the second one was like buttah.

We nailed the back of the chest back on, painted the shelves black (spray paint because I’m cheap and impatient like that), and plugged stuff in. It is perfect! I ordered a table runner to go on the top (uh, in a color much like Gilded Pesto, of course) to finish it off. It’s not here yet, but I will update when it is!

Now, what else can I go saw and/or drill?

Linked up at Shabby Creek Cottage Transformation Thursday!

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