Mirror, mirror...

Not on the wall yet, but it will be...  eventually.  ;)

Some of you might remember this really gold mirror that I picked up from the "Mart of Doom" back in December:

Although it is plastic, it was a steal at thirty-five dollars.

But it needed a little work.

So, I took some homemade chalk paint to her:

I liked her just plain white, but I really wanted to make those details pop.  So, I broke out the technique glaze.

When I first started upcycling and making over furniture, I would read all these bloggers talking about glazing.  Kind of like how they talk about ASCP -  It took me FOREVER to put Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and ASCP together.  Hey, I'm blond.  What can I say?

Anyhoo...  I had no clue who, what, when, where, why, or how to glaze.  So, for those of you who are newbies, here's a few quick instructions on how to glaze.  I'm not sure if its the "right" way or not, but its "my" way and I've never had any issues with it.  So, here goes...

For those of you who have never used technique glaze, its a great alternative to age furniture, or in this case - a mirror.  Or, it can really make detailing stand out.  Sometimes I use wax, but I wasn't liking the idea of having to dig chunks of wax out of all the crevices.  I really need to get one of those nifty brushes.  Sorry, ADD moment...  So, that's why I went with the glaze.

Its pretty simple.  Trust me.  If it wasn't, I wouldn't do it.  ;)  I basically mix about a cup of technique glaze to an ounce of colored paint.  You can glaze with any color your little heart desires, so its a fun alternative to plain light or dark wax.

I really wanted to go with a gray glaze, but it was too light.  So, I mixed in some brown paint with the gray paint and glaze.  Its always good to do a small area first, just to make sure you like how it's looking.

The first thing you're going to do is put it on with a brush.  There's no special way, just slap it on there.  I used a craft brush, just because I really wanted to control the size of the space I was glazing.

The big thing with glaze is, you don't want to do too big of an area at once on a piece that has as much detail as this mirror does.  You will run the risk of the glaze partially drying before you have a chance to wipe it off.

Now, you're not going to wipe all of it off.  You need to just wipe it gently.  Technically, I usually use a cotton t-shirt, but I was too lazy to find one to cut up (and Scott is running out of old shirts and is going to start to notice), so I just used a dish cloth.  Some people recommend dampening the cloth you're using, but personally I don't feel like it gives me as much control over how much I'm removing.  That's my personal preference though.

Gently wipe in the direction of the pattern, being sure to leave some residue behind.

Next, because of all the different grooves and crevices, I took a Q-tip to it.  Are there never ending uses to a Q-tip or what?  LOL

I just cleaned around inside of all the crevices where the glaze had really pooled.  Tedious?  Yes.  Monotonous?  Yes.  But necessary. You don't want it to look all gunked up.  In my world, "gunked" is a word.  ;)

Here, you can see the difference between glazed and unglazed:

Left Side:  Glazed
Right Side:  Unglazed

And the final result is a piece that has been freshly painted, but looks ages old.  And the detailing is so much more defined than it would have been if I had left it pure white.  And sooooo much better than that gaudy gold. (No offense to peeps that might like gaudy gold.  :P )

A quick before:

Gaudy Gold

Antiqued White

And so much more fun than painting on the furniture or walls.

I'm such an instant gratification lush.  ;)

And I cannot wait to hang this on the wall in the dining room...  whenever that may be.  HA.

But, at least I did get something done that was worth blogging about.  LOL

And just so you know I'm actually working on some stuff, here's a sneak peek of the dining room table:

She's finally done, but I'm still working on the chairs.  I'm not sure what's up with the wonky colors of the blue in this photo, but I can assure you that she's a gorgeous distressed one tone blue.  ;)

So, now you know what I'm working on tomorrow...  The chairs.

Until then y'all...

Foyer Table Reveal

I have this little table that used to sit in my Dad's foyer.  It was the first thing you saw when you walked through the front door, sitting directly across from the door.  Small, narrow and not really much good for anything but to be a clutter collector.  I pretty much set it up like he had it and left it that way.  Kind of a mini-shrine (but like, not in a weird way).

My Dad loved everything wood.  He would buy all kinds of stuff from unfinished furniture stores and stain it himself.  Needless to say, I inherited a lot of stained wood furniture - and bless his heart, they weren't always stained in a good way.  He really had a thing for orangey tones.  Uh.  No.

So, I finally talked myself into believing that he wouldn't care one bit if I made some of these pieces of furniture my own by painting them up a bit.  Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous fall day, although you wouldn't have known by the temperatures.  Who ever heard of 80 degrees in Iowa in October?  Weird.  Since I'm never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I decided to take advantage of this last bit of fantastic weather by working on some furniture outside.

The little man had his own fun while I sanded away...

Obviously, I let him dress himself yesterday morning.  ;)
Check out those little bare feet!

Here's what I started with...

Sorry for the quality, I had to crop it from an old picture.
Sometimes I get so excited about doing something, I forget to take before shots!

And after a good sanding...

I primed her up pretty good (which I did not take pictures of) and then painted her "Chalkboard White" by Dutch Boy.  I also tried my very first attempt at glazing in a "Smooth Slate".  OMG.  Why did I think I could screw it up?!  So easy and such instant gratification!  That's my kind of DIYing!  

And here she is today...

Since she sits in our dining room (these old house don't have foyers - at least ours doesn't), I added a few simple items to match the fall decor on the table.

I used an old wooden cheese box as a vase, by taking a foam florist square that I had, cutting it in half and laying it in the bottom of the box.  My centerpiece for the table was dying a slow death, so I cut some of the flowers that hadn't wilted yet and pushed them into the foam.  In lieu of greenery for filler, I walked out to the cornfield that abuts our backyard, grabbed some leaves from a stalk, and shredded them.

I saw this cute idea on Pinterest, but didn't repin it, so I can't say who this came from.  If its your idea, please let me know and I will give you proper credit!  I used hemp twine instead of jute, but still got the same effect.

The bouquet on the bottom shelf is nothing more than foxtail and sticks from our backyard tied with the hemp twine.  I love how the foxtail resembles wheat in its shape and golden color.  And for the backing, I used that old metal ceiling tile that I bought a few weeks ago from "Country Collections" in Dumont.

So here's a quick recap:

I must say I'm totally in love with this table and now I think I'm ready to tackle the computer table.  Fingers crossed!