The Wagon Wheel Chair (I Don't Know What To Call It!)

         Hey, Everyone! Since I've been on a roll by getting so many projects done lately, today I'll show you this lovely chair! As stated in the title, I actually don't know what to call this unique chair, so for now I will call it the Wagon Wheel Chair. Since it seems to be more of an outdoor piece of furniture, all of the products I used on it were made to withstand the weather. When I first got this chair, I had no idea what to do with it. I only knew that I really liked it! It was quite worn in some areas, especially on the seat, but I wanted to keep that concept going, while brightening it up a bit.

 The chair was held together by six bolts, which easily came apart with a ratchet for easier painting. 

 After days of brainstorming, I decided on a heritage blue shade by Benjamin Moore called Newburypoint Blue. I went with a matte finish. 

 As I started painting, I realized I liked staggering the boards with the stain and paint, but the stained boards were quite worn in. I ended up rubbing some Minwax Dark Walnut stain in some of the areas where the wood was bare. 

 After one coat of the paint and two coats of Outdoor Varathane, the chair is ready for any weather! 

 This photo shows how the wood stain filled in the bare wood that was worn a bit too far. 

Overall, this was quite a fun project, as I've never played around with outdoor paints and Varathane. I also enjoyed trying a new colour to help this unique chair stand out even more! 

Two Small Projects:

Hi Everyone! Since I've finished quite a few projects, it's time to show them off! After refinishing the hutch from the last post, I had a fair amount of the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White leftover. So, why not use it all up? In this post, I've painted an antique side table and a child's rocking chair. The best part about these projects was that once again, using chalk paint requires no sanding. First, I'll show you the side table. I was hired to paint it when I did the hutch. The details on the table's legs  couldn't be seen with the stain, but after painting, they really stand out! 

After painting, I used a coat of Varathane to protect the finish. I love the elegance of this table!

 And here is the child's rocking chair that I recently got for free. Since I had just a little bit of paint left, I was worried it wouldn't cover it entirely, but boy was I wrong! I had enough to do two coats!

 Although it's hard to see in the photo, I did a little distressing before putting Varathane on it. This gives it a shabby chic look!

Well, these couple of little projects turned out quite nicely! And once again, chalk paint made it go by quickly! :) 

Some New Tricks!

         Hey, Everyone! I've been working on quite a few projects - I'm very excited for you to see them! Today I'm going to share the hutch I was recently hired to refinish. After looking into a few options, we decided the most feasible option would be to use Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Instead of stripping and sanding down the dark stain that was already on the hutch, we wanted it to show through the Annie Sloan Old White paint colour we selected. The results were a huge transformation! This hutch also had some very out dated brass metal drawer pulls and knobs. The owner requested that I try spray painting them a chestnut brown shade. I was pretty nervous about trying this for the first time, but they turned out beautifully. What was a very dated antiquated hutch, now has a fresh, bright look! 

This is the top of the hutch, as you can see, it looked quite dated.

And this is the bottom half, previously being used as a TV stand.

 After taking all of the hardware (knobs, hinges, etc.), the next step was to tape off the window to the upper cabinet. This way there wouldn't be any paint residue to have to clean off afterwards. What I absolutely love about chalk paint is that it requires no sanding! What a time and money saver! It would have taken hours of sanding and wood stripping to get to this step, but the chalk paint easily adhered to the already varnished wood!

 This photo is a great example of how I distressed the hutch by painting. There was no sanding required to get this look. This "brushed" technique is one I'm starting to perfect after so many projects! 

 After doing one coat, the hutch was almost unrecognizable! I did a touch up by doing a second, very thin coat of paint.

And what a difference! Already it's going from outdated to a classic vintage look!

After applying a couple coats of Varathane to protect the finish, the next thing to do was to spray paint the hardware to give it an update too!

This is the spray paint I used by Rust- Oleum. It is a paint and primer for any surface - wood, metal, you name it! We chose the colour Chestnut, since it would add some elegance to the hutch and make the hardware really stand out! 

Here is all the hardware waiting for some new paint.

 This is after one coat of the spay paint. At first I was worried because the paint seemed to crackle. The image below demonstrates it better. Thankfully, after a few more coats the paint adhered to the hardware and was nice and even!

After the hardware had dried off, I used KRylon Color Master, which is a clear protectant to keep the paint from coming off.

Once the hardware was dried off completely, it was time for us to put the hutch back together and see the final results...

This project surprised everyone when they saw the transformation! I found the chalk paint and spray painting to be very user friendly and will definitely continue to explore both of these products. In the end, the time saved by not having to sand and the money saved by not having to buy new hardware made this project a very feasible one, with great results!