Death by Dresser... (Part 1)

This dresser is killing me!
I do love this beautiful curvy lined mahogany dresser, but I am afraid the combination of my inexperience and the horrible shape it was in has caused many hours of frustration and also in a wierd way, enjoyment. I have learned alot and I am here to share.

Let's start at the very beginning...it's a very good place to start.

Isn't it pretty!  I bought this dresser/changing table from the cutest couple up in north Portland.  They had the coolest house with a little garden in the front.  I brought it home and my sister suggested I take the top piece off and just sell it as a dresser.  Which I did not even think of because I honestly thought the top was part of it, when she said that I realized it was added later.  I debated about this for a while, because I thought it was soooo cute as a changing table.  So cute, I wanted to keep it for myself and our next child (still TBD).  But then I showed some pics to an interested friend up in Seattle.  She also fell in love and said she must have it!  Decided--we go topless!

So the top actually came off suprisingly easy.  I think it has been the easiest part so far.  After I took off the top with my hammer and screwdriver, I cleaned-up the little dust bunnies and spider webs.  I did not think my friend Tev would want new pets in her house.   I filled the holes with my trusty Elmers wood filler and then sanded. Did not need to do much sanding since there was really no sealant left, just stained wood.  There were so many dings and holes though, I just kept filling and filling.  I probably should have just left some for the distressing look.  But I like to be in control of that part.  I like to start from scratch.  Maybe that is bad..I don't know, but it is my preference.

Then I primed with my tinted (I learned my lesson with the red chair) Zinsser 123 primer.  I had it tinted by Lowes in a brownish beige color.  Easy peasy.

Here it comes...I went for my normal morning walk, it was a beautiful sunshiney morning, came home made some lunch, put my little boy for a nap, went to the garage, layed out my paint cloth's, got my paint sprayer ready...painted.  Looked great, went inside to clean everything out, came back out..........(insert scream here) It had started to sprinkle all over my freshly painted drawer fronts.

To be continued...

Cute little green desk

Silly me!  I started this post last week and then got side tracked (it happens to us Gemini's).  So here is a story of a cute little green desk...



Original glory...not so glorious in my opinion.




A 180-grit sanding block got to dig in on this primed and painted piece.  The primer- water based Zinsser 123.  The paint-Olympic "oops paint" $1.25 from Lowe's in a sagey green grey color




I wanted a more grey than brown glaze on this piece because I kinda had that all going on.  A lot of grey in the paint as well as the dark pewter colored knobs.  So I chose to mix a little Varathane Espresso with my new love (sorry hubby) Valspar Clear Mixing Glaze.  The glaze makes it so you have a little more time to work with your stain.  But not too long, I left my top coat on a little too long and had to work some magic with a little sprayed water.  It was almost disastrous.  I would only do for example two drawer fronts at a time.  Brush your glaze mix on to the front heavy like.  Then about 2 minutes later wipe off with a dry rag first if you want more off, dampen your rag.  If you want more on, apply another coat or you can add more stain to your mix.  I start with eyeing about a tsp of stain to 1/2 cup glaze.  You can always add more from there of either product.




See the sort of a grayish tone. Sorry for the little blur in all of my pictures, that would be my husband ruining our camera about 6 months ago.




Almost done, don't you love these art deco type half cup pulls!  I heart them!




I even took it a step further and took off the small pulls and spray painted them a darker silver.  In my opinion it did not quite match close enough.  Simple desk waiting for the perfect space.



Quicky Makeover

Over here at Portobello Road, we are not just about painting and crafting, we are about beautifying per our clients desire.  In this case my client is my favorite (only) sister.  She spotted this dresser, but had something against the pulls.  She said something about her childhood and how every dresser she ever had, had these Queen Anne style pulls. "Clink, clink", she shivered and said, "they have to go!" I warned her of the existing imprints and expense, this sucker has 12, count them 12 pulls!  So off I went to Lowes, which by the way I find has a much better selection of knobs/pulls...$50 dollars later, a little hole drilling and wha-la!  Very old dresser, very new look...

Something Old...

Something new :)

PS. Sister, please come get this out of my garage.  I need the space for my other fun projects!

Little Red Rocking Chair

Okay so I did it!  I completed my first piece and am already working on my second!  I had to go out of town for a little while for a work thing.  Louisville was quite hot, felt like I was walking into an oven really.  Coming from Portland when I walked out of the Airport in Louisville at 11pm at night I had to start stripping the layers off and was cursing the jeans and tennis shoes I wore on the flight.  A few days later, I went to Chicago to visit a friend for a few days.  It is such a beautiful city and her baby even more so!  I think I would want to live there if there were no winter.  But alas, it happens and winter happens bad in the windy city.  Back to furniture...

The little red rocking chair has been a joy to work on.  A learning lesson for sure.  Here is what I learned:

1. I don't like working with spray paint.
2. I don't like working with anything oil based.
3. I don't like white primer under red spray paint (rookie mistake).
4. There are a lot of little parts on little chairs.
5. I do like glazing, but it did not really stand out enough so I just stained.
6. Sand, sand and sand somemore.
7. That my little boy loves his new red rocking chair.
8. The little red ottoman is coming soon.

$5 at a garage sale.  Look they even left me some stickers.

My cool plastic spray gun handle was a good purchase.  But I should have just painted on a tinted primer.


 Drippy's...bad!

Turned out pretty cute though

Restoration Hypo-procrastination

I think that is what I have. In the sales world they call it "call reluctance", I could call it paint reluctance! In my book it just means I think I am a little scared to start my first piece. I keep buying and orgainizing...buying paint, tools, furniture...I have a buying problem. Anyone that knows me personally, knows that I am a buyer and returner. The only problem here is that you cannot really return furniture you bought at a garage sale, Goodwill or on Craigslist. Hmmmm, that means I need to "just do it" (I live right around the corner from Nike HQ so I should follow their example)! At least I have come to terms with it. This is what my garage looks like right now. I swear my husband will leave me if I buy even one more piece of furniture. I hope it is not like my shoes he says for every new pair I get I have to throw away two pairs. What is that about? Men don't understand. Stay tuned for my first piece...

Life as we know it...now

How do you start a blog...I mean really start.  The very first entry can be quite intimidating.  Are people going to like it?  Are people going to like me?  My writing style, my pictures, my work, my glory.  Well not all my glory, I fully intend to share glory of others as well.  So in effort to not have it be so daunting to write this first post, I just have to pretend that I am the only one reading it.  Which is actually true!

They call me Christie.  Christine without the "n" is how I say to spell it since I get asked ALL the time.  I live in Portland, Oregon.  Originally from California, San Jose to be exact.  I don't really want to write a big ole long story about where I am from and how I came to be, cause that might be a bit boring.   Currently, I live in Beaverton with my husband and 2 year old little boy.  I am a stay at home meeting planner and mom.  Meaning I work for home sometimes a lot, and sometimes not so much, just depends on the clients or contracts I get for conventions or meetings that they need me to plan.  So you probably guessed it I am a planner.  A big planner...meaning I like to know and prepare for what is happening in the future.  Mostly long term things like parties, trips, work, anniversaries, birthdays.  I am not really a day to day planner, mostly a fly by the seat of my pants type, that's me, moment to moment.  Oh sorry I got lost on that Pretty Woman quote.  Back to our life as we know it...  So in my slow season I mainly hang out with my son and do not work.  This is where Portobello Road comes into play.  I need a hobby, not that I don't love being with my 2 year old.  But I just need a larger creative outlet.  I was an Interior Design Major before I switched to Hospitality Management.  And I grew up creating crafts for boutiques, took tons of art classes, drafting, designing...time to use it! 

I have been getting lost in blogland lately and I am just so impressed by Sausha at Show & Tell and Mandi at Vintage Revivals and many, many others!  I have been truly inspired!  So we had a garage sale last week, I made $100. And with that $100 I bought 10 pieces of furniture and this is where the story begins... Portobello Road is born.