Finished Furniture Piece

Here are photos of a large armoire that I painted this summer for a client.  I showed you a peek of the bird that's painted on it in the last post, which also showed a wee bit of the house that it now belongs in.  

Here (below) is a photo of what the armoire looked like before.

Just a slight difference  ;-)

The armoire wasn't too bad to start with, but it just didn't go with their gorgeous beach house... too much Country French, not enough Tommy Bahama.  So I hired a painter to sand, prime and base coat it for me... you know I don't do that... I'm an artiste! 

 I started by painting the turquoise details, then glazed the whole thing with a nice neutral tan color.  I sanded back some of the edges to rough it up a bit and make it more casual to go with the more beachy, yet elegant feel they have in their house.

 

The wonderful interior designer had suggested painting a tree branch with a bird sitting on it, and I LOVED the idea!

After I painted the branch and cockatoo, I antiqued the whole thing with a dark brown and wiped most of it back, leaving it a little heavier in the grooves.  Then, when it dried, I put several coats of sealer to protect it.

The hardware that was originally on it went beautifully with the new look. 

So what do you think?  I haven't done this type of work for at least 5 years.  Do I still have "it" or have I lost my touch?

I also did a few more small, very simple pieces to go in another of the client's homes, but I'll share those with you another time.

Hand-Painted Music Cabinet

Here's the cabinet that I showed you last week that I was working on in this post here.  I finished and delivered it Friday, along with another small one that I'll show you later.  

That means I still have a large armoire to finish by the beginning of next week, for the same client but a different house.  It'll be WAY different than this.  The armoire is going to be in cream with accents of turquoise and brown possibly with a bird sitting on a branch.  So if I'm not visiting your blogs as much right now I apologize... tight deadlines!  

This photo above shows the third step in the process.  First was prepping and painting it dark green (thank you Hubby for that part!)  Second step was cutting the stencils and applying a raised texture through the stencils.  Third step is to glue on crinkled tissue paper to give it a leather look.  

Fourth step, paint the tissue and raised stencil areas green.  Fifth step, add gold leaf accents.  Sixth step, antique with a raw umber glaze, and last step is to seal it.

I didn't get the best photos of it because I finished it 7:00 at night and dragged it outside quickly to get photos before the  sun went down.

Oh yeah, actually it's not quite finished!  The client wants me to add a touch of gold to the raised stencil areas so they pop out more. The study that it goes in is dark so you don't notice the details as much.  I'll show photos of that when it's DONE done, but that'll be a while from now.

So now I'm off to go make a blue card of some sort for the Summer Of Color!

Oh, and because I apparently think I don't have enough on my plate right now (LOL!)  I'm taking a fantastic online class that just started yesterday called Plaster Studio Workshop!  Which is taught by Stephanie Lee and Judy Wise... the authors of my new favorite book "Plaster Studio".  Oh my goodness... if you can't take the class (registration closes on the 15th I think) then you have to at least get this book!  WOW!!  It's right up my alley.  Woohooooo!!!

I'm Working On...

Just letting you know what's going on over here.  

First of all The Summer Of Color is now happening over at Twinkle Twinkle (click on the name to find out details).  The color for the first project is blue!  You know I love my blues!  So Kristin (the lovely host of the event) asked us to post what materials we will be using for our first project.  I think I'll make a collaged card with paint, paper etc to go to whoever wins my giveaway (still a couple of days left to enter...if interested go here.)  And there's plenty of time to join us for The Summer Of Color fun!  It's just getting started.

Before

I also wanted to share what I'm currently working on.  

I was hired by my favorite Interior Decorator who I used to work with years ago, to paint a couple of cabinets.  So here (above) is the before photo of the first one I'm working on.  It looks way better in the photo... the finish on it was awful!

 In progress...

And this photo shows the green that it is now, and the stencils I cut to embellish it.  I'm doing a raised pattern on it with wood icing, then it'll get painted more and antiqued.  It's going into a study, so I'm making it match, yet stand out from the other pieces in there.  I have to finish this one by the end of the week so I'll get back to you when it's done with the photos of the finished product!  

See you then!