Office Makeover, the beginining

Since I am not one to rest on my laurels, (what the heck are laurels anyhow?) .....I am working on several projects at one time.  Two which will be my first official pieces "for sale", and the other is finishing up the office where I am slowly but surely getting all my business pieces together.  

I had a terrible time with storing all my crafty "junk" and it basically kept being reorganized from one basket or one system to another.  I realized each time I did this, I edited out more things that I would  never use and passed them on to a worthy organization where they will be put to better purposes than clogging up my "espace mental" while I am trying to think about all things creative. 

I used the paint I had leftover from my kitchen and painted my cool metal desk, which I will show you next week, and painted the cheapo but solid wood veneer dresser I purchased for $20 from my Craig's list friend, Tom, who emails me every time he thinks he has something I can paint.  Gotta love that!  

This is the before of the dresser:

Drawers were solid and in good condition, deep with lots of space for my stuff.  

These were the knobs before:

I didn't want to spend more money on this project, so I brainstormed over how I could repurpose the existing knobs.  I used my new favorite tool, the "Krylon" Silver Leafing Pen.  If you haven't tried one of these, you must!  They are cheap, easy to use, and let you be totally precise when you are trying to paint a very small portion of a piece.  

I simply "colored" the knobs with the pen.  Let it dry, (it dries almost instantly), then took a piece of 220 grit sandpaper to them to give them an aged look.  

I love that that they are unique, I didn't spend any money, and it was a project that took very little time, about 10 minutes in total.   

Now for le Dresser!  

I used about a cup of Graphite Paint and mixed in about two Tablespoons of Basic Black MM***(See bottom of post for info) acrylic paint.  You can use any good quality Black paint, I like the "Basic" brand too.  The wonderful thing about this is that the chalk paint still behaved beautifully, two coats, I was done.  Sanded first with a 220 grit, then finished with 400 for a silky smooth finish. 

 

I lightly distressed the edges, then sealed it with a thick coating of Liberon Wax in Dark Oak.  I really love Liberon brand.  It is slightly more than the Annie Sloane wax, but I haven't tried hers yet, so not fair for me to compare.

I let the wax dry for about a half hour, then buffed the heck out of with a soft cloth.  That is a wax finish!  Look how much light it reflects!  

I am loving the imperfect look of wax, it dries harder than a poly, and literally, water just pools up on it.  I am slowly being won over to the wax more than poly.  

répéter

 

avant:

 

apres:

 

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for my Friday Link up party and winners!!!  Check my side bar for a link up party button.

Have a lovely Thursday.

au revoir -GTC

***A reader inquired about Modern Masters paint.  It is available to the public.  However, it is mostly sold through dealers, much like the Chalk Paint.  Kelly Moore does stock some of the product, but mostly their metallics and finishing products.  Modern Masters is a ZERO VOC paint and it has a property much closer to Chalk Paint than Latex paint.  It sands beautifully, covers amazingly, and a gallon costs about $50.  The only draw back is that the colors are not terribly inspiring.  It is geared toward artists mixing their own paints.  My two always in stock paints I have are the "Basic Black" and the "Basic White".  The Basic White, interestingly enough is the exact same color as the Chalk Paint Old White, so they mix beautifully together.  However, if you are adventurous, I highly recommend trying out some of their metallics. They are more expensive and only come in quart containers, but the color blows the big box metallics out of the paint warehouse.  Plus, a little goes a long way with these guys.

If you would like more info, you can go to Modern Masters

Or contact my dealer, Annette Sheppard: 

Artistic Accent Walls 

I have never met Annette in person, but she is very sweet, and very reliable.  She returns phone calls immediately and is always prompt in getting my orders to me.  Plus, if you look around her website, she is darn talented!

Oh yes, and Modern Masters is the official paint of all Disneyland Properties.  Just in case you were wondering where they got all that paint to paint Sleeping Beauty's Castle.