DIY: Credenza {Florence and Country Grey}

Oh it feels so good to be back in action.

This is the preview post to tomorrow's reveal. This is an old credenza that I restored using Annie Sloan's line of paints and waxes. Make sure to read tomorrow for the big reveal!

1) painted entire desk in Florence
2) painted exterior in Country Grey leaving the inside Florence
3) sanded/distressed the exterior allowing the Florence and original wood to show through
3) waxed the credenza using the dark and clear waxes on the exterior and just clear on the interior

Room Progress

...but this is all you get.

Finding an apartment in San Francisco is next to impossible unless you're willing to stomach paying over 1500/mo for a room. Not apartment. Not house. ROOM. Literally everyone I talk to who pays less always follows up how much they pay with, "but like, I've been here for four years. This would go for $2200/mo now." Then I want to slap them and be them at the same time.

The point is that for now, I'm subletting until I can find an apartment that I love/can afford. However, that's not going to keep me from putting some effort into making the one I'm in now cute. It was a bit of a mess because I had to move furniture out of that room that was left in order to move my stuff in but there was literally no room because two other people were moving as well. It was like a game of Tetris....from hell.

Olive

Jeri's Corner! (It's been a while)

Every year, Jeri (my mom for those who are unaware) makes these olives and gives them out as little gifts to a few of her friends to enjoy with cheeses...or in a martini. It's fairly quick and easy to make and who doesn't appreciate homemade gifts (other than some spoiled little brat probably named Chloe or Connor #nooffense).They're so effing good, I cannot even begin to explain. They're great for any occasion, though - not just holidays. For example, try making them for an office party or birthday gathering. DISCLAIMER: they leave your breath less than desirable.    

So here's what you do:

1. Drain one jar of olives (keep the juice)
2. In a separate (cuter) container, layer the following:
 - 1 10-ounce jar large green pimiento-stuffed Spanish olives
 - 4 fresh oregano sprigs
 - 3 large garlic cloves, crushed
 - Juice 2 whole lemons (slice third and add to container)
 - 10 whole black peppercorns
 - 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
 - add as much of the original olive juice that you can fit in the jar
3. Let this marinate over night and ENJOY the next day!

DIY Table and Decor

This is a table that I had made at my old house out of an old singer table and a shutter. I decided to move it over to my new place because I loved it so much! I was looking at it this morning and thought - I better blog about it before it goes BACK in storage before I move to NY...so here you go. With the old window frames, antique books, and old-school lamps, I think that the look really came together nicely. Hopefully I'll be set up in NY soon with an apartment that can physically fit it. I'm not crossing my fingers...

Thoughts?

Vanity (Arles and Cream)

 

This was one of my very first Annie Sloan project for a client. Obviously I'm in love.

I created a custom color mixing A.S.'s Arles and Cream to produce a more buttery yellow. I wish I had better/more pictures to show the inside of the drawers which I completed in A.S.'s Provence. It. Was. Everything.

Mended Furniture - All White

 

 

 

Annie Sloan's Old White, that is. My friend, Johnny's mom asked me to redo a small table she had, so I (of course) accepted. It came to me a little beat up and kind of a funky dark green. It wasn't bad at all, but I knew I could make it even better. Per her request, I'm only using one color - Old White. Last night, I started applying all the waxes, and hopefully I'll be sharing the finished product with you tomorrow. Keep reading!

Mended Furniture - Foyer Table

So what do you think? This is a table that I just finished for one of my clients using Annie Sloan's paints and waxes. I love this table because of it's simplicity (in terms of design and color scheme I chose). I usually try and throw in a blue or green, but I'm happy I decided to keep this neutral. 

For the body and legs, I went with one of my colors, Country Gray and for the drawers and top, I went with Old White. I only used a little of the dark wax because I wanted the table to keep it's original color. What do you think?!

If you're interested in a quote to have something refinished, please email me at themendednest@gmail.com. I'm happy to answer any questions, and I look forward to hearing from you soon! I also have pieces in The Foyer in Baton Rouge (down the strip from Juban's on Perkins) for sale. Check them out here.

Home Office Storage

If you're anything like me, your mail piles up for a week, you leave stuff all over the place, and "organization" is something you heard about SOMEwhere...I think some movie, right? Hopefully you have someone like Beau who is there to put everything in it's place and come up with creative solutions for all the clutter.

Because of our work with designing invites, stationary, etc, we have so much stuff on the topic: paper sample books, inspiration pieces, magazines, and examples from our work to show clients. To keep all of this straight, Beau bought this cool hanging organizer that is perfect for holding/displaying everything. I love it for a few reasons. 1) Everything is easy to see b/c it's open baskets. 2) The long, vertical shape if perfect for the awkward wall space between two windows 3) It's easy to pull off the wall if I ever need to take it somewhere.

To make it more unique and DIYish, Beau made little tags and using The Mended Nest Font, printed out the different sections' names: Paper Samples, Inspiration, Invitations, and Miscellaneous. Then he attached them to the organizer using wire. Simple. Easy. Cheap.

Annie Sloan Desk - BEFORE

Hello!

I apologize for not posting yesterday. The St. Patty's day weekend got the best of me, and there was no way I was getting up before absolutely necessary yesterday morning. Now - on to the good stuff...

This is an office desk that my good friend/sort of business partner, Chad picked up from just outside Baton Rouge. It's a solid oak desk that was trapped in the early 90's. It just needed (the furniture equivalent of) a little Juvederm® and Botox®, so as soon as he brought it over I got to work. I decided to use my favorite color for the majority of the desk - Annie Sloan's Versailles. Then, instead of making a border around the top like I've done for previous pieces, I decided to to a diamond pattern. I think I got a little lucky because I really only measured the middle diamond, and it just so happened that the outside two fit perfectly. 

So this is the paint BEFORE the waxing. I'll post the final product tomorrow (as soon as I finish it). Get excited though - it's looking GREAT so far!

DIY - Old Lamp; New Life

I've always disliked this lamp as it's shown in the before (second) picture. Really, there was nothing wrong with it - I just didn't care for the colors. The shape, on the other hand, I thought was pretty interesting. We have it next to our bed and sitting on a simple wooded bed side table that's finished with a super dark stain. With the lamp in it's original color, I thought it was too dark for the table, and too much of a contrast to our all white bedding. Soo...

Annie Sloan paint saves the day again! I'm telling you, this stuff is awesome. You can see how shiny and glossy the lamp was before - there's no way a regular paint would stick to that. However, I only had to use ONE coat of Annie Sloan's Versailles to cover the entire thing. (I chose this color because it's the closest thing to chartreuse...Beau's favorite color. plus, I knew it would help lighten up the table - especially with a silver clock and white picture frame) Once dry, I went over the lamp with clear wax first then added a touch of the dark (wiping off the excess) just to add a little bit of that antiqued look.

Total work tine: 10 minutes (plus one day for the paint to dry) What do you think? Pretty, right?

Mended Furniture - Jeri's Dresser

I love these before and after photos - there's such a huge difference between the two! This is actually one of Jeri's pieces that was sitting in the TV room at my parents house. The dresser was pretty before, she wanted to kick some new life into it and move it to the living room.

Since she already has a lot of whites and other light colors in that room, I wanted to keep this piece consistent and not do something too over the top that would draw too much attention to it. As usual, I wanted it to be subtle yet special.

For the body of the dresser (except for the side panels) I went with one of my favorite colors: Annie Sloan's Country Grey. It's so soft and elegant and responds SO WELL to the waxes. For the side panels and the drawers, I used a color that I've never used before (and happens to be my favorite from the Annie Sloan collection IF I had to choose)...Versailles (ver - sigh)! It's a beautiful green that responds especially well to the Country Grey. They're similar, but offer just enough contrast to where it's not too obvious.

Remember, if you have a piece of furniture that you'd like to get a quote on for us to refinish, send us an email! TheMendedNest@gmail.com.

DIY - Annie Sloan (Mixing and Distressing)

Alrighty. These pictures were taken of a vanity I finished for a super sweet girl from Mandeville, LA. When it came to me, it was solid brown, and while still beautiful, it was just a little sad. We discussed different options for finishing techniques and this is what we came up with:

Color:
She knew she wanted something in the yellow family, so we mainly looked at Arles and Cream. She decided she wanted something more on the Cream side, but was interested in something a little more buttery in color. By adding 2 parts cream to one part Arles, I created this custom color (above) which was exactly what she was looking for. The paint was SO EASY to mix. I thought I was going to have to bring it to a hardware store to have them mix it up, but it was much simpler than that. I just poured the paints in one container and used the top of a brush to mix them together. It only took about one minute to get it perfect.

Distress:
This part is totally optional, and in fact I've done many pieces where no distressing was involved at all. It just depends on the look you're going for. However, for this piece we decided on a more antiqued finish. After the paint was dry (but BEFORE applying the waxes) I lightly went over some of the edges and corners with a spongy sandpaper block. Try not to go crazy. Often times, less is more when it comes to distressing.

Wax:
There are a million and one ways to apply wax, so I'm just going to stick to what I did for this particular piece. As I often do, I started by applying a thin coat of the clear way with an old T-shirt. Then, using a brush I applied the dark wax fairly heavily making sure that the bristles get into the nooks and crannies. Lastly, I used the same T-Shirt, scooped a little of the clear wax, and wiped off a generous amount of the dark wax that I applied. The allows the original color to come through while still leaving the dark wax in some areas - especially in the nooks and crannies. Note: Do this process area by area. Don't try to do the steps to the whole piece of furniture at once!