Let me start by introducing myself, I am Laddie from Re-New Furniture Finds and Re-Finishing. I started up a little garage business of making over furniture that for me had begun as a hobby. I see great pieces of furniture at secondhand stores, yard sales, Craigslist and the curb and instantly see potential in them becoming more than they are. I love color and the un-expected and taking cues from fashion for some of my designs. I like trying new techniques and am not afraid to fail and start over. Some of my favorite pieces have come from experimentation and failed attempts.
So, the Lovely Rachel asked if I might share with you one of my recent triumphs.
I call her "The Amazeballs Dresser".
She began as an image in my head.
You know when you formulate a vision of an outfit you want to wear but when you go to your closet you discover you have none of those items in your wardrobe...that's how this dresser started.
One day while thrifting at a local Goodwill I saw my starting point like a gleaming beacon of light.
Well, actually it was just an old school projector that didn't even light up. But,
it was only $7.99 and happened to be the colored tag of the day which gave me another 50% off
so I was willing to take the gamble on it possibly not even being functional.
Then I went about scouring EBay for the proper light bulb and transparency film so that I could
print out images I wanted to use.
The bulb arrived. I carefully installed it.
I plugged in the projector and before I opened my
eyes could hear the hum of it working! YAY!
Next I found a fabulous image I wanted to use from a site where the printables were
A W E S O M E
and FREE!
Printed it out at home onto my transparency film and was ready...um, wait nope not yet.
What piece did I want to try this out on? Hmmm...
Low and behold only days later I had a fan from my Facebook page message me with an offer to
come get a dresser she was wanting me to HAVE... for FREE!
She was inspired by what she had seen me do and wanted to donate the dresser.
Guess what?
Perfect piece for this project - I knew it at first site!
I took her home and got right to work. I chose a light lilac color that I found at Home Depot in the Oops section of paint.
(If you ever want to meet me in person you can probably find me there any given day. I sort of stalk that section of the store...regularly!)
After she was primed and painted I closed the garage doors, set up my projector
across from my dresser and went to hand tracing the image onto the front of the dresser.
The trick I found on doing this is to use watercolor pencils which can be
washed off once you have painted in your image.
It took along time to trace it out and I was careful to get into the creases
and seams of the dresser drawers.
Then I used a small jar of oops sample paint in light yellow
for filling in my vintage label design.
I thought I had picked an easy "try it out" image...turns out it was more
than I bargained for! Different fonts, symbols, shapes, etc...
But it came together.
I re-used the original hardware by giving them a fresh coat of gold paint and re-placed them
on the dresser.
The plain Frenchie dresser was now complete and I had amazed myself with how
she turned out. Hence the name "Amazeballs Dresser".
I had challenged myself to step it up and try something new and more difficult.
The result; a one of a kind, hand painted dresser that I was thoroughly happy with!
I encourage everyone to see the potential in old un-wanted items. To be creative and trust your gut.
To challenge yourself to try new ideas and to not be afraid to fail...you
might just succeed! Start small with an item you can "Re"-New.
Here are a few of my other experiments with color, design and technique.
Materials used for the project in this post were:
- vintage dresser with oodles of charm
- overhead projector that probably came from my elementary school
- transparency film found on EBay
- the use of an image host site and my home printer
- watercolor pencils
- primer
- 2 colors of oops paint from Home Depot
- gold spray paint
- poly acrylic sealer
Thank you Rachel for having me on Holy Craft!
Laddie
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