Let’s talk a little about vintage & antique furniture. There was a time where details meant everything. This piece has ALLLLL the details. I felt like the more I worked on this piece the more I fell in love with every inch of it! When I find a piece that I would like to flip, I’m usually drawn to it because of it’s lines, or a specific detail it has, sometimes I just love the overall look of it and don’t even really notice how amazing it is until I start to really dive into working on it… When it was being picked up to go to it’s forever home I was going on and on about each and every detail, and how much I loved this and that about it- that the new owner interrupted me and said “OK! Stop! You can’t keep it, we are bringing it home!!!” Hahahhahhahahha… yes, I loved this piece very much and if I had more room in my already furnished home, I might have just kept it for myself!

The top two drawers have a beautiful curve to them, the bottom 4 drawers are also bowed. Once the piece was completely cleaned up you could see the gorgeous pattern of the matching veneer running up the drawers.

Once painted and the rest stained. I worked on the top. It’s the most beautiful burl veneer!! And the mirror frame was then sanded and stained. Did I mention this piece has claw feet!?! Burl, curves, claw feet!!! I am just SWOONING over this one!

The drawer pulls are original, with these tiny inset cleats to hold them in place once they have been tightened in place, these are the details that you just don’t find in furniture anymore.

I have worked on hundreds of pieces of furniture and this might just be one of my very favorites ever 🙂

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I have a client that I have had the honor of refinishing several of her pieces. She is one of my favorite clients because she has SO MANY amazing pieces! Her parents collected antique furniture and she has kept many of them, they hold a great deal of sentimental value to her. One of the other things I love about this client is that she is always willing to trust me completely with her cherished pieces!

I took it apart, sanded it down and then used 3 coats of primer. For a small piece, there was a lot of time and labor involved! We had chosen a beautiful blue- Aubusson Blue, Annie Sloan chalk paint for this piece, she is moving to a new home soon near the coast and her decor will have lots of blues and grays and whites. This blue is one of my favorites! It goes so well with cooler and warmer colors, it looks beautiful with navy colors and whites.

I wanted to tie in the copper from the inside with the outside so I changed out the knobs for copper pulls. My favorite detail of this piece is the compass rose I added to the inside lid. I used copper metallic paint, by General Finishes. When you open the lid the light reflected from the inside copper helps to create this beautiful glow on the compass!!! This part was a surprise for her and she was thrilled!

My oldest daughter is Rose Catherine, named after my favorite flower and one of her grandmothers. This year she moved into an unfurnished apartment at college and was in need of a desk. Lucky for her finding furniture is what I love to do!

My very favorite pieces of furniture are secretary desks. I remember being at my grandmother’s house and seeing the one they had in the dining room, the kind with a glass top- and seeing their wedding topper on display behind the glass. I love how functional they are, drawers and tiny drawers and secret drawers and how it all folds up and you don’t have to see the “mess” of work or mail or whatever else you are working on. I especially love the mahogany Maddox 1920s secretary desks, with their curved drawers and claw feet!

Back to my daughter… I found her a secretary desk, a smaller one that was in pretty rough shape. But all good furniture has the potential to shine and together she and I came up with a plan to make this piece something special for her.

First we started with the paint colors… she was drawn to blues and I showed her several colors before she decided that Halcyon Blue. This color is a Milk paint, made by General Finishes, a beautiful light shade of blue.

Next we went to find her something beautiful to make this piece truly special, this is where IOD transfers come into play! After looking at all of the beautiful options we chose roses of course!

The white paint went under the areas where the roses were going to be placed. The entire inside was painted white. For another personalized detail Rose made a tiny mold of a bee, this represents the “house” she is a part of for her Honors College Program. The final detail came with painting the hardware gold.. and the results.. well, just beautiful, just like my Rose.

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Originally, Campaign Furniture was made in the 1700 and 1800s. It was created to be able to break down easily and to endure extensive travel, and was associated with British Army officers. As time moved forward the heavy hardware and metal corner pieces were used more as decorative pieces, showing the Campaign style. This piece that I refinished is only a vintage piece, and was in some desperate need of love!

Blues and golds, the prefect combination for this piece! This Campaign Dresser has been given a whole new look, and is now a beautiful piece that can be loved for many more years to come.

I read once that every room should have a vintage piece of furniture and something black.. well this piece covers both of those! I have done this same French Provincial style dresser a few times over the last few years and my clients just LOVE this piece in black! Personally, I think that black is classic, just like that little black dress every woman has in their closet. It never goes out of style and is always stunning.

Do you have a piece that is just… well, boring? Not bringing any attention to itself? In fact, it’s a piece you walk past several times a day, and you never even really look at it?

This piece belonged to my client, she had purchased it many years ago and had loved it when she bought it. She loved the size and the style of it. Now though, it just sat in her upstairs hallway and really was just not showing off it’s true beauty!

My client and I talked about what colors might be best for this piece and I was really excited when she agreed to my suggestion of a deep dark green!

This before photo doesn’t show the hardware she had on it when she gave it to me, but I was SUPER excited when I found the original hardware tucked away in the drawers!

I just love the details of old furniture, hardware included! I think that sometimes people feel like updating the hardware in turn updates the piece. However, there have been several vintage pieces that I’ve worked on that show that the hardware is specifically MEANT for that piece! The tear drop pulls for this piece go with the beautifully detailed legs of this beauty!

Another thing that tends to happen with hardware is that people are unaware of how gorgeous the details are because they have become tarnished and all one dark color…. BUT LOOK at just how BEAUTIFUL they are!!! My go to product for cleaning up hardware is Brasso, it does take time and is a labor of love, but the results are worth every minute!

Of course, as with all refinishing, the process starts with preparing the piece. Cleaning it thoroughly, sanding it lightly (for the areas that will be painted), and completely sanding down the top because this will be stained.

This timeless beauty was painted with Wise Owl Charleston Green, the top and legs stained in Kona, and then the whole piece was sealed for protection. All of the love and labor poured into it makes this wonderful buffet just stunning!

This past year I found a new line of paint, almost by accident. I was in a new store and was admiring some refinished furniture and the owner told me all about a line of paints that I had yet to try- Wise Owl Paints..

At the time, I had a client that was looking to give her beautiful piece a new look and was thinking about something in a teal. How lucky was I!?! I love when I have clients that are looking to have some color added to their home! Wise Owl has a wonderful selection of paint colors and I knew that River Rock was the PERFECT color for her piece!

It changes in the light… it’s blue with a green undertone, and honestly on this piece it is just stunning!

This is one of my favorite pieces! Ok, I say that about a LOT of my pieces…. But there is something about Navy that just looks so very elegant, timeless and just beautiful! I had a client ask me to refinish her grandmother’s dinning set, this buffet, a table and chairs.

I can not say enough, you can not find pieces like these anymore! The details, the craftsmanship- if you have a piece of furniture that has been in your family I encourage you to love it, and if it needs some love or you feel like it needs some updating, have it done! It is well worth the time and money to put into an older piece. Older pieces were made to last, for years and years!

This piece was very sentimental to the owner, she said that when she opened the drawers she could still smell the scent of her grandmothers home. This hit my heart, because I have a sewing box that was my grandmothers, and when I open it I too can smell the scent of my grandmothers home and that makes my mind flood with wonderful memories of my grandparents.

It was a pleasure to work on this set for my client, to bring it back to life with this beautiful navy paint and kona stain. To shine up the hardware and make it look like true dress blues. I hope that her grandmother is looking down with a smile on her face as her set is being used and loved by her family.

This dresser was done for a client, who had seen a similar piece I had done to sell. She had wanted to buy the original one I had done and it had already sold- so I used the same finishes to recreate the look for this piece.

When I work on a piece I usually have a vision of what colors I’d like to use, how I feel the piece would be “best dressed”.. This piece says to me, classy gentleman’s dresser. The top and drawers were stained with General Finishes Mahogany and Cherry to give it just the right color. The casing of the dresser was than painted with Graphite Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and waxed to seal it. The drawers were lined in this sliver paper to give it just a fresh new look. The hardware was cleaned to give it it’s original shine. So very handsome this piece is!

This little table was a lot of work, but one of my favorite pieces.  First, let me say that one of the things I enjoy the most is working with good quality furniture. This small drop down table was solid wood, with beautiful legs and perfect for any nook!

I started by painting the entire piece with General Finishes Somerset Gold. Then I traced a stencil of the pattern I wanted on the table top. The stencil area was then painted with Lamp Black Milk Paint.. Then the entire piece was painted with Lamp Black and then sanded back to show some of the Somerset Gold. It was actually a few layers of Lamp Black, sanded back several times until I got the look I wanted.

I love this piece so much, I may have to do another like it!