Remaking a Masterpiece?

It has been some time since I have blogged about a project (or anything for that matter). So I decided to talk about this one since I have some time this evening. Over the past 6 months (or 9 depending on how you look at it), we have been spending a bit more time with Mrs. Smith's Dad - Marshal. He found out in May/June 2012 that he had cancer in his esophagus. Fast forward to now, Marshal has been through radiation, chemotherapy, surgery, and he is still in the recovery stage, but doing better. They have given him a "cancer free" stamp, now he just needs to recover from a major surgical procedure. One of the reasons I began tapering off on the blog posts.

So I haven't given up, in fact Mrs. Smith and I have been painting away, and trucking along in TheSmithHotel's business, expanding into an additional location in Redding, and doing plenty of shows through the Fall season.

So yesterday we got a call that one of Marshal's pieces had sold (actually one of his "Masterpieces"). Great news anytime a large piece of furniture gets repurposed and enters into someone's life.

Here it is before Marshal distressed it.

 

But it came with a catch. The customer really wanted it a different color. Usually not a problem for a small price. But this truly was a masterpiece in my eyes. Mrs. Smith never really liked the color, but Marshal and I really liked the way this color worked on furniture. It was an "oops" color that I picked up some time ago at Lowes or Home Depot. This morning I got a call that the customer dropped off a sample of what she would like it to look like.

 

Here is a close-up of it distressed - I think Marshal did a great job.

 

So again, not really wanting to redo this one, but when Mrs. Smith threw out a number of what she wanted the customer to pay to get it repainted, and the customer said "YES", I got volunteered to give it a once over. I picked CeCe Caldwell's Omaha Ochre to get closest to what the customer wanted. Here is what it is looking like now as it dries and awaits a wax job with some stain.

 

 

 



I will have to come back to finish off this post. Too late to wax and distress now. But I hope this gives you a taste of what's to come on this one. We have been working on a lot of furniture, and I did take pictures of most of it, so I will be catching up when I can with pictures of projects during the last 6 months.

Mr. Smith

A New Year

It has been a year since the first post on TheSmithGarage blog, at least it will be shortly. January 8th it's official.

Lots to talk about since my last post. Lots of painted furniture has been sold through TheSmithHotel, and much has passed through and some still resides in the "garage". We will be getting ready for the 2013 season shortly, but I need to focus on a FT job first, so I can pay the mortgage and keep the garage. In November, I found out that my company could no longer afford to send me to the Midwest every few weeks.

I have some very good possibilities in the hopper, and in the meantime I have been playing the role of Mr. Macy's here in Redding. What started as "seasonal" has continued as they added me into the Men's Shoe Dept. so if you need mens shoes or luggage, stop in and see me. I hope to get back into the garage, until then Mrs. Smith will be painting in the house/ hotel living room.

Mr. Smith