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

4-drawer waterfall reduced to 3-drawer.

More to come on this one. It was missing a bottom drawer and had really bad water damage on the sides toward the bottom. Mrs. Smith had a great idea to just take it down a notch (or drawer in this case).

This one is in the history books, but I might as well share with you how it turned out. It sold in December 2012. I will have to locate a picture. We painted it with CeCe Caldwell's Blue Montana Sky.

Mr. Smith

70s 6-drawer Credenza - Roadside Find

This is not technically "My" roadside find, however, it was indeed a roadside free furniture piece that one of my NEW customers found. The previous owner helped her load it in her truck, and then it found its way into her garage. She happened across Jindra's Antiques and saw some of our painted furniture, and that is how it happened into TheSmithGarage. Here are some before shots of the credenza.

It was blonde wood with some bluish gray wash over it. It was missing two doors, but all the drawers were in working condition. She is redoing her she asked that I paint it a light gray / almost white. So I made up a new color from CeCe Caldwell's Simply White (3 parts) and Seattle Mist (one part). I painted one drawer to see if it was the color she wanted.

Here it is against our white entertainment center and a piece of driftwood the customer had. She was happy with the color and dropped of the piece last weekend. It is a beast - solid wood.

It took about 7 oz. of my special brew to paint this. It is 6' long so you can imagine the presence this gives in a living or dining room. This picture is after it was painted, lightly sanded (220 grit), and waxed with CeCe Caldwell's Clear Wax (Tea Time!). I will leave the decorating to mt customer, but here are a few more shots of the finished  piece.

So happy to save this one from the fireplace. I trust my customer is happy with how it turned out. She has a table she may want me painting when she gets to her dining room remodel.

Mr. Smith

A new CeCe Color

Mix 3 parts Simply White and 1 part Seattle Mist - and you get a beautiful misty white. More to follow on this piece.


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Pickled Oak Pedestal Table - CeCe Simply White

Remember back when I worked on those two round oak side tables (here)? Not too long after I got those tables, I had an opportunity to get a full-sized oak pedestal dining table (with a leaf). I went back to find a before shot - and everything I have is with the table in pieces...

Sorry for the mess, this is the side yard during the Summer - TheSmithGarage extension. You can see the pedestal - it was split when we picked it up - the center piece is not supposed to be in two pieces. The top is the wood colored top under the green/white one (which is another project for another blog). And the little legs under the table top is another table that Mrs. Smith already finished and sold over at Oregon Street Antique Mall (don't think she blogged on that one).

I did some work on the pedestal - dowelled and glued it back together. I also had to sand the lacquer off of the top with a belt sander - it was just way to thick to give the pickled affect on the oak. I did not sand the pedestal or feet. I used CeCe Caldwell's Simply White (you can buy it here), which has become a favorite of mine after painting so many bright & cheery colors. Something about Simply White just gives off a good feeling.

Here is a shot I got after painting the pedestal and feet, but before I got to the top. You can see that I brought the lacquer off all the way to the bare wood - most of the stain came off as well.

Another great thing about CeCe Caldwell's Chalk and Clay Paint - no fumes - I did most of the work on this indoors where it was a comfortable 70 degrees (instead of outside where it is about 105 degrees). I did not water down the Simply White. I actually keep a separate bucket with a little water in it, and dip my brush in there occasionally when needed. I feel like I have better control of what I am doing. The key to this style is getting the paint wet enough to seep into the grain of the wood, but not cover the wood entirely.

Here is a shot ofter all the paint is on that I want. The next step will be sanding for me.

I took the table back outside for the sanding. After sanding, it is "Tea Time" - that is another term for CeCe Caldwell's Clear Wax - smells like HONEY! That's because it is 100% green, made with beeswax - love it. I let it cure overnight then buffed it out.

So here are a few shots of the finished look.

I love the satin finish gleaming in the sunlight!

I took this shot so you could see the seam where I had to fix the split. A little line of "demarcation", but another "SAVED" piece of broken furniture.

So glad I had an opportunity to work on this table. It will go in TheSmithHotel booth at Oregon Street Antique Mall this next week. So if you are in Redding and looking for a great deal on a solid oak table that was once destined for the wood pile - here it is!

I am looking forward to a few custom jobs over the next few weeks. Check back to see how they turn out.

Mr. Smith

Upcylced JUNK Shelving Unit

So you know we deal in junk, right? On occasion we find some really nice stuff that has a great value, but most of the time we buy junk that we think someone else will pay more for. So when we get a chance to find junk that we think has a greater value in our own home - SCORE!

About two months ago, I picked up a broken aluminum extension ladder. It was straight, but it was in pieces. Straight was important for my vision. I had an idea to build a shelving unit in our office. It was originally my office when we moved her many years back, but since Mrs. Smith started TheSmithHotel, it has become a joint office. Mrs. Smith doesn't actually sit in this office, but all of her "junk" (from the description above) and plenty of MY "junk" has taken over our lives in "the office". I wasn't sure how fast I was going to get this project finished, but I needed the second part of the shelving dream - some bleacher seats. You know - the old wooden seats that you watch football games from on Thursday and Friday nights?

So bleacher seats/boards aren't something you come across every day, right? So since I know some lumberjacks, or a more formal title of "Forester", I thought I would ask if I could find some scrap lumber that would work in the same manner. The first guy I asked at church said, "Well, I actually have some old bleacher seats from Shasta College." What are the odds?

Here is the ladder - I took off the rusty feet and power sprayed them. Got this from Moore's Green Goods.

Here is the lumber (bleacher seats) right before I painted them, but I did sweep them off.

Here they are painted - I used several different white and gray latex paints I had sitting around (mostly oops paints).

So after they were painted, I let them cure for several days before roughing them up a bit. I wanted them to be clean, but rough like they just came off the bleachers. These bleachers were changed out many years ago and have been sitting out in a field for some time now. Since they were coming in the house, they needed to be clean, and I wanted to make sure there were no termites to be dealt with.

I have an old wooden bed that we picked up for $5 that I plan on making a bench with. I was not going to use the rails, so I pulled the ends off and ended up using them as cross braces for the back of the shelf (so it wouldn't collapse under the weight of the wood).

Oh - I forgot to show you a before picture. Well why don't you head over to Mrs. Smith's blog (TheSmithHotel) to see the before and after. I am so excited that my vision came to completion. Thanks to Bob Hutcheson (who is not actually a lumberjack, but a Realtor) and Moore's Green Goods.  

Please let me know what you think, and come back to see what else we have up our sleeves.

Mr. Smith

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