French Countryside Tall Dresser

In the spirit of The Tour de France, this is a story about a shabby tall dresser that was in much need of love. Inspired by some fine furniture pieces that I have seen on my travels (none of them from France, but definitely French inspired), I set out to give this tall dresser new life.

First - a picture of a 1958 Dunelt 10-speed.

This is the bike you may have found Brian Robinson riding - the first Briton to finish the Tour de France and also the first to win a stage in the 1958. It's had better days...haven't we all.

Here is a shot of the dresser in the "extended" Smith Garage - something we try to do in the Summer weather to get outdoors where there may be a breeze. Inside the garage - it gets too hot to work in the evenings.

My inspiration - a tall kitchen cabinet I saw while Mrs. Smith was walking through Anthropologie.

I know it is hard to see, but there are tones of rust, yellow and gold underneath the gray finish. So I went through my CeCe Caldwell's colors and came up with Georgia Clay, California Gold, Omaha Ochre, and Seattle Mist to try to get close enough to produce something Anthropologie might display in one of their stores.

Mrs. Smith helped me on this one as well. She has been itching to paint more, so here we go. Some of my worst fears - getting bit by a Rattle Snake on a long run in the woods, swimming in the water with beavers, and painting with Mrs. Smith. You ask why? Well, when you are running, your heart rate is elevated allowing the venom to course through your veins rapidly....  Oh... You were wondering why I fear painting with the Mrs. - you should go read Mrs. Smith's blog about that. I am getting better - it has only been a couple of weeks. And this piece turned out great, so she is getting better. It goes to show that anyone can paint with CeCe Caldwell's paint.

Now that is out of the way, let me show you what we did with this dresser. We painted on spots of Georgia Clay. After that dried (not long since we are out in the heat), we applied California Gold, and then a good covering of Seattle Mist. On the top, I had some residual oil/candle wax coming through the paint after everything dried. I slapped a coat of white latex paint over the spot to seal it from coming up into the chalk and clay paint. Then when I reapplied my CeCe Caldwell's paint, I forgot I had used California Gold and thought I was using Omaha Ochre - so - it got a little edgy. Four CeCe colors on one piece. Here it is before we started sanding it back down.

So you can see the Seattle Mist was over the whole thing, but we didn't paint it on real thick. When I started sanding, I started with 150 grit, and it worked great, so I didn't go any coarser. Here is the sanded piece - prior to wax.

Here is the important part of bringing out the colors - wax! The colors are there, you can see them, but they are not vibrant. The CeCe Clear Wax cures into the layers of paint and brings the colors out in a great way. Here it is waxed and buffed - keeping the original hardware untouched.

Sorry for the mess, but as in all my blog posts - this is a "garage" scene. This will go to TheSmithHotel side of the house, and Mrs. Smith will pretty it up in her booth space. I will leave you with a parting shot - The bike and the dresser....

Time for a ride...

Mr. Smith

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Cycling Fan - Tour de France Dresser

I am a cycling fan. I have been known to ride over 100 miles in a day, and I love old bikes too. Here is one I have had for some months, and I just was able to add some new whitewall tires today.

This is a Schwinn Spitfire 24", and it has been saved from a scrap heap. It is ready to ride for some little girl (just not Drama Queen since she is not fond of rust).

But you are looking at the title and your thinking - what about the dresser? And this is a Schwinn, not a French bike.

Well, the Tour de France is coming up shortly. I will not be watching it on the tele, but I will follow it on-line most days. Boy Wonder has been dying to get another "flag" dresser. He cleaned out one of his "wood-colored" dressers today and brought it out to the living room - in hope of a transformation. He asked for the Swiss flag, but in a strange turn of events, I mentioned France and he said YES! Which brings us back around to my tribute to the Tour de France.

Here is the plain-Jane dresser prior to it's transformation...

We picked this up second-hand some time ago. I think it may be a Target dresser - not real hardwood or anything, just particle board and laminate stickers to make it look like wood. Here comes the beauty of painting with CeCe Caldwell's paint. It sticks to anything, plastic, steel, wood, stickers, and apparently furniture upholstery. Notice at the time of this photo I had only Simply White and Traverse City Cherry on top of the dresser. Of course this was when we were thinking Swiss (Red with a white cross). So throw some Maine Harbor Blue in the mix, and you've got yourself a French flag...

As you can see, the wax is still curing. Once it sits overnight - sometime after church on Sunday - I will buff it out to give it a shine, and back into his room to take on a few more years of growing. Sorry for the mess in the background - but you do get to see inside TheSmithHotel instead of the normal "garage scene".

Here it is back in Boy Wonder's room - decor by him, not me.

I wanted to get this out there tonight, because I am about to get pretty busy on TheSmithGarage. I have a lot of furniture to get painting on - including a PIANO!

This is a big job ahead of me, but I am totally excited. I am going to have a piano guy come out and check it out before I get too deep into it. If it doesn't work out, you will see some of this wood going into other projects. If it does turn out to be a workable project, you will see this beauty upcycled back to life - and some lucky customer will love it.

Make sure you come back around to see what we have in store for the next few weeks as we prepare for a great new adventure this Fall.

Mr. Smith

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