French Inspired Coffee Table - Young Kansas Wheat

It has been a few weeks since my last post. Dealing with a few things around the house - along with some fun travel times at work. About a month ago, we found out that Mrs. Smith's dad (Marshal) has esophageal cancer. He is now undergoing treatment and we continue to pray for God's work and healing. Marshal is a great father-in-law, and we are all in the journey with him.

The show season is winding down - one more outing this upcoming weekend at the Mount Shasta Mall . There have been several pieces completed, just haven't had time to get them in a blog form.

So I have a coffee table that I picked up a while ago for FREE - it was a post on Craig's List. It was about 10 miles from our home, so with the price of fuel, I figured it cost me about $3 in gas to go grab it.

The white dresser behind was transformed into the Subway Masterpiece and the black dresser is still awaiting a transformation. I had just received some new colors of CeCe Caldwell's paint, so I was dying to try some of them out on our furniture. I have seen lots of two-tone pieces using the natural wood, so I decided this one would have a natural top and painted legs. I really like the Young Kansas Wheat color - it has a tan/beige look.

So I am trying to find some photos of this table completed. We moved it into the shop right after I finished it, but everywhere we have had it it has been covered up with stuff. Here are some photos I did find with the finished table.

Can you see it down there? It's behind that little white window on the floor. We had a trunk on top of it with a bunch of frames and mirrors stacked (this was at The Burlap Harlot Show).

Here is a shot at the booth upstairs at Oregon Street Antique Mall, I pulled back the burlap runner that mostly covered it. This weekend at The Mount Shasta Mall, I will not have ALL the stuff, just furniture. I will be doing furniture painting demonstrations throughout the weekend. Make sure to stop in if you are local and see how easy it is to paint your worn out and tired furniture to give it fresh new life with CeCe Caldwell's paint. I will have paint on hand and will give you some pointers on application and finish.
Until next time....

Mr. Smith

Linked to:
Primitive and Proper
Domestically Speaking
Beyond The Picket Fence
Primp

Mr. & Mrs. Smith Create Subway Masterpiece

Go and check out Kammy's Korner where this blog was featured:

Not often does Mrs. Smith get the opportunity to paint - after all, that is my job in this partnership. Needless to say - I have been on the road quite a bit in the last two months, without much time to get some projects finished. Mrs. Smith asked me to clean up this "junk find" 4-drawer dresser and paint it black so she could create a subway sign piece of art. Well - Black I did not have, but CeCe Caldwell's has a Vermont Slate that gets pretty close when it is waxed and shined - so we went for it. Here is the piece we got from our friend Wanda for under $20.

Very simple dresser... I did not have to do much structurally to this - it is a pretty sound piece of wood. I removed the porcelain knobs that had a rose and some gold accents... and painted with Vermont Slate. After the first coat, I cross-sanded (sanded against the brush strokes) to get a smoother finish, then added another coat.

This is when Mrs. Smith took over and created some subway signs with different fonts - very simple - printing a large font then taping the sheets of paper together to make the words. She (and I hepled on one of them) traced the back side of the word with a pencil, then taped it to the appropriate drawer and rubbed the pencil lead onto the drawers. Then she removed the paper and carefully painted in the words with CeCe Caldwell's Young Kansas Wheat.

As you can see we have a London theme going on here. So after sanding with 150 grit over the entire piece, I applied the CeCe Caldwell Clear Wax (it was High Tea time as the wax smells so good - like honey). Then after waiting a few hours - I buffed the wax in to get a hard shinny black finish. I have learned after using the natural wax that you do not want to apply it too heavily, or you will have to wait overnight to finish the buffing. By applying a light coat, you get the same finish and it is completed in minimal time.

Also a nice touch - remember this is an upcycled piece of furniture - check out the drawer lining below. Gives this set of drawers a little more character. I did not add that - that was already in there - but I didn't feel it needed fixing. Someone will love this in their bedroom. Dreaming of London...

I hope you enjoyed this latest creation of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Come back for more. This will be for sale at the upcoming Burlap Harlot show over Mother's Day weekend in Anderson, CA. Check out some of our other great pieces of upcycled and salvage furniture at TheSmithHotelBoutique.

Mr. Smith

Linked to:
Primp
Primitive and Proper
Funky Junk Interiors
Decorating Insanity Furniture Friday
Domestically Speaking Power of Paint Party
Kammy's Korner