Shop Cat

 This is Marbles.  She is now our official Shop Cat.  She's about 16 years old, skinny and slow and hungry all the time.  Oh...and she belongs to the neighbors next door.  I think she has relocated.  She is an outdoor cat, they told us.  Her entire life has been outside.  Refuses to come in the house.  She is very happy hanging in the garage with Tracy and I while we work on our projects.  She also likes the space heater pointed directly at her bed.  So we wear coats.  I figure she's not long for this world, so a space heater and flannel covered pillow is the least we can give her.  She's a sweetie, for sure.  But she still won't come in the house.

Taking The Plunge

We open at the Antique Mall on November 1st.  Yep, we are fnally taking a shot at retailing some of our treasures.  In time for the Holidays, so hopefully it will be profitable.  We love what we do, so we're hoping you will too!  Next time you're in Hillsboro, check it out.  Snider's Hill Theatre Antique Mall, 127 NE 3rd.

Quick and [really] Dirty

A quick little project that turned out nice.  Found this grubby, sad little wooden carry-all.  I brought it home with me, originally intending to use it in the garden to carry my tools around.  But the more I looked at it, the more I thought it would be fun to try cleaning it up.  I've been meaning to test my stenciling skills as well, for some larger projects.  So it would be a win-win. 

I scrubbed the box, inside and out, and sanded down the old paint.  I used a satin spray paint in a cheery yellow - only one coat - and kinda missed some areas on purpose.  After this dried, I attacked it with some medium grit sandpaper.  I chose a simple stencil design and placed it on both sides in a pretty green color.

I'm very happy with the results.  This definately won't go to the garden!  Now...on to bigger stencil projects!

Thanks, Adam!

Bookcase Re-do



Our brother, Adam, left this bookcase in our garage.  Dibs!  Tracy is the furniture painter.  But I thought I'd try this one myself.  The bookcase is the usual funky plastic-type laminate with cardboard on the back, so after some research (how to paint laminate!), I took this one on.  Sanding is tricky with laminate.  You need to rough it up so the paint will stick, but sanding too much can actually remove the laminate or create air pockets under it, so be careful!  

I decided to add moulding to the top and bottom.  I discovered something.  I suck at mitered corners!  Thank goodness for wood putty.  Tracy scored with a huge pile of FREE moulding (actually baseboard) advertised on Craigslist.  So after a couple of trys, I was moderately successful.  I primed it with Zinsser Bullseye Primer and Sealer and then put on two coats of Valspar Satin Dark Kettle Black.  This also has a primer in it so I hoped the combo would work with the laminate.  I sanded lightly between the two coats of paint.

Now the fun part.  I found some great material remnants (end of bolt) at Walmart of all places.  Another score!  I flipped the bookcase over so the back was up.  I measured my material that way and cut it to fit.  With both shelves in place, it was a little tricky.  But I managed to secure the material with spray adhesive, using an exacto knife to finish off the edges.  A thin coat of Annie Sloan's pastewax finished it. 

I'm very happy with the results!

Dining Room Table

We found this wonderful table at Goodwill.  It even has a nice-sized leaf.  Perfect for our kitchen.  We’ve been looking for something that would go with the slate blue walls.  After a good sanding (ooogly brown on top!), Tracy applied the first coat of paint.  We chose Valspar Gotham Gray Interior Satin from Lowe's.  She let that dry for about 4 hours, then she sanded it with extra fine (220) sandpaper. She applied a 2^nd coat.  Again, let it dry, sanded it down and then a final 3rd coat of paint.  We decided to leave the base and legs as they were, with maybe some fine tuning later.  They were the color we wanted, with a bit of “natural” J distressing.

She distressed the edges of the table top to our liking, then applied a coat of Minwax Dark Walnut.  She let it sit for about 5 minutes, then wiped it off.  To finish, she applied three coats of Johnson Paste Wax. She buffed it out each time after a 10 minute wait.  Way to go Sissy! LOVE IT.  Now all we have to do is find someone to carry it into the house.

Oct 6th Update:

YAY We carried it in ourselves.  1/2" clearance thru the door.....Damn!

Now we need 4 tall spindle-back chairs. Would love to paint them different coordinating colors.  Another Hunt!  Woo hoo.

Garage Transformation

Well I didn’t think it would ever happen, but after 3 years in this house, we were finally able to get the garage cleaned out and organized to help accommodate our growing pile of treasures....and the work that we need to do to make them beautiful.  Fall is fast approaching, and here in Oregon, that means rain.  So we had to plan ahead to get our finds indoors.  We’re working on some fun pieces.  We seem to butt heads on colors and paint finishes, but that’s what sisters do.  Before one of us gets stuffed into one of the cabinets and sold, we’ll have to come up with some resolution.  We always do, but sheez!  We'll be posting pics soon (with the perfect colors and paint finishes) of our furniture.  Stay tuned.