Aging Zinc

 I just realized that I didn't ever post on how we aged our zinc table top (see the topping a table with zinc post here)

 In this photo the new zinc is on the right.  It looks similar to stainless steel.  The piece on the left is after several coats of cupric sulfate solution.

 The cool thing about the zinc is that this isn't permanent. You can take 320 or 400 grit sandpaper to it and go all the way back to the shiny, original finish.

 The cupric sulfate is a blue color and it is a chemical.  You mix this with water.  The more water the less of a patina you get, but if you put it on straight with no water it turns almost black.

 This is the top of another table we did with one coat of solution brushed on.  You can rub it on with towel as well....

We let it sit overnight and then wipe it down with a wet towel.

 You can also roll it on with a paint roller or cover your table surface with saran wrap which puts some interesting texture in the patina....
This is several coats of patina applied over several days.

 These are some edge pieces that ran down the edges of the table base....

If you just put your zinc on something and do nothing to it;  it will age on it's own over time.  The company we buy our supplies from sells wax similar to butcher's wax and we use that to seal it up.  If your piece is going to get alot of heavy use the wax will eventually wear off, and then the patina will start to wear off as well.  If you notice  that it seems to be wearing off you can reapply the wax.  Anything acidic can take both the wax and patina off completely and it will be shiny again.    

Feminine Zinc Topped Table

 I LOVE this room...but it's not mine :)  I just "vanhooked" the table for a sweet friend of mine.  I love the red print on the curtain fabric with the dark gray on the walls and the crisp white bedding....this is her new guest room since her oldest son recently got married and moved out....

The before photos are upside down because I'm always excited about starting and I forget to take them until I've already started....

This table had sat in their entry way of their home and unfortunately a chandelier fell on it and broke off a piece of the top right in the middle of the table....

So I painted her with ASCP in Duck Egg and distressed it a little bit...

My husband topped it with a piece of zinc to disguise the "injury"...

Now she's a got a whole new look working...

Even though there was a "shape" to the edge of the table top the zinc still wrapped around it pretty easily and followed the edge really well....

I painted the hardwear and the edges of the drawers with ASCP in Old White....

She is now *girly* compared to how she looked before...

We did a whole post on topping a table with zinc HERE if you're interested in seeing how we do it. And there is another post on aging it HERE... 

A nice piece of furniture given a new phase of life!

Annie Sloan's Chalk Painted Floor

Our contract on our house ran out a week ago, and we've decided to just let it rest for awhile.  With the house not being for sale I thought it would be a great opportunity to do something messy----

and big and dramatic :)

 This is our hallway floor...which used to look like this (below) it actually doesn't look bad in this photo but keep scrolling....

 You can see how dirty this gets being a hallway and pretty high traffic area.  This carpet has been here since before my husband bought the house (as well as the carpet in the kids' room....more on that later.)

 Brace yourself if you're a fan of having carpet....I would have hardwood flooring in my whole house if I could choose.  Carpet just holds all kinds of nastiness....And right about here I was thinking maybe this wasn't such a good idea....

 (Grandma comes to get the kids each Tuesday in case you're wondering how I could get this done with two little ones!) I pressed on....and now I'm glad I did.  I found some sort of little worm like critters LIVING between our hall and dining room....the kids' bedroom carpet will be leaving us SOON...

 Not too many staples, and the hallway is a small area...actually prying out the tack strip was more difficult because of the baseboards being in the way.  

 It was in pretty good shape.  Some paint spots here and there.  I would have loved to refinish it.  But with it being the hallway, and having the kids we'd have to be out of the house.  And we have different floor in the dining room and a third in the bathroom so I wanted something different to break it all up.

 

A nice wash (half water + half paint) of ASCP in a mix of Paris Grey and French Linen....and if you look closely you'll see my pattern laid out in pencil....
I just painted it all by hand without taping.  It goes faster and I wanted it to be aged looking anyways. It will get PLENTY of wear and tear being in our house....

 The second color is a wash of Old White....

 I distressed it all lightly with 100 grit sand paper 
And after that with a damp rag (I did another post here on distressing furniture with water )....if you choose to use the water I find that having a large bowl of water to rinse your cloth in frequently helps.   And I wring my cloth all the way out.  It will seem like nothing is happening for the first few seconds and then all the sudden it will really start to come off.  So work carefully at first....

And I finished up with a Polycrylic top coat in case you're wondering.  

 It's water based like the paint and I'll be able to mop it.  And mostly I already had some :).....

I know Annie Sloan sells their own lacquer you can apply to finish flooring and seal it up.  We'll have to add some sort of toe strip around the baseboard and do some finish painting to the woodwork that was hidden by the carpet but overall I'm wishing I'd ripped that carpet out a LONG time ago!!!

Painted Jenny Lind bed

My niece Sophie is getting her room together and it is getting VERY close to being done!  My Sister-In-Law asked us to keep an eye out for a twin bed this summer while we were out junking and flea marketing....

 We spied this cute little headboard and footboard on an online auction that we look at each week.  We bought it for $1.07 ---a pretty darn good deal. So we decided to surprise her and give it to her for her birthday... 

So I sanded this down by hand (Sophie---see how much I love you?!?!??!) with 100 grit sand paper and gave it a coat of grey primer.

 She wanted a bright orangey red color and if you've never painted with red paint before it can take alot of coats to really cover well.  So the primer really helps cut down on how much paint you need.

 I used Sherwin Williams "Fireworks" all surface enamel paint in a high gloss.  It's acrylic so it's a water based paint but gives the durability of an oil based.  

 I have to say I was impressed.  It dries really hard and definitely didn't have the tacky feel you typically get with latex.

 Because I didn't want to wait until her real birthday to give it to her, we took it over this evening and surprised her with it. I gotta say I LOVE giving this kind of thing!  It's so much fun when you know it's exactly what someone wants and you can do that for them...

As soon as she saw it she said "that's the color!" so I did good!!!!  I think she was very happy with it....

Happy Birthday Sophie!!!!!

Industrial Kitchen Island

 Another project to check of the list!  Still digging out from things that were put on hold to remodel our bathroom....

 Here's how the butcher block top looked before I did anything to it.....

 My husband fabricated this base out of square tubing and angle iron.

 Some tack welds above ---metal is a very cool material to work with.  I've welded a handful of times and it's something I'd love to get better at. 

 He welded in these pieces to make the legs solid so they won't leave marks in the floor....

 Grinding some welds down--

 The boards I painted up for the bottom shelf...I used my ASCP Old White for the base and Duck Egg for the top.  

 And here's the finished top.  LOTS of sanding with some 80 grit sandpaper and I rubbed a light coat of walnut stain on.  

 Then wiped it right off.  Topped with a coat of matte polyurethane...

 Since this was for us I decided to experiment with using some candle wax rubbed on between coats of the base (Old White) and the top (Duck Egg) coats....

 Not sure if I like how it turned out, but it definitely gave the distressing a different look when I sanded it.  I finished it with clear and dark wax both.

 Wood and metal....

even better wood with some great patina and metal...

 Our new kitchen island that we can actually sit at in our stools ---

and our legs fit underneath!!!  

 I'll have to snap some pics of it inside our kitchen with our stools.....I actually helped carry it in.  The thing weighs a TON...

What can I say --redecorating motivates me!