Vintage Rail Travel Themed Dresser

A fictional railroad line departs at 5:30.
All aboard! Sorry about that, couldn't resist. :)

Both my father-in-law and my grandfather worked for the railroad and we have inherited many of their memento's, from pay stubs, Pullman wool blankets, to railroad lanterns. When I came across this Winter Resort poster I knew instantly our guest bedroom had its theme. I purchased two versions of Winter Resort from Cafe Press and couldn't be happier with their quality. In lieu of framing them, I plan to decoupage them to wood slats so they appear as old signage.

End Table Redo

My daughter bought this end table at the Salvation Army store to use in her gallery show, Beautiful Blight, last May. After the show it ended up in our garage, as the piece isn't even wood, my hubby was ready to donate it to charity. I liked the lines of the table and decided it would be perfect for our guest bedroom makeover.

I painted the entire piece in Annie Sloan's Duck Egg Blue. For the handle I painted in Old White, highlighted in Pure White and added some Duck Egg Blue details.

My Ugly Green Concrete Pineapple Find

Pineapple's in architecture or decoration symbolize friendship and hospitality. You will find the pineapple the centerpiece of Christmas greenery in Colonial Williamsburg.

Colonial Williamsburg Christmas Decoration

Or this over-the-top bit of architecture in Scotland.

 IV Earl of Dunmore just had to have one. In 1761, he built this home addition as a garden retreat and hothouse and today it is one of the most famous buildings in Scotland.

Photographer: John Watson

I recently scored a large concrete pineapple at an antique shop,

it was priced at $25.00 and I got it down to $20.00. It wasn't very pretty,

but all it needed was a makeover.

A trip to the Habitat for Humanity Restore for some paint was in order. I picked up some Valspar paint samples for $1.00 each. One in a pale creamy yellow and another in tan. 

For the top of the pineapple I used some green we had on hand, I then painted the body

of the pineapple with the light yellow, painted the pedestal with Annie Sloan's graphite

and finally cross-hatched the body and painted the base with the tan paint. Some of the

original green paint is still showing...that's okay. 

Hmm, not too bad, but not a very good match for the real deal on the left.

My final step will bring me closer, by "antiquing" the piece with Annie Sloan's Dark Wax  

Here is the final result, the dark wax works magic and the bits of the original green that

show add additional depth to the piece. If you look real close you will that my address

sign has a pineapple as does my garden flag. I like this set of three

The total cost for this project $22.00 dollars, I purchased the pineapple for $20.00 and 

2 Valspar samples for $1.00 each. The Annie Sloan Dark Wax, green paint and

paint brushes I already had and didn't use that much. 

I love the end result, what do you think?

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Making the World Cuter
My entry into Inspire Me Monday, sponsored by Appliances Online and their best Washer Dryers.  

Porch Rockin' with Annie Sloan Paint

My friend Cherry's in the Garden and fellow blogger has been busy busy painting everything in site--but her husband. :) See she discovered this paint, Annie Sloan paint, and has been a painting fool ever since. Cherry has turned some so so pieces of furniture into some real knock outs--so I finally took the plunge and went over to the Southern Institute of Faux Finishing website, whipped the plastic out and bought myself some. When my box arrived in the mail I eagerly set to work.

Me and hubby put in a lot of time working on our landscaping and I can't think of a better way to enjoy our efforts than viewing our garden from the front porch and rocking in our newly painted rockers. Grab a glass of iced tea and I'll walk you through this project.

Our front porch needs updating and I've been eyeing rockers for sometime--a decade at least--to replace our sad looking old wicker chairs. The problem was money of course, I liked the ones from Cracker Barrel, but 4 chairs easily would have put us out $500. plus. Then you have Pottery Barn and their gorgeous Salem Rocking Chair which costs $349. each--without cushion--insane! Of course they are made of solid mahogany, but I assure you, my painted bargains will be around for me to rock grandbabies in and that is a long way coming folks.

1. First find some old rockers, mine are from the 1970s and 1980s, The one on the left was from my father-in-laws home and the one on the right is a hand me down I've had since 1984. I searched my local Craiglist for the fourth, they averaged around $40 - $100. Since there was no dire need to have them all at once, I kept searching Craigslist daily and snagged one for $15! Look at garage sales and second hand stores too.

3.  I'm going the traditional route and painting all of them black, but wouldn't it be fun to have each a different color? Open up a can of Annie Sloan Chalk paint and paint away, no need to sand with this paint, all you need is a clean surface. Before I discovered this paint I had sanded one of the rockers, (it's not shown in this picture, because it is in pieces waiting for hubby to assist me in repairing some of the rails) the process of sanding took hours, with Annie Sloan Chalk paint forget the sanding, this paint binds well without all that extra work. Did I mention that I went through 8 sandpaper sheets for my hand sander?

4. There are 2 steps to achieve a black finish: first you paint with the graphite chalk paint, using a 2 inch paint brush (you can purchase from your local big box store). The graphite paint reminds me of battleship gray. but don't worry, we will get to black by applying the dark wax.

5. Here is the rocker completely painted with graphite paint.

6. To achieve a black finish you apply Annie Sloane Soft Wax in dark. I purchased the ultimate waxing brush because I believe in using good tools, when painting, those tools are brushes. The waxing brush did a good job in applying the wax. One caveat, work in the shade or inside, I was in the sun and the wax melted to liquid, you want the wax to be the consistency of margarine...not oil.


7. A picture of the product and the ultimate waxing brush.


8. Two down, two to go. Don't they look inviting? Come on over, sit a spell. Can I get you some more iced tea?

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