Coffee Room Table - in place

Table in place, in the office, with an original poster given as a gift to us when we opened our first office back in 1979. The colors are only slightly faded, but it works nicely with this table.



The table had to be bolted together, so I laid it down on an old quilt and went to work.



It bolted together nicely and you can see that I didn't even bother to paint the underneath part of this table. I usually do paint the underside of things since everything I've done so far can tip over. It's like wearing a slip. It's got to be just a pretty as the showy part. However, I really doubt that this table is going to be tipped anytime soon.

Here it is with the office chairs. ugh. Those chairs have got to go! Time for another trip to the "Wood You" store for something to paint that will complement the table. This stuff just doesn't end, does it?

Painting the Coffee Room Table

This is what I learned about myself today.

I like high contrast color.





Now you would think that I would know this about myself by this time. I mean even when I was a teen, all I ever felt comfortable wearing was a black top with a white bottom.

The contrast made me feel comfortable, no matter what. Okay, so maybe I was subconsciously looking for balance, but I know when it all started.

It was a black cotton top and it was room enough to just pull over my head. No buttons. No sleeves. And, it had the most beautiful 2 inch black cotton lace edging that I had ever seen. I loved ironing it.

The bodice had darts and was semi-fitted giving me the appearance of perfect emerging breasts. The top was gently gathered, empire waisted and long enough to cover the waist band of my shorts if I was standing up straight. It was just a cunning little blouse.

I wore it the summer I was 14, the summer I was 15 and the summer I was 16 years old. I don't know what ever happened to it, but today's painting brought back the memory sharp and clear when I was trying to decide what to do with the top of the table I was painting for the coffee room at the office.

I had already primed the bare wood with Kilz and painted the top with white and yellow high gloss enamel so that the top was streaked with the two colors.

I loved it as it was.

From a distance it was cheerful and had a natural movement that spoke to my heart.


For two weeks it sat in my garage/studio waiting for a decision. At this point though, it looked too much like my kitchen table and I wanted to try something new, even if I had to force it. What to do?

I tried several things using chalk to try out designs on the glossy paint. Did I want something balanced and geometric? Should I use some stamped designs?

What about blocks of color or irregular shapes that would incorporate the colors of the table legs?



Do you like the legs? A base coat of Kilz, a coat of yellow and then another color dry brushed on just enough to leave hints of the yellow underneath. Then, just to jazz it up a bit, I added some stripes so that each leg has four colors and lots of movement going all the way around.

I was happy to paint this table in parts right out of the box. I didn't have to bend over once to get to a hard to reach spot.

But, grrr, I just couldn't decide what to do. My stomache just wouldn't let me settle!

Question? "If I were me, what would I like?"

Answer: "If I were me, I would paint big simple flowers and I'd use the complementary color, purple. "

High contrast!

Now I could relax and finish this thing.



Purple is the complementary color to yellow. Put them together and they both sing!









The side view shows the black and white strips and some of the color that I've painted on each of the four sides.

It's going to look so good when I take it to the office and put it all together.
I'll post a photo after I've put on a few coats of polyurethane



In this photo I've slipped the legs into the holes just to get an idea of how it will look.

Is this cool or what?

If I were me, I'd say, " I just love this thing!"

Hand Painted Table & Chairs - at last!

Here they are in all their glory. A table and chairs bright enough to glow in a brightly lit waiting room.

I took this photo in the early morning when the sun was rising in the east and keeping everything way too bright. You can see that even the verticles aren't able to shut out that intense light.




My, oh, my, how the high gloss enamel reflects every ray that arrives!



This is how they sat in the coffee room waiting for me to make up my mind about what I was really going to do to them.

I watched them for about two weeks until I just couldn't stand it anymore. Sure they were OK. But not OK enough to stay that way forever.







And, of course, this is how they were when they were first born.
Pretty wood. Nicely shaped. Solid looking.

Good enough to use as they were for about 10 whole months.

Like a blank canvas for an artist,
sometimes one has to be blank while the inner workings build up enough strength to be born.

Handpainted Rose Chair - the last one!

Remember this? It was the first one I talked about. A very nice color. My front door is almost this color.





But this is the shade that I love the best. A deepened rose color that I never, ever tire of. The entire back wall of our bedroom is similar to this, only I did a color wash that makes the wall look like suede from a distance. And, I made a king size quilt based on it. I think I even posted some photos of it awhile ago. I'll have to check.




The final product.

I had more trouble choosing colors for this chair than I did for any of the others. I think because I just like it so much as it was. The deep shade of rose is my favorite color to be around in our house. However, it had to change to this to be part of the group, so it let me paint it over and over until it finally said, "enough".


I especially like the brush strokes on the seat of the chair.

They go sideways!

Stuff like that just comes up as you paint.

You just never know how it's going to turn out.

Turquoise Hand Painted Chair

I just adore this color. I have made quite a few pieces of jewelry with turquoise stones. It is so much like our South Florida sky. But, once again, as I looked at it for about a week, I just couldn't leave it be.





Aren't these colors great with the turquoise base underneath? I especially like the dry brush effect. It looks a little rugged, and not only allows some color to show through, it is a great technique to use on childrens furniture because you know it's going to get banged up.



I use a really scruffy "chip" brush and mix two or three colors on the brush when I paint. I start out with a deep color, mix a little white on the side and then use some acrylic paint from a tube for an even darker slice of color.

Since it's all water base paint, it is very forgiving and seems to go on nicely. When it dries there is still mostly the high gloss of the white and main color, so it is a shiny finish - mostly.

I thought about applying a polyurethane top coat for protection, but wasn't so sure it would protect the paint enough. I've used it on other projects and still find paint chipping off with use.

Oh well. Use is a form of flattery.

Hand Painted Orange Chair

This chair started out orange and then became something else.






And if you look closely, you can see little splotches of the orange still trying to peak through. It was a lot of fun figuring out what colors to use to add character to this little chair.




Here it is in the darkened orange stage. It was nice. It looked good with the other chairs in their solid color life, but as with all things that live, evolution must go on.
Stasis is safe, but not very interesting.






This is the baby orange chair with its' first blush of high gloss enamel. It's a very nice orange color. Not too red, not too yellow. Just right. Except it was born into my house and as such is destined to change along with everything else. I mean is anything ever truly done?

Hand Painted Purple Chair

And here it is. Kind of hard to believe isn't it? Underneath all that color is the darkened purple base. I just couldn't leave it alone.

So, now it's got green, turquoise, orange and yellow enamel first lightened with white and then dry brushed with the darker shade.

This chair just dances with color!




And there really isn't anything wrong with this at this stage, is there? The purple enamel with a darker purple dry brushed over it give it depth and sure is interesting to the eye, but as much as I like it, it told me it just wasn't done.

Sometimes the inner artist sure has a LOUD VOICE.



Our humble beginning. Oh how far we had to go and I didn't even know it. I hope this chair is happy now, because I am taking it into the office with all of its' siblings and that is the end of it's current fix up state of mind.





Now it is at the office and is waiting to be used by lots of little kids with sticky fingers, who will sit on it, stand on it and knock it over on a regular basis.








sigh.

Sunday's I Paint

Sunday's are a good day to go to the office to paint. After a whole day of rest on Saturday, I'm looking forward to doing something tangible and creative. With no phones ringing or a computer demanding my eyes, I can take out my pots of paint and have at something that is naked and dress it up with color, someway, somehow. This group of kiddy size table and chairs have been in the waiting room for 10 months now, getting grubbier and grubbier with each kiddy visitor. That's a nice kind of natural aging process, but I'm just not into it. I like COLOR!



I like to start at the bottom. Using high gloss water base enamel will make everything shiny and easy to clean.


This is a base coat of a gorgeous rose color. But, it is a little "flat".


So, I took my most favorite ratty chip brush and dry brushed some magenta all over it. Now it looks interesting.

I managed to get four chairs and the table base coated in 6 hours, at which point I had to stop because I started dropping things. A sure clue to stop, clean up and go home.

This is the beginning. I plan to add more color to each chair so there will be a veritable rainbow and hopefully, a funky playful place to sit and play. But that's gonna be for another Sunday I paint.

Hand Painted Heart Stool

Heart stool
This is one of my first forays into hand painting wooden furniture. I used artist's acrylics and painted over a base coat of "Kilz" primer. What fun it was doing this project! And truly fun to look at. I gave it to my husband to take into work and I still hear compliments about its' cheerfulness. Now, isn't that what life is all about? Stuff that makes people smile some during their day?
W.C. Fields said, "Start everyday with a smile and get it over with".
This stool makes that work.

Painted Kitchen Table

Painted Kitchen Table
Ah now and here she is, our newly painted kitchen table. Isn't she pretty? It only took me about 10 days to do all the layers of color. It seems I don't like just using a paint brush to lay on a slab of color. Now I have to paint a base coat and layer darker colors one on top of the other, or else I can't sleep at night! It seems my eyes crave depth and interest and apparently I am so hungry for it, I am actually willing to do the work to get it. Yikes! What is happening to me?

The table is still elevated on books of higher learning. It's nice to have a use for good information, but I don't think the authors meant to be appreciated in quite this way...
I still have to paint on several layers of polyurethane to protect the paint, so we will not be able to use our new altar for food sharing until the middle of August. It's so humid here, it's gonna take that long for the poly coat to cure. Oh well, I get to look at it everyday and that's satisfying.

Cobalt Blue Kitchen Chair -

Cobalt Blue Kitchen Chair
And here is the final product. With only 9 layers of a blue/purple glaze mix over the original turquoise base, I have a gorgeous cobalt blue chair. To protect it, I sprayed it with an oil base ships varnish that my brother assured me would make this chair safely blue for the rest of its' life.
It's been six months now and there's nary a small chip on it anywhere.

I am happy.

All the other chairs are done now too, but the colors don't send me into fainted vapors like this blue one does. This blue is so interesting to look at in the sunlight. There is a rainbow of blue and purple with hints of, well, just the whole rainbow. I don't know how that happened, but it sure is nice!

Now I need a new table to go with these newly painted chairs.....

4 Layers Later

4 Layers Later
This is a combination of blue and purple acrylic paint mixed with an extender and applied using a sea sponge. The fun part was seeing how each layer kept building up and darkening down. I tend to use a circular motion when I have a sponge in my hand. In fact there are 9 walls in my house displaying this same effect. It fascinates me! Round and round my hand goes with the squishy sponge full of paint leaving trails of color over and over. And, even more fun is mixing the paints for each layer. I've been using student grade acrylic paints which are cheap, yes, but what I like about them is their creamy texture. They come out of the tube in a smooth squirt and mix so easily, that I can't seem to force myself to buy the "good" stuff. I wonder, will I regret this later. Will the colors fade? Will the paint change and disappoint me in the future?
Guess it's like anything we take a chance on. It might not work out, but if I don't try, I won't find out.

First Layers

First Layers
These chairs started out life in my kitchen as unpainted furniture. They reinvented themselves by becoming pecan stained and polyurethaned. They lived for many busy years at a matching formica kitchen table, sturdily supporting our family through uncounted daily meals and lots of happy parties.
Pretty soon, that is to say, within ten years, they began to get bored with their appearance and wanted a redo of some sort. I know this because they were speaking to me, their mother. Changing them was gonna be hard work. They were strongly protected by the polyurethane and making them ready to accept a new color meant breaking down that satin barrier somehow. Fortunately, my brother knows about this kind of stuff and suggested using a "liquid sander". Just by rubbing it on, the barrier would open up and I could paint a base coat onto this impervious finish. Ahhh.
Easy peasy.
Now, I knew that I was taking the cowards way out of this pickle, but I didn't care. I just didn't have the patience or the hand strength to sand each and every curve and crevice of four large chairs. With enthusiasm and optimism, I rubbed down each chair using lots of soft cloths and paper towels, too. As soon as that was done, I applied Kilz.
Kilz. Sounds really final doesn't it? It happens to be a water based, base coat, paint product that promises to seal anything you paint it on and also makes a nice surface to apply your "real"color to.
Apparently, it works! Here are the four formerly brownish stained chairs with their under coats on. From here on in I will be applying deeper colors of paint mixed with a faux extender.
I've done this technique with several walls in my house, but this is the first time I've tried it with chairs.
In fact, all of this work was done in December and I know that it is a success. Here we are six months later and the chairs have been in use for lots of meals and family parties and the paint is actually staying on! Zowey! I sure do like it when things work.

Back to Basics

Base Coat
Here it is and fourteen days have gone by without even one post. I feel like I have to start all over again. That's what travel does to me. At least, that's what happens when I go out of town. We went to see our granddaughter; left on an early Thursday morning and returned the following Monday afternoon. The trip was fun, but everything that I had been working on has since been severed, cut, lost, misplaced, forgotten or ignored in some strange way. I don't know why ripping me out of this house does that, but there it is.

I know I am not neurotically disinclined to leave, but psychically there is some force that is only in balance when I am here. And not somewhere else. Trips to the fabric store, supermarket, movie theatre and restaurants are all OK. But, to go farther than ten miles from this house constitutes a major readjustment in my physical and mental focus to get back to what I had been doing before I left. Some sort of flow just gets jammed up and I slip and slid for at least two weeks before feeling normal again.

sigh.

I've always been this way and wonder how many others have this same problem. I just don't like to leave my home. Everything I like to do is here. And when DH comes home it's time for dinner and it all makes sense. He is the sunshine and the rain and the blessed earth.
And, I am rooted in this place, wondering why it works this way for me.