Chalk Painted Hutch

I’ve considered painting this hutch since we purchased it from Craigslist a couple of years ago.  But I knew it wouldn’t be quick, and there were other more urgent projects.  Besides, part of me liked the green, just not with the brown on the back, shelves, and desk. 

I set a few goals for myself just before we took a break from school for Christmas.  Painting the hutch was one of them.

A little while back, I pinned a recipe for homemade chalk paint onto my DIY Pinterest board.  The recipe was simple:  Dissolve 1/2 cup of plaster of paris with 1/2 cup of hot water.  Then mix it with 1 1/2 cups of paint.  I decided to use the rest of the gray paint from the boys’ steps, since I liked the color (and it meant I didn’t have to make a special trip to Menards).  It seemed much stiffer than regular paint to me, more so than what I had seen on the internet, so I added a little more hot water until it had a smoother consistency. I had read a few articles about how to apply chalk paint, as opposed to regular paint, and I felt ready to go!

 

As I painted, it continued to get a little stiff, so I occasionally added small amounts of water a little at a time, plus I had to keep stirring it every few strokes with a paint stick as I was painting.  It went faster than I had hoped, though, since there was no sanding or priming to do.  Before long… I was finished!

The online instructions said to do a thin first coat, without going back over my brush strokes.  Then after about 2 hours, do the second and final coat.

You can see the finish looks a little aged and the original green kind of shows through the brush strokes.  This was what I was going for.    If you want to achieve this look, but don’t like the original color of your piece, you can use a different chalk paint color for the first coat, and then your final color for the finish.

 

   

I sanded lightly with a fine grit sanding block between the two layers, trying not to make it too shabby.

 

                       

The finish is definitely more gritty than regular paint, and since I move my sewing machines around sometimes, depending on what I’m sewing, I made sure to put 3 coats of polycrylic polyurethane on top.  I lightly sanded between the 2nd and 3rd coats of polyurethane.

                  

I love it!  I think it looks more graceful, somehow.

 

                         

 

In other household news, Olivia ended up getting sick, although not as bad as some of the others.  I am the lone survivor of the influenza this time!  Whew!  Thank you for praying for me!                  

Little Project for my Little Girls

The twins have these cute sconces above their beds, due to Glenn’s creativity and foresight while he was building their bed nooks.  I had put these little shades over the bulbs – because they were free and I liked the look of shades better than the bare bulbs.

Here they are turned off:

         

And now on:

           

Aren’t they sweet?  But I kept thinking they needed just a little something more – I thought about spray painting them (I’m serious), or making lamp shade covers, etc.  But yesterday I had an idea!

I have lots of linens: tablecloths, napkins, table runners, etc.  They are one of my weaknesses.  I always look for them at GW or the antique stores.  And I guess they are a pretty handy weakness to have – I use them every day!  Anyway, I had been given an old, white damask in a lovely heavy linen weight.  Unfortunately it has so many stains on it, it just can’t be used as a tablecloth by itself.  But that doesn’t mean it can be used!  I never get rid of linens – even the stained ones – if they are old and beautiful.  This one has a beautiful stitch along the hemlines.  I decided to cut lengths from the hems to use as trim around the sconce shades.

Here is a close-up, although it’s dark, of the edge.  See the pretty damask pattern above the tiny dots?

After measuring the perimeter around the bottom edge of the shade with my tape measure, which was 14 inches, I laid the tablecloth on the floor, straightened the hemline alongside my yardstick and cut 4 lengths – each 30 inches long.  I cut very close to the edge of the little holes so that they would hang on the bottom once they were attached.

 

After cutting the lengths, I thought they were a little wider than I wanted for such a small shade.  So I just folded down the top edge lengthwise.  I love pleats – so I pleated the trim as I stitched it by simply folding little sections over just before they went under the needle.  To make the two ends come together smoothly, I stitched them to each other before I pleated.  This makes a continuous circle of the trim.  After it was pleated, the seam seemed to disappear.

Here’s my first little guy!

    

They were a good enough fit that I kind of slipped them over the shade at first, but then I went ahead and hot glued them just to make sure they stay in place.

And here they are in place!

Turned off:

      

And, of course, see them when the lights are on:

                  

I tried to get a picture of how they look in the nooks from farther away, but that didn’t really turn out as well as I hoped.  Oh well – here’s a look anyway. 

The girls were tickled with them.  Any little girly thing I do in their room pleases them.  They are so sweet!

Happy (cough, cough) New Year!

We were all excited about the prospect of bringing in a New Year – our first at Kenilworth!  We had plans for food and fun, videos and computer games!
Our excitement and anticipation looked something like this:
 

and this:

           
  and some of us were doing this!  (not me, though)
                
Luke was even warming up the guitar…
                 
But suddenly all our plans went caput!  The culprit?  Influenza. 
Glenn was the first to go down, followed by almost every child, one after another.
   

There have been fevers and back aches…   (but still smiles when I asked)

                 
headaches and coughing…and coughing…and coughing…
           
congestion and nasal drainage (doesn’t that sound nice?)
         
At this point, the only 2 left standing strong are Olivia and me. 

But no matter!  None of these things has kept the kids from having a good time anyway.  They have persevered and somehow found the inner strength to play video games as planned. 
     
And computer games have somehow been bearable, despite the fatigue of sleepless nights.
    
Although Glenn was in bed around 10:00 or so on New Year’s Eve – exhausted from the flu, Luke poured some ginger ale into 5 wine glasses and the 4 older kids and I celebrated and cheered when we watched the ball drop via Luke’s computer.
And despite the flu, we’ve been thankful.  Thankful for a warm, safe home.  Thankful for food in our pantry and milk in the fridge.  Thankful for time together playing games and reading to each other.  Thankful that God will heal us from the flu, unlike some other illnesses. 
It’s been a good reminder that “man plans his steps, but God directs his path”!  And His path is always better than our plans. 

Meanwhile…. I had to find something to do, right?!
So here’s a look at what I’ve been working on the past 2 days.

I should be finished today – and I’ll show you the results as soon as the polyurethane cures!
Happy New Year!