Stain Art with Natural Wax

Ahhhh... let me just delve into one of my favorite DIYs to date.

This one took me F-O-R-E-V-E-R to finish only because I was on a mission to find the perfect stencil. Other than that, piece of cake!

I found it when I came across the Donatella Damask Stencil by Royal Design Studio Stencils. You can view this exact stencil on their website by clicking HERE.

So, I had my tables sanded for a while while I was on the hunt for a stencil.

I did have photos of the whole sanding process, but they seem to be lost at the moment.

I used 80 grit sandpaper on my favorite tool; my orbital sander.

It took the laminate tops right off, exposing this beautiful wood.

Then, I painted. I put the stencil right on top of the tables and I rolled some Antique by Vintage Market and Design right on the stencil.

As you can see, I'm quite fond of Vintage Market and Design products. After trying 7 different types of chalk-based paints, I found the easiest, most inexpensive one with the most options.

To see the 75 colors that they offer and all of their finishing products you can click HERE.

The most important thing when stenciling is not to get a lot of paint on your applicator. I dipped my roller in the brush and rolled it out into the tray quite a bit before I rolled it over the stencil.

What is great about this stencil is that it is an "allover stencil" which makes it great to just lift and continue the pattern.

Within 30 minutes I had these beauties all stenciled.

I then proceeded to paint the base with the same color, being careful to "stay in the lines".

I waited 24 hours for the paint to cure, and then I used VM&D's Clear Coat Sealer in Satin around the sides and base of my piece. Everything except the top where I did the stenciling.

Doing this allowed me to put my Dark Umber Wax on the top without worrying about it getting onto the outside portion of my painted area and darkening the Antique color.

So I put the Dark Umber Wax on with a brush, covering the whole top where I had stenciled.

I let it sit for 48 hours just like this. The longer you keep VM&D colored wax on, the darker it gets.

Now for the fun part. The big reveal. I wiped my wax off with a microfiber cloth. It is important to buff the wax off completely before you go to seal your piece.

Oh, I sure loved how it stained the wood and the paint. Pure perfection!

I decided to antique the base by using VM&D's Garden Gate Glaze.

It went on beautifully and was easy to wipe with a damp cloth, mainly because I had sealed it already prior to putting on the Glaze.

The last step was to seal the whole piece.

I used the Clear Coat Sealer again in Satin and used a damp sponge to apply it all over the piece.

I really love the way that they turned out.

I may have taken one too many photos, but I am glad I did because I will miss this set when they are gone.

Oh yeah, and as most of you know, I am a sucker for wreaths, so I had to add this beautiful cotton wreath to my collection.

Just another smile-worthy purchase from Vintage Market and Design.

I hope that you all have a wonderful week. <3 Marissa <3

Peacock Delight

Hey everyone! It's been a long time since I've been here.

TOO long.

Well, I'm back with lots of new things.

I've been painting up a storm.

I just thought I'd share some pictures of a new piece I finished recently.

I love this piece especially since I totally stepped out of my comfort zone.

A friend of mine told me that my color palette was pretty predictable so my intention was to surprise him with this. HeHe.

I used Vintage Market and Design Furniture Paint in "Peacock" and then "Espresso" for the top.

I took my handy power sander and brushed it up against the whole piece, especially the top.

When that was done, I put their Dark Umber Wax on the whole piece and let it sit for 2 days.

After the 2 days, I took a microfiber cloth and wiped down the whole piece, getting the wax completely off.

I then sealed it all with VM&D's Satin Clear Coat Sealer.

I just love the final piece. That worn Espresso on the top really makes me smile!

Shabby Grapevine Wreath

I'm really excited about sharing this easy DIY craft with all of you. I really wanted to make something to make my boring entryway more personal. This is a craft that I think anyone can do.

I started with a simple Grapevine wreath that I purchased from Michael's Craft Store. I originally bought a 12" Grapevine wreath but realized that I wanted something bigger so I got a 24" wreath instead.

I also bought this cute 8" MDF Scroll Letter which I painted in my favorite Vintage Market and Design paint color; Antique.

Next, I used wire cutters to cut the stems off of some silk roses that I had laying around.

You can use any type of flower that you want for this part. I think that's what makes this projects so personal.

I considered using peonies, sunflowers, or hydrangeas, but I settled on roses.

Then, I used a low-heat glue gun to glue the flowers onto the wreath.
I absolutely love having a hot glue gun. It makes most projects I do that much easier. The only issue is the stringy mess they leave, but that's not to hard to clean up.

See all those stringy, spiderweb looking things all over? I just had to spend a few minutes picking that all off.

I then wrapped twine around the opposite side of where I glued the flowers for a more rustic look. It also helped with attaching my "G" to the wreath.

When I was done wrapping the twine around I simply tied down the "G" with a bow. By the way, the "G" is for my families last name but you would want to pick the letter best suited for your families home.

I tied a bow with burlap and lace ribbon and voila, a wreath to hang in that empty spot on my porch!

Just to show how I hung it up, I attached more twine to the bow and hung it on a light. I think it completes my space quite nicely.

I hope that you have fun creating your special family wreath! I would love to see pictures of your completed projects also.

Gettin' Glazey with VM&D

I had so much fun on this piece so I thought I'd bring you along on it's journey to completion.

Can you believe that this is what it looked like when I started? When I saw it my first thought was, "Why on earth are the drawer pulls on like that?". I took it home with me because I knew it was destined to be shabbulous.

I started by taking out the drawers and painting the whole piece, including the drawer fronts in Vintage Market and Design Grey Flannel Furniture paint. If you haven't noticed, I'm totally in love with this line of products. There are so many options and it is just so darn easy to use. I was anxious to try this color because it is one of their new colors that I hadn't used before.

I waited 24 hours after painting the Grey Flannel to apply the Frog Tape in a stripe pattern on the drawers. I didn't measure the the distance between each piece of tape. I believe that imperfection is beautiful and I think I eyeballed them close enough.

It was time to bring out the fun: VM&D Atelier Glaze in Sterling. Wow! What a beautiful glaze this is. For some reason I had a feeling it was going to get along quite nicely with the Grey Flannel color.

As you can see, I have my favorite brush pictured up there with the glaze. It's a Boar's Hair paint/wax brush that after months of deliberation, I finally bought from VM&D. It was the BEST INVESTMENT EVER! It is so easy to paint with and leaves no brush strokes. The key to making sure the glaze stayed where I wanted it to, rather than seaping under the tape was to dip my brush ever so lightly into the glaze, making sure I had none dripping when I went to paint it on. I then pounced the brush up and down in between the taped lines. I was going for a slightly distressed look so I only did one coat. For bolder stripes I would suggest doing at least 2 coats of the glaze.

I really couldn't wait to pull off the tape! I stayed patient and waited about an hour to pull it back. Oh boy, was I ever excited when I did! I think everyone in my house at the time was looking at me funny as I squealed in excitement. Well LOOK! Wouldn't you be happy too?

Next were the drawer pulls. Those were simple. Just a quick pounce of my paintbrush over the drawer pulls with VM&D Cotton and then 30 minutes later, a quick pounce over that with VM&D Pearl Crowning Touch.

Last but not least, the most important part. Sealing the piece. I can't explain in words how much I love VM&D's Matte Finishing Creme. It's so easy to use and it preserves that Chalky look from their paint that I just love. I brushed it onto the entire piece and waited 20 minutes before buffing it with a Microfiber cloth.

Voila! All done!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Until next time my friends... <3

Shabby Old Window

Moving cross-country with only what can fit in your car trunk is no easy feat. I was desperate to find things to fill my bare walls once we reached our destination. Thrift stores, of course, are my favorite. That's where I found this old window. It may not look like anything special to some, but to me it was just another treasure. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it but I knew it was going to fill up a decent-sized space on my wall once I was finished with whatever I was going to do.

I thought about putting 6 photos in each pane. That would have looked nice, probably 6- 8x10's. I then heard that Staples does these black and white prints called Engineering prints. I had recently had a photo done of my 3 kiddos so I decided to try it out. I went to Staples online and uploaded the photo. Keep in mind, this is a big window, 36" x 27" to be exact. That's how big I asked for the print to be.

In a little over an hour I went to go pick up my print. Can you believe my surprise when the clerk at Staples handed me a huge, beautiful print of my children and told me that my total was $1.07? What!? I couldn't believe it. I brought it home, taped it behind the window and hammered on some jigsaw brackets to the back of the window to hang it. Hung it up, and Viola!

Yes, I realize that one of my son's faces is a little bit cut off by a pane, but I still love it! I do plan on changing the photo again though. Heck, at $1.07 per print I could change it every week!

Shabby Vanity

This is by far one of my favorite projects yet! I've always wanted a vanity but the standard vanity never did the trick for me. I wanted something unique and shabbulous! Not only was this fun, but it was super easy and can be made from so many different things.

These are the things I happened to gather together for my project:

An old door from the flea market,


An old sewing table I found at an estate sale,

....and horribly spray painted mirror I also found at the flea market.

The door in my opinion was perfect as is so I didn't do a thing to it. I didn't have to do much to the sewing table either to acheive the look I loved!

Let me just take a minute to profess my love of Vintage Market and Design Furniture Paint and Finishing touches which is what I used for the whole project. This stuff is soooo easy! You don't have to sand or prime and it sticks to virtually anything. I've painted glass, terra cotta, MDF, wood and even fabric with this stuff. It's incredible, and with 59 colors to choose from the possibilities are virtually endless. Off my soapbox I go.

So as I said previously, I didn't have to do much to the sewing table. I painted it with VM&D's Furniture paint in the color 'Antique', distressed it with 150 grit sandpaper and then waxed it with VM&D's Dark Umber Wax which gave it a much more rich and distressed look. Lastly, I topped it with VM&D's Satin Clear coat just to ensure that it would be protected for years to come.

The mirror took a bit more work because of how badly it was spray painted and black to boot. I was hoping to find a gold mirror but I loved the shape of this one too much to pass it up. I started by painting the whole thing with one coat of 'Antique'.

That just wasn't doing it for me. I then used another great product by Vintage Market and Design called Crowning Touch in 'Antique Gold'. I kinda just "pounced" that over it with a regular paint brush.

The picture above doesn't do it justice due to the lighting but hopefully you get the idea. The Crowning Touch has a bit of shine and is absolutely beautiful. Lastly, I dry brushed another VM&D paint color called 'Conch' over that. I was happy with the results. I wanted a little bit of "girly" but not too much.

Put it all together and get your very own Shabby vanity! I plan on making it it's own vanity chair but for now I just used one of my dining chairs. I just loved this project and I hope you do too! If you do one, I'd love to see pictures.