Painting | Chicken Scratch

Road Kill Rescue – The Buffet

Jul 172012

A month or so ago I was driving home from work and saw a buffet on the side of the road. It looked sad. Unfortunately there was no way it would fit in my Honda. So I had to wait until Mike got home and then did some sweet talking.Fast forward to midnight, in the rain, (possibly in pajamas) with a flashlight, on the side of the road.
We managed to get it in the back for his truck and then home.

She was pretty rough looking. The rain had done it’s best to damage the buffet. The veneer was bubbly, large pieces were peeling off. There were no knobs on the drawers. The trim on the back was barely attached. She was missing a wheel and the drawers didn’t close.

Google+

I’m Bringin’ Doily Back!

DIY 14 Responses »

May 042012

(kinda like bringin’ sexy back, but more lacy)

I finally got around to painting my other bookshelf!

I used Beeswax by Valspar and Mark Twain House Grey Brick on the inside.
I love the DIY chalk paint method. The laminate coating on these bookshelves left me with few options. I this time I added more plaster of paris, it was like pudding! But it sanded out smoothly. Unlike my last DIY chalkpaint bookshelf I spray glued the fabric down to the shelves for a smoother look (no lace either!).

For those of you who have managed to forget what my book case used to look like:

Ugh back to the new:

I’m a book lover through and through, not that you can tell by looking at my house… ha!
The chicken bookends came from Kirklands (Christmas gift from my sister). The milk crock was on my moms counter longer than I could remember, when she went to throw it out I screamed ~~really loudly~~ snagged it.

And yes. I’m bringing back the doily.

Everything on top was either gifted or thrifted! How cute is that strawberry milk glass dish? My newest acquisitions are the two embroidered birds.

I’ve got lots of embroidery in my house (you work with embroidery machines and see how much you bring home!) but it’s all done by machine. I love the detail on these hand embroidered birds. And I had no choice but to snap them up for 50 cents each!

My other bookshelf also got some doily love:

Do you see it? (and yes I’m still waiting for my milk glass chicken dish! tomorrow!)

Mr. Rooster approves.

You can even decorate your dog with one.

Google+

Barn Quilt Reveal!

DIY 30 Responses »

Mar 282012

I finally finished it!

Honestly, that should say I finally started it!

All in all it only took me 3 days of work and a lot of that was waiting

One for the base coat.

One for the marking, taping and painting:

I tried to do all of one color at a time to cut back on brush washing

Ignore the random junk. We still haven’t unpacked the garage, don’t judge!

And one for hanging it up.

We wanted it to stand away from the barn to inhibit moisture retention

The base color is Behr Cream Yellow (I had 3/4 gallon left over from the living room)

The rest of the paint came from Lowes.

I bought 5 sample jars:

La Fonda Copper (orange)

Mark Twain House Grey Brick (green)

La Fonda Deep Blue (blue)

Fairmont Penthouse Garnet (burgundy)

Bees Wax (dark yellow)

I’ve got more than 1/2 jar left of each color, you could easily do a 2 color quilt with the same amount of paint.

My ‘quilt’ is only 4×4, my barn is only one story and an 8×8 quilt would have been monstrous!

Once we put in some plants it won’t look quite so lonely.

View from the road

Like that plywood against the left side of the barn?

That’s to keep Sophia in. Some how she squeezes out of that 1.5ft space.

The total cost was around $20 for the paint, brushes and tape.

The plywood was salvaged from the turkey pen at the old house (free!)

I also got poly- sealer but the temperature tanked so I’m waiting for it to warm up out of the 30′s and I’ll seal it on the barn (but you should totally seal it before you put one out!)

Before touch up

Some tips:

*If you use rough plywood – buy some cheap chip brushes.

You’ll mangle them trying to get the paint in all the cracks

*Thick and Sloppy is the name of the game (come back here!)

This board was so rough (and sucked up paint like crazy) that I found it best to slap on massive amounts of paint

*Step back – you’ll drive yourself nuts trying to make the lines perfect.

Step back 3 feet, if it looks straight leave it alone!

*Don’t do ‘Broken Dishes’ (bottom left)

I just about went cross-eyed trying to fill that in and it doesn’t stand out as well as the others from far away

Keep it simple! Large block of color work best at long distances

*Don’t worry about spills

They are easy to cover up with a few dabs of paint

*Don’t be afraid to fudge a bit if your lines don’t meet up

This is much more forgiving than an actual quilt!

I loved making this and I wish I had another barn so I could make more!

Linked up at Farmgirl Friday

Google+

Bookshelf Revamp

Uncategorized 12 Responses »

Mar 112012

I’ve yet to hit the garage-sale-furniture-lottery. So instead I’ve had to make do with what I’ve collected over the years. Unfortunately most of it’s either really old (true story, my couch is older than me!) or just cheap, like laminate book shelves I’ve had since high school.

Keeping it classy with the decorative tissue box

This is one of those bookcases. You can see I’m keeping it classy with the decorative tissue box

This was my first attempt at DIY chalk paint. I used a $2.50 oops jar from lowes and plaster of paris (I had a giant container left from making kill jars in college, strange but true)

I’ve gotta say, I’ve never been a mustard person, but I really like this. The paint went on really easily, but I managed to scrape off quite a bit trying to get the shelves in. Luckily I had enough left to touch it up. I used about 1/2 a quart.

I painted the tops of the shelves then put them in upside down (the bottom are nasty looking pressed wood) and covered them with a home dec-remanant I picked up a while back. The lace is from my stash, it was the boys grandmothers. I have a ton of cookbooks (this isn’t 1/2!) and these are my faves, so it’s nice to display them.

I picked up this lamp over the summer for $1 (I then lost it in the craft room for about 3 months). It was flat black so I have it a few coats of valspar Almond. The framed ‘print’ is actually embroidery, it’s pinned into the frame without glass so the texture shows in real life. There is a sadly empty spot waiting for my birthday gift. I’ve asked the boy for a milk-glass chicken dish (his response: Great! What does that mean?) and this is where she’ll got. Birthdays not until May so I might find something in the mean time….

I love the bright colors! They really open up the room (this is the one without any direct sunlight!) and I can’t wait to finish the curtains to show you all!

Google+

Winter Branches – I paint and so can you!

DIY 45 Responses »

Jan 062012

Please Check out my 100 Follower Necklace Giveaway!

I used to paint a lot back in the day. Then I graduated from high school. It was never something I set out to stop doing, but like many things it was put on the back burner and eventually placed in a cool-whip tub wayyyyy back in the fridge and forgotten about; or at least ignored for fear of terrible smells. I kept my paints, mostly because I am the craft poster child for hoarders. A few weeks about I saw a GIANT canvas (4 ft x 2 ft) for really cheap at Hobby Lobby. Gotta love their ridiculous sales. I’ve been in the market for some GIANT wall art so bought it. Or maybe I just bought it because this house won’t get it’s self on TV (don’t judge, I don’t really want to be on hoarders).

Any way, this was supposed to be a tutorial but my original method didn’t work and my hands got covered in paint so I stopped picking up the camera. I know, I’m a terrible blogger.

I did the whole thing in one day, took about 4 hours, including drying time.

I started out with a whole lotta white, some deep blue, some cerulean blue and a tich of black for that steely grey winter sky look. I used acrylic paint that I had on hand, Americana and Apple Barrel brands. The dark blue and black are ‘gloss’ finishes but there isn’t enough of them to make it glossy, the finish is matte.

Mix the white and light blue and start slapping it down, use the water to make the paint go farther. I didn’t want a really saturated blue. Add in some dark blue and a teeeeeeeny bit of black to add dimension. Use the water to make all the colors blend (one again, I’m a terrible blogger and can think of no better way to explain that). The colors should be subtle but not flat.

Now comes the fun part. The trees.

Start the tree by making some random lines. Really, don’t over think it.

Fill in the ‘trunk’ with a medium brown. Add shading with dark browns and highlight with mustard. Use water to thin the paint for blending. Remember that the trees start with few thick lines and branch out into many thin lines. Try to keep going up and out. Cross lines from time to time. Keep it random and natural looking. Step back every now and then, don’t get lost in the details.

The finished project. So what if my painting is bigger than my dining room table? Ignore the mess, I do. Alfie has turned into a confetti maker so I have shredded paper everywhere.

Close up on the shading and branching.

He would sleep like this for hours if I’d let him.

Shared:

Google+