a fresh coat

I've had such a fun week! As you know, I went to visit my Grandmother for a few days (that happily turned into a week). Near where my Grandmother lives is the house my Nana and Papaw lived in. I've been given some of the furniture and wanted to update it a bit. My Grandmother was such an amazing help in painting. We had a great time, and worked really hard. I love going to sleep physically exhausted from a good day's work. We also enjoyed coffee-drinking early mornings (of course), decadent dinners out in the evenings and even a little shopping trip to Corpus. Re-working the furniture took a bit longer than expected, but it was well worth all of the effort, and turned out just like I wanted it to. If you happen to be someone who thinks painting wood is an absolute abomination, I'd advise you to go have a cup of coffee or catch up with a friend instead of looking at my pictures. :) But, if you appreciate a bit o' color then by all means check em' out!

My Nana's bed before. It's called a "cannonball" bed. I love the rich wood color, but I also love periwinkle, so...

...best of both worlds, achieved through a bit of distressing, paint and glossy finish. My Grandmother shared a story with me this week she heard from a man working at a furniture store. Apparently a woman came in determined to find one of those trendy "disgusted" pieces that she'd seen everywhere. Ha. I think I'll use all white bedding on my "disgusted" bed with colorful, funky throw pillows. My Nana really loved purple, and while this is a bit more blue, I think she would've loved it.

Now we have the china cabinet that is also lovely wood. I was going to paint it white and add colorful fabric as a background. I am so grateful that things always take a bit longer than expected and we didn't get around to it. That night, I came across this in my Grandmother's Gumps catalog that I got even more excited about. Plus, I had the light turquoise paint for the chairs (you'll see those in a sec).

Pretty fantastic. I can't wait to fill it with my colorful wine glasses and coffee cups (that one that is my header pics definitely going in there!). I might also throw in a few antique books and make it part china, part curio cabinet. It really is a bit darker than this, but the sunlight was so potent that it brightened everything.

And our final (and most difficult actually) painting project was on these dining chairs. They're a touch lighter wood than the mahogany table and, again I love color, so they became light turquoise as well. Now the table, chairs and china cabinet look like a fresh bright set.

Even after tackling those spindley chairs, I still love painting. It's one of those wonderful activities like cooking where you immediately see results. And not in a instant purchase kind of way. These pieces all have such history and now I've infused them with a bit of my personality (with my Grandmother's fantastic help). All in all, a hard-working and yet utterly recharging week.