The month of Luuuv & the color red~ Kim from Vintage Paints

In the spirit of Valentine's Day and February, the month of Luuuuuuuv, I asked my painting soul mate Kim, of Vintage Paints, to come over and share her flare with the color red.  This girl has more talent in her pinky toe than I have in my whole body!  And what she does with the color red on furniture is amazing!  It take kahunas to paint with red but she does it so well!  Grab a cup of coffee, a glass of tea, a beer, wine, Mt. Dew (whatever your vice may be) and sit back and be inspired!  This lady inspires me every day!   If you haven't met Kim or seen her work, well you're in for a huge treat!  Take it Kim! 

Hello there!  It’s Kim, from Vintage Paints.  I am so honored to be a guest
blogger for Sissy’s Salvation today!  We are going to talk about the color red
and my obsession with red furniture. 
From Color Psychology:  The most emotionally intense color, red stimulates a
faster heartbeat and breathing. 
Does the color red do this to you?  It certainly does to me!  It evokes many
emotions; excitement, happiness, pleasure.  I think it’s the deep dark red that
really inspires me.  I’ve tried several reds over the past year---some I’ve
liked, some I haven’t but through all of these trials & tribulations, I have
found the one.  You know, my love/soulmate/makes my heart skip a beat.  It is
Benjamin Moore’s “Million Dollar Red.” 

Isn’t that color gorgeous? I love paint and I love to pick out new paint colors. 
I was standing in Benjamin Moore one day, with a fistful of paint chips and on a
whim, I decided I wanted a red and chose this one.  Now, it does go on a bit
strong and you might be thinking “what is Vintage Paints talking about, this
color is bright red”…you must stay with me here.  Don’t fall off the deep end
like I did when I first brushed this color on my piece of furniture.  It was so
bright and really not at all what I had envisioned.  If you prime your furniture
first with a gray, the red will show better. I use this: 

Be patient, red takes a few coats to get that fabulous deep red.  The first coat
will have an orange/red tint to it.  Let it dry thoroughly before you apply
additional coats, each layer will deepen the color.  Now to truly get the deep
finish that I love, you need to do a dark glaze once your paint is nice and dry. 
I prefer black to anything else on red furniture.   You can buy glazes pre-mixed
or whip up your own.  I prefer to make my own.

Glaze
 Glazing Medium (found at Michaels/Hobby Lobby)
 Black latex paint (the richer the color the better)
 Water
 Foam brush and soft towel (I cut up old t-shirts)

I like my glaze to be pretty thick so it gets in all of those nooks and
crannies.  I make sure my towel is pretty damp; not dripping wet but definitely
wet.  Brush on the glaze and wipe off with the towel.  You’re in total control
of how much and where that glaze goes.  The wet towel really helps you remove
excess glaze and keeps the product moist, which extends your work time.  Leave
it in the areas you want to accent.  It really helps bring those details out and
make them more visible.  Wipe off too much?  That’s okay, just give it a few
seconds to dry up and reapply.  The black gives you that gorgeous farmhousey red
that we all love! 
Here are some pieces I’ve done with Million Dollar Red and black glaze: 

Farmhouse Red Hutch

Farmhouse Red Bistro Set

Farmhouse Red Cabinet

Farmhouse Red Dresser

I hope this makes red a little less intimidating!  Embrace color, it’s good for
your soul.  *and if you don’t like it, you can paint over it* :)

Thank you so very much to my girl Tracy, for having me here!  You inspire me
daily with your kind soul, lovely ideas and fabulous work!  I am so fortunate to
be able to call you my friend.  Love ya’, girly!

Vintage Paints has left the building…

Kim is one of those rare people you meet in life!  Such a sweetheart!  When I was on my knees praying for comfort, after my father crossed over to Heaven, Kim was there waiting and comforting me.  I will always be grateful for her presence in my life.  She's one of the truly special people in this World and I thank God for putting her in my path!

You can visit Kim's blog here:
http://vintagepaintsblog.blogspot.com/

And her Facebook page here: 
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Vintage-Paints/198118963548226

Guest Blog at Vintage Paints!!!!!!

My painting soul sister, Kim at Vintage Paints, was sweet enough to invite me over as a guest on her blog!!!!  Talk about flattered!  Kim is a wizard with paint so when she asked me to be her guest, I was SO stinkin' excited! 
If you have not yet visited the Vintage Paints blog, you are in for a real treat!!!! 

http://vintagepaintsblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/guest-blogger-sissys-salvation.html

The BEAST! ~ repurposed sewing machine table

Will I ever learn to stop under estimating the complexity of things?  I have all these wonderful ideas running around in my head.  Unfortunately, I do not have all the skills to go with them!  I had three sewing machine tables that I picked up here and there.  My mom was wanting a new side table to go between her two new chairs.  Of course, I chime in that I can re-purpose one of these tables for her, NOOOOO problem.  Hmph!!  Famous last words. 

This is the one she chose.

That's not a rat wearing a shirt.  That's my Yorkie dog, Duncan.  He has issues like is momma.  :-)

This table had a little more detail than the others and nice curvy legs.  First up was to cut 4" off the legs to get the proper height for a side table.  NOOOOOO problem!  Hmph!  I get out my tape measure and Skill Saw and proceed to hack the living Hell out of these legs.  You know not even two of them were the same length.  Who would have thunk??  I was so disgusted.  Hulk came home from his fishing trip and found me sitting on the back deck with head in hands.  "What's wrong, Babe?"...  My reply, "I've $%#$#%%%^$$$....  stupid @#&^%$^%!  I'm so @#&^%^%$."  Then he proceeds to tell me how I should have done it and that I used the wrong type saw, blah, blah, blah.  Thanks Bob Villa!  Where were you 30 minutes ago??  So, I just swallowed my pride and asked him to fix them.  He did. 

On to step two.  Build a shelf where the sewing machine used to live for storing magazines, books, etc.  NOOOOO problem!  Hmph!  I make myself a paper template of the inside.  So far so good.  I transfer that to my plywood and move outside to cut it out.  Besides my complete terror of the saw, that went pretty well.  I screw the 4" pieces that I cut off the legs to each side of the table as braces for the shelf.  I measure, use my little level, attach them.  At this point, I'm thinking, "easy peasy...  I got this."  Time to put the shelf in.  Didn't dawn on me that I would now not be able to get the thing in there because now there are 4 blocks of wood preventing me from angling it in there now.  Once again, head in hands that eventually slide up to grab the hair and starting pulling!  I take the shelf back out and cut it into two pieces.  Take THAT!  Finally get the demolished shelf secured in the table.  Problem now?  FUGLY with a capital F.  It looked like a complete train wreck.  How am I going to fix THIS???  Wheels start spinning....  gotta cover up the ugly.  So, I bust out some fabric and Modge Podge.  I won't go into how frustrating this step was because this post is getting way too long. 

This is what I ended up with.  Perfect?  Far from it!  Functional?  Yes.  A for effort, right?  Just OVER THE MOON happy to be done with it! 

I mixed up some chalk paint with a pale yellow oops can I picked up at Lowes.  Wasn't sure what to do with the pull.  It was so pretty and I wasn't sure I wanted to paint it.  So, I soaked it in apple cider vinegar for a few hours and scrubbed it with an old tooth brush and it came back to it's shiny original finish. 

The little tray that used to hold spools of thread is now a little shelf to hold TV remotes.  I just snipped off the "spikey thingies" and modge podged scrap book paper in the bottom.  In retrospect, I probably should have painted the tray to match the table but I was WAY over it by this point. 

Picked up a couple of old coasters at the thrift store, painted them and added the same scrap book paper with the Modge Podge.  I glued felt to the bottoms as not to scratch the paint. 

And there you have it.  All done and I still have a thread of sanity left and all of my fingers.  Lessons learned:  Either stick to painting items that require no construction skills or go to Tech and take wood working classes or ask my carpenter husband to work with me until I pick up the skills I need.  Naturally, the first option would be much easier but that would be too boring for me.  I've always needed a challenge and this definitely did me for a while!!!!