Beachy Subway Art and Beachy Dresser

So it was a pretty good day for sales last week.  Since I don't have a store, I list my items for sale 

on Craigslist. I've actually done quite well. It might take a few weeks, but most everything sells. 

I got a call from a lady who wanted my "Crack-house" dresser #2 and the little nautical table. 

When she came over to pick them up, she mentioned she needed another dresser for her sons room.

 I had this sitting in the garage awaiting my attention:

Here's what it looked like when I got it. (Sorry, I took these photos after the stripper had been applied)

The gloppy drip was there before I started. Some people should be forbidden to apply stain to wood. 

I hate stripping furniture worse than root canals. Seriously. 

This fun activity took about, oh, 4-5 hours. The mirror took most of that time. Horrendous. 

I used my soy gel stripper. I raved about it on my "Frenchy Dresser" post. If you strip, then you 

must get some of this. It's totally non-toxic (I don't even wear gloves) and cleans up easily with water.

And it works like nobody's business!! Trust me, you will never use anything else again. 

 

This piece was pretty darn messed up. The finish was hideous, the original handles and keyhole plates were MIA, the drawers barely slid open and the bottoms were almost rotted away. 

What sold me on the piece was the mirror. It was some gorgeous wood-work. And the beveled glass was beautiful. I knew I could work my magic on this piece. 

And apparently, so did Tori.  She saw it sitting there and asked if I could make it look "Beachy". 

She wanted it blue with some white and yellow and distressed. 

Cool.  I hadn't done anything like that before so I told her I'm in! 

But first, a little help from Hubs,,,,,and Judy. How cute is this dog?? Mean Pit Bull??? Don't believe

it. She loves everyone. This is the best dog I have ever owned. 

After he fixed all the necessary structural issues, I got busy.  

I didn't have time to stage this gal in a vignette,,,so the garage photos will have to suffice. 

Please don't shake your head at my crap filled garage,,,,it is my work shop! 

She wanted white worked into the wood.  I used ASCP Pure White on top, the mirror accents and on the body.

Forgive the quality. The light wasn't great and the garage floor gives off a blue tint in the photos.

 The blue is my homemade chalk paint. I used MS "Mariner".

 These top two drawers were not in the best of shape, so I lined them with fabric.  All the sides of the drawers got painted.  I think it just finishes the piece. Sometime you have to pay extra attention to the details.

In the interim of working on this dresser, I started on some subway art. 

Yeah, yeah,,,I'm only a year too late.  WELL, i didn't get the memo!
And it appears as if I'm the only one without a cricut or some other machine to make the lettering.
Hey! I'm old, and I do it old school!  

I had some fence lumber sitting around, so Hub cut it and attached them from behind. After a quick sanding, I mixed up 4 different colors and painted them on my "canvas". 

Got my 2" and 3" letter stencils, and printed out the names of local Southern Calif beaches. 

I just eyeballed everything. I traced out the stencil in pencil and them went back over them 

by hand, painting each letter, using my homemade gray chalk paint. 

Hey, I'm in fron the camera for a change! 

And here's what I ended up with:

 I love how this came out! I was so surprised! 

It did take many hours between penciling the words and then 

going back and painting them. 

 I'm aware of the vinyl reverse stencil method, but I didn't have the materials. 

And I didn't want to wait. When I get an idea in my head, I just do it. 

So, I had this sitting in the garage when Tori came by this afternoon to pick up her dresser.
She and her friend commented on how cute it was. My husband blurted out, "It's for sale!" LOL
She asked how much, I told her, and she said, "I'll take that too!"  She ended up with four of my items!
                                                             It was a very good day!

I will definitely be making more of these puppies!