The Starbucks Chair

A few years ago the Starbucks around the corner from me, decided they needed to remodel. Lucky me! Now, for those of you that know me, you know I can’t stand coffee, the smell is fantastic, especially Hazelnut, but to drink it, grouse! So, how did you find out about the remodel, you ask?


Well, I have everyone I know on the lookout for furniture, including my ex-husband! Yep, ex-husband! Believe it or not, we’re really good friends, now that we aren’t married anymore. Well, anyway, he is a coffee addict! He probably paid for the remodels in Starbucks, he drinks so much coffee. For Jer, life without Starbucks is the closest thing to hell.

So, I get this call about how they’re getting rid of these chairs and do I want them. Well, Dugh! So, he scoops up a couple for me and delivers them right to my door. How’s that for service? I couldn’t have gotten him to do that when we were married. They were a bit worn from all the lounging coffee drinkers, with their crossword puzzles and biscotti, but they were still sturdy. They just needed some “Funk”.

The chair you see here is the last one I had. I love the way the seat is round, the possibilities for a cool design are endless. I also find the flow of the legs interesting, they sort of twist into each other. The color palette I chose is one of my favorite combinations too. Plum & olive green, to me anyway, look fantastic together. I accented with gold metallic paint, for me Ralph Lauren works the best, which brought a little richness to the piece. The end result is a classy, yet, whimsical design.

But the moral to this story is not the actual design, it’s this; you never know where you’ll find furniture. Always, be on the look out! Even if it means becoming friends with your ex-husband, do it!

Rosey's Room

This weekend has been a great weekend for us in regards to finding furniture! A couple of pieces on the side of the road & 2 pieces at the Thrifty Shopper! I know I get excited about the silliest things!


As always I’m letting them marinate in the studio, but I’ve already started to dream about what they could be…so many ideas, so little time! Look for them coming soon...

But back to reality…This piece that I did a couple months ago started out as a dusty, old piece we found at a garage sale. This was before I let things sit around before I painted, and I jumped right in, right when I got home, but the design was nothing I wanted. Frustrated with it, I just put it aside for awhile. One night when I couldn’t sleep very well, the piece came back to me. Usually my work is very strong, bold and extremely colorful, but I wanted to try something new, something softer, and that’s when I thought, Rosey’s room.

My daughter Hannah “Rosey” is my third daughter, baby of 5, and I was bound and determined to get her nursery painted before we brought her home. Problem was, I was 8 months pregnant. I had painted the walls a light yellow already, but wanted something to reflect her personality, but what was her personality? So a very pregnant me, sat in her room 2 days before she was born and thought about what I wanted the walls to say about my little girl. Roses! I wanted roses. My Rosey would be sweet & soft like a rose petal. I proceeded to sponge the walls in a darker yellow, and then added hints of whites to create a soft faux finish. I then painted delicate pink roses all over the room, the end result was beautiful.

Well, today Hannah Rose is 12, the walls have long since been repainted blue and instead of soft flowers are posters of the Jonas Brothers. My once soft rose petal is now a preteen, and that is a style all within itself.

So, when it came to painting this piece, Rosey’s room was what came to mind. I added the stripes for interest, as well as, a little black. Someone told me once you should always add a little black (to a room, to a piece etc…) to “ground it” and so far, that has always worked for me. This piece is dedicated to that beautiful girl I brought home 12 years ago, who was a soft as a rose petal :)

A Much Needed Face Lift

When I found this little side table it was just screaming out for love! It had been outside for awhile, you could just tell. The red paint was chipping and peeling so badly my fingers turned red every time I touched it. To the regular person driving by it looked awful, but to a crazy person like me…well, you know the story. I took this piece home and marinated on it awhile. I took a small piece of sand paper to it and instantly realized I was going to need a mask. Now you see, I hate wearing masks! I know all you good, follow the rules, Type A personalities would always wear a mask, but no, not me, I like to live dangerously (plus, it fogs my glasses). But as the paint turned into this big ball of red dust, I thought to myself, “Mar, you need to get the mask”. The paint was really old and I wasn’t sure if it was lead based, and seeing that I’m not that brave, I had to PUT ON THE MASK! Well, about a half hour later it was done, I ripped the mask off and breathed in fresh air. Okay, how many times can I say the word mask? Are you getting the picture on how much I hate it!

Maggie tightened all the loose spots, she’s good at all the “husband” stuff, we primed it and finally it was ready to paint. Again, I decided to go with a faux leather finish on the top. This works great with furniture that has seen its share of hard times; it covers a multitude of sins, if you know what I mean. Working with the brown top, I used complimentary colors of olive green, pink, white and gold metallic. Then painted small rose buds all around the outside. I introduced some animal print on the leg and of course the black & white checks. Then I brought the leather faux into the base to bring the piece together.

For a little bit of whimsy, I added some embellishments. Three bronze medallions on the top that spell out the word F-U-N and another medallion on the bottom center, where the legs come together.

This really turned out to be a nice piece, if I do say so myself. I was really pumped with the end result! What do you think?