Sexy Legs

I'm sure this title will probably get me some not so sexy hits on the Google search Engine, but as they said in Advertising 101, "Sex Sells!"  So, with that said, let me introduce to you, my idea of a sexy leg!

I can spot a sexy leg from miles away.  Even driving by something on the side of the road at 55mph, my eye immediately goes right to the legs.  If the legs aren't sexy, chances are I'm not going to be excited about a piece.  Who's with me here?! Okay, no one...I think I just heard a cricket?  Well maybe, I have some weird fetish, but good legs turn me on.

When this piece was dropped off to me, I could hardly contain myself, "What a leg!"  The curves, the thickness, it was beautiful. Sigh....just take a moment.  Call me crazy people but it was swoon worthy.

I usually start at the top of a piece and work down, but this time I built up.  I had my color palette. The customers front entrance was a taupe/brown color, her front door black, but she wanted this piece to make a statement.  She told me reds, greens, browns.  Of course it was perfect because I was feeling some "Fall" colors coming on.  

Now, for just a moment, look past the legs here and bare witness to my shelf of paints!  Some people are crazy cat people, me, I collect paints.  That is only the corner, it runs the whole length of the wall, onto the floor and into every crevice of the studio.  Seriously, when I say I love paint...I LOVE PAINT.  Anyway, I digress, back to the legs.  

After I base coated them out I went back in with gold metallic paint.  These legs seemed almost regal to me, and a gold accent always amps it up.

This is the best metallic out there, at least for me.  I've used a lot, but this one is thick and takes the least amount of coats to get the desired look.

The top part of the leg was painted brown and a little blah, for my taste.  Even after I painted a design on it, I still wanted it to have more visual interest, so I crackled it.  

I buy a crackle paint that goes on top of a piece.  Then you let it set, and as it sets it cracks.  

Or if you are impatient like me, you blow dry it.  What you get are these tiny little cracks (or larger, depending on the amount you brush on).  It almost gives the effect of porcelain. Here a some pieces I've done this technique on in the past.

The Checker Table  

Spring Inspired Table

A Peace Offering

Stars & Stripes

The Leopard Print Table

You get the point.  The thing is, this is a fast and easy way to give character to a piece.

You brush it on in a well ventilated area, unless you like getting high on fumes.

 Blow dry it.  It only takes minutes to set up

Then you see the cracks appear. It's really kinda cool.  If you spread it on in different directions you get cracks going in different directs (see how that works).  Once I have the cracks I want, I take some stain, rub it into all those little cracks, and get that beautiful aged look we love so much.

Okay, so we've got the sexy legs going on, now for the top.   Over the past years, I feel my art work is evolving into a more folky, indy, type of art. Like this cedar chest and this podium or this end table.  I like the flower patterns, circles and pointillism if you will.  You kind of just keep adding and going deeper into your piece, until someone has to come in and slap you into reality. I felt this piece was calling for that slap worthy kind of style.

I laid out the basic design first.  I just used stencils that I cut out of manila folders (love manila folders-but that's a whole other post) and traced around them.  I'm a planner to a degree, I don't usually just PAINT I always draw out my design first.

The end result were these bold, detailed flowers. Once the flowers were finished though I knew the perimeter needed something, but I didn't want it to compete with the inner part, so i opted for a scrolling design (caring your eye gently around the piece) in a very similar color, making the design, very subtle.  

Then I brought in stripes around the underneath part.  Using a credit card to smooth down the tape is a fabulous idea!  NO BLEEDS!

A lot of this piece was done in monotone colors, to create visual impact without really taking away from the focal point, which was the flowers.  

In that spirit, I added light brown circles to an espresso brown drawer and added a new knob (which I changed out for a handle as you can see in the below pictures).   Slapped on a cute tassel for bling and here's the final piece, sexy legs and all.

So there you have it...I guarantee after this post  you wont look at furniture legs without a little smile on your face.  You'll think of me and say. "She's right, those are damn sexy legs!"

Happy Holidays!

A Jazzed-Up Speaker's Podium

 Laura had seen me at the Syracuse Arts & Crafts Festival  and wrote  me a few weeks later to ask me about a really cool idea she had.

Laura is a high school English teacher and had a vision of creating a special space where her students could read their papers/speeches from.

She had gone online to price out a few stands and soon discovered that they were a lot of money for just wood.  Nothing stood out to her as unique or fun, so she thought perhaps we could build her something.  She has seen pictures of our dog food storage boxes and thought perhaps we could build something for her classroom.

With notebook & camera in hand we went to Home Depot to do some brainstorming.  After laying out many different projects/ideas in the isles, our design really started to take shape when we saw this column.  I wrote her with our final thoughts that night and by the next day we were back at the store finalizing our plan.

These were the items we left with.

We purchased the decorative colonial house beam first.  I loved the scoops and loops, rings and things and figured I could do a lot with it.  More so than just the fence beams we had originally thought of, and much more feminine that just building a box.  We knew we'd have to cut off a lot to make it the correct size but even with that, it still had more to offer design wise.

We then found these great pre-cut circles for only $5 a piece! What?! Can you say Jackpot! 

We also purchased L brackets, and bookshelf brackets to cover the L brackets after we connected the post to the base.

We also knew because the top circle would be at an angle there would need to be something that would keep the paper from sliding off.  We had tried a variety of trim pieces, but nothing seemed to go.  Then I had an epiphany-yes, right there in Home Depot!  I would use a Scrabble letter holder! Perfect, right?!

We measured the height and then made our cuts.

Then we secured the post to the base.

Then attached the pre painted shelf brackets to hide the hardware.

We then needed to attach the top.  Now, because this was going to be used by teenagers we knew we'd have to secure it pretty darn good. Which meant we'd have to screw it into the post as well as glue it.

The thing was I wasn't trilled with the idea of having screws in the center of my art piece and I wasn't excited about the prospect of covering them up with wood putty either.  There had to be something more...decorative.

Then I found these!  For just $2 at AC Moore I found my answer.  I would screw the disk into the post then cover it up with this applique-BEAUTIFUL!

After the center piece was secure, I then glued on the Scrabble letter holder and held it in place with painter's tape until it was dry.

I finished painting the piece and added Laura's chosen quote to the front.

"Go into the world and do well. But more importantly go into the world and do good."

This was the final piece. Front and back.

This was the first project we'd ever done like this and I have to say I was pretty pleased with the end result.  I'm hoping her students will love reading from it and perhaps it may take their minds off, if only for a minute, of the terrifying task of public speaking.

Here are the next two pieces on deck.  Can't wait to get started on them!

Sharing with these crafty blogs:

Keeping It Simple

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A New Family Heirloom

I get excited whenever I have the opportunity to take something old and worn, and turn into a beautiful heirloom.  I especially love when someone challenges me with a color palette that I normally don't work with.

Benjamin Moore Paints

Now, I must admit when Diane first gave me her color palette I was a bit perplexed as to how I would make them all come together into one cohesive piece of furniture. As with anything that is out of my comfort zone-I procrastinated.

When I’m stuck, I always go to my Pinterest page first for inspiration.  It has thousands of painted pieces that I've collected, that I often refer to, to get my brain moving.  

Although, there is a variety of pieces on this page I am often drawn to a particular “style”. One such furniture artist that I admire, A LOT,  is Linda, from Funky Furniture.   I love the way she uses flowers as funky design elements.

Table by Funky Furniture

They are sort of like “Mandalas” Mandalas are very spiritual forms of design. 

I've used a Mandala once before in another piece (see the tutorial here) and knew I wanted to try it again. 

So, with all these different components coming together I knew I had what I needed to create a uniquely designed piece for my customer.

While I was at it I finished a chair for her as well. It used a similar color palette.  

The chair was a bit simpler, a bit more feminine, but would fit perfectly in her bedroom. 

Do you have a piece of furniture that you've redone recently? Post it on my Face Book page so that we can all be inspired!

Sharing with friends at:

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I Should Be Mopping The Floor
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