The Decorative Paintbrush, Designs by Mary Mollica: cow print

Wednesday

"chair" me up

I love painting chairs!

They can be a great accent, to any room. No matter what the decor, if you use a coordinating color palette it can be a great way to add a bit of fun.

The above picture is the latest chair I had the privilege to redo; but more on that in a minute.

The first chair I ever painted was this one. It was love at first sight!

The reason I love redoing chairs is the great curves, and various shapes that each chair provides. Its cool how the same two chairs can be completely different by just changing the color combo, or use the same color combo on different chairs and make them match.

Here are just a few chair redos that i have done over the years. Maybe they'll inspire you.

So, now back to the most current chair.

Jenny is a fabulous customer of mine. She allows me great creative freedom in all the projects she hires me to do-LOVE her!

For this project, she wanted me to paint a chair of hers to match a desk that her friend had painted for her a while back.

She had said it didn't matter if they matched exactly just use a similar color palette, so that's exactly what I did.

Here they are together

I used Benjamin Moore colors in

For more pictures and inspiration please come and find me on Pinterest, Instagram, FaceBook & Twitter

And just a reminder that the Etsy store is closed until Dec 20th so we can get caught up on all of our Holiday orders!

Also, if things weren't crazy enough, we are moving into our new, larger studio Dec 1st! I am so excited and can't wait to share it with you all!

Friday

A Funky Floral Mandala Table

How many times have you started out redoing a piece of furniture and mid way through it just completely takes on a mind of its own? Such was the case with this end table, but I know exactly when my creative process changed gears, this one wasn’t a surprise, it was when my wonderful (online) friend Pam from BeColorful, introduced me to the designs of textile artist Susan Sargent. I immediately fell in love with Susan’s bold designs, especially her flower patterns and knew I wanted to incorporate them into the plan.

See, when I had sketched out this piece originally (and I don’t always draw out my pieces first, just sometimes when I’m stuck) I was going for more of a “country” look but then enter Pam and Susan Sargent.

Immediately I incorporated her flower design, (although not exact) onto the side panel (and yes, I actual free handed it!) but in doing so it changed the mood of the entire piece. I couldn’t do the bandana print or the hen; there wasn’t a country feel anymore it had taken on whole different vibe.

The sides looked great, but I was drawing a blank on the top? That’s when the thought of a Mandala came to mind. Recently, I’ve been playing around with Mandalas in my journals. Have you ever heard of a Mandala? I was reintroduced to them through a webpage called Art-Is-Fun where artist Thaneeya McArdle has created fun coloring pages and designs to inspire you (plus, she has a ton of other fantastic stuff too). So, I knew this piece was calling out for a Mandala, not a real busy one, but a simple one, and that's what I decided to draw on the top.

I did this by using tracers. A few months ago while wondering around our local bargain center I picked up this large box of strange sized file folders (really cheap!). I use file folders to make stencils or tracers. I found a small Mandala that I liked in a chunky graphics book I have that I often use for insperation and drew out the design onto a blank folder. I cut them out and then traced them on the table top. I did this to create a somewhat of a uniformed look.

I then colored in the form with the different patterns that I used throughout the sides of the piece, allowing the flowers to become the center focal piece.