Shizzle Style Furniture Paint Workshops – Sept 2013

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… our students ROCK!  

I don’t know who gets more excited about seeing their transformations, me or the people who paint them, but we’ve had a ton of incredible furniture makeovers take place again with our last workshops.

I’ve already spent nine hours writing and editing pictures today so I’m going to let the pictures do the talking from this point forward.

Prepare yourself to be amazed ~ most of these pieces were painted by first time users of chalk and clay paints!

Martha used American Paint Company’s Home Plate mixed with a little bit of CeCe Caldwell’s Omaha Ochre to create this creamy white, For the taupe, she chose APC’s Rushmore.  I realize this looks like a larger project but because only the front of this full size headboard needed to be painted, it only took the two sample size pots she was given at the workshop and something like this is sometimes ends up being faster to paint than a kitchen chair.

She flip flopped the colors for the top coats and ended up with this.  I think the colors look fabulous whichever way they’re broken out on this antique headboard.  I LOVE how it turned out and I don’t even think it had been buffed at this point.

A couple other good friends came in with matching chairs they had picked up a garage sale the day before the class.  These two were so much fun and their makeovers represent their vibrant personalities.

I know some of you like to see the “before’s” but there are only so many hours in a day.  They were basically ho-hum kitchen chairs.

Within minutes, they had already taken on a whole new life!

Everyone loves learning how to wet distress with water.  It’s the point where you can truly change your painted furniture into a unique piece of art.

Just look at all this yumminess!  Love the orange peaking through!

…and here they ready for their new fabric.  I bet they found some really cool material to go with the colors!

I love turquoise and orange layered on whimsical pieces  These two were painted in CeCe Caldwell’s Mesa Sunset and Santa Fe Turquoise!

This bookcase was given a rich layering of either CeCe Caldwell’s Young Kansas Wheat over Destin Gulf Green or APC’s Rushmore over Beach Glass.  She’s going to decoupage pretty fabric on the inside of the back to create a classy piece for her kitchen.

 You can see the some of the layering and texture in this close up of the shelf.

Speaking of textures & layering, Jill wanted to learn how to create funky textures like I did on this patchwork dresser.  I create these by busting into all leftover paints.  

 There’s really not enough time for students to do this on a full size piece of furniture during a workshop, but she’s got a lot of experience painting and just brought in a small table top cabinet.  I have no idea what the original purpose of it was, but it sure was cute!  She started out chunking the sections into different colors using tiny bits of odds and ends from our personal workshop.

 

 

What ties it all together is when you start layering multiple colors over that.  I basically go to town without any thought process what-so-ever and keep layering and layering until I start to like what I see.   Jill picked it up right away (warning, it can be quite frustrating until you get the feel of it, but once you do ~ it’s smooth sailing).

This old wooden chair looks so much better with coat of green.  

 I can’t wait to see it once the seat is re-upholstered!

My jaw is still hanging on the floor with the finished chairs painted by these two friends.

You would think they’ve done this for years but it was the first time using our paints.

Even the base coat made this made a world of difference.  It had such great lines, I think any color would have looked good but Maureen was looking to make a statement an opted for CeCe Caldwell’s Mesa Sunset.

 Ummm ~ HELLO!!  Is this gorgeous or what???  OH MY GOSH!!!  She is either a super fast learner or has been blessed with an incredible gift.  WOW!!  I wish you all could feel the silky finish on this.  You can achieve a higher sheen like this by buffing the wax immediately.

 

I’ve been trying to finish up this post for a couple hours now but continue to have issues with WordPress.  I have been using it for my blog format for close to a year now and dislike it as much as the first day.  It’s virtually impossible to get my text to appear the way I want and takes forever on most days to download pictures.  For some reason it’s stuck and will not allow me to finish my post ~ again.  If you’re not seeing anything past this point, it’s because I have not resolved the issue…. TO BE CONTINUED…

This style of chair will always remind me of Marian from Miss Mustardseed.  She’s painted plenty of awesome chairs in this style and I think she’d agree that our first time student did a marvelous job with her renovation!