Caromal'd Crib Set

Back in June, Elise, my Mom, and I headed to Cornelius, OR to pick up a crib set that Elise found on Craigslist. The pictures looked good, the price was OK, and Elise needed it for the new baby. When we arrived at the house and saw it in person, I wasn't too impressed...but after making the 1.5 hr trip, it was hard for Elise to turn down the deal. We packed it up and headed home. Nobody said much about the set on the way home, but I just couldn't let my new niece or nephew sleep in such a disastrously painted crib. It had been spray-painted and rolled black over white. There were drips everywhere and the "artist" used different finishes of paint to complete it. Since Elise was dropping me off at my house first, I told her to just unload it in our shop so that I could re-paint it. I had nothing fancy in mind. I just wanted to give it a good sanding, paint it, and seal it properly. She tried to protest, but I had made up my mind.

I was too busy at the time to begin the project so it sat in the shop for a few weeks. During that time, the idea came up that I should distress it with Caromal Colours. The idea excited me, but I didn't know if Elise would be up for paying for it. She was totally up for it and we ordered Peppercorn, Parchment, toner, and chipping cream. I was eager to start, but had to wait for a decent slot of time where I could devote several days to the project without too many stopping points. Elise helped me sand it some of the really bad drip spots...but, because it was being distressed, major sanding wasn't necessary. The project took several days and a few very late nights. In the end, Elise loved it...and that made it all worth it to me :)

Because the set was already black, I didn't feel the need to do two coats of parchment. In the end, I wished that I had (the perfectionist in me).

We actually ordered two jars of peppercorn because I thought everything would need two coats. That wasn't the case! I couldn't believe how completely black the set was after just one coat! This is a shot of what it looked like just after I sanded off some of the black.
It's hard to tell the subtle change from sanded to finished, but this is after I toned it with the antique brown stuff and applied two coats of Wipe-On Poly (LOVE that stuff!)

This shot of the crib headboard shows the toner a bit better...

Complete, and in Evelyn's new bedroom

Her black, white, and yellow bumble bee bedding (MY idea...ha!) compliments the set quite nicely.

This was my second project with Caromal Colours and I can't say enough fantastic things about the product. I ordered some Candy Apple Red along with the paint from this order, and I'm looking forward to finding some time to do another fun project!

Some helpful links:

Caromal Colours website

Patty Henning's Blog

Blog entry on my dining room table

Rainy Day Paint Project

Recently, one of my dear Grandmothers had a series of unfortunate events that has landed her kitchenless for the last month. Long story short, she's getting some new stuff, and I'm helping her revamp her walls...NOT an easy task. But, that's a blog for another day. ANYway, while prepping her walls and taking things down, I managed to accidentally break the letter sorter that she has had for umpteen years. She wasn't too hurt by it, decided it could easily be fixed, and left it at that. Of course, I felt bad and had to figure some way to make it up to her. I thought I'd go to Ross and pick one up for cheap, but then I remembered that I actually had one at home! I had picked up an old one at Goodwill one day thinking I would repaint it and use it. I never found the time or motivation to do so and planned on re-donating it back to Goodwill on my next trip. As soon as I found a chance, I pulled it out and started brainstorming.

First, I shabbily painted it with a light green paint. Then, it sat on the counter for a couple of weeks while I spent a handful of hours of "research" on the computer. When I finally figured out what I was going to do, I went to www.letteringdelights.com to find a font that I could copy. I copied several fonts to my photo-editing software, sized them appropriately, and printed them out. Then, I cut out the words, scribbled pencil all over the back, then traced over the front onto the letter sorter so that I would have an exact copy to paint over. It worked perfectly. Unfortunately, I did quite a few re-paintings as I couldn't decide on the right font and color. OH, and I used an old stencil that I had to make a cool background before tracing a painting the words. After that was all finished, I spent a good hour or two perfecting it. It turned out way better than I originally imagined.

I'm sure she'll like it, as it was made with love =) I haven't given it to her yet...so if you're reading this blog Grandma...SURPRISE!

Took a "before" pic shortly after I started painting.

"After"

Close-up