Labor of Love (Part 1 of 3)

I love lace. I love the delicacy with which it presents itself to the world. That being said, I dont really use it very much. I do have some family doilies, and my wedding dress has some lace, but I dont go too crazy. I like to be able to clean things, and not have dust mites clinging to every available piece of cloth (they cling to everything else anyway.)

So, I decided to try a painting technique. Why not paint the lace on the object? Easy to clean, lovely design, what could be better?

We got this child's vanity in an old attic pick. Yes, we went into someone's hot and muggy attic for several hours. Yes, they let us jsut dig through things (can you believe it?!?!) unsupervised. Yes, we had to take our own flashlights. And yes, there was mouse droppings and dead birds up there. It was gross, but worth it. My boy LOVED it! American Pickers is his favorite tv show.

So this school bus yellow vanity sat there looking at us. Begging for new life! I knew if we left it behind, it would be tossed out. (Since they were throwing away most of their stuff.)

This vanity also has a mirror and bench, but those are for the next posts.

First step after washing it? Strip it! I was not all that impressed with this stripper, and will be trying a different one next time. Could have been the paint or the day, but it just did not do a great job. I used it three times. Paint stripper on, wait 20 minutes, scrape it off.

Still, it got off the majority. Then I sanded and used some steel wool. Originally, I wanted to restore this piece to the original walnut. But, the paint was against me. It stuck in the grooves, and I just couldnt get it out. There was yellow paint EVERYWHERE: in the drawer, on the mirror, everywhere. The previous painters just slapped it on there.

Next best option? Paint it!

I chose a light grey, almost white. Its a versitile and durable color: just dark enough to hide a bit of dirt.

I liked it grey (notice the yellow under the drawer. (You get that there HOW exactly?) I just felt like it was lacking some pizzazz!

At a recent auction, we found hundreds of paper doilies in the bottom of a box we bought. I thought maybe i could use them for this project. Problem with paper doilies? You have to punch out all the pieces in the middle. After about 10 minutes, and still not done with one...I quit. Surely there would be a better way!

So, I walked back into the house and notice something in a box (a recent auction box lot). A shawl. Normally, I would not desecrate something like that, and try to sell it as it is. But, i got to thinking: I could only sell that for about $5. What if I used it on the piece?!

I had already bought some spray paint that I wanted to use, so this was a great time! I got it out and started going to town.

I draped it over the desk part (taped garbage bags over the legs and stuff), and started spraying! Then i took it off after about a minute or so (I did not want it to dry attached to the top!)

Then I draped it over the drawer (and remembered to take a picture.)