I was the queen of Auqa Net hairspray back in 6th grade, so this week when I wanted to refinish Kaleb and Noe's bedroom furniture I thought I'd be a pro with the spray paint.
Kaleb has an old dresser and 2 nightstands that have been passed around the Barlow family through out the years. What I know of them is that back in the day my grandmother refinished the dresser. It's a nice mahogony piece with a classic shape and nice deep drawers. I think she stripped old paint off of it and stained it this burnt orangey color. In high school my uncle made the 2 nightstands to match (well similar stain color and matching hardware). Growing up I remember my aunt having it. Somehow my mom got it after I left home, and after Len & I were married we inherited it. It served us well, but since we finally purchased our new KING size bed, we bought a new bedroom suite to go with it, so Kaleb got this set. Leonard removed all the hardware and sanded it for me (I'm intimidated by power tools), then I set off to paint the town red (or at least some furniture). Let me tell you, spray painting is NOT easy! It took 5 cans of it to get a nice saturation on all the pieces and my poor little trigger finger is scarred for life (it's covered in blisters). I think I also inhaled enough of it to kill several brain cells (oh my). The next day we put the hardware back on (some nice antique brass handles), carried them upstairs to their new home in Kaleb's room, and we set about to begin Noe's furniture.
Noe inherited my childhood bedroom furniture from my dad's house. It consists of a headboard, dresser, and chest of drawers. It was a creamy pale yellow with little yellow flowers and antique brass handles. Again, Len removed the hardware and sanded it all down for me. I set to work spray painting it, and this time it took me 7 cans to finish the job. For this job I used the new Universal paint from Rustoleum in Satin White (saw a snazzy commercial for it on the Home and Garden channel). I would have used this style for Kaleb's but they only carried it in Apple Red and I needed the Colonial Red so I had to use their Painter's Touch formula. This formula is WAY better! Well at least the nozzle is. Instead of pushing down like on an old bottle of hairpspray, you pull in the trigger like a watergun. Its spray stream is wider too, so it covers more surface in less time. However, the overspray was a lot worse (my feet are still covered with minute white freckles from it), my WHOLE hand is full of blisters, and I definitely killed more brain cells from inhaling it (I was in the garage with the door UP). I spray painted the handles a baby girl pink and once they were reattached they just looked darling. This morning we carried everything up to their new home in Noe's room and I began the trim work. Each drawer has a border around it, that I want to paint black. And I want to paint the 17 flowers that are carved into it pink with sage green leaves and stems. Here's where all you paint experts will laugh at me for buying those 3 colors in acrylic. Yep, after painting the first little flower the paint just rolled right off. Of course, water-based paint doesn't stick to oil-based. I need to find some kind of primer I can paint on the flowers and trim first so the paint will adhere. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have to paint it on with a small brush (the flowers are about the size of quarters and the borders are about 1/4 thick). I also would like to buy the primer in a small quantity- I mean I don't need a gallon of it for 17 flowers! If you have any leads, I'd love to hear about them.
*So we still have 2 rocking chairs, Kaleb's train table, Noe's tea party table and chairs, and a toy box the neighbor gave us left to refinish. Today our family room sectional and our dining room table and 8 chairs were supposed to be delivered (after 5 weeks) and all we received was the table and 2 chairs. I was FURIOUS! We've been sitting on the family room floor for over a month now. After the delivery men left I called the store and told them that I was EXTREMELY upset and doing everything I could not to cry and yell. They told me they'd look into it and call me back. My patience was wearing thin and just as I was about to call them back, they called me. Apparently, our sectional was sent to Toronto and the other 6 chairs are still with the manufacturer (in Vietnam). Ugh! The lady was very nice though and said they will give us a loaner sofa and love seat and 4 chairs to use until our furniture arrives. The bad news is we won't get the loaner stuff until Tuesday since it's a long weekend. The good news is we'll be off the floor in 3 more days. I'm not even going to get into our headboard situation. It too was ordered the beginning of August, but it won't arrive until October 30th! Seriously, are they growing the tree to make it from? Hopefully, we'll have all of our furniture soon. In the meantime we're still widdling away at unpacking boxes. I'm just itching to start decorating though. The plan is to take one room a month and completely finish it- unpack and organize everything in it, finish all of the furniture, and then paint and decorate. I'll post pictures as we go. This month's room: the play room! Sometimes, I do wish I was a member of the Cullen family and didn't have to sleep at night!
