Chipped and Beautiful!

Welcome to Chippy Paint Friday, hosted by the ever so friendly and vivacious Janice at http://www.thefadedcottage.blogspot.com/! Be sure to click on the shabby dog to visit her today and see what she has to show you, and be sure to look at her previous blogs. You will see some beautiful china and some fabulous finds that Janice has cleverly displayed in her darling cottage home!

I thought I didn't have much to show, but as I look around my house, I've discovered that I do have a few pieces, and I like the chipped paint, distressed look more and more all the time! I still love the freshly painted furniture, pictures frames, and whatever else I can find to paint, but there's something really cozy about pieces that have had been lovingly used to the point that the paint is just wearing off!

This little french country buffet has been used a lot. I got it at a thrift store about 15 years ago, and it was already about 30 years old. It was also in excellent condition, except I didn't really care for the maple stain. Ordinarily I like maple furniture, but this had too much of an orange cast to it. All these years, I thought about what to do with it...should I paint it black, and hand paint some flowers, or maybe roosters, on it? Or should I paint it sage green, or refinish it with stain in a warmer tone of brown? I thought, and thought, and thought, but I never thought about painting it white...til now. Once I started seeing all the beautiful white cottage decor and painted furniture in blogland, there was no longer a question...it would be white!

First step - sanding. Second step - priming. What a job!






































Two coats of primer later.




















After























.

I didn't know whether to paint the drawer pulls or not, but decided I would, and then sand them to look distressed, too.











































Now, even though it's an older piece that has been used alot, I haven't used it enough to wear the paint off yet, seeing as how I just painted it last month! So I decided to distress it a little, so it would look worn. I haven't done as much as I'd like to, because I got busy with other decorating projects, and didn't go back to sand any more.















I will...someday...but for now, I'm happy with it. I have another china hutch and buffet that I painted at the same time. Waaaaaaay too much to do at one time! I'll be posting pictures of that one in the future, but for now, it's on my sidebar, though you can't see either of them too well.

Have a wonderful week-end, everyone, and may God bless you all. Don't forget to keep "living in the pink!"



Mary