Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Vintage Floral Wall Art and how Kilz nearly Killed My Project

Tonight Mr. Big [Family/small apartment] went to the grocery store and bought his second case of fire logs in under 2 weeks.  We've been having great family time each night around the fire while Cutie Girl gives Daddy singing lessons.  So far she's taught him Doe, Rae, Me - but seems to have lost him after that.  Needless to say our teen boys have discovered new uses for their earbuds while all of this is going on.  Girlfriend even came out of her room and asked who was dying...

So, onto the reason for my blog post tonight.  I have a "Blog Crush" on Sawdust & Embryos and anxiously await each one of their new projects.  Quite a while ago (like back in 2010!) Beth posted about a Floral Decorative Thingy she bought at a thrift store for $4.99.  I loved what she did with it so much that when I found someone selling THREE similar pieces on Craigslist for $5 each, I snapped them up! (excessive much?)  Here's a before picture of the one I just completed:


These were made in the 60's and 70's and what I thought was really neat is that on the back of this, in raised lettering, it says "Made in the USA".  It also says it was made in Indiana.  We don't see that very much anymore!

So here's what Beth at Sawdust & Embryo's did with hers.  She even painted part of her flowers orange, and we all know how much I love orange:


Yeah, I'm jealous much.

I, however, was going in a different direction with mine because it was going to land in Girlfriend's bathroom.  For what I was doing I needed to prime it, and then paint it gloss white.  I've learned to prime anything that is going a lighter color and that I don't plan on distressing.  So I bought a brand new spray can of Kilz oil based primer and got to work.

What happened next is right out of a DIY horror movie!  I was very careful to shake up my can of primer and even do a quick test spray. All seemed well.  I then proceeded to prime my vintage art piece.  Instead of spraying smoothly the Kilz Primer sputtered and spattered and clumped and gobbed it's way out of the can.  And with one spray I had completely ruined the nice smooth finish on this piece.  As a matter of fact, after that first spray of primer my piece looked like an old 70's popcorn ceiling!  Here's a pic (I did not include a pic of me crying over ruined art...)


Isn't that awful?  I tried everything I could to get that can to spray right and it just didn't work.  It was a nice warm day outside so it dried nearly instantly (I guess that would be a plus for Kilz), but since it had dried so fast I could not wipe it off (I tried!).  The next thing I tried was a piece of fine sand paper.  That managed to get the little leaves flattened out again but the rest was still a big hot mess.  Finally I got a very hard bristled scrub brush, took this over to the sink and got to work.  Here's a pic with the brush that sorta saved it:


And that was as good as it was gonna get.  It still wasn't perfectly smooth like it was before, but it was workable.  I live too far from the store to justify returning my Kilz, so I sent them an email and haven't heard back :-(

Next I went over it with a light dusting of Valspar Gloss White Spray Paint.  Good 'ol Valspar, that kind of saved it.  Onto the the next step.  I grabbed a sample of Melon colored Oops paint - don't you love that price -


And I used it to paint the flowers.  Then Girlfriend came over and needed homework help, but instead took my paintbrush away and painted the flowers herself.  I think she did a fine job:

 And...

We were having so much fun!  Anyway, after the flowers were done we used a bright turquoise color in the middle of each flower:


We just loved it!  We wanted to tone down the brightness a bit though, so the last (time consuming) step was to glaze the entire piece.  For that we chose Martha Stewart Living Metallic Glaze in Mercury.  Yes, I use this glaze everywhere and one day will probably glaze my entire body.  No I'm not being bought off by Martha, but she's welcome to send me a check for all my enthusiastic advertising.

Mercury is a silvery metallic glaze and very pretty.  We glazed the whole piece.  A word of advice for glazing a piece like this is to use a small brush to put it on, and a small dry brush to wipe it off.  When it was done the leaves were defined and it had a little sparkle and shine to it, just like Girlfriend.  Lastly we hung it up in her bathroom and it is now the "inspiration piece" for the rest of the room.  Considering there is nothing else on any wall in there.  That means I'm going to be blogging about decorating this place for a looong time. Here's some more pics:

 So pretty!


It matches Cutie Girl's jewelry box below it:


Too bad I'm in an apartment and can't paint the walls.  I can think of some great colors that would show this little piece off nicely!  But we'll make do.  At least we don't have contractor white walls!

So that's it for another episode of BIG FAMILY/small apartment.  I hope you'll tune in next time for some more small space decorating advice!


I link up to these wonderful parties: 504 Main - Tickled Pink Fridays, Finding Fabulous - Frugalicious Fridays, Tater Tots and Jello - Weekend Wrap Up Party, French Country Cottage - Feathered Nest Friday, Common Ground - Vintage Inspiration, At The Picket Fence - Inspiration Fridays, Funky Junk Interiors - Saturday Nite Special, Romantic Home - Show and Tell Fridays, Delicate Construction - Delicately Constructed Fridays, Redoux Interiors - Fridays at Redoux, Shaken Together Life - What's Shakin' Link Party, Chic on a Shoestring - Flaunt It Friday, Liz Marie Blog - Link Up With Liz Marie, Miss Mustard Seed - Furniture Feature Friday, Shabby Art Boutique - Shabbilicious Friday, Maiden D'Shade - Maiden D'Shade Fridays, Too Much Time - Get Schooled Saturdays, Passion Parade Friday, 2805 - Potpourri Friday, Rooted in Thyme - Simple and Sweet Fridays, Be Different Act Normal - Show and Tell Saturday, Debbie Doos - Power of Pinterest Party, I Heart Naptime - Sundae Scoop, Flamingo Toes - Think Pink Sunday, My 1929 Charmer - Sunday's Best, Under The Table and Dreaming - Sunday Showcase Party, Twigg Studios - Sunday Showoff Party, Debbie Doos - Newbie Party, Mommy Sweet Confessions - Sunday Link Party, Nifty Thrifty Things - Nifty Thrifty Sunday, DIY Showoff - DIY Project Parade, Homemaker on a Dime - Creative Bloggers Party, Between Naps on The Porch - Metamorphosis Monday, Alderberry Hill - Make The Scene Monday, Thrifty Decor Chick - Before and After Monday, Boogie Board Cottage - Masterpiece Monday, The Dedicated House - Make It Pretty Monday, Krafty Kat - Gettin' Krafty Monday, Mod Vintage Life - Mod Mix Monday, Sewing Barefoot - The Weekly Creative, Coastal Charm - Nifty Thrifty Tuesday, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia - Tuesdays Treasures, Kammy's Corner - Trash To Treasure Tuesday, Domestically Speaking - Power of Paint Party, Our Delightful Home - Show me what you got Tuesday, Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays, Restore Interiors - Restore It Wednesday, Primitive and Proper - POWW, Ivy and Elephants - What's It Wednesday, Between Naps on the Porch - Tablescape Thursday, House of Hepworths - Hookin' Up with the House of Hepworths, The Shabby Creek Cottage - Transformation Thursday, The Crafty Blog Stalker - Blog Stalking Thursday, A Little Knick Knack - EBTKS Link Party, I Gotta Create - Wildly Original Linky Party, Somewhat Simple - Simple Link Party, Colorado Lady - Vintage Thingie Thursday, The Vintage Farmhouse - Creative Things Thursday, From My Front Porch To Yours - Treasure Hunt Thursday, The Charm of Home - Home Sweet Home Thursday, Blissful Rhythm - Home and Garden Thursday, Julie Jewels - Show Your Stuff Thursday, Mamal Diane - The Gathering Spot, Sarahndipities - Make Something Monday, Keeping It Simple Crafts - Motivate Me Monday, Making The World Cuter - Making The World Cuter Monday, Lines Across - The Cure for the Common Monday, Creating Really Awesome Free Things - Making Monday Marvelous, Sumo's Sweet Stuff - Market Yourself Monday, Craft-o-Maniac Monday

20 comments:

  1. Hi Kristen! I'm a new follower from the GFC blog hop!

    I love what you did with your project! I love how girly it turned out, perfect for a little girl's room!

    So, I thought when we lived in an apartment that it felt small. It was just under 1,000 sq ft for 3 people. I can't even imagine 6 in 1,200! How do you do it?

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    1. Hi Sarah, What a lovely blog you have and I've followed you back! As far as how we do it? I clean. All.the.time. Lol!! Thanks for following!

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  2. I love the title of your blog! But I am glad you make it work and keep it clean! :) I love the vintage look of this.... it would go great in my house! New follower here! Would love for you to visit me and join my site as well!

    riversrecipereview.blogspot.com

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    Replies
    1. Alyssa - I am so there with your slow cooker chicken taco chili and I have followed! Thank you so much!

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  3. Replies
    1. Hi Michele, I love Portland and I'm your 9th follower! I'll be able to say I followed you way back when...Thank you for stopping by!

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  4. Hi Julie, Thanks for the invite! I've linked up and provided a link back! What a great party you have! You'll see me there next week!

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  5. Oh my goodness, you SAVED it! I'm proud of you for sticking with it. I laughed when I saw the picture of your Home Depot Oops paint. A few posts ago I posted the EXACT (well, not exactly, but you know) picture of MY Ooops paint! Great minds think alike! I'm clicking to follow you... and I LOVE the finished product for your girl's bathroom!~ jules from blesid thrifter

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  6. Thank you for joining Home Sweet Home!
    Sherry

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  7. Thank you for sharing on Simple & Sweet Fridays.

    Jody

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  8. What a great idea.It's beautiful! I love it even if you had some problems, which you handled with such grace :) Thanks for sharing at The Gathering Spot this week.

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  9. What an adorable idea!! Thanks for sharing this at The Weekly Creative. I hope you'll stop by again on Monday to link up more of your fun ideas.

    Have a great weekend!
    Shannon @ Sewing Barefoot

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  10. Pretty! Great save too! I will have to be on the look out for some of those floral thingies now!

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  11. Looks great, I'm glad you could save it! Thanks for linking this up to The Fun In Functional!

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  12. Hi! Today I find this blog is nice and welcome to our online wall art business. To provide affordable unique art to the public.

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