Hi guys,
I told you I would show you the finished coffee table and picture frames I painted in Boxwood green. In a past posting, I shared with you the old yellow oak oversized coffee table in the downstairs family room that needed a makeover. I loved the look of the table but hated that yellow-orange oaky color. I had seen a blog post from Miss Mustard Seed in which she painted a butler cupboard with a formula made from her milk paint, Boxwood. She shared that formula online, and so I took the formula to my store and did the same. You can find her references in my last post here.
If you go to her post highlighted above, you will see a photo of the paint can and recipe. I tried to post that picture for you but my program will not allow me to post as it has a hidden attribute attached. I had my quart mixed up at my local hardware. I bought a quart of Benjamen Moore, and they mixed it on site for me.
I love the Benjamin Moore paint…it is admittedly more expensive, but I find it goes on smoother, colors seem sharper. It reminds me of the Farrow & Ball paint I used in Ireland, which I love. That also costs a small fortune too.
Boxwood Frames for Antique Irish Floral Art
I will show you the picture frames first. They are antiques and had a dull ashy wood color and so I wanted to pep them up a bit. The green hopefully will bring them to life a bit more and is fitting with the floral theme of the art pieces. BTW The floral items in this wall piece are local plants and seed found in Tipperary Ireland.
These beauties are very unusual. I found them in a local junk shop in Ireland on one of our Sunday Drives. They originally came from Tipperary and when I tried to contact the shop they came from, I found out the shop closed a few years ago but was able to ascertain, the locals crafted these plant floral boxes in the 1970s. So a bit of an antique anyway from Ireland.
Originally the frames were a very dull light brown. They added nothing to the pretty shadow boxes and I wanted to brighten them up a bit. I do love the natural rich boxwood green against the local flora. If you would like to have a pretty Irish decor item, these floral shadow boxes are for sale in the website shop.
Coffee Table Makeover- Boxwood Green
Now onto the table. The table required two coats of stain and three coats of poly because the kids and I are a bit rougher with the family room furniture. You know….feet up, cans of soda and beer, knickknacks, etc. I don’t wish to live in a museum.
Here she is back in her spot.
We used General Finish high-performance poly in satin- but remember three coats. You can get this at your hardware store or from Amazon.
It may look a bit shiny here but it doesn’t look like that when you see it. I think the light coming in the room reflected in the pix.
I wanted to show you the prettiness of the Boxwood color. As you can see in the photo below.
My Lesson in Color
While doing this I also got a lesson in color. Originally I wanted John to stain the top the same dark walnut he did on my jewelry cabinet. The cabinet was a dark blue-black and I had him put General Finish’s dark walnut gel stain on the top. and legs. The fresh wood on the cabinet top only required two coats to get to this really dark brown color. I wanted the same on the coffee table.
But when he put the first coat on the bare wood of the coffee table and then the second, it looked dark enough. This application allowed a bit of the warmth of the oak to come through. I think had he continued on with the three or four coats necessary to get that dark brown, it would have been too dark and cool for the boxwood. The boxwood is a warmer softer color than the dark blue-black.
So, the moral here is to always remember to take colors into account when painting furniture. What might work with one color might not work with another.
Do you remember having your colors done for your makeup and clothing? I was a winter, what were you?
The Second Boxwood Table
The latest item I refurbished is this three tier cedar table. The frames or legs were once a Singer Treadle Sewing Machine. John painted it black and the Singer emblem gold.
I have a video on the Facebook Page about this table. She originally started as a natural cedar table. In fact, John made two of them. We stained one a dark Java Stain and it sold within a week of offer. But this little baby just sat in the showroom.
I decided to give her a little makeover and painted her Boxwood green. Now she is a bit perkier and hopefully, someone will want to take her home. The cedar wood itself tolerated damp and water…a rugged material. I think the table would make a great potting table or plant stand. Maybe a drinks table on the back patio? What do you think?
What do you think of this color? Miss Mustard Seed has used it for a long time and it is still one of my favorite colors on her palette.
Take good care
Thanks for visiting…Talk soon
Dee
