{ muslin & leather plaquette cuff }

I love my leather cuffs, and I have many...but I am always looking to try something new with them...and so...

This is the latest. Another one of my coveted number plaquettes from my sweet friend Roben-Marie and her Art Goods Shop is front and center on this one! 

  

{laminate to lovely}

I have the best neighbor ever - she is always bringing me little treasures she has picked up from odd garage sales or thrift stores...

...since she knows I have been on a furniture makeover kick,  it was no surprise a few days ago when she called across the yard saying she had something that I might be interested in... "surprise" is not the word to describe how I felt when I saw this piece of "furniture!" It was a laminate nightstand with plastic dinosaur plates glued to the front.

Well I sanded it down with the palm sander...some places the ancient press board, { or whatever the hek it was } was already showing, so I just took her all the way down...I mean how afraid could I be? She was already begging to be dumped. I peeled off the glossy dino sign and removed the drawer pulls, { which by the way crumbled in the process } and sanded a little bit more.

I reattached the back, repinned the drawer rail and said a prayer...

...two coats of heavenly blue { I know it is not the only color of paint on the earth, but this piece needed some divine intervention! } and two top coats of country white finished her off. She was beginning to look less like a monster and more like an old piece of furniture in need of some TLC.  The small pock marks left by the press board didn't look so pretty, but I knew I would be forced to heavily distress this piece to even have a chance of salvaging her.

 

Lo and behold...she looked adorable...SHABBY, but adorable. I heavily palm sanded her when the paint had cured. I used the scraper everywhere possible. I even peeled some of the paint off of the sides of the piece. Then I took a sanding block and evened out the rough edges and waxed the living hek out of her. Some new antique silver hardware and some awesome number plate from the talented and generous Roben-Marie. 

{ she knows I adore anything with numbers on it and this was a 

surprise treat in my mail box yesterday...

along with the most fabulous mixed media mail art! }

Be sure to check out her Art Goods Shop here for more goodies like this!