Off The Beaten Path

What do you do when you find that your little work groove has turned into a creative rut? Change it up! Do something that gets you completely out of your comfort zone! If you are a digital gal like me, I highly suggest doing something messy that has completely no CTRL+Z option.

I realized I was spending too much time on my computer when I was shopping for ribbon and found myself thinking it would be so much easier if I could just make exactly what I needed in Photoshop. Yes, yes, I needed an intervention… ahem!

So I decided to update this little end table…

There’s a story behind this piece and the chair next to it… they were both my grandmother’s. The chair has a fun little story – my grandmother worked in a school before she retired and this was her desk chair.  The end table was also hers – when it came to my house it looked like this:

It is seriously a solid piece of wood – they don’t make stuff like this anymore! I also love that it came with all her little office odds and ends – paper clips in a plastic film case, tons of old pencils in old recycled cardboard containers, and envelopes, lots of envelopes.

The best part about this project is that it didn’t require any stripping, sanding, or nasty chemicals… We just started out with a good cleaning of the piece using hot soapy dishwater…

We also used Annie Sloan’s chalk paint (which I learned about here - tons of inspiration there).

The color for this project was Barcelona Orange. The sample size is pictured, but I ended up using the entire sample and about 1/3 a quart for this project. I also used my trusty Purdy Cub paint brush – if you’ve followed my home projects, you know I LOVE this brush!

We started by painting the interior and exterior sides of the drawers orange. I also painted the front edges thinking I would eventually distress but I later changed my mind (always a woman’s prerogative)…

Next we painted the exterior with the Pure White Paint – the cool thing about the chalk paint is there are literally no fumes and it really took to the surface well.

Once that was done it was time for stripes…without the CTRL+Z option…Oy! I consulted a few blogs but found this post on A Step in the Journey most helpful.

So taking Laura’s advice, I drew a line down the center and added two more vertical lines – dividing the dresser drawer fronts into four equal sections. I started with dots down the center line measured every 3″ Laura did 6″, but I knew with the smaller size of my piece a smaller measurement made sense.

On the outside lines I measured down from the top of the drawer 1.5″ or half of my original 3″ measurement then marked again every three inches. At this point I was feeling like I was back in school again trying to remember how to calculate things – no, not really, but kind of…

Then it was a matter of connecting the dots with tape – I used 1.5″ Scotch Blue tape. Keep in mind the width of the tape also plays into the equation as well. I wanted more white (your base color will show where your tape is) so I used a wider tape. If you want less base color and larger stripes, use smaller width tape. For more base color use wider tape…

The masking is the most time consuming part of this process but it is so worth it! Here we are almost there…

Another tip – the right scissors make this so much easier – you really want to pay attention to make sure the points of your tape chevron pattern are right on – having precise scissors to cut along the lines helps a lot.

I gave the piece about 2 hours dry time between each coat – both the white base coat and orange stripes were done with two coats of paint. remove the tape and you’re done!

I finished off the piece with a coating of clear wax inside and out and voila! Done!

One more DIY furniture project for my office done – now just three more to go… I really hope I can get them all finished before things are ready this fall. You can follow my inspiration board here.

Honestly the credit for bringing orange into my space goes to my designer who seriously took the inspiration of the fun orange chair and opened my eyes to so many great ideas.  Being the budget girl I am, I never thought I would ever be able to afford an interior designer, but Autumn’s consultations are completely affordable and have seriously saved me tenfold what they have cost!  Love it when things come together like that!

***Just in case you were wondering, CTRL+Z is the undo button in Photoshop & Lightroom – if you make a mistake – you just hit CTRL+Z (Command + Z on a Mac) and voila! Mistake is gone. I sincerely wish there was CTRL+Z for the real world… Also this post has no affiliate links at all – this is seriously just stuff I love – services and products that have made my life easier…