What's Your Style?

I know one of the most popular styles right now in home decor is farmhouse. We have quite a few customers who decorate their homes in this very inviting style. We sell many items in our store that support the farmhouse look. What goes with farmhouse decor? Galvanized, signs, mason jars, cowhide rugs, lanterns, pip berry wreath, cotton stalks, cotton wreaths, wooden totes, and enamel ware are just a few things that come to mind when the word "farmhouse" is used.
The HGTV show Fixer Upper has undoubtedly sky rocketed this look over the past couple of years. Joanna Gaines has a wonderful eye for decorating and creating beautiful rooms in the homes that her husband Chip remodels. It's a great show full of ideas and inspiration!
Do you like the BoHo style? This style is full of bright colors such as turquoise, fuchsia, green, peacock blue, orange, yellow, along with a mixture of metallic's. 
Debi's Design Diary makes a great chalk and clay paint that we carry in our store and it has some of the most gorgeous colors. Whether you're looking for bright colors or neutral farmhouse hues this paint line has them all. You can order those online here.
One of my favorite styles in home decor is French Country. Decorating with toile, buffalo checks,florals, stripes, french furniture, farm tables, linen, lace, and cane back chairs.
As far as paint colors soft blues, whites, greens, grays, and beige's make this style a sophisticated yet homey decor. We have a wonderful magazine that you can subscribe to or pick up a copy each month. It has pages of inspiration for the french look that is mouth watering to say the least!
For this look I like using the Color's of Sweden paint line and Paint Couture paints. There are many beautiful paint colors to choose and glazes to make your furniture look very upscale and nice. 
If you search French Country in Pinterest you will find many ideas to accomplish this home decor look. 
We are adding home decor every day to Fresh along with all of our DIY supplies. 
No matter what your decor style we are there to help you with it. Stop in everyday except Tuesday's and Sunday's. 
We are open from 9-5. 
In closing, Fresh is now offering a Bridal Registry for engaged couples. Stop in to make your gift selections. 
Have a wonderful week!



   

DIY Painted Clay Pots for Spring

Spring time is such a beautiful time of the year! Everything is blooming, the trees are putting on green foliage, and I'm enticed to plant a few clay pots with some of my favorite spring bedding plants. Dusty Miller, Impatiens, Marigolds, Begonias, and Pansies, just to mention a few of the ones I bought. 

For these clay pots I used DIY paints and Artisan Enhancements products. Both companies have all natural products and they are very easy to use.

I purchased my clay pots and my plants at the local Lowe's. They have a good selection of pots to choose from. 

Here is the supplies you will need to make one of these pots:

Clay Pots

DIY Chalk and Clay Paint (Old '57) and (White Swan) and (Gravel Road)

Crackle Tex by Artisan Enhancements

Scumble by Artisan Enhancements

Clear Top Coat Sealer

Leaf and Foil Size by Artisan Enhancements

Foil by Artisan Enhancements

Sea Sponge 

• Paint the clay pot with the Clear Top Coat Sealer and let dry. This product is a great sealer and is all natural. 
• Paint one coat of DIY Old '57 for a base coat and let dry.
• Next stipple Crackle Tex to different areas of the pot. Crackle Tex is a medium that will react with paint after it has dried. For this pot I will be painting White Swan on top of the Crackle Tex. Apply the White Swan thickly on the Crackle Tex and you will see the beautiful crackle unfold. Do not overwork!
• After the coat of White Swan has dried, apply Leaf and Foil Size to different areas of the clay pot. Let it dry for about 45 minutes until tacky. With the shiny side up take the foil and lay it on the tacky Leaf and Foil. I take a stiff bristle brush to rub the foil. This will help adhere the foil to the pot.
• Next apply one coat of Clear Top Coat Finish.
• Let the Clear Top Sealer Dry. Mix Gravel Road DIY paint with the Scumble. I used 1 part paint to 4 parts Scumble.
• Apply the Gravel Road mixture with a sea sponge. Use a twist and turn movement when applying this step. Let dry.
• Apply two coats of the Clear Top Coat Sealer. This sealer is exterior grade and will protect your pots.
• And you are now finished with your DIY pot. Add potting soil and plant away!

I hope you enjoy your clay pots as much as I do. I made several last year and they are still very pretty. Use your imagination and create and please let me know how they turn out!

We sell all products used for this project at Fresh in Jasper, Texas. We are open everyday from 9-5 with the exception of Sundays and Tuesdays. We also sell these products online here. Please email or call us if you need any information on our product lines and we are always happy to help you. We ship weekly and stay fully stocked on all of our supplies. Have a wonderful week - Nancy

Frumpy to Farm Table Style

Is Frumpy a word? I'm not sure but I think it best describes the table I just transformed for a client. When I purchased this table I thought it would be so pretty with a dark top and white distressed legs - "farm table" look! A sweet customer had those same ideas when she saw the table at Fresh. So the transformation began shortly after she purchased the table and we discussed the look she wanted. Here are the products that I used on this project:

1. Mother Earth Antique Glaze
2. DIY Bead Board Chalk and Clay Paint
3. DIY Layered Chocolate Chalk and Clay Paint
4. Paint Couture Satin Top Coat 

The top of the table was going to be darkened with a brown glaze. I knew it would take several coats to get the deep dark brown that she wanted. First I sanded the top with my orbital sander until I got the finish off. To apply glaze I like to use a velvet roller,it's fast and leaves a nice smooth finish. If you've not used glaze as a stain as I am here you will love how easy and clean this is. By clean I mean no smell, no toxins, and the clean up is soap and water. Let the glaze dry overnight and then apply another coat of glaze, let it dry and reapply until you get the depth of color you are looking for. When that has cured for a few days, then apply a clear finish. And since this was a table that would get wear and tear (like most eating tables do) I applied 3 coats of clear finish.

The legs were painted with one coat of DIY Layered Chocolate. This is the BEST dark brown I've ever used! It's a beautiful deep chocolate brown and it's perfect for a undercoat to distress back too. The DIY paint adheres and levels out perfectly. It dries very quickly and is very easy to apply. Even though it dries quickly I let it dry overnight before applying two coats of the DIY Bead Board white paint. 

I like to wet distress the chalk and clay paints with a dampened rag or t-shirt. The chalk and clay paints are soft and are easily distressed. No sanding just light rubbing with the rag! 

Lastly, I applied the clear finish to the legs - two coats. 

If you have a table that you think would look good with a darker top and painted legs, no worries, it's easily done with a few of our products! We are open everyday at Fresh except Tuesday. You can also shop online everyday here. Have a great week and let me know what projects your working on. Even better share them with us on our Facebook page here.

To "antique" or "distress"? This is the question?

I get quite a few people in the store each week with ideas that they have saved from Pinterest. And by the way I LOVE Pinerest and I do my fair share of scrolling through for ideas and inspiration! 
I think it's wonderful that we can go to a website and see what others have created and feel that we can do the same with a little help. 

If you see a piece of furniture that is similar to your piece at home and the color is something you would like to use in your home, most of the time that can easily be done. One statement that comes up often at Fresh is "I want my buffet, dresser, side table, etc. to be antiqued". 
And my reply is "do you mean you want it to be distressed or antiqued"? And then we continue on in a discussion about what the two words mean in terms of painting furniture. That's where the Pinterest picture comes in or we have several sample boards or pieces of furniture to show the difference to our customers.

A distressed piece is when you remove some of the paint by using a damp cloth (chalk based paints) or you can use a sanding block to distress. Our chalk based paints are softer and easier to distress so we use an old t-shirt dampened with water and gently remove in the areas that we want to have a distressed look. With the harder based paints we use a sanding block.

When "antiquing" a piece of furniture I use a glaze to give it an aged look or to tone the paint down. Glazing adds so much to a piece of furniture. It's one of my favorite furniture applications because it gives the depth that cannot be achieved with just paint.

Here is a picture of a buffet and a pedestal that was distressed with a damp cloth.

And these are some pieces that have been glazed. Which one do you like the best?

We have some exciting new workshops coming up in a few weeks so be sure and keep up with the latest news on Facebook or on our website.

Head Board Turned Bench

I have wanted to make one of these for many years and I finally had what I thought might be the perfect bed to repurpose into a bench. With the help of my husband, we set out to make this Pinterest project a reality. I showed him a few pictures of benches that were made from full size beds and we got started. Our first task at hand was to cut the foot board in half. Most of the directions suggest to cut those pieces from 18-19 inches. This will be the depth of your bench. I measured several benches that I have in my house and most were 18 inches. Here is a picture of the full size bed that I had picked up a few weeks ago and I knew this one was perfect for this project.

After cutting the foot board into with the skill saw, we attached it to the head board with wood screws. These were attached from the back side of the head board. The next step was putting a board across the front to attach the sides. This board is also where the 1x4's will be attached later for the seat. After this was squared and screwed into the sides of the foot board, it was ready for paint. I applied 3 coats of Paint Couture's Angelic. Here's a pic of the painted bench at this point. 

I liked the detail on this bed and I decided to use Light Brown Sugar Glaze by Paint Couture. Glazes are great products to use when you have detail and it gives depth to the piece. I sanded this lightly and then applied the glaze. The next step is cutting the boards for the seat area of the bench. We used 1x4's and after cutting fifteen, we sanded and stained them with a dark brown glaze. We decided that we wanted the boards to extend over the front about a 1/2" and in the back another 1/2".  If you've not used glaze to stain wood, I highly recommend it. The glazes we sell are odor free and clean up with soap and water. They come in several different colors and are very easy to use.

After the wood pieces dried we used the Ryobi power stapler to attach the boards. This part of the project was probably the hardest. Why? The spacing was tricky and it took a lot of time to get them "just right"! If you have any questions about the construction of the bench just leave me a comment and I'll try to answer.

And this is the final pictures of our bench we made from a full size bed. I enjoyed doing this project and I have another bed in storage that may get transformed too! All of the products used in this post were from Fresh Finds, LLC in Jasper. You can visit us from 9-5 everyday except Tuesday's. We also have a store online, that you can visit everyday. 

Farmhouse Signs DIY

It's been awhile since I have written a post on my blog! But as the new year approaches I feel the urgency to get new workshops in the making and new ideas are flowing through my mind. 

I'm looking forward to 2017 and what our little shop has planned. We are going on our fourth year at Fresh Finds, LLC and we are so thankful for all our customers that have supported us. 

Our website has all the classes that we offer and you can register online just by clicking the workshop that you would like to take. 

One of our most popular workshops last year was the sign class. I've been working on signs for a couple of days. I LOVE making signs and I love stencils! I can make the biggest mess in my kitchen and dining area when I pull out all of my stencils, paints, and brushes. But it's great that I can paint indoors with our all green products and not worry about harmful toxins and smells. 

The first sign I made is a board from a special place. It came from my grandmother's old garage/barn. It's seventy-five years old and has great old weathered paint and crackle on it. What could be more perfect for a sign, right? I had to repair the back with metal brackets because it was cracked. I used 3.5" stencils for this sign and I used Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint in Typewriter black. I will seal the Farmhouse sign with Miss Mustard Seed's Tough Coat to help keep the wonderful crackle and chippy paint in place. Here's a couple of pictures of the sign.

I also painted and stenciled this sign out of a 1x8 cedar board that I've had in the garage for some time. Miss Mustard Seed's Boxwood was used for the base coat and then I sealed it with Dark Wax to give an old distressed look. 

Next was a pallet board stenciled with white letters that say LOVE. I'm getting a jump on Valentine's Day with this one! Pallet boards have a good rustic natural look.

The stencils I used on my signs are a heavy 10m that can be used over and over. If you are looking for a heavier stencil that can make great signs I highly recommend these. Fresh will have these in stock soon or take a class and they will be included! 
We are open Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9-5. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Do you make New Year Resolutions? I'm not much on all that, so I don't make any. Happy New Year and Happy Painting! 

Schedule a Workshop at Fresh Finds

We are offering 12 different classes right now at Fresh Finds. You can go here to see them and you can register online. It's that easy! Our workshops are planned around you and your schedule. So when you ask, "When is the next workshop being offered"? The answer is "you schedule it and we will make it happen"! 
We offer workshops for bridal parties, family nights, birthdays, mother-daughters, etc.  We also offer private classes. 
I'll be working this week from 9-5, Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Closed Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday. 
Stop by and see what's new at Fresh and let me help you choose the right products for your next project. 

Antique Vanity Turned into Two Side Tables

I bought an antique vanity from a friend a few months ago and as we were loading it into my trailer it became two side tables. Instead of a vanity I gained twin tables with veneer damage and several other hiccups! But I could see potential in these ugly ducklings and the challenge was on. I immediately went to work on the twins using my sander, removing hardware, adding putty, and adding wooden appliques. 
Several weeks later, another friend came by the store looking for one side table for her sweet daughter and I mentioned that I had two at my house that I had been trying to revive but that they were in pretty sad shape. I sent her a picture and she adopted one of them to restore. She did a beautiful job and I was inspired by her success in restoring her "adopted twin". So I set out to finish what I had started with the vanity turned side table. You can go here to see her make over.
I opted to do lace embossing on the top and the drawer fronts. Embossing has become one of my favorite applications on furniture. 
I used Paint Couture's embossing medium along with a lace curtain that I purchased at a thrift store. It gave such a elegant and delicate look to this antique table. 
I applied Color of Sweden's Gustav along with Paint Couture glazes, Zinc and Weathered Wood. Artisan Enhancements Clear Finish was applied for a nice matte finish.
If you are interested in learning the art of embossing, I teach a class and you can go here to register. 

Twins

I've worked on many projects that have had issues but this was by far the worst yet! I am going to share several photos with you on this make over. Remember if you have a piece that is damaged you can make it look totally different with just a few tricks. 

BEFORE

Putty added to some of the damaged sides

Embossing Before Paint

Embossed Drawer Fronts Before Paint

Painted and Glazed with Wooden Applique Added

Glass knobs added to the completed table

I invite you to leave a comment or question on this post. I would love to hear from you. We are open every Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 9-5. New items are arriving daily and we have completely flipped the store recently. Our web store is open everyday for your shopping convenience. You may go here to shop.

Embossed Angel Wings on Antique High Boy

I bought a nice 2 Drawer Oak High Boy with 2 doors. I knew exactly what I wanted to do this piece when I laid eyes on it! Those doors would be perfect to emboss the Angel Wing Stencil from Artisian Enhancements. Here's a BEFORE picture of the high boy. I also knew that I would not leave those original knobs on the drawers or doors. I chose Paint Couture's British Gray for my paint with a mixture of Paint Couture's Weathered Wood and Zinc for my glaze. Here's a BEFORE picture of the high boy.

And here's the AFTER. Oh what a difference a little paint will do to a piece!

The Angel Wings were embossed using VP Antico by Artisan Enhancements. I also used the color shaper to push the VP Antico through the stencil to create a nice raised textured look. After the VP Antico was dry, I applied one coat of Paint Couture's Matte Finish, and then the glaze mix was applied. 

In the picture above you may have noticed the doors are missing hardware. I couldn't decide what I wanted on those cute doors. I finally painted two pulls with British Gray and topped them with Paint Couture's gilding wax in Gunmetal Tulle. I love that if you have hardware that's the wrong color, no worries it's an easy fix! Nothing a little paint and gilding wax can't transform.

Here's the finished cabinet in the store ready to sale. 
More up cycling coming soon! Leave a comment or question and I promise I'll respond. I love to talk paint.

Up-Cycle With Chalk and Clay Paints by American Paint Company

Have you ever bought the shoes before the outfit? I have a few times if I REALLY love the shoes! I bought a french provincial side table and oddly enough this table didn't have the usual hardware on it. It had a pull knob that was not very pretty in my opinion, so I immediately found the perfect knob. Ordinarily, I pick my paint color and then the hardware but not this time. I chose a paint color that would compliment my knob. I wanted texture and I wanted a pop of color. I mixed two colors Beach Glass and Shoreline, to make a custom mix of a beautiful blue.

After painting the table, I distressed the drawer and a few other areas. I applied a coat of American Paint Company's Top Coat for the finish. All of American Paint Company's products are all natural so all your painting can be done indoors. 

I used an all over stencil on the drawer sides to add a special touch. 

  

This one didn't stay on the floor long before someone gave it a new home. 

We are open at Fresh every Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 9-5. Stop by and let me help you get started and up-cycle some of your furniture!

Leave a comment or a question!

The Chalky Look Added to a Side Table

How do you get that "chalky" old world look that is popular? It's quite simple if you use American Paint Company's Chalk and Clay paints. Here is a picture of the French Provincial side table that I painted with American Paint's Rushmore and Gunpowder mixed 1:1. 

 After two coats of the Rushmore and Gunpowder mixture I left it to dry for several hours. To achieve depth and more texture I loaded my Artisan Enhancements brush with Paint Couture's Italian Ivory and dry brushed. When you dry brush be sure and off load your brush so that there is almost no paint on the brush. I like to use the Artisan Enhancements flat brush for this application. 

 After dry brushing, Artisan Enhancements Top Coat was added to seal the paint and add a nice finish that will be very durable. I applied two coats of the Top Coat. I highly recommend this Top Coat for all your paints - it's very easy and dries in 24 hours. 
The hardware was also dry brushed with Italian Ivory and then sealed with top coat. 

 I'm very pleased with my "chalky" make over! It will be put on the floor in hopes of a new home. Leave a comment on what you think about this look. Do you like the chalky finish or the smooth finish?
If you want to find out more on how to achieve this look please visit us at Fresh on 403 College Street in Jasper or go to www.freshjaspertexas.com