Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

It’s October

October is breast cancer awareness month and as a 12 year survivor I am currently obsessing over the color pink. So is everyone else in the world I might add.

And I am loving the pairing with green. Not the Lilly old style but the new softer style. Years ago I had a pink living room, with chintz couches. That’s not the look I’m dreaming of today.

All of these images have sent me racing to Craigslist looking for new things to paint in pink.

First, the gorgeous bath from Architectural Digest. In the London home of model and actress Poppy Develigne, it is simply to die for. The wall paper is had painted and that’s not the only room in this  home with pink! See the story here.

Ad Pink Bath

I love how these chairs in this home office are done in pink and I especially like the gold accent.

So… for our version of pink, we took this lovely dresser from the Ave Home collection and used Annie Sloan Antoinette.  Finished with white wax this dresser is a dream and not just for little girls. Rather than use green as the accent we paired it here with a Duck Egg Blue mirror and twin beds in Old White. Yes, we used plenty of Efex on the mirror, the bed and the dresser is sporting our latest new trim.

More fun things next week

Caio for now

xoxox Lydia

Faux Front – Faux Front Before and After Table Make Over

Faux Front – Faux Front Before and After Table Make Over

Faux Front

This before and after table makeover give new life to an old piece of furniture.

Have you ever had a piece of furniture that was (or should have been) headed to the burn pile? something that was just falling apart so bad you thought it was really a lost cause?

Well my friend Stacey from Faux Studio Designs had one in her office for years. Not only was it falling apart, but she was at a total loss for how to creatively change it. Image that! Being at a creative loss is something that happens to normal people like me, not my creative Stacey.

Table Before

Finally, an inspiration. Why not use Efex to doll up this table?

The table had two legs that were falling off and there was no drawer on the front. It was long gone. First she had to glue the fake drawer onto the  front and clean up the side, reattach the legs and then the rest was easy.

Just apply one of our trims, in this case T 43, and paint.

The final result is just wonderful, and more importantly it was in the end soon easy.  In the  end it just took a little thinking out of the box, and grabbing a flexible molding out of the bag.

Faux Front

If you have not seen them go over to her page, and check out her recipes for cabinets and furniture. A wealth of information in you mail box every month.  Psst.… don’t tell everyone but that’s where I get many of my creative ideas.

Bravo Stacey

xoxo Lydia

Gift Ideas…Little French Boxes

Gift Ideas…Little French Boxes

Little French Boxes,

Have you ever spent time looking for great little gift ideas. Maybe, for mothers day or a hostess gift for Easter. Look no more, you can make bespoke gifts with Efex.

Last month we highlighted a chair and box from my favorite artist Margret Wolley. Today we’re going to take a closer look at some more boxes These were done with Efex over 25 years ago. Can you say that Efex are durable?

little boxes

Little French Boxes.

Little French Boxes

Don’t you just love them!

xoxo Lydia

Industrial Efex

Industrial Efex

Efex Are Not Just French

See how to add Industrial Style with Efex

Spent my snow day working on an industrial table for Maine Country Home.  It’s a palette we found with a weathered worn top. The base is painted in graphite and made of old 2 x 4’s.

industrial Efex

 The sides are where it gets interesting. I wanted to stay with the industrial feel and still use Efex. After all they are more than French!

First, the sides which were new pine, were washed in graphite Chalk Paint®. Then we used the Circles stencil from the Annie Sloan stencil collection.

industrialefex2

Now to add the Efex. Again we wanted to keep the industrial feel, so we went with a small rosette, R72. We left the dots on the stencil on every other pattern and then added the embellishment.

Both the stencils and the Efex are painted in a mix of Graphite and Old Ochre.

Voila… Industrial Efex.

XOXO

Lydia

The Mirror with a French Twist

The Mirror with a French Twist

In more ways than one our Efex frames are flexible. Yes, we all know they can bend every which way but our new lovely blogger friend Lauri  from My Home In The Garden really showed us how to do something clever with our F15.

She took 2 F 15 and cut them into little scrolls. So taking two small frames she made a major statement piece out of a large frame. Wow…. we fell in love at first sight.

This is taking up styling to a new level. yet the project is quick, easy, and not complex.

Here is her blog post in her words on how she did the project.

Great Job Lori

The Mirror with a French Touch

Think I rescued this from an old chateau? I’ll tell you the real story.
old mirror
My mom rescued the mirror from a church yard sale … for all of $1. Notice the glass around the mirror. Not sure why.  And whatever glue they used to stick the mirror to the glass has caused some damage to the reflection. The wood trim was originally that strangely patterned brown stain you see at the bottom.  The white is just where I cleaned my brush off on the wood. What is it about ugly stuff that makes me want to start with the graffiti?
My thought was to use Efex bendable furniture molding to transform this from the 1970’s to the 1770’s. I drove out to the Empty Nest in Warrenton, VA. They are my closest Efex dealer and still about an hour away. But the drive was worth it to meet Janet and her wonderful staff. I have been cyber-stalking them for months and knew they would be able to give me the inspiration I needed. They took the moldings out of the packaging to let me play with them and even let me cut a frame into pieces before I paid for it!
I ended up with two Efex frames (F15), two cans of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in French Linen and Versailles, and the seed of a plan.
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The first step was to paint the glass with ASCP in Versailles. Yes, you can paint glass with this paint. Amazing, huh?
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The second step was to paint the wood with ASCP in French Linen.
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The next morning all was dry and ready for some fun. Here is the frame before I deconstructed it.
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This was my original plan, but I thought I better make sure. Looking pretty good. But what if I put more of the decoration at the top?
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I’m liking this better. But it feels a little top-heavy.
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 Now we’re talkin’.
But the short pieces are not doing it for me. My original thought had been to cut apart the four sides, but I decide to cut the short sides in two also, leaving me with 2 large pieces and 4 small pieces from each frame.
I think it is best to stretch the material and then make the cut with scissors.
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You can see how each of the short sides can become two pieces that are mirror reflections. The edges are a bit blunt, but that is easily fixed with the scissors.
You can see the little crumbs that I trimmed away.

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After I finish all the cuts, I have four pairs of leaves and four large pieces for the top, bottom and 2 sides.
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I first put all four of one shape together, but it reminds me of a bad ’80s hairdo.
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Alternating is definitely much preferable.
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Time to glue. There are loads of tutorials out there, but the short story is: trace the shape with a pencil, apply contact cement to the back of the Efex and where you are going to attach it, let dry 15 – 20 minutes, press the piece on. Done.
Next I apply a second coat of ASCP in French Linen, covering the moldings too.

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Here’s the truth -Not real sure what I’m going to do next. So I put a touch of ASCP in Versailles on the molding and apply Annie Sloan Clear Wax.  Hmm. Now what?
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 I want it to look really old, so I start with some Annie Sloan Dark Wax and rub it back as I go. Again, there are lots of videos on how to apply the clear and dark waxes. Watch those if this is new to you.
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 I’m liking the look so I keep going, covering both the French Linen and the Versailles, adding extra in corners and around the molding, like hundreds of years of dust and grime are covering this thing.
Then I apply gilding wax to the moldings. This is getting fun!
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And the close-up.
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 It turned out even better than I imagined.
I am thinking about using it at the top of the stairs. Or maybe near the front door.
Hooligan Made Me Do It!

Hooligan Made Me Do It!

Hooligan made me do it!

I mentioned yesterday that we are working on a whole bunch of new projects in the barn this week (and this weekend) and many of them are very quick and easy. As I was on my way to do some of those projects – there are about 11 to be finished – Hooligan gave me another!

Hooligan waylaid me to play the stick game. Ok, labs love the stick and tennis ball game, but this was not a little stick, rather a large piece of driftwood she had carted up from the beach.

Hooligan and her piece of driftwood

As I took it out of her mouth and put it on the table, I had an idea!

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What if I made this a votive candle holder? What If I added Efex? Taking few coastal Efex that were sitting around from the July 4th weekend. I laid them out on the board, grabbed my new favorite glue, and “voila!” An outdoor candle holder for the table.

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So, a bit of found driftwood and a few Efex and you have a lovely centerpiece. How easy is that?

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The table in the picture also has one of our rope trim Efex around the top (down in the left corner). This is actually the first project we ever did with Efex. As you can see it’s still holding up after three years! My… how time flies.

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Oops… I forgot the best part.  We have a new glue for you use with Efex: Dap Rapid Fuse. Brand new to the market, it is far less messy than contact cement. And the best part?  You don’t need to paint over it to get rid of the glue lines. The possibilities are endless.

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Stay tuned for more quick and easy no-paint projects with Efex!

xoxoxo

Lydia