A Before and After

One of my favorite things on other blogs are Before and After's of furniture makeovers. There are some really creative and talented people out there and I have taken it upon myself to become one--in my spare time.

My first attempt was with this cheval mirror I bought from a fellow off Craigslist. In a stroke of beginner's luck, I got the thing for a fair bit less than he was asking, and he delivered it (to my office no less), AND I wrote a check for it. Which of us was more naive? What I've since learned about Craigslist is, that it's a sellers market for most anything really worth having. You have a small window of time to contact the seller and show up on the doorstep with exactly the amount of cash they are asking. Some folks will hold the thing for you and go in order of inquiries, others it's purely first come, first serve. Since I have a day job, I don't generally do well with the "first come, first serve." I have found that most people will help you load the purchase in your car.

The "Before" photo is actually the one from Craigslist.

With my usual fervor when I get excited about a new venture, I researched the heck out of how to paint this thing. I was a little dismayed to learn that to get the look I wanted, it really boiled down to technique and skill.

I went way overboard on the sanding/stripping, partly because I thought I had to, and partly because it was a nice stall tactic for prolonging when I actually had to break out the paintbrushes and make a committment.
Here is a Before/After of my practice antiquing with sanding and glaze.

When we got our surprise snow day in early March I fired up the space heater in the garage and went to work. In the end, I was very pleased with the results. I had no idea with I was doing at first with the antiquing glaze. I wanted a heavily aged/antiqued look and finally got it with a lot of light sanding, soft cloth rubbing and do-overs with the glaze. I channelled the mirror: If I were in an attic getting moved around and banged up, where would it show? Toes, edges, and prominent spots. That is where I focused the sanding.

Here it is in the booth with Chr doing a little "Ta-da!" in the reflection.