Updating the China Cabinets

After redoing the ceiling, the room was darker and seemed very mono-toned. We have 3 china cabinets in the room, all given to us when they didn't work in other's homes. I use them to display art. I've seen all types of furniture upcycling on Pinterest and Hometalk using chalkboard paint and I decided to do the china cabinet from my sister-in-law. I felt it would also bring some lightness into the room. Michaels sells the Americana Decor Chalk Finish Paint.

Paint - I used Lace, Antique Creme Wax & Clear Creme Wax

China Cabinet Before - nice, but outdated

Sanded & taped before painting. I learned it is best not to sand first

It took 3 coats of paint to cover as I wanted. Due to sanding, I had to spray water on the piece to get the paint to move right for me.

Left side is antiqued, right side hasn't been yet. Love how it brings out the detail.

Finished china cabinet back in place. After allowing antiquing wax to dry, applied 2 coats of clear wax.

Mixed Media Collages

I had fun playing around with colors and textures on canvases this year. The quote is from the song "Enjoy the Ride" by Morcheeba from Deep Dive.

 

 

 

Floor primed

I've been wanting to get rid of the carpet in my studio for ages. I finally took the time off, ripped out the carpet and did a total redo of my studio space. We've been in our house almost 27 years and it was the original carpet and boring off-white wall color. My original plan was to decoupage book pages for the floor (similar to the paper bag floor I did in the hall bath a few years ago), but the floor was way too big and would have taken forever to do.
I thought I would just paint the concrete, but after doing online research, decided that probably wasn't a good option either, given the amount of time I had, tools and experience level. I went to Lowe's and found the answer. 18 x 18 peel & stick linoleum tiles with grout. Who knew you could grout linoleum? It was fairly easy, looks like real ceramic tile for a fraction of the time and cost. A perfect solution.

Starting to add grout

Walls painted

I first painted the walls with Glidden Soothing Green Tea paint. I love this color!

I had Bennie build me another shelf and moved two existing shelves to make room for it. I've taken supplies out of boxes and put them into glass jars where I can easily see what I have. I love my new creative space.

Stereo & Storage

Bead storage on double doors. These hold my semi-precious beads

Found this marvelous twisted branch in OK

New shelves w/glass jars

Making use of space behind door for paints & stamps

Large storage - surplus from manufacturing shop

Boxes on left are glass beads

Pages friends made for me, decoupages on the side of the big unit

I zentangled my ceiling fan blades

New ceiling fan for studio.

Several years ago in our neighborhood there was an estate sale that was touted as an artist's home, full of touches of the artist. I was very interested to see the artist's home and what they had done. Imagine my surprise when there were only plain neutral walls, floors and carpet. There was no evidence of an artist is that dwelling. In fact, there wasn't anything in the offerings of the estate sale that gave any indication of it being the home of an artist or collector.

The same cannot be said when someone enters my home. Not only does art that I have created exist in every room of the house, but also of my fellow friend artists. My walls also reflect art and not just with pictures and painting hung on them. I've actually painted the majority of the walls/rooms.




My bedroom grape vines were the direct result of a commission I had to paint grapevine on the walls of a guest room in a home in North Dallas years ago. I loved the look so much, I decided to recreate it for my walls. In my version, I sponged the walls to look like stone, stenciled a cinder block design and then free-handed the grapevines on the walls. My bedroom was featured in several magazines right after I painted it (which was approximately 15 years ago - my how time flies!).

Shortly after I did the bedroom, I also redid the kitchen/breakfast room area (which actually is used as a computer room). I painted this room to look like it was created from stone. There are two doors, side-by-side, one leading to the utility room & one to our den. I decided to paint a trompe l'oeil mouse in his mouse hole. I had to lay flat on my stomach to paint the mouse.

When it was completed, the original doors looked out of place, so those were painted to look like heavy castle doors. My son thought we had the "coolest kitchen in town.

I've always been fastinated by faces, especially ones with character. No faces seem to have more character than the American Indian. Throughout the years I've done various famous Indians in different mediums. The first one was permanent pen on fabric. My favorite is the one I painted on a wooden box for my husband - I entered that one in the State Fair of Texas and got best of show. The other one is painted on a jacket that I did before a painting convention.

Snow! Yes, it snowed in Texas this year though not until March 5th. These were the largest flakes and the heaviest snow I've seen in over five years. This is the view from my back door. It had only been snowing about 30 minutes at this point. It continued to snow for another 2 - 3 hours. Of course, this being Texas, it was gone by the following afternoon except for the north side of the houses and any snowmen that were built. I think it was around 70 two days later. Got to love our weather.