~~~COTTAGE CHALKBOARD MAKEOVER~~~ Romantic Transformation Underway

~TELEPHONE CHALKBOARD SIGN~

Ready For Her Makeover

As hard as it is for me to believe on January 1st I began my FOURTH year of blogging.  It seems like it was just a few days ago I jumped into the world of on-line posting and honestly it's been quite a ride.  I love sharing with you my gathered thoughts and the decorating ideas that have worked for me over the past few years.

 ~CHERRY RED PAINT~

A No-Can-Do For My Home

Lots of things are planned this year for my La Chaumière de Briarwood and my A Gathering Place Shoppe and I'm happy to have you follow along.  I hope I can keep you interested.  If not the Blogger World is growing exponentially so I'm quite sure someone else out there will!  So much inspiration to be found...and talent...and beauty...and grace...  I'm so encouraged and blessed by what I see and read...

~TELEPHONE LABEL HAS GOT TO GO~

Over the Christmas/New Year Break I did just a little shopping even though I didn't purchase a single Christmas related thing (I already have too much).  I don't know what it is, but when Christmas is over I just can't make myself buy anything holiday related no matter how fabulous the price.  There is the rare exception of course (like LED Lights deeply discounted), but for the most part I pass on what I see.  Our local Hobby Lobby had aisles filled with leftover Christmas product and I don't remember this particular store ever being so jam-packed.

~LIGHTLY SANDED~

However, this charming vintage style Telephone Chalkboard Sign was a great discounted find!  It was originally created like an old English/London phone booth and I just fell in love with it's simple lines.  The chalkboard was propped up on one of Hob-Lob's back shelves and was 80% off the original price.  Good thing because I would NEVER have paid the $80 asking price for it!  PA-LEEZE!

~OLD ENGLISH PHONE BOOTHS~

Even with a 40% coupon (or their 50% off sales) I would have passed on it!  But for $16 it was more than a fabulous deal!  I decided to purchase it and redo it for my kitchen or maybe for my breakfast room...

~ALL PRIMED UP~

This particular piece was pretty distressed and parts of it were a bit 'bubbled'.  First thing I did was remove the paper TELEPHONE label and lightly sand off the overly distressed areas.  After wiping it clean I applied a coat of ZINSSER PRIMER.  The pictures you see were taken after the first coat.  After about a hour I applied another coat and then another one after that for a total of three primer coats.  I did this to cut down on the paint-bleed-thru you sometimes get with red pigment from China...

~CLOSE-UP VIEW~

(Primer Applied With A Sponge Brush)

After the first coat of primer dried I went back and masked off the chalkboard with painter's tape.  I should have done this first but I got in a hurry (imagine that!).

~ZINSSER PRIMER~

(Bulls-Eye Water Based)

~TOO MUCH FOR ME~

(A Simply Ridiculous Price)

This morning I applied the first coat of paint (Cottage White from Behr/Home Depot) and later this afternoon I'll give it another once-over.  If it looks good then I'll let it cure for a day or so before I begin the next step.  I haven't decided what I'm going to paint where the word TELEPHONE was but I do believe I'll hand paint some pink roses where the crown once was...

I'm excited about showing you the final results of the chalkboard this coming weekend.  I think it's going to look charming hanging in my cottage style home once it's finished.  I love snagging things at a great price, don't you?

Now that our old ceramic tile is up my guy has plans to remove part of a wall in our family room so it will flow nicely into our formal dining room.  He also must reposition the entryway into our kitchen and that is going to take some time.  Both things must be done before our new wood floors can be installed so here we are doing the  'waiting thing' again.

I'll be back to work restocking my website very soon.  Thank you so much for writing and for your interest!  2011 was a great year for me and as always I've been blessed by your friendship and business.

More soon!

Love to you...