Country Living Fair 2014 Rhinebeck, NY

The Country Living Magazine Fair is by far one of the best fairs in the Northeast, and this year I was finally able to go! Held for the second year in a row in Rhinebeck, NY, fans of Country Living saw the pages of the magazine come to life with three days of shopping, cooking, crafting and DIY demonstrations. The fair also featured antique appraisals and locally sourced, artisanal food in a fun, festival atmosphere. 

As this was my first time attending the fair, I want to say a big THANK YOU to Hometalk for my VIP 3-day pass! I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of merchandise and variety of vendors. There was everything you could imagine: vintage furniture, home decor items, antiques, paint, rugs, lighting, clothes… and at all price points! I will admit I was afraid of falling in love with everything expensive and over-budget, but there was a lot that was very reasonable. I just need a bigger house! (The key word being “house” and a not small Hoboken apartment…)

Here are a few gems I found...

I wish I could have purchased more items like these chairs and almost everything at this booth, but I controlled myself and my wallet. 

As I was walking around I stumbled across Mrs. Re-Purpose herself, Cari Cucksey from HGTV’s Cash & Cari!! I was super excited to visit her booth because this weekend she launched her own stain and paint collection, RePurpose Chroma Color and Tinted Tincture. Best of all, Cari was there giving demonstrations and tips on how to use her new line of colors! What could be better than a lesson from the lady herself?!

Of course I picked up some stain… Azurite Blue to be exact. I can't wait to start using it! I plan on staining the wine crates I bought at the fair. 

Thank you again, Hometalk and Country Living Magazine for giving two Refurbished with Love fans VIP 3-day passes to the fair! Your lucky winners scored major deals and packed their car to the rim with vintage fabric curtains, large decorative coral, framed art and wine crate boxes. Stay tuned for how I give these finds a new life!

New Website Is Finally Here! USE THIS FOR NOW ON

I have wanted to create a website for Refurbished with Love for a long time. I am the first to admit I am not the best at keeping up with blog posts or putting together content like some of the other bloggers I read. I admire these ladies, the way they pump out daily posts and are so organized - it's great.  Honestly, because I don't have the time to blog more, I've known for a while that a website is what I need to showcase my work. But funding the design and build of a great website design has always been an obstacle. A custom-made website can be pretty expensive when you are watching every penny. I will be very candid with you: I am a one- woman show. Refurbished With Love is literally just me - no intern, apprentice, helper or anything. I watch every penny that comes in and every penny that goes out. I re-use as much as I can and take advantage of every last drop. Also, because I am growing a business and doing it all on my own, I usually can find 100 other things on which to spend my custom website money.

Finally one day, an old client of mine asked me, "Why don't you make one yourself? There are a ton of videos out there and so many sites. Just teach yourself." So I did and I am pretty proud of myself! I will say I'm very computer savvy and have been since my PR days, but the thought of tackling a website on my own scared me. That is, until I came across Squarespace! This site is amazing, reasonably priced and the help line is awesome! 

Once I started creating I couldn't stop. I was changing fonts, spacing, colors, layouts, all sorts of things until I was 100% happy! So welcome to my digital baby, RefurbishedwithLove.com! Ta-da! Here you can find a portfolio of my past work, read testimonials from a few of my amazing clients and keep up with my blog. 

I hope to expand my business through the website and blog, and welcome your comments, questions and ideas. Enjoy the new site!

To see the latest things I am working on and my creative process follow me on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/refurbishedwithlove and my instagram Refubished with Love. 

To SHOP REFURBISHED WITH LOVE CHECK OUT MY ETSY STORE.

Some Two Tone Action on a Buffet and Dining Room Table

A popular trend in furniture is two-tone. This can be accomplished in a couple ways, one by using two different paint colors or with what I have done, one part stained wood and one part painted wood.

I love this look on furniture. I have seen it done a few ways, one leaving the drawers stained and the body painted, or the reverse the drawers painted and the body stained or how I did it, the top stained and the body painted.

Lucky for me I was able to work on a project like this while in Houston over Thanksgiving.  Here is the before of the buffet. I think it was beautiful to begin with, but my client wanted a Refurbished with Love furniture facelift.

buffet table before

The buffet was a rich dark walnut color. 

before

before

For those of you who would like to try this, I came have a couple of tips that should help you if you decided to venture out and create your own two tone piece of furniture. 

Some helpful tips: Make sure the pieces that are stained wood are rich with color and unscratched. So take the extra time to sand out all dings and blemishes. 

Also, do your painting first! This way if you make any mistakes or get paint on areas you wanted stained, simply sand them out.  Remember painters tape is our friend!

Finally, before you begin staining the wood cover the painted areas with plastic. Take that extra time, because if stain splashes on to the painted parts it does not come out. 

Once you are done hopefully you will have a piece of furniture you love.  And I do love this one!

refurbished top after

buffet after

close up on side

close up on distressing detail

lightly distressed

Good luck and I would be happy for you to share any project you have done like this.

Sometimes Things Need a Change... Table Transformation for the Second Time

Sometimes now matter how much you fight it things need to change. For me that was the case with this antigue 1950's end table.  Many people have a hard time admitting when things need to change or do not sell because of it's look. Therefore, I decided to share my story with you, because after all I can't the only one facing this dilemma.

I originally picked up this table at an estate sale in New Jersey.  After refurbishing it, it quickly became a popular item. It was a big favorite in my Etsy Store/Refurbished with Love and a favorite at all my festivals. But for some reason it was not SELLING! After all that is my goal, to refurbish furniture and sell the pieces to new happy home.

Here is what the table looked like when I bought it. It was in need of a furniture facelift and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Or at least so I thought I did.

end table before

Here is the table after my first attempt refurbishing it.

end table after the first attempt of refurbishing

I wanted to give it an antique look keeping with the design of the table and wanted to add a pull to the draw.

close up on the table top

Well after a year of siting in my home, I decided it was time for a change! I was very reluctant to change it because, one, I worked hard on it the first time and two because that would require more time in my already busy schedule. But lets face it, it wasn't selling and even though I was being stubborn I knew what I needed to do.

I decided to paint it my favorite color Annie Sloan Paris Grey. I also envisioned adding an old French wine typography to the top and finally finishing the whole thing with dark wax. It took me a while to decide on a label, mainly because Graphics Fairy has so many great ones to chose from. In the end I chose this one:

You can find a link to her stuff here, she also has some good tutorials for first timers. Once I got two coats of paint on the table, I added the typography.

transferring the image

table paint in paris grey 

After I transferred the image I loved it even more! I instantly knew this baby would sell!

table after with dark wax and french label added

close up on table top

Thankfully as I suspected this table was a huge hit and sold with an hour of opening. Two woman were actually trying to take it from each other! Needless to say it went to a happy home and I was happy it sold.

So moral of the story... change is good!

A Dull Buffet Table Transformed into an Eye Catching Table

This beautiful table was a major score for my client. She inherited the table when she moved into her college apartment. The old renters didn't want it and left it behind. Talk about one man's trash is another woman's treasure!

Like most of us who live in small spaces all furniture most be functional as well as beautiful. For my client this table was absolutely functional, but it did not fit her decor.  Here was the table before.

table before

The table had some watermarks and scratches I needed to remove. That's when she contacted me. Together we decided on this beautiful Greek blue from Annie Sloan with dark wax. One thing I love about Annie Sloan paint is by adding dark wax you can completely change the color. 

table after

table leaf after

table top

Here is the table painted with Greek blue before the dark wax.

table before dark wax is added

She also admired furniture with lace and doily detail. I found this beautiful lace and stenciled it randomly on the top.

here is how i put the stencil on

after all stencils added

table before dark wax

For the lace stencil I used Martha Stewart's silver metallic paint. I love how it has a simmer to it. I have used this paint before on a barstool and it is beautiful with or with dark wax.

RWL Phone Number Has Changed

Hello Y'all,

Just wanted to let you know our number has changed:

(201) 683.8317

Leave a message, but email is still the best way to reach me,

refurbishedwithlove@gmail.com

Different Ways to Showcase Favorite Quotes

I love inspirational quotes and phrases. In fact, I have two Pinterest boards dedicated to them, Makes Me Smile and Things I should have Said.  Eventually when I have more time, I want to make a few posters/signs for my study.  Here are some of my favorites quotes:

Another favorite is a quote by Albert Einstein "Creativity is contagious pass it on".  This will definitely be on a sign in my studio. But for now I knew it would be a great way to spice up this old big bird yellow tray I found. 

tray before

First, I started by painting the tray with Annie Sloan Original color chalk paint.  (Please ignore the coors light box, it is holding cut pieces of wood.)  

tray with one coat of paint

Then, I sketched out a chevron pattern and painted it with a color mixture I came up with. Once the design was set I painted over my vinyl stencil quote I made using my Silhouette Cameo. After everything was painted and touched up I brushed with tray with Annie Sloan clear wax to give it a protective coat. 

tray after

I absolutely love the way it came out and the tray sold very quickly at the festival last Sunday. To see more items from the festival check out my facebook page.

Another way I showcase quotes are with my refurbished wood pallet signs. Here is second look at one of my favorite signs I have made.

I had more signs at the festival, but as usual I forgot to take pictures. I need to put someone in charge of getting pictures for me because I always forget. Where is my photographer best friend, Jessica when I need her! To see Jessica's work visit her site here.

Remember friends BE CREATIVE!