Embarrassing Results & French Provincial Nursery Furniture

First of all, let me say that the "giveaway" I did last week was a total flop (as any of you regular readers have probably seen). Not even one entry! Pretty embarrassing. But no point in dwelling on the past, I have too many new things going on, starting with these French Provincial pieces I did for my friends' nursery. They're expecting their first baby, a little girl & they didn't have a huge budget to work with but we knew that they wanted to go with a French Provincial style. So Heather (the new mom) & I did some shopping for used furniture that could be refinished.

We found this cute little side table at Goodwill, I thought it would be good next to her rocking chair with a little lamp the perfect spot for holding bottles or pacifiers at 2:00 am. The price tag on it said $15.00 which I thought was ridiculous for G.W. (see my post here). So I pointed out the "gouges" which were actually more like nicks in the top & asked if they could do any better, they came back with $7.50 - we took it. It was actually a lot more walnut colored than what you can see in the picture, & plastic looking on the top.

Here it is after: I used an Olympic custom blend white (matched to their crib color) satin finish. I went over the top of it with Valspar's asphaltum glaze. This was the first time I've used a glaze this color. I think it came out ok, but I really wish I had been able to find a gray glaze. The black is obviously a huge contrast from the white & I think it's just a little harsh looking for a nursery. It probably would've otherwise been fine.

This is the dresser/changing table with the same paint treatment I used on the side table. The original hardware is shown here in this picture although I don't like the look of it with the new finish. I'll be replacing them with vintage looking glass knobs & pulls.

Here's a closeup of the legs on this little chest of drawers. It had such cute details. I would've loved to have been able to keep this for my daughter's room, it could double as a perfect bedside table. It also would've been adorable in a living or dining room, maybe with the large bottom drawer removed (one large drawer that looks like two) & replaced with some natural colored baskets to hold books or DVDs in a living room or table linens for a dining room.

This plastic ornamental piece is at the bottom center of the dresser & was painted a nasty gold color before. The white with black glaze looks much more sophisticated.

You'll have to excuse my daughter's sweatshirt covered car seat to the left, they were literally getting ready to carry this out the door when I realized I hadn't taken any "after" shots of it. Heather & Ryan live up North in the Bay Area & were down for their last visit before the baby is born, so I had to get this all finished as well as put on her baby shower this weekend-I'm about 20 hours behind on my sleep! We had just come back from the baby shower, which explains my pathetic attempt to "stage" it in 15 seconds as you can see in the first dresser pic. I had just grabbed a couple decorations I had brought back from the shower that were sitting on my dining room table.

Here it is before, in all it's 1970's glory. It had the typical cream colored paint with gold accents & it was filthy! But then again, we picked it up off Craigslist for $25 bucks. The guy who sold it to us had some sort of Christian charity that helped families in need so we counted this purchase as our good deed for the day.

I also refinished a rocking chair to match the rest of the room. I just need to re-upholster the seat & back. I should have that available to see here in the next couple days.

Lastly, I'm going to have some very exciting news to share with you guys in the next couple days so stay posted to see what I'm up to.