tutorial for the black dresser....

O.K. u very handy, crafty ladies out in blog land.  I am posting a step by step on this dresser...I am keeping it simple and with lots of pics. That is the way I like my tutorials. Its nothing super new but their maybe something on here that you have not tried or a new way to do it.


Just to let you know I made my own chalk paint and next week I will have the play by play on how that went...

the dresser started out white...Not a fan because it makes the distressing harder...but She was a solid well working dresser for a great price....sooo we can work with it.

I used spray paint this time for something differant..simple ...satin...krylon black

taped off the top....then I primed it in dark grey primer...YOU do not want white......get the grey it saves on the  spray paint and makes for better coverage.

So she has been sprayed over a 6 hour period with 2 cans of black spray paint light stokes in a left to right motion then giving it 30 mmins to dry to do another light coat. It looks very streaky till u slowly build 5 to 6 light coats. In this pic u see me starting the aging process.

so since the wood underneath the black paint is so light...i do this little trick. I paint on dark stain with a q-tip no less.  we are fancy around here.  it works great and i hate cleanup so win win. so as u can see from the photo above i saturate it let it sit for 20 mins then wipe it off...and usually get this

so the..umm script(more like my fancy handwriting)....it was done with a chalk pen from my local scrap store....it is the weirdest thing.  Goes on clear then turns to this great chalky texture that are ready.....does not wipe off.


Ohh..maybe u noticed my watermark.  I am trying very hard to watermark my photos now. I know they are not award winning quality....yet....but u watch out when i get my new camera!!!

Mr.love letters project

So my hubby takes care of the outside of the house.  It is his to do with whatever his heart desires. I don't let him have much say on the inside of the house. After 12 years of marriage he is pretty good about living with my craziness of decorating then redecorating. He does not complain of my love of industrial, frenchy, thrifty gothy glam fusion.

This was his Find shall we say.  It is the skeleton of a cactus. He found it at the storage place where we store our trailer, the gentleman who owns the property was going to burn it. That would be a crime. These cactus have lived for hundreds if not thousands of years, they are amazing plants.

Is that not amazing.....that is the inside of a saguaro cactus .

We live in the desert so we keep all of our plants indigenous to the area. I would love to have an English garden and big willow trees but  as they say , make the most of what you got.

I know its hard for people who live in other climates to see all this rock but water out here is expensive and precious. so we use rock in A.Z.  I do have a small strip of grass. Mr. love letters treats it like a PGA putting green.

I have three very large lavender plants that are mine all mine and this spring I will be making raisers for a herb garden. when the lavender comes into boom again I will get some shoots for you.

for the love of wood

I really love when i find a nice old piece that is in amazing shape. This piece was still in great shape and had such pretty details to her.I knew i wanted to leave the top alone but i added a little ascp in old white to the legs.

this is how i got her....i loved the wood!!

Yes I paint inside a lot. I live in Az and it is still in the hundreds here.

this pic is before the sanding and detailing. I did not go crazy but i sanded the edges and i like to use a scrapers on the details.