French Provincial Furniture Archives - The Weekend Country Girl

Building a Home, French Provincial, home decorating, the guest room, vintage style

The Green Bedroom Is Coming Together

August 5, 2013August 5, 2013 Karen

Have you missed me? I will bet not, but I have missed having finished projects to write about. We finally have a minute to breathe and start dressing the house. It is nice to not be opening boxes. Most of my house is almost put together, but none of it is done. F.r.u.s.t.r.a.t.i.o.n. The first room that I feel like is almost there is our green and coral guest room. It didn’t hurt that the walls were already painted a pleasant color I could work with. After one week of hard work we have it almost finished…I think…for now anyway. The smallest guest room is finished except for some way to display my milk glass and something interesting to go over the bed. I am still thinking about those projects, but something will come to me. Any ideas? I also have a coral accent piece in mind, eventually.

The links below will take you to the projects that were added to this bedroom.

The French Provincial dresser is in place.

I did not love the mirror that came with the set with the dresser in this room, so I used a few of my vintage mirrors over the dresser along with a frame from my gray bedroom there. I like the look!

The bedding was my grandmother’s and so were the milk glass lamps on the night stands. I love that they have found a home in this peaceful room.

The rocker was my dad’s great grandmother’s. It needs to be re-caned, but I love that she sat in this chair so many years that she wore the cane out on one side, We bought the quilt years ago and I am always happy to find a place for the flower basket pattern.

The coral accents on the milk glass lamp, pillow and table legs add to the green, black and white theme.

The flowers were from Baby Boy’s wedding to Sweet Amanda and the Follow Your Heart sign was a Goodwill find for .99.

I love the chalkboard above the black rail. It is fun to be able to change the quote when the mood strikes.

The clock has bounced around my offices, our house and the garage but I thought it looked good painted in the room. The watercolor in the vintage frame I painted circa 1988. My parents had it in their room for a while.

All in all the room was put together for under $200. Not too shabby for a totally new color scheme and furniture.

The dresser and headboard were purchased for $80.00 and painted for $15.00. The mirror went home with my friend Shahana. She has the perfect spot for it.

The curtains were inexpensive black panels from Walmart and the white shears were on clearance at Anna’s. They have a nice little embroidered swirl on the fabric. The whole window was dressed for $30.00.

There was no cost for the end tables. Roadside finds and left over paint. The silver owls and other accents were picked up for the yellow and gray bedroom side tables.

Add in a $20,00 World Market shade and a 12.00 accent pillow and I am done for today.

Behr Paint with Primer, French Provincial, home decorating, Painted Furniture, the guest room

French Provincial Bedroom Furniture

July 8, 2013July 10, 2013 Karen

The post on Craig’s List said that it was a solid wood bedroom set, the price was $80.00 and based on the photo that was posted above, she was for sale at but not sold in a garage sale before being posted on CL. Of course I was skeptical, but, the dresser, was the right shape and size, the mirror looked ok, the headboard would work for a while and I wanted to at least look it all over. We drove across Houston to see about the furniture where my suspicions were confirmed. There was a dresser, headboard and mirror waiting for us to take home. Not solid wood and a really bad faux burled walnut finish on the furniture, but the shape of the dresser was great and I thought I could work with it.

The finish had been compromised on the top of the dresser and there were a few spots where it had gotten wet and was a little swollen. A little research on the internet led me to Glidden Gripper primer.

Anything that says it works on glass tells me it will hold to the laminated finish on particle board surfaces. I sanded the top down where the top was swollen and sealed those spots by applying wood filler then sanding again. The dresser, headboard and mirror got two coats of primer, then the furniture was painted. It was great to find out that the drawers had a separate top piece.

The white spot was a gouge in the top that I filled with wood filler then gave it a first coat of primer.

It is odd to me that the only solid wood part of the drawers were the sides and the top panel.

The two parts meant that two separate colors would be easy to do, and I LOVE easy. I chose two colors on one paint chip card for the dresser. Almost all the dresser was painted with Behr Ocean Pearl. The only parts painted a different color were the top and drawer front panels. I love ocean pearl! it is a soft gray with a brownish undertone. The separate top piece of the dresser was painted the lightest color on the paint chip card, Sea Salt. So that the dresser fits into the green bedroom with a black chair rail I painted the top of the dresser Behr Black Suede. (The lady bugs and flowers are stickers, so only the green paint and rail will be in the room.)

( This will be our guest room soon!)

I was thrilled with the combination. It will be very restful in a guest room. After I got it all painted, I used Bona Floor Finish in satin finish on the top of the dresser. It is a hard surface that will be easy to clean and hopefully will not chip off easily. Even though I selected satin finish, be warned that it is still pretty shiny! I painted the mirror and headboard the oyster pearl color and accented the ornate decoration on both with sea salt before glazing them. I coated the rest of the dresser along the mirror and headboard with water based clear poly because I was worried that the floor finish would yellow on the grayish dresser paint. The hardware was brass plated and coming off in places.

A couple of coats of flat black spray paint that works on metal made the hardware fit in perfectly with the dresser.

I used a charcoal colored glaze on the dresser to give the piece some age.

I love how it turned out. It is going to look great in our new house guest room.

A super big thank you to my Hubby for dragging the dresser outside in 90 degree heat so I could get some good photos. The Garagemahal is gross right now!

DIY Furniture, DIY Painting and Glazing Furniture, DIY Projects, Dresser, Painted Furniture, recycled furniture, rescuing damaged furniture, the Southern Belle

The Southern Belle’s Christmas Present- Refinishing a French Provincial Dresser

December 25, 2012December 25, 2012 Karen

Christmas presents for grown up kids were so much fun this year. The Southern Belle asked a while back for a dresser. She wanted it black with brushed nickel hardware. I started looking when we were out shopping, thrifting, and junking. Nothing really struck me until I saw a mistreated piece on Craig’s List. It was covered in layers of really ugly paint with pink showing through. Someone had put cabinet hardware on it that reminded me of a cabin.

To make matters worse, the hardware did not fit ell so the person who thought this hardware would work jammed plastic anchors into the holes.
It took some work on hubby’s part. Getting the hardware off, sanding, filling holes, more sanding before the paint went on.
Hubby got a new paint sprayer, and about the biggest compressor I have ever seen for an early Christmas present. It really made the piece look professionally painted and the Behr paint I love works in this high volume, low pressure sprayer.
Here are the results. For the present she just got a photograph of the piece. It will be getting delivered to North Carolina this spring. Another great reason to visit her.

It was fun making something that our daughter will enjoy.