Three days of sanding...

...and painting...

...and sanding...

...and painting...

This hand-me-down server has been in the family for years and has become a necessity for me. It holds all of my table linens and party supplies AND opens up into a server. This is where we served dessert at our wine tasting party earlier this month.

Is she pretty? NO
Is she handy? YES

She needed to stop hiding her age and the unsightly 60's wood and design from her childhood years. I'm not even sure what kind of wood she's made from, but she's heavy and bulky and she's a Drexel, so her quality is fine.

Out to the garage (aka: my lab) she went on Saturday morning, looking like this:

She spent two cold nights out there (yes, it gets cold in Houston~ in the 30's and 40's recently).

She was sanded and scuffed, painted, glazed, sanded, painted and glazed again, spray painted, painted and sanded A. LOT.

I typically buy 'oops' paint at Lowe's so I don't know any of the colors (sorry).

Here are the steps:
- sanded her down as best I could
- left the top the dark wood stain but shabbied it up a bit
- painted all over with a blue/gray semi-gloss paint
- added antique glaze
- painted a coat of white oil-based paint (didn't work with the antiquing glaze)
- spray painted using gray spray paint (wanted something to cover up sheen of the white oil and allow new coat to adhere)
- mixed 2 parts tan semi-gloss paint (only can I could reach in the back corner of garage) with 1 part blue/gray semi-gloss paint. Created a muted grayish blue/green color.
- added one coat of this new color, another coat of antiquing glaze (again, didn't work!), then one final coat of my custom mixed color.
- sanded all of the edges down to distress and reveal underneath coats.

Some of my supplies here (how bout those fancy paint stirrers~ yes, sticks from the yard...talk about repurposing)

*Note the pink scooter in the driveway, my helper fled the scene within seconds of the electric sander turning on.

And in she came on Monday evening, looking like this:
Here you can see the layers of gray, white, blue-gray, and natural wood peeking through. Instead of putting the door-knocker-ish pulls back on I opted to pull some strips of natural drop cloth through as door pulls.


View from the front entrance into the dining room. My grandmother (now 99 yrs old) painted the gold painting to the right of our coat closet.

(click on image to see full view)

View from the mirror at the front door into the dining room.

I'm much happier with my now-centered 'DIY botanicals' over the fully opened server.

I think she's much happier now too. She's letting her gray show and is wearing her age well!

(click on image to see full view)

Two of my dining room chairs tuck nicely underneath the server while we're not entertaining. I like the way my new linen chair skirts {future post} look brushing up against the server.

My inspiration images (top left- here/ top right- here/ bottom left- here/ bottom right- here)

This inspiration image via Belgian Pearls: