My first Barn Sale and being freakin INGENIUS!

Hi everyone! Hope all has been well on your side of life since my last post! Which, ahem...I admit has been a while. (cough!) Nevertheless, here I am and I have tons to share!

I have taken a giant leap of faith (in myself) and committed to a booth at The Hayloft Barn Sale this year! Here is there facebook page, please visit and if you do give Shirley a "Like" and tell her Claudia from ReDone to be ReLoved sent you! She puts on one HECKUVA production and many, many talented folks show up with their dazzling loot.

So, needless to say I am terrified er, excited...no, terrified was right! Pushing that aside, I am busy as can be trying to get the mountains of furniture I've been hoarding in my garage ready for just the occasion! This has presented me with many a challenge, if you can imagine. Let me first introduce the "before" picture of the small dresser that sparked my moment of ingenuity and craftiness, of which I am unabashedly proud of.

I snapped this baby up immediately! Seriously, I was the FIRST message that lady received and I was there within the hour...! But what to do to it? I took a poll from my loyal facebook followers asking for them to vote from three different choices: 1. Painted body, natural top, natural drawers 2. Painted body, natural top, white drawers 3. Painted body, natural top, striped drawers. I got a lot of great feedback...but I had to shake my head, they gave me all kinds of OTHER options! Drove me nuts! And they were GREAT ideas! Then it dawned on me. Why not paint the body, drawers white and paint a pretty mural design on them! Sort of like the faux inlay look, but in reverse. I ended up using Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in French Enamel on the body and Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White on the drawers. Then I mixed a tiny bit more MMS MP in French Enamel and started painting. The thing I found MOST helpful in all this? I had already light waxed the drawers. This gave me a surface I could wipe clean since it was no longer porous...like erasing. Trust me, that came in handy.  

Here is my inspiration piece: Faux Inlay Inspiration, it's off Pinterest in my Cool Furniture board. 

Faux Inlay Inspiration

So, I started with the border. All those pretty diamonds, you see them? Well, when you start that's all you have in your head...that pretty picture. 20 minutes later, 15 are created and you haven't even gotten to the corner of the drawer yet...yikes. So I got up and started hunting for something to use as a stamp of sorts. Could I make one with tape and some cloth? Nope. Cutout cardboard? Nope. Then I found it. My Mr Clean Magic Eraser. YES!!! This is what I did to it:

Magic Eraser Repurposed into a STAMP!

It made the process ten thousand times faster! Here's what it looks like in progress:

The Magic Eraser Stamp in action!

So, the problem was...it looked like a spongy stamp and NOT like hand painted diamonds. The fix was easy peasy. Just take your little brush and swipe it in that diamond pattern and make it look "brushed". Ta-dah!!

Alas, maybe I don't have a huge reason to be so darn proud of my ingenuity but dang it I am anyway. Here is the finished product:

Semi faux inlay/Mural-like dresser...!

I L-O-V-E it. For reals. What do y'all think??? She will be for sale at the Hayloft Barn Sale this next weekend! I am still scared, but at least I know I'll have this beauty there! Love to all, Claudia

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