Sunday, October 29, 2017

Mesa Temple Painting Update

So this is an update from a post I did back in June of last year.  I had some free time last summer, and I wanted a picture of either Christ or a temple up in our home, but everything that was framed was way out of my price range.  Then I got the idea to make one of my own.  The blog post from June was my drawing of it, but I am updating it here because my fabulously talented artist of a roommate, Chelsea Curran, decided to paint it right after I "done messed up."  I prefer drawing with pencil or charcoal, and she prefers painting (or at least is amazing at it!), so here is my drawing and her painting:





I am so happy to say that this work of art is now hanging on our wall, and I absolutely LOVE it!!

Music Hutch

So this post is somewhat normal... I think.  I have a tendency to start projects, like three or four at a time, and then not be able to finish them until much later.  That is exactly what happened with this one!  About a year ago I bought a small hutch off of a consignment site for about $25.  I was going to do great things with it, and I did, but the whole project took about a year to complete.  This hutch was very battered and worn.  It had no backing on it, and the former owner had painted it black because it seemed too far gone to save.

I bought this hutch to replace the drawers that I keep my music in because the drawers were full and I was accumulating music faster than I ever have, being both a choir director and taking part in another choir on the side.  The goal was to have something that I could display in my house that would look nice and go with the decor.  Then, about two months later, I decided that I always did things the conservative way and that I should shake it up a bit!  So instead of doing the olive green, sandstone tan and fiesta red, I got really whimsical and chose teal, purple and white!  Yeah, it didn't go with anything in my house, but that is what a sunroom is for, right?!  Anywho, I was able to take this hutch from all black, strip it, sand it, paint it and seal it, and I LOVE IT!


This is before:







This was the stripping process:





This was the priming process:




This was the first coat of paint:





And this was the final coat of paint, the sealant and the finished product!:






At the risk of making it look more like a dress-up closet for little girl's dresses, I added a little silver lining to the front doors to make them pop!

Even though this was fun, I don't think I will be doing such a big project anytime in the future.  But I will be posting Halloween costumes soon!