Barstool makeover ...

I started this post a year ago and just realized I never finished it or published the post. Whoops!

Above is a picture of our kitchen when we first moved into our house in 2010 (the walls are primed in this picture, they were originally burgundy). We purchased the Oak swivel barstools off Kijiji.  We don't have room for a dining room so our Kitchen Island is our table and good comfortable chairs were important.  The stools were great at first but they have become a dropping spot for everything ... lunch bags, purse, courier packages, you name it!  Arghhhhh! They were really bothering me so I started searching for new ones.  Tada! I purchased a set of Tabouret metal barstools from Overstock in black (the picture below is the metal finish)

I LOVE them in black and with the Kitchen painted and foot rest on the island painted out in black they are going to look STUPENDOUS!

So after the new black barstools arrived we put the oaks tools in the back shed aka the Spider Den creepy!.  The back shed has become a catch all for everything we don't want in the house as well as a home for wayward oversized spiders ewwww!.  During a Spring clean out I decided to list the Oak stools on Kijiji, I even had a customer down to negotiations via email.  That's when Frank confessed that he didn't like my cold black metal barstools and was much happier with the Oak ones.  WHAT????  Say it isn't true.  Hmmm, what to do?

I thought about them for a while. Well, actually, I lied awake at night stewing over what I could do to like these suckers again.  Wait, what? Like them again?  Ummmm, the 80's called and they want their barstools back!  Then one Saturday morning I was reading my blog feed feeling envious of the all the great finds other bloggers kept finding in some relative's old barn.  BOOM! that's it!  I want these barstools to look like they had been sitting in the corner of an old barn (or back yard Spider condo in our case).  I had used Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint on a couple of projects but I had always used bonding agent to help the paint adhere to the surface.   In the past I had not been ready to give up control to the potential chippiness achieved by not adding bonding agent.

Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy!  This is gonna be fun!

Wait! these are chairs with spindles, ugh!

Ya but they are going to be chippy.

Anyone else have these conversations with themselves?

OMG! Look! it's starting to chip, yippee!!!

This is the look I get from Molly B when I start jumping up and down with excitement.

OK, I got so excited that I missed some steps in my pics.  After the chipping started I sanded off the chips and got the chairs down to a smooth finish.  Then I decided that the "so called barn" I found these old chairs in would be a Dairy Barn … yeah, that's it! So out comes my Dairyland Stencil!

I roughly stencilled the seat of each chair in a light grey.  I wanted these to look old so I used very little paint.

Look!  Aren't they fun!

OK, everything in the house is getting painted in chippy Milk Paint!

I LOVE these stools now! 

When we finally get the kitchen finished I will take a picture of them in place.

JoJo xo

Stencil a Sign to look like a Chalkboard

Do you love chalkboard art as much as I do?

Would you like to paint signs that look like Chalkboards?

I started with a board that I painted out in Black (see details below the image)

12 x 16 board painted with van Gogh Furniture Paintology Fossil Paint colour:  Revenge

I attached my stencil with 2 pieces of tape wrapped around to the back so I can easily lift the stencil to check my progress.  I call this hinging the stencil.

See how easily the stencil lifts

This is the lid from my studio paint jar, I don't need much paint so I'm taking paint off the lid.  I'm using the colour Chalk from van Gogh Furniture Paintology.  I dip my brush in the paint, I swirl the brush on the plate to load the paint into the brush then I pounce the brush to remove excess paint.  Remember, when stencilling it's easy to come back and add more paint but not as easy to remove excess.  Less is best!

For a Chalkboard effect I pounce my brush up and down.  I am using a larger stencil brush that has coarse bristles to get this effect.  Also, you don't want to fill in the letter completely, apply less paint around the edges so the finished piece looks like you used dusty chalk.  Normally when I stencil I like a firm soft brush that I can swirl in circles and get a soft blended effect but not on this one!

I painted the first letter and wanted to check before moving on, this is why I love hinging the stencil on the board … lift, check, lower and move on.

One last check before I remove the stencil from the board.

Here is the finished board.  I usually drill 2 holes at the top and use Hemp String as a hanger for these.

If you like this stencil I have a special offer for anyone who would like to purchase it.  Use the code "BlogPromo" when you purchase this stencil on my website and you will receive $5 off the price.

Here is the link …   Be the Change Stencil

Enjoy!  Thank you.