Happy Bastille day!!

Today is the French national holiday and the start of "grandes vacances"
 for many French people - the mass exodus to the beaches for some much needed sun and fun!
Hope you all are having a nice summer.  I have been so busy with projects I have neglected my budding blog.  This is a new start.  I will share my projects and hopefully some will be interesting to you!

I am currently working on painting my kitchen cabinets  I cannot wait to share the results!  It will be another few weekends until I am finished so I will share other projects in the meantime.

To celebrate the French holiday I might make some strawberry blueberry tarts!  That's when I stop and take a break from painting!

Bon 14 juillet to all!

Thrift store French Provincial bedroom

I LOVE the Salvation Army thrift stores, don't you?!  They have so many treasures: furniture, glassware, silverware, books, art.  You know the thrill, the heart pounding thrill of a good find, right?!  Well I experienced it the day my husband pointed out to me a 1970's brown French Provincial bedroom suite which would be perfect for our guest room.  It was in good shape, solid wood in that yucky brown but oh those beautiful lines, those cabriole legs and gorgeous carvings: French love!  

This was early 2011 and I had never redone an entire bedroom suite before but I knew I wanted it creamy ivory with light distressing to highlight the lovely curves and carvings.  So... off to Lowe's for sandpaper, tack cloth, and God knows how many cans of Valspar ivory spray paint in satin finish (I hadn't heard of chalk paint at that point) and walnut stain.  So, I sanded, and sanded and sanded some more (enough to give the finish some bite, not to get rid of the finish):

Then I started spray painting... I pretended I was a spraying machine and used wide, even, repetitive sweeping movements across the surfaces for the most even finish. 

We lived in Florida then so it took some time to dry between coats.  We did two full coats with some sanding in between.  Here is the dressing table after:

Here is the dresser before:

and the dresser during (2nd coat):

I slightly sanded over the molding and carvings and used a q-tip dipped in walnut stain to darken the exposed wood; I also added a few "worm holes" with a cork screw! :-)

Since the paint was in a satin finish, I didn't have to wax or wipe poly to finish it.  If I knew then what I know now though... I would have used Annie Sloan Chalk paint in Old White and refinished and stained the tops with walnut stain... oh well, live and learn!

Here's the finished furniture in the guest room now (Click on photos to enlarge):

What do you think?  Thanks for stopping by!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hope you all are having a Happy St. Patrick's Day!  It's a beautiful Spring Day here in the Dallas area.

I spent the day painting furniture: painted a thrift store baker's rack and a small occasional table for the living room.  I love spray paint, don't you?!  This one is from Rustoleum and it is awesome: it's like two coats in one spray!  I painted both pieces mat black.  I then stenciled a French design on the small round table and hand painted the edges that bled to make everything sharper.  Will have to distress and wax and buff tomorrow when everything is nice and dry and will share the result in a future post.

This is my first post EVER and after thinking about blogging for about a year and a half, I am taking the plunge!  Here are photos of my St. Patty's Day mantle.

My hubby's name is Patrick and he is of Irish decent so I always want to do something special for St. Patrick's Day.  Made a steak and Guinness pie for dinner tonight.  What's your favorite St. Patty's Day treat?

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to Bonjour Decor! I hope you will return once I have had a chance to fill it with lovely and inspiring things!!!