"Bertha" Unveiled

Let me ask my fellow bloggers a question: how long does it take you to edit your pictures?? Because I spent HOURS today taking, editing, and organizing my pictures - sheesh, it seems like it should be easier!!


Anyway...if you remember Bertha, the extremely dirty and somewhat dysfunctional but with lots of potential secretary that I scored at an antiques shop:










I have been putting off working on her, because it just seemed like she was going to take SO MUCH WORK...and besides, she had become buried in my garage. Also, I had no place to put her.




Then I sold the bookcase in my front room...



and suddenly I had all this empty space!



I felt ready to tackle Bertha.

I know I'm not the only woman who won't let ANYTHING stand in her way when she wants a piece of furniture moved. I once lifted the end of a several hundred pound desk onto my son's skateboard to get it out of my studio once I didn't want it any more. I moved it into my garage single-handed. My dad was NOT happy about that stunt!

As it turned out, it wasn't too hard to dig Bertha out. Once I started getting ready to clean her up, I got a nice surprise....the inside shelves, which I was DREADING painting...




Were REMOVABLE!! Easily removable!!





They are back in the garage. If I ever decide to use them, I'll paint them white - I'll never match the color I mixed for the inside of Bertha. Here's the rest of Bertha's transformation:



FINALLY remembered to number the drawers after refurbishing MANY dressers which ended up with drawers that never fit quite the same...because I couldn't remember the order...





The drawers needed to be glued, but other than that, they were in surprisingly good condition!



I am in love with the shade of greyish turquoise that results from mixing Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Paris Grey with Duck Egg...I use just a little bit more Paris Grey. I thought it would make a lovely, soft contrast to the Country Grey I was planning to use for the outside.



The Country Grey looked great, but the gorgeous details seemed to fade with the light color.



I gave the whole piece a good glazing...look how great her claw and ball feet look!! You can even see the toenails!!





I wish I had a picture...but the dark glaze looked too brown for me, so I mixed Annie Sloan Soft Wax about 50-50 with some white paint I had on hand, and rubbed it over the entire piece (except for the feet). The result was a nice "antiqued" yet softened look:





I love the beautiful soft inside so much, that for now I'm displaying it opened! Some final staging, and I had a new look for my front room!









Whew!! Honestly the staging and the pictures took MUCH longer than the time it took to paint the whole piece!

What new looks have you added to your nest?