Sweet Compliments in the Master Suite!

We moved in to our home five years ago.  It was built in the late 90's but seemed to have finishes from the 80's.  We began changing out light fixtures, faucets, switch plates and door knobs throughout the house.  As for the master suite, we painted but really never did anything with it. I couldn't decide what to do!  When we moved in we did buy a new mattress set with a frame. We also bought the comforter set with matching curtains and that was it.  We had two little tables that we used as nightstands and got a couple of small lamps. A temporary fix.  It was a little unexciting!  How many times do we put the master bedroom on the back burner!  We began working on the rest of the house first. 

  

Then it was time!  I was finally inspired by this beautiful chest and it's sentimental value. We picked it up at a family member's estate sale. It's a little ornate, but very vintage and a little glam. I decided it would be the perfect nightstand for our Vintage Glam Master Suite.  Ok, the creative forces were turning!  I was inspired!  

 We sat the new, old chest next to the bed - PERFECT!!!  However, that was only half done.  The hunt began for a matching piece for the other side.  I began to search. It was on that list in my head.  I searched and searched to no avail.  I saw a few things but nothing that "matched" .  I had the perfect piece in my head and am usually relentless until I find it.  

 

However, this time I finally decided that when I found this little chest at a pop up vintage flea market that it was the one - mostly! I thought  - Ok, it's not so much of a match, but could it compliment my beautiful chest sitting next to the bed at home?  It was only $75 and was very sturdy, well built and from years gone by.  I took it home and sat it on the other side of the bed AND I DIDN'T LIKE IT.  The white was too white and the robin egg blue was, well. too robin egg blue.  My vintage glam was a more muted gray blue.  The upholstered headboard that I had in my head was a light cream linen (alright - polyester linen look) material.  It didn't fit in!  Someone had gone to the trouble of finding this little gem of a chest and painted it two tone with chalk paint.  All the right and trendy vintage market things that you should do - but I was going to have to put my own twist on it! I would need to transform it from clashing to complimentary!

A different view of the chest. 

My mission was to paint it out so that it complimented my estate sale vintage glam chest on the other side of the bed.  I didn't want it to be a matchy-matchy piece - that is so yesterday, but not in a good vintage kind of yesterday.  So the project was born!  I chose Annie Sloan chalk paint in French Gray.  The first paint strokes highlight the contrast between the white and the gray.  I knew that I had made the right choice. 

 

I first removed the drawers to paint the chest.  Then painted each drawer.  I painted two coats and decided to paint right over the hardware which is a common practice when redoing vintage with paint. 

Hardware & drawer fronts before and after.

Trying to decide exactly how to place the stencil.

Next, I was going to have to decide how to get the great detail in gold on the top of the chest.  I found a stencil and used gold metallic paint.  I stenciled it on top first. 

I then taped off the border on top - painting it gold all the way around. 

The final look!  

I then finished it off by giving it a little age with a coat of Annie Sloan dark wax.

It's done!  I love the gold border.  I went ahead and wrapped it down underneath the top. 

The wax is heavier on and around the hardware to give the affect of lots of years of use. 

Stencil work from the top.  The wax toned the gold paint down to give it a patina look.

How sweet it is!  Success!   The nightstands now compliment each other!  Now on to the next project in the master suite.

Coming soon!  More on the master suite in another blog!!!