Sunday, May 27, 2012
Thank You Moonstone Photography
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| Tre' Chic Apple Crate |
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| Tre' Chic Americana Chair |
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| Tre' Chic Apple Crate |
A very good friend and wonderful photographer, Alecia Burns, owns Moonstone Photography. The photos that she takes are creative and beautiful. I was flattered when she asked to use some of Tre' Chic Designs pieces as props for her recent family shoot. Wow the results are stunning! With permission from Moonstone Photography I decided to share these photos on my blog. Let me know what you think and please visit the Moonstone Photography Page.
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| Tre' Chic Apple Crate |
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| Tre' Chic Americana Chair |
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| Tre' Chic Apple Crate |
Enjoy,
Tracy 
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Distressed Rocking Chair The Essential Cottage Chic
In my last post I left you with what will be know as The Rocking Chair Cliffhanger...How could you all stand such anticipation? :) As promised here we go. Oh yes and let me apologize in advanced and I am really terrible at remembering to take the pictures every step of the way. I'm more like sand, sand, sand ouch my arm is sore...oh snap I forgot to take an original before...better do it now. That's how it usually happens and how it went a couple times with the rocker...whoops. Anyway, here is the rocker as you can see I had already sanded it but you get the gist. Isn't it cute they way it looks like the a Polaroid picture? I did it over at PicMonkey its fun and as of now FREE! Gotta love that. http://www.picmonkey.com So after sanding I took a hunk of Gulf Wax and rubbed it on the parts of the chair that I was sure I wanted wood to show through..jpg)
I began applying the primer I believe it was the Kilz brand. I rolled where a could but mostly it was all applied by brush. It was at this point I came to realize that painting spindles is hard work. I know right! Who woulda thought! Its very difficult to keep the coats even without noticeable lines. I believe for the most part I persevered. As you can see, again, I forgot to take the pic of the primed chair before starting to put a coat of the pretty blue color for the underlay. This time I think I'll blame it on those darn spindles.
So next up is a nice coat of a slightly off white. Now here I must say I was way too fussy. It could have just been one coat and that would have been fine but I kept going and ended up applying 3 coats of this white to fully cover the blue a choice I would come to regret. As you can tell it was dark by the time I finished that final coat. I was determined to be done painting. The next day I began, excited to be getting started aging and distressing this rocker. I had a vision in my mind I could see so clearly where I wanted the blue to show and where I 
wanted it to distress right down to the wood. So i sanded and I sanded and I sanded...Remember Ray, the live in builder, every time he passed me he chuckled and mumbled you worked so hard to get that paint on just right and now you're just sanding it off.
Oh yes HAHA very funny, sweat dripping down my brow my arms feeling like rubber, yes Ray you're such the comedian. I guess I just wasn't feeling very humorous. And now the regret began to set in, why did I coat so thick! And then there was a light at the end of the tunnel. It started to come together and even though my arms and hands were tired, I was beginning to think maybe it was a good idea those 3 coats. The White was looking so creamy next to distressed areas. I was feeling rather pleased with myself the chair was looking very special.But it needed something, something extra special and it hit me a cool checkerboard painted on the bottom of the seat.With the checkerboard applied and nicely distressed this chair was ready for it's finish to be applied. 
I applied a wipe on poly in satin, Minwax, because wipe on poly is an oil based product this gave my chair a nice aged yellowing look that was perfect. After it dried a very light sanding with very fine grit paper and another coat of poly. And another light sanding and then the final coat of poly.Later that week I went to my local Salvation Army Store and found a light pink and light green plaid sham and a small rectangular pillow. Now I've never made a pillow before but then again I never distressed a piece of furniture and that turned out well. I folded the sham in half around the pillow pinned it and ran it through the sewing machine. And just like magic it worked and I had a cute little pillow for my Mom's new rocking chair! So what do you think? Enjoy ~ Tracy
Friday, May 25, 2012
How This Creative Journey Began
And So It Begins
It all started in the summer of 2011. My sisters and I had to close our hair salon of 13 years in March after some sadness the 3 of us agreed this was the right move for us. Both my sisters have their cosmetology license where as I always handled the book keeping and front lobby management. Looking back I must admit I despised the book keeping but loved redoing the lobby and the salon for the seasons. Rearranging the shelving and rotating the stock to the most eye pleasing ways. You would've thought that after 13 years I might have caught a clue that I needed to do something creative. At first I was able to work for our local school district, and I did find that fulfilling but I also knew it wasn't a guaranteed job and who knows what would happen come that fall. Not to brag but I am very fortunate that years ago my grandparents had the foresight to purchase lake front property in what we in Michigan vaguely refer to as "Up North" and that my parents were able to build their wonderful retirement home on said property. I was able to pack up my children and abandon my hardworking husband and spend my entire summer Up North! Now now don't be a hater I know just how lucky I am to have access to this wonderful place.
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| View of our lake |
Parents decided it was time to screen in the old back porch, put on a metal roof and paint the large front deck. So if you were north you were at work, contributing some sweat equity time to earn your keep. I'm not even going to pretend that I jumped right in with gusto. I had dreamed of all the books is read basking in the sun like a turtle lolling around in the water. Best laid plans oh well time to get dirty.
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| Back porch all screen in. |
With the help of my folks live in builder Ray, yup you read that right lol, Dad and Ray set off making screens. A little explanation of Ray, he an amazing jack of all trades. A neighbor hired him for some work and he too fell in love with the lake. He started seeking out work up there staying where he was working. And frankly, his work speaks for itself. He can do the work on his own but if you help and he can stay at your place he gives a great discount. Hence, Ray our live in builder. After a while I liken Ray to a reality TV camera at first you're on your best behavior but soon enough that's just too taxing to keep up and you end up fighting or farting in front of him and it's all good. It was Mom and my job to prime and paint and repeat. My Mom's paint style is quite slap dash and ruin a brush. I discovered I am quite fussy wanting to sand between coats and crazy OCD about chalking. It lead to some funny hi-jinx before Ray was like um kiddo it's a screen relax. It was during this time Mom set out two rockers on the porch. One was shiny black with golden acorns painted on it honestly YUCK! The other a handsome leather seat rocker. I was like I think I can shabby chic that black one. Go for it was the response! But that of course is for another post ;)
Enjoy!
Tracy
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