swirls.

i really donnnnt like working with oil-based paints, but i had to this week (since i was painting some doors and trim). a few nights, i had to bring my brushes out and clean, clean, cleaaaan them with mineral spirits.

looking into my mineral spirits container the other evening, this is what i saw. i thought it was really pretty:

happy weekend, everyone.

cockadoodledooooo

remember a few weeks ago, when i hand-painted some custom knobs for a baby's dresser, then i decided i would offer you guys the option of custom knobs for your plain-jane furniture or furniture projects? welllll, i got my first order!

renault, who i painted these for, has a cute little console in her kitchen (i WILL get pics of the knobs actually on the piece soon!) that needed a little pep-up. she has an awesome folk-art-y rooster painting hanging in there as well, so she wanted to draw inspiration from the painting for the knobs! (i wish i still had the photo, but i accidentally deleted it!)

i painted 3 roosters, and 3 knobs striped (they're supposed to resemble the rooster's crazy tail):

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if you'd like to order custom knobs, please email me at kristen.fountain@gmail.com. i am selling them in lots of 2's, and they are $7/each.

jaclyn's dresser.

i did this project last week as well...

jaclyn basically knew what she wanted, so i just had to translate it onto the dresser! she is ordering a headboard that is this creamy antiqued color with a "caramel" colored antiquing on it. i tried to match that antiquing color from this photo:

(i don't know where either of the magazine pages are from!)

as well as tie in some of that appley-limey green to the decorative part on the front (she also requested black and that coppery/gold to accent the green). i loooove doing this decorative swirls on things - i just doodle them on with my watercolor pencil, then paint on top of them. it's very fun and freeeee! i could do these swirls all day long :)

this dresser started out as a "normal" wooden dresser (no before shot - sorry), and i sanded it up and painted on. it was really fun to "dirty" up something that was nice, hehe...

here it was before i painted the swirls on. you can see the sketches i did for the swirls...

i liked it this way too, but doing the swirls was the best!

and some detail shots of the swirls:

and here's the top:

i actually did the top a litttttttle bit deeper of a "caramel" distressed color, just for variation, i guess.

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i actually painted a big, 6 foot mirror a distressed green for her as well, so i hope to go back and grab better 'after' shots of both items later!

i'm back and other stuff.

hello! so sorry i forgot to mention that i was going out of town this past weekend. we had a really great family vacation, and i have been sooo very busy lately with work that i was basically working right up until the hour the plane took off wednesday night! anyway, i'm back now, with lots of projects to share this week...

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first up, is this fun old chest that i painted for sara to be used as her new coffee table. sara is so cute, and has such a great sense of style - her house is amazing (soon i'll get some photos as the chest actually being used as a coffee table so you guys can see her awesome taste!) i also love her because she told me that i could do whatever i wanted to this chest, as long as it was green ( gotta love a blank canvas...)

and here it is after i painted it its first coat of green. it was so humid outside, that i actually had to dry it with a hair dryer to get it to dry! darn the georgia humidity!

here it is after i did this scallop/trellis-y pattern on the top:

the pattern kind of mimics a pattern that is in sara's rug, and i wanted to do SOME kind of pattern on it, rather than just a solid color...

custom canvases for a nursery.

last weekend, i told you guys i was working on some canvases for a baby room. i already did some decorative stars and swirls in the room...

you can kind of see the bedding in that photo, but megan loved the fabrics in the bedding she chose (i do too!), so she wanted to "pull" them out a little more so that they were more obvious when you walk into the room. enter my custom canvases...

i told you guys that these were the fabrics that were my inspiration:

and here are my canvases:

aaand, of course i had to show you guys a shot i took of them drying while mika protects them:

you'll also notice that there are 3 little circular frames i painted as well. megan found them at marshall's for only $3 each, and i painted them to match with the colors of the room. she's got a little "circle" theme going on - isn't it cute?

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when this nursery is all done, i will be sure and get some great shots of everything for you guys. megan's doing an awesome job of pulling it all together, and i LOVE the bright color scheme!

love.

oh hey, last week i got to meet jonathan adler. true story.

he came to atlanta to give a talk at the gift market, and one of my sweet clients got me a pass. the talk was about "staying trendy and true to you," and of course he was the best person to give that talk! it was really inspirational and funny at the same time, and we all know jonathan adler is the king of staying true to his style, while being mega-successful at the same time. it's something all artists and designers struggle with, and it was refreshing to hear someone to tell you NOT to sell out! :)

i was really hesitant to post this photo because a) i look disgusting, and b) i look like i am 2 feet taller and larger than him, which i am not. weird angle. also, a lady tried to sneak into our photo on the right side, so i had to crop her out. weirdo! oh well!

striped bathroom!

last week, i promised better 'after' photos of this fun beige-and-white striped bathroom. emily's bathroom had some older fixtures, so she and her mom came up with the idea to hang a shower curtain in place of the old shower stall, and to stripe the curtain along with the wall. i thought it was a GREAT idea, and it turned out wonderfully. i used the same paint as i used on the wall, and other than being a little stiff, it worked fine.

here is the bathroom striped, but without the shower curtain hanging. the stripes look great, but the dated shower stall & tile kind of distract the eye...

and here it is, all done!

the other side of the bathroom:

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...and because i'm sure i'll get some emails about it - the shower curtain was just a standard canvas white shower curtain. we simply held the shower curtain up to the stall/wall, and measured where the stripes should be on the it (when it would be hanging) and then i striped it off with tape the same way i'd tape the wall off. it was very easy, and made such a nice custom look!

working weekend.

sooo, i know i promised 'after' photos of the ol' striping project, but i wasn't able to get them yet! you will just have to stay on the very edges of your little seats, my internet friends. i know it will be a nail-biting weekend for you all. mwahahaha :)

i will be working all weekend for a monday deadline, so cross your fingers for me that i get it all done!

* * *

i'll leave you guys with photos of these fabrics that i will be using to make custom canvases for a baby nursery project that is coming up pretty soon (remember the nursery with the white stars on the wall?)

happy weekend!

a peek.

tomorrow, i will show you guys the outcome of this project i completed on monday! sorry for only showing the beginning of the project - i'm going back this evening to snap better "after" pics!

hope everyone is having a great week!

table transformation.

last week, i transformed this table and chairs with just a little paint...

this table and chairs were just simple wood...

i just did a distressed black finish on the base and the chairs of the table, but it really changed the entire look of the set. it seems like it is more grounded in the space, not to mention a little more elegant and finished.

weekend trip.

there has been a little silence on my blog for the past few days, and it's because jordan and i took a weekend trip to washington, dc to visit my brother! yayyyyy, brother-time! (notice i ended my last post in "have a good weekend" and it was thursday morning --oops!)

on our trip, we did lots of fun things.

i've been to dc a few times since my brother moved there, so we knocked some sights off of the list that we hadn't done yet. one of them being the washington national cathedral. it was reallllly beautiful, and made me feel and wish i was in europe!

heres a photo looking out the top of the cathedral onto the city:

saturday, the boys wanted to watch the world cup, so we went to a cute little restaurant/bar called birch and barley to watch the game. they had awesome turquoise penny tile in the bathroom (why yes, that was me snapping photos in the stall)

we also got a chance to visit my brother's girlfriend's cute row house:

...and meet her cats! (you can imagine that i made the request that this happen)

the night before we left, we took a twilight (no vampires, i asked and checked) boat cruise down the potamic! it was really great.

my favorite photo from the trip:

ahoy, friends.

finally, we ended the night with fireworks on the water. it was a welcomed surprise to the boat cruise:

we had such a fun, whirlwind trip! glad to be back home now, and really glad to have lots of work to get back to! i've got a super busy week, so stay tuned for photos of all my projects comin' atcha!

mikas favorite pastime.

he actually kept climbing inside of the little table (and just hanging out in there) every time i removed the drawers ... i often joke that one of his favorite hobbies is sniffing furniture that i bring home. i mean, let's face it - it's not like indoor cats have a lot of variety in life, so my furniture-hauling-home is a real treat for a bored housecat.

have a great weekend, my pals.

new table for sale.

***post-edit: sold!***

new lil side table fo' sale, friends.

sweet little burnt orange side table. this piece was probably originally made in the 50's, and i brought it back to life with some TLC and paint! it's got cool black and white paper lining the drawers, and vintage-looking knobs. 15" deep, 15" wide, and 28" tall. email me at kristen.fountain@gmail.com to purchase/for questions

i could definitely see this cute little table in a nursery, used as a rocking chair side table, or maybe in a fun bedroom as a nightstand. whatever it's used as, it'll add so much fun to its future home!

easily shippable, too!

fun side tables.

i just completed a couple of small side table projects for a client...she had these tables already (both were solid wood), and i made them over for her. my inspiration for both of the tables was the bedding from anthropologie that she'd already bought...

i painted it in a distressed black, and then painted flowers on the top that match the bedding in her master bedroom...

and, here is the second table that i completed yesterday for her:

here was the bedding inspiration - i love the color combination! pretty corals, mustards, and lavenders..

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if you live in or around atlanta, georgia, and have decorative painting you would like done, please email me at kristen.fountain@gmail.com