Aff Wood

Sunday, February 23, 2014

MIXING BROWN PAINT PAINTING HARDWARE COLOR LAYERING

I first showed you this big nine drawer French Provincial dresser at the beginning of the week:

http://blogspot.ca/2013/12/generosity-hard-work-and-provence.html

Painted in Provence this piece would benefit from having a dark stained top, however as I dont have

a workshop and the outside weather was not going to allow me to strip it I had to come up with a

different plan for indoors. That plan was a distressed 4 layer paint finish.

I started by painting the top brown.

Annie Sloan does not have a chocolate brown paint currently so I mixed my own.

You can make brown by mixing blue and orange, or red and green, or yellow and purple.

This is the first step to making brown but to change hue and shades be sure to read this:

http://www.wikihow.com/Mix-Paint-Colors-to-Make-Brown

Then I painted the top with AS Old Ochre, a strong crème color.

I waxed the edges on this layer to strengthen the white color for distressing later.

The 3rd layer was AS Provence, the same blue I painted the body of the dresser.

This layer was completely waxed and distressed all over.

Then came the final layer of the same brown you started with. I used a clear wax for my finished

look. You could try a dark wax to get more depth but I wanted the blue showing through to hold

the same color as the body.

When working on something like this be brave and experiment. Try different distressing technics all

on the same surface. Use different sand paper grits and try sanding before and after waxing. Trying

new things is what will achieve new results. The top of your projects can always look different than

the bottom and a nice large flat surface is the best place to practice.

The body of this dresser was done much simpler by painting a quick coat of AS Old Ochre,

followed by a good layer of AS Provence. Only clear waxing over the blue.

Below is a close up of some distressing done on the drawers with a light hand and a 220 grit sand

paper. Done right you get to see the light color of the Old Ochre showing through.

All my sanding is done by hand.

The handles I used are original but they were almost a black color. I wanted a warmed up tone so I

lightly sprayed them with a Tremclad gold hammered finish. I didnt want a solid gold either so I

washed them with some acetone so they would have an aged gold feel. Acetone is the same as your

nail polish remover.

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There are over 1000 pieces of used hardware to choose from

Etsy Shop.

DIY Folding Sawhorses First Design

Sawhorses, every shop needs them, everyone probably needs another set. I know I do but I wanted something different, something that was easy to store, not to heavy, very sturdy, and all one piece. I have been wanting a set like these for a while and I have looked on the internet for different plans and different designs but I could never find anything I really liked.

(The following is a little story leading up to these sawhorses, feel free to skip down a bit)
Here recently I was working with my cousin who owns a construction company and he has an enclosed trailer that he hauls his tools around in. He also just recently had to let an employee of 6 years go due partly to the economy and partly to performance. One thing about the past employee is keeping things neat and organized (or so my cousin claims, but he doesnt have much room to talk). Anyways, the enclosed trailer is about a 14x8 I would guess and is full of tools, nails, hoses, chords and a bunch of other stuff that has no business being in there or either needs to be thrown out. One thing is a set crappy saw horses that are beyond their prime and are just thrown in on top of everything else. This situation got me thinking I need to give him a set of folding saw horses.

So with the sawhorses on my mind I was watching a video of a fellow woodworkers on Lumberjocks, where he was building a computer table out of plywood which somehow made a light bulb go on in my head.

The problem with alot of lightweight sawhorses is that they wobble, I hate when they wobble. So I thought I could make the legs on each side out of one piece of plywood that way they would not wobble. Then I got on Google Sketchup and came up with these versatile folding sawhorses.

Click on any image to make it larger.

I have only built the one so far but its great. It took some time to work a few kinks out but here they are. They arent very heavy and you could easily carry two at one time, I think the leg frames could be made a bit narrower without any problem which would make them even lighter.

One thing I wanted which I have seen on a few other horses is a replaceable top board because they get cut up so easily after a while. You can also have different boards for different applications like a large clamping surface or a panel cutting jig.

They fold up nicely and are only about 4" wide. All you have to do is lift them up and they close right up, no block or pin to remove. They set up easily, just set them on the ground and ease out one leg and thats it.

They arent very complicated, just some plywood, hinges, and some rope.

I hope other people like them as much as I do. If people find it difficult to copy them then I would be happy to redraw them up in Sketchup or even make a video on them. So let me know what you think, feel free to comment!

JACKS BACK flag dresser

FINISHED

DURING

BEFORE

Here are some close ups for you.

UPDATE: Jacks found a lady friend

read about it here

Showing Jack off at:

Empire in Peacock

I picked up this cool empire style dresser in tiger oak and it sat around until I figured out what

to do with it. It barely hits me at my hip. Were people super small 100 years ago or what??

This is a perfect piece for a little person.

The wood wasnt in the best condition and I ended up replacing one of the drawer bottoms. Plus, the top is not solid. Its a veneer tiger oak. (Did you know that tiger oak and quarter-sawn is the same?)

Anyhoo, Since its so low, I thought about doing a cool peacock mosaic on top. I must have a

bazillion mosaic tiles in every color.