Happy Friday Everyone!  For this week’s “Inspiration” I have an extra special post.  I am blessed with the best readers!  Linda is one of my lovely readers who is willing to share the rewards of her hard work and talent.

Here is a before picture of Linda’s piano.

Here is the stunning after.

Love, love the red paint with the black glaze.

The glaze gives the piano a little extra depth and dimension and a whole lot of character.

The glaze also helps define and highlight intricate details like above.

 It may take some time and elbow grease for this kind of transformation.  Linda said, “It was a lot of work, but so worth it!”  I agree!  Linda, you have done a gorgeous job!  I hope you have been as inspired as I have.  Have a wonderful weekend!

I was done painting the bottom cabinets last week.  I planned to post pictures last Friday or maybe Saturday but…  I couldn’t get the kitchen clean, then I got it clean but couldn’t keep it clean enough to take pictures.  I was finally able to get everyone out of the house long enough to get the kitchen clean and then keep it clean for pictures.  I had a great photo shoot and was excited to look at the pictures on the computer.  I went to take the memory card out of my new camera and it wasn’t there (Grrrrr!)  I thought “No problem, I’ll just get the memory card out of the old camera and take some more pictures”".  Well, I dug out the old camera and the memory card was missing from that one too.  Yes, I have a memory card thief on the loose.  I am suspecting Mr. Mischief, my three-year old.  Rather than tear the house apart looking for the lost cards, I went ahead and took some pictures with my phone because I figured that I wouldn’t have a chance to have a clean kitchen for another week (it’s a short week this week at school).

I was just planning to paint and glaze the lower cabinets green but Handy Hubby and I love it so much we decided to paint the uppers too.  I will go buy a new memory card and take some decent pictures when I am finished with the whole kitchen .

Here is a video I made…

Sometimes it is easier to see and do rather than read and do, that is why I made this video.  I hope it is easy to follow.  I don’t watch videos often and this is the first one I have made.  It was really fun making it with my Handy Hubby.  I need to thank him for hours and hours of filming, and editing.  Thank you so much Honey!  I am planning to more videos in the future.  If there is something you’d like to see let me know.

Since I abandoned my master bedroom redo, I decided to repaint the lower cabinets in my kitchen.  It’s been about five years since I first painted them.  That was well before my blogging days so I didn’t do step-by-step instructions.  I  decided to go with a darker color on the bottom cabinets because they get so much wear-and-tear.  This is a custom color.  It is a Benjamin Moore color but I had Home Depot mix it up (they have Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore formulas on file) in the Behr Ultra premium paint.  The color is half intensity of “Olive Branch”.

Step One:  Prep.  Sand, degrease and wash and dry.

Step Two:  Paint base coat (above), let dry at least four hours.

Step Three:  Mix the glaze.  I find it easier to work with glaze and paint mixed at a 6 to 1 ratio  (six cups of glaze to one cup of paint).  You can of course buy premixed glaze.  Martha Stewart has a line.  I have not used any premixed glaze though ( I think it is expensive).  I mixed Behr’s glazing medium and Behr’s Traditional (a dark brown regular not Ultra paint).

Step Four:  Apply glaze.

I like to apply the glaze with a sponge brush.  It really gets the glaze into the grooves.  Don’t be afraid to slop the glaze on because in the next step, the glaze is removed.

Step Five remove the glaze.  The glaze dries fast (that’s why I like to mix it with paint 6:1 instead of the 4:1 recommended).  Slop it into every little nook and cranny and then wipe it off the flat surfaces with a wet (but not dripping wet) rag or paper towel.  Don’t wipe too hard along the places you want the glaze to stay.

Step Six:  Add a bit extra glaze to the corners and edges.  It works really well when you rub the edge of the sponge brush along the edge.  You can also use an artist’s brush for the details.

Step Seven:  Let dry.  If you want you can apply a second coat of glaze.

Step Eight:  Protect your finish with a couple of coats of polyurethane.  I like the wipe on kind.

It might help to watch this video I made.

It really isn’t that much added work to add a  glaze.  It goes really fast.  Glazing adds so much character to your project.  It adds depth and dimension without really changing the color.  The sky’s the limit when you  layer paints and glazes.  You can use a black or brown glaze for an aged patina.  You could do a white or cream glaze for a beachy, sun-bleached look.    Here are some popular combos to consider; aqua base and white glaze, cream base with brown glaze, red base with black glaze.  And here are some that I would like to try; turquoise base with gold glaze, plum base with silver glaze, and yellow with white glaze.

Here’s some tips; practice first on a canvas or artist board,  if your glaze is too thick add more glazing medium,  if your glaze is too thin add more paint,  if the glaze is drying too fast add more glazing medium,  if you want a darker glaze it’s easier to add a second coat of glaze or don’t remove the glaze just spread it with your brush until it’s even (I’m working on a how-to video, hope to have that up next week) And if you are just not happy with the results, let the glaze dry completely and then repaint your base color.  You can always try again.  It’s just paint.  It’s a creative process, no one is going to tell you did it wrong.  I f you love it then who cares what anyone else says?  Unless of course they say they love it too!

     I have done more than my fair share of decorative wall treatments in my day.  I was queen of sponge painting back in the day.  When Ralph Lauren came out with the denim wall treatment I had to try that out on my kids’ bedroom walls.  I have also stenciled, painted stripes, squares, circles, polka dots and free-handed tree branches with  blossoms.  I love paint and I am always excited to try something new.  Today, I wanted to try a linen/grasscloth look on the wall behind the bed in my bedroom (this is where the good idea goes bad).  I figured the linen look wasn’t that far off the denim look (which I was successful at even as a complete novice).  I have a linen brush that I purchased at Home Depot years back when they still carried Ralph Lauren products.  I had the glaze mixed and ready to go.  I followed the instructions, but my project didn’t turn out right.  I think maybe I used too many different tints of glaze and didn’t let each coat dry completely between coats.  Anyway, I ended up with cock-eyed stripes instead of beautiful linen or grasscloth look wallpaper.  So, what am I going to do now?  I don’t know.  I will paint over the faux linen mess with some of the leftover wall color for now.  Maybe it will stay that way until I can afford the original plan for the wall, brick.  Guess I’ll have to chalk this one up to “lessons learned the hard way”.  Thank goodness it’s easy to get a do-over with paint!  Hope you are heaving a better weekend than me