French Book Cart

A couple of weeks ago my daughter sent me on an errand for her late on a Saturday afternoon.  As I was driving, I spotted a yard sale still going on.  I did my usual drive-by and spotted this three-tiered stand in the back piled with stuff.  I stopped immediately because it looked interesting and I love shelving and storage projects.  I am calling this a book cart because I just can't think of what else to call it.  You can see I put my fancy vintage jars and perfume bottles on it.

The before picture is at the end of the post.  I can hardly stand to look at it.  My husband removed the stickers for me and painted the whole piece black with Canyon Black by Rustoleum American Accents.  That gave me a clean palate to work with.

I just got this great new feed sack stencil from Maison de Stencils that I wanted to try out.  For the link to the stencil click here.  This is the 18 x 12 size.  I used an acrylic ivory paint for the base coat of the stencil.  I used masking tape to make the border to keep my lines straight.  I just happened to have this corner embossing stencil by Anna Griffin that I used in the corners, but you could use a rubber stamp as well or a fleur de lis.

After the base coat was done, I took a heavy liner type brush and dipped it in the ivory paint and then some raw umber paint and proceeded to go over the letters and the line work.  This gave me an aged effect.  Don't mix the colors on your brush.  They will go onto your surface randomly as they come off your brush.  I was trying to achieve an old painted look as if there was discoloration.

I used a flat wider brush to get into the wreath.  Then I took my liner brush again and did the same thing with the brush and added random lines outside of the wreath leaves to give a more relaxed look. 

There was more wording on the stencil than would fit on the top so I used each line of print on each of the tiered fronts.  Worked out perfectly.  Notice my lettering does not look stenciled.  That's because I went over it with the wide liner brush.  I wanted it to look hand done.   Don't forget that if you have a space in your letter, go back with the liner brush and fill it in.  You don't want the stenciled look, do you?

When it was finished, I sanded it back to make it look old and then sealed it with Valspar Clear Flat spray.  Below is what it looked like when I started.  This is what I call our spray booth.  Hey, it works.

I'm partying at...


Mondays          The House in the Roses       Metamorphosis Monday        The Graphics Fairy
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Tutus and Tea Parties       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage   
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style           Primp         Faded Charm Cottage            
                                     Fine Craft Guild     Ivy and Elephants
Thursdays        Embracing Change     The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Tablescape Thursday    Delightfully Inspiring Thursdays
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    At the Picket Fence     Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Decorating Insanity
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors