First Custom Piece

A few weeks back I was contacted about doing my first custom piece of furniture. This was a new world to me. I normally only do my own pieces and then either keep them or sell them. If pieces are already done and somebody purchases it all is good. You know the customer liked it. When you do a custom piece there is always the worry in the back of your mind...at least mine anyways...what if they don't like what I do!? I put this silly fear aside and decided to go for it. 

This is the piece that Nicole brought to me. She actually lives in our neighborhood so that made it very easy for her to get the piece to me. She heard about me by word of mouth. I won't lie I was excited to hear that! 

Here it is after three coats of black paint with primer and being distressed. To me black is a hard color to work with so I was stressed a tad. I had not worked with latex paint in over a year. Nicole wanted a true black and thus there is no such thing in the world of chalk paint. I sure missed my chalk paint. 

Nicole requested a semi gloss sealant which again is something I don't normally work with. I usually go with a satin so it took some work to not have brush strokes every where.

It took probably around 4 coats of poly to get everything just the way I wanted it.

I decided to clean the inside out and even put a coat of poly on the inside as well. 

I was quite pleased with the end result.

Here it is just before it headed home. It was sitting on an incline so the one door would not stay shut. It is the best I could get.

Off it went to its home. I was super excited to hear what Nicole was going to think since her hubby was the one to pick it up. She was at home with sick kiddos!:(

A very short time later she texted me this pic! It now sits in its new home in her foyer. Nicole was thrilled and so was I! Now I can say bring on the custom pieces!:)

Don't forget about Treasure Hunt Thursday still going on!

Treasure Hunt Thursday #58 & Highlights

Welcome to THT # 58! Hope everybody's week is going well. We had a ton of great links last week so lets get on with the highlights!:)

Robin over at Happy at Home shared how she made this fabulous DIY boxwood wreath! It turned out gorgeous. A rainy project I will be attempting soon. 

Ranae over at Ewe Creek Cottage showed us how to make super delicious eggplant parm!

Linda over at It All Started With Paint shared with us her amazing foyer transformation. She did a fabulous job!

And speaking of foyers Linsey over at Farmhouse Front Porch made over her foyer without spending any money at all! Go check it out and learn her secret!

And I must not forget Amanda over at Girl In Pink and her beyond gorgeous buffet!! I drool every time I see it!

As always thank you to all who partied last week! I am so truly honored to have such talent partying at my place! If you were featured please feel free to grab the "I've Been Featured" button!:) I have the newly updated button with html code on my sidebar! 

 What would be a HUGE help and encourage more comments not just from me but others as well would be for everybody to take off their required verification codes for leaving a comment. This seems to take just a few seconds of time but when you have to do it on 30 or more blogs it takes up a TON of time. Last week most everybody had turned off their Word Verification which made it so much easier for me to stop by everybody's links! Thank you!
READ THE RULES PLEASE!:)
Now on to this weeks party! As with all parties there are the normal rules. You must link back to From My Front Porch To Yours in your THT POST. Just common courtesy. If ya don't link back ya don't get to party. Only link up to your Treasure Hunt Thursday post and NOT your blog homepage. Please No advertising and PLEASE NO MORE than 3 links from the SAME party goer. Also NO MORE linking up to your own link parties. I am seeing more and more link ups of just people promoting their own linky parties. I know it takes time to go back and make a separate post to join the party but it is just the polite thing to do. If you find your post deleted it is not because I am a meany, I just have to make sure the rules are being followed. You can save some of your posts for the following weeks party!Please only link up new posts and not posts that you linked up the week before.Also be sure to visit at least the link before you and after you to just say Hi! It makes partying all the more fun! If you are new around here I would love it if ya become a follower!:)

Long Awaited

Back in April I shared with y'all an ornate french writing desk that I had purchased. I was super giddy over it!

This is the desk. Since I posted about it I have had many inquiries about when I was going to be done with it. It was in worn shape for sure with drink rings on the top and was tacky because the owner had put a coat of stain on the top without sanding it down first. It required some loving indeed.  

A few weeks back I shared this sneak peek of it on my blog FB page. I had just finished with a crackling technique.

Well here is the long awaited reveal! It is100% finally completed.

I just loved all the ornate detail that this desk has and knew once I painted it it would pop out even more.

The desk has one drawer.

It went thru several layers of paint and distressing.

I love the time worn feel it has now. 

I sanded down the top of the desk and put new stain on it.

Then I added not one, not two and not three but four layers of semi gloss poly to seal it. I was initially only going to do two coats but since I normally work just with wipe on poly I was majorly obsessed with not being able to see brush strokes and those darn little bubbles that sometimes show up with poly. I may have gone a little over board but I think it was worth it.

The desk has carvings on all four sides which you do not find often.

I call this the back of the desk but really I guess it could be the front. 

I used my Annie Sloan Chalk Paint on this piece. Let me tell ya I was working on and still am working on a custom buffet that I used latex on. I have not really used latex paint in over a year so it actually kinda scared me even though that use to be all I ever painted with. All was fine with it but honestly it just reaffirmed my love of chalk paint.

The Hubster is madly in love with this desk. He wants to keep it and put it in his office. Not sure why cause I think its kinda girly for him but I won't tell him that!;) The office is already completed and by replacing his desk with this one will totally throw off the entire room. Sadly enough I think I will be selling this piece. We just have no room for it. I have tried to see where I could work it in anywhere in our home and it just won't fit. Sorry honey!:( I am truly honored though that he wants to keep this piece for himself. It will be a hard piece to let go.

I have been working almost non stop so I will have a few more reveals coming up soon!:) Hope y'all are doing well and thanx so much for sticking with me and stopping by to visit even though its been very quiet around here. I appreciate all of you so very much!

I am linking up to the following link parties:
Metamorphosis Monday
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
Tuesdays Treasures
Cow Girl Up
Wow Us Wednesdays
Transformation Thursday
Furniture Feature Friday
Feathered Nest Friday
Inspiration Friday