Little red chest and a darling wicker love seat

I absolutely LOVE wicker love seats. The one I found had really great bones but not a lot to "say" to the world. Wicker is sort of hard to paint. If you use a brush then sometimes the actual "fabric" of the wicker gets lost in globby paint. If you spray the wicker it tends to lose some of it's character. I have done both and sold both, so it's a personal choice. When I can, I use a dry brush technique. If you look at older posts, you will see that dry brushing is picking up paint on just the end of your brush and then sort of brushing it over your canvas dropcloth or towel until there is still color but not a super wet application. Then you just brush it over your project to give color but not cover. In the case of this little love seat, I did a dry brush of sage green and then added elements of denim blue over it. The brown of the wicker came through beautifully to add to the charm of the piece. Here is the before and after.

This is how I found the piece. Purchased off of craigslist and in really great shape. Sturdy with only the tiniest bit of wicker damaged on the front.

Here is how it sits in the booth at A & J's right now. The denim touches can best be seen on the top left side of the back of the piece. I bought some Waverly red striped fabric from another dealer and recovered the cushion and then added some beautiful red floral pillows to complete the look. Really having a hard time parting with this one!
The next project was a little brown chest of drawers that I picked up at a thrift store. I painted it a tuscan red. I just love that color and I am best known around the antique mall for it. Here is the before photo.

Not much to look at but it is solid wood and the drawers are all in tact and open properly. This little chest just wanted to be more. I used two coats of tuscan red Americana paint and then rubbed a stain mixture of raw umber and water over it just to age it a bit. Distressed the corners and edges and here is the after.

Super cute and in the booth at A & J's waiting for a new home!

Happy Thrifting! XOXO the thrift addict