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French Pedestal

This garage sale find has been floating around my studio for years.


Every time I have a sale, I consider letting it go, but I never do.

So, after many narrow escapes to a better home, this piece is finally getting a make over.  First it needed to be glued in a couple places and then sanded a bit.

The process was not all that complicated or interesting so I'm skipping to the finished product.

I was mesmerized by the golden hues of the autumn leaves and chose an yellowish/orange color called Desert Sunset. (BM-2155-10)  It turns out it did not cover well.  I called the paint store and was told it's the nature of brilliant reds and yellows to take several coats to cover.  I'm somewhat familiar with that problem, but this was extremely thin and watery paint.  I was little (OK maybe more than a little) unhappy with this at first, but after applying a couple coats and seeing how it added a glow to the yellow paint underneath, I started to warm up to the look.  I did add a third coat...maybe even a fourth.  I lost track once I decided to go with the flow.

I added two coats of wax. (one clear and one dark)  Then I buffed it lightly and, only then did I consider where I was going to put this in my house.  Three floors and nine rooms, not counting bathrooms, and I don't have a single place where this color fits!

I do have that one room where I put all those things I like but that don't go with anything else in the house.  You might remember that room from the previous post.

By default, that is where it landed.


It does look good with this cupboard, but the glare from the window was sucking the color out of the painted cabinet, so you can't really see the true colors.

I tried blocking some of the light which helped, but it's still not like seeing it in person.

One more project is now off the "to-do" pile.

Now I just have to come up with something to replace the colorful leaves as fall slips away.

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