Holiday Boutique Season: Round 2

Yesterday was nothing short of OUTSTANDING. 

We were setup (and I thought prepared) for a fun day at the Annual SOLLC Art and Craft show but had no idea how much love and support we would receive. The lines started right at 9am and didn't really let up until noon. With the help of Paul and my friend Angie, they hauled in more product, restocked as fast as possible, wrapped up purchases and even helped haul goods out to cars. It was so nice to have the help from them both yesterday, it allowed me to have a few minutes to chat with all the ladies (and a few brave men) along the way.

I woke this morning with a grateful heart and added motivation to get creating more beautiful and unique things for you all.

I have always said that I love being a maker but without the continued support of my customers, friends and family, this little biz of mine wouldn't be squat! Thank you once again for shopping local, supporting small businesses and purchasing handcrafted goods.

-Crystal

Linking up

Art is Beauty

Holiday Boutique Season 2015

I have a great schedule of shows that we are participating in this holiday season...a couple new events and a few regulars that I just love doing year after year. If you want info on where we will be, please check out our Facebook page.

The first pop up show this year was this past THURSDAY and it was an incredibly fun night. Shopping, dinner and drinks with a plethora of amazing ladies...a night like no other!

Here is a quick look at some of the handcrafted creations that we brought to the show. If you've been following us for awhile, you'll see that we are bringing back a few favorites as well as introducing many new items.

Without further ado, let me show you what I've been working on for the last several weeks and what you can expect to see at the holiday shows.

Thanks to all who came out and shopped our booth, the support was overwhelming!

Hope to see you all again real soon!

October Projects: A Hodgepodge of Projects

Hello UP followers!

I know, I know. It's been a month since I've posted anything but I really have several good excuses. Meh, we all have excuses so let's not dwell on that and let's get to the projects from this past month.

I have everything in this post from a custom industrial table that we created for a local family to a clock we donated to a benefit for a young lady fighting her second battle with breast cancer. 

Let's get started.

This industrial coffee table was created for a local family. The wood that we used on the top was reclaimed from their Great Grandparents farm in North Dakota. {of course our camera shy friend wanted to get in on the action too}

I have also been working on a new line of industrial wall decor. These metal and reclaimed wood signs are in various sizes and wording. Look for them to be on Etsy in the coming weeks and at some of the Holiday Boutiques that I will be participating in.

Love how the boards cleaned up on this table, the clear coat really brought out the right amount of red paint and character too.

UP donated this giant wall clock to a benefit for a local breast cancer fighter. We were honored to have been able to help this young lady in her fight!

The clock is a repurposed wooden spool, that has been finished in a driftwood look. To complete the look we with distressed the numbers and added some industrial metal accents.

And finally, I got back into the studio to mix up this custom Annie Sloan Chalk Paint color...a lovely medium grey. Absolutely smitten by the balance of the stained wood with the warm grey and the mercury glass knobs. I have a lot of favorite projects over the year, but this color mix has got to be in my top 5!

 It's been almost 3 years since Urban Patina started and we continue to find so much enjoyment in creating unique, one-of-a-kind projects. Meeting and conversing with so many amazing people that enjoy and appreciate the history and art as much as we do, is just the icing on the cake!

Have a great week!

Sunday Photo Gallery

So many new projects out of the shop this week and a ton more are in process. No rest for this girl in the coming weeks, so keeping it short today and simply sharing a photo gallery.

Buffets. Clocks. Custom Industrial Signs.

Enjoy the first week of Autumn---I love these cooler temps and gorgeous fall colors!

~Crystal

Midweek Makeover: Mid Century Buffet

 Who can deny that we tend to gravitate to comfortable situations and familiar territories. It's so much easier in every way when you know what to expect. I know that is certainly the case for me most of the time. However, on occasion, I force myself to try something that is not in my wheelhouse...this Mid Century buffet was one of those projects.

It's really hard to articulate the frustrations that went into this project. Simply looking at the before and after pictures, you're probably thinking 'she's just being overly dramatic'...'how could this project have been that tough!' I should have captured some 'in progress pictures' so you could thoroughly enjoy the chaos!

But since I don't have detailed pictures to share, imagine if you can, two solid weeks of:

Paint a little bit

{notice poor paint coverage issues}

Stand back and critique

Apply a clear coat to seal the entire piece in hopes of better paint coverage

Paint some more

Critique some more

More coverage issues

{vow that I'm never taking on another mid century piece AS LONG AS I LIVE}

Contemplate throwing the buffet in the fire pit

{no that's wasteful, I'll put it out at the curb for some eager passerby}

Apply more sealer

Resolve to leave it sit for another day and assess the mess in the morning

Repeat

This went on for TWO, LONG, FRUSTRATING weeks. I thought I would never get this nightmare out of the shop!

'How could one piece be so finicky and temperamental', I would mumble as I stomped through the shop. {I may have used some graphic language too, but I'll spare you those details}

And then it happened...I began to see the progress unfolding and I was actually starting to like what I was witnessing before my eyes. Who knew it was possible!

I can honestly say that I'm happy I stuck with this project and finished it up because it's quite the looker now!

~Crystal

One Nightstand {Nope, Two!}

My husband brought home this antique vanity for me earlier this spring. Seriously, how lucky am I! Some women get excited when their man brings them flowers...not me, I get all silly over a junky piece of furniture. To each their own I guess:)

This vanity is a different style then I'm use to making over, but it's good for me to work on pieces that are outside my comfort zone. {I just kept telling myself that as I stared at this piece in the garage for THE ENTIRE SUMMER!}

Finally a couple weeks ago, as we were embarking on Operation: Park in the Garage Again, I forced myself to tackle this makeover.

What's not apparent from the before picture is the abundant veneer issues and the broken mirror. After chewing on this girl for a few months, I decided to deconstruct it into two compact and functional nightstands.

After applying loads of wood filler, sanding and then more wood filller...somehow these little gems came to life. I used my favorite ASCP in Graphite and some new cream colored ceramic knobs to update the pair and make them uber cute once again.

Here's the before and after as well as a bunch of closeups for your viewing pleasure.

 As always, thanks for stopping by and checking out my latest makeover. Hope you are enjoying a beautiful Labor Day weekend!

~Crystal

This week's link ups include:
Finding Silver Pennies
 Vintage Inspiration Party

Modern Rustic End Tables

Leather tops on tables.

You know the ones...they only looked good until someone spilled a drink or burned a hole in the leather. Well my latest project was a textbook case of yucky leather tables in dire straits and in serious need of a makeover.

 I started by removing the four leather inserts on the end tables.

What was I left with?

A clean slate and lots of potential.

When I removed the leather, I was left with a slight dip on the tops. I've seen a lot of makeovers where people use yard sticks to resurface the tops and i thought i could possibly do that. But I really wanted a cleaner look, something without all the advertisements that you see on yard sticks.

So I decided to use plain strips of wood cut at different lengths. I sanded, stained and sealed each one to create a rustic look and feel. I know it looks like I used different stains on the wood, but I didn't. Each piece of wood took the color differently, a pleasant surprise!

Now the hard part...trying to organize and fit them all in place, It was like a puzzle nightmare! I was sorta regretting my design decision a this point. {'Oh Crystal, you've had better ideas than this', I thought over and over in my head!}

I didn't throw in the towel, and man oh man am I glad I didn't!

Once I had all of the strips in place, I painted the table bodies with Annie Sloan Old Ochre and Old White, heavily distressing and then sealed them with clear and dark wax. To finish off the look, I tossed the old hardware and updated it with some new chunky silver cup pulls.

A few more shots of the tables.

Despite the moments of doubt and frustration, I'm quite happy with how they turned out.

Well, that's all for today. I hope you have enjoyed this project makeover and I've inspired you to take on a leather top makeover of your own!

-Crystal

Linking up to:
Vintage Inspiration Party
Dream. Create. Inspire.

Antique Chest of Drawers {Reggie}

Please allow me to introduce you to Reggie.

He's rich and sophisticated. He knows and embraces his assets and he highlights them naturally! He's sturdy and glides effortlessly on his beautiful roller feet.

He's every girl's dream.

So why do I call him Reggie? Well...when I was prepping this tall beauty, I found a letter carefully stowed under a drawer liner. The letter was to Reggie from a lady that had apparently made a romantic move on Reggie and was apologizing if her actions had caused problems between Reggie and his wife. There wasn't a date on the letter, so I don't know exactly how old it was, but the fact that Reggie had kept the letter all these years was intriguing. I love finding little nuggets like this inside the pieces I restore. 

Here are a few more pictures highlighting the beautiful wood grain, the new hardware and the birds eye maple drawers.

Thanks for looking at my guy Reggie!

Have a great Sunday!

~Crystal