My First Shabby Makeover

Ok, so I actually did this a few months ago and I shared the pictures with my friends on Facebook, but never blogged about it. So for those of you who've already seen this, I apologize for the repetition.

So in my "hunting and gathering" phase of getting ready for Halie's Shabby Chic room makeover, I searched and searched Craigslist and thrift stores for the perfect bed. But it was so hard! Everytime I thought I'd found the perfect one either it was already sold, the seller never responded to my inquiry, or it was too expensive. Then I came across this one that a friend was selling. I almost passed it up without a second glance, but, after reading many inspiring blogs on furniture makeovers, I did give it a 2nd look. And I pictured it white, shabbied up, and with a little extra detailing to make it more feminine. Underneath that dark wood ugliness, it really did have great lines. Perfecto! At last I'd found a bed for her.







I sanded it down a bit, bought a $4 scrolly thing (that's the technical name) and epoxied it on. This was when we still lived on the ranch in Florida, so our nosy horse, Toothpick, had to check it all out, sniff it, bite it, and knock it over while I was trying to prime it.




Here it is all painted, but not distressed yet.





And here it is after some distressing with sandpaper. I had read about glazing furniture to give it an aged look and to bring out all the details, but I decided I didn't necessarily want it to have a "discolored" aged look. I wanted it to be white and just have a shabby/chippy look. But, I still wanted to emphasize the details in the scrolly thing a bit more. So I used a very fine paint brush with some black paint and filled in the lines here and there to make it stand out more.

Again, here's the "before."

And here's the "after," (in our new house), with the bedding added.

Gonna link up to: