Someone gave me a bunch of frames. Unfortunately, they are all odd sizes and do not fit any of my paintings. So I have been trying to find a use for them, a few of them I cut down and put together for sizes I needed.
I checked with Gary at Mill 77 in Amesbury as to what was selling. Most of the frames selling right now are large and painted white. People are watching the show Fixer Upper and want to copy the style of the show. That gave me an idea for some of the frames but not all. My initial thought was to make them into serving trays but Gary indicated that they do not sell all that well unless they were unique in some way. His advice was to make something unique, useful and white. That seems to be what is selling now.
I left Mill 77 with a side table that I paid 16 dollars for. The table had been varnished and someone painted over it with an acrylic paint that was chipping and cracked. I thought that as a first project I would 're-purpose' the table by including a serving tray made from one of the frames.
When I got home I tried adding some frames (soon to be trays) on the table and it did not work at all.
So, the only thing I could do was to strip the paint off and repaint it. A plain white table would be too common, what I needed was something unique. I felt that a table designed to go in a summer cottage would sell.
Being in Southern Maine where summer visitors might want to furnish their summer cottages would be just the thing. The theme I choose was 'Sea Foam', I combined aqua, a light blue and white for the sides and sponged the colors on the top to imitate foam on the sea.
The original table. I was reluctant to remove the art work that someone had so laboriously added to the table, but as you can see the paint was badly cracked and peeling.
After all the paint and varnish was stripped off.
Starting to add the primer.
Primed and waiting for the painting to start.
Testing to see how it would look.
Waiting for the paint to dry before adding a Poly finish.
Close up of table top.
Completed!
A study in red
