Before and After Archives - Poppytalk

Retro Radio Reno

Jan Halvarson — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 01:40:00 +0000

A vintage radio gets a makeover

Local furniture makeover maven, Nicole Phillips of Visual Heart just finished a sweet upgrade on a vintage radio (that we stumbled upon online), for the upcoming Dinner by Design 2017 event happening at the end of this week, here in Vancouver. Under the direction of Interior Designer, Kyla Ray and a group of emerging designers from VCAD‘s interior design program that Kyla’s mentoring, the radio will be part of a display there (starting Thursday night) which features a cocktail bar and a video game lounge led by other designers. More info and details about the makeover and Dinner by Design below.

We asked Nicole about the marvelous makeover. Here’s what she told us.

“The radio was sourced at a local thrift store as part of Kyla’s design plan. I wiped it clean, sanded it to remove the shine surface. The entire piece was masked off using painters tape, it was necessary to take extra time taping it off so paint wouldn’t get on any important parts of the radio. Then I primed it with Zinsser 123 spray primer, this is the best primer on the market, it locks in stains, smells and really helps the top coat adhere to the surface. After a few coats of primer I applied Florescent pink Rustoleum paint in several very thin layers, unfortunately this paint isn’t ideal for furniture, the paint itself is very thin so it takes a while to build up an opaque layer and the finish is very matte, but the colour worked with the design plan so I just went with it. I really didn’t like the final finish, so to achieve a smoother result I applied FAT Paint Wax very liberally and buffed it out, the final result is almost like eggshell paint. The legs were painted using Rustoleum matte black.”

More about Dinner by Design 2017

When: November 16 and 17
Where: Harbour Event Centre – 750 Pacific Boulevard
Price: Free public viewing | $75 cocktail art | $300 gala dinner – Tickets available via The Social Concierge

Visit Nicole Phillips online
Blog: Visual Heart
Instagram: @visualheart
Facebook: visualheartdesigns

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Before and After: Vintage Typewriter Cart

Jan Halvarson — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 03:20:00 +0000

Guest post by Nicole Phillips of Visual Heart

Andrew and I took a drive out of town to visit family and did our usual thrift store hunt for furniture. Just when we thought we found nothing, this awesome vintage typewriter cart was hiding amongst the junk for $5. I couldn’t believe the deal we got, I was super excited to paint it a fun colour.

I spent a long while debating between a spray painted finish or using a brush. Each had their pros and cons, but I kept being drawn back to hand painting due to my budget, we already had some awesome colours in a quality paint, foam rollers etc.. Spray paint is messy, expensive, requires many cans and needs to be done outside. While spray paint does give a smoother finish, the range of colours in a high quality durable finish is pretty boring. I specifically wanted a retro colour, pistachio, mint, light blue, something like that. After the ridiculousness we went through to paint our fridge, I wasn’t about to go through that again for this cart project.
In the end I went for a hand painted finish and I’ll tell you right now I don’t regret it, it just required a heck of a lot of patience and thin coats of paint alternating between the brush and foam roller.

Tools used:
WD40
Steel Wool
Paper Towel
Mini foam roller
Small paint brush
CIL Smart3 Primer
Benjamin Moore Advance High Gloss
Andrew was kind enough to do the dirty work and remove the dirt and rust with WD40 and steel wool. It took a while to get into all the grooves and clean up the surface, but it’s important to take your time and prep the surface.

We cleaned off the excess WD40 with paper towel and let it dry a bit before coating the entire surface in CIL Smart 3 Primer with a foam roller and small paint brush. Primer will even out the surface and help the top coat stick to the smooth finish. The best technique is to use the small brush to get in the corners and any places the roller won’t fit, and since the foam roller has some flex to it, I went over the brush marks as best as I could to smooth out the finish.
Once 2 coats of primer was applied I coated it in 2-3 coats of Benjamin Moore Advance High Gloss in Mantis Green.
The only issues I had in the end was the paint peeling off a bit where the hinges move, it’s just something I had to accept because of functionality, besides it’s not that noticeable since most of the movable parts of underneath the piece. I find it also adds to the character of the cart.

About the contributor:
Nicole Phillips is a Vancouver based Graphic Designer and blogger.
You can learn more about her at visualheart.com or follow her creative side:
twitter.com/visualheart
pinterest.com/visualheart
instagram.com/visualheart

The post Before and After: Vintage Typewriter Cart appeared first on Poppytalk.

Before and After: Mid-Century Modern Cabinet

Jan Halvarson — Fri, 23 May 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Guest post by Nicole Phillips of visualheart.com

My latest find was a mid-century modern cabinet which originally came from a local art gallery, it was in rough shape with really dry wood veneer and a broken door. Not only was the door broken, but I later discovered that the entire unit was warped (including the door). Andrew ended up sanding off a small section of the door so it could close smoothly, he also had to clamp it to a flat surface to correct the warp as much as possible. Off topic – how cute is that tiny lock above the handle!

The entire cabinet was primed with several coats of white, it was crazy how much the old wood veneer soaked up the paint like a sponge. 3 coats later, the surface was finally ready for me to apply the final coat. I used Benjamin Moore Advance series. This paint is perfect for furniture, it’s high-gloss and self levelling, allowing for a very smooth finish when applied with a mini roller. For this project I used Snowfall White and Tropicana Cabana.

I liked one of my previous makeovers so much I decided to go with that style and paint the interior blue, it’s a nice way to add colour without being too obnoxious.
The legs were in decent enough condition so I opted to leave them wood if they ended up having similar wood tones as the door once the old stain was removed. The door was an issue, I removed the handle, but sadly a big chunk of the wood veneer came off with it, because it was screwed on as well as glued with some kind of super glue! At this point I thought for sure there was no way we could salvage the wood door. There was a big hole that needed to be filled and obviously it wasn’t going to match the original veneer, so I thought we had to paint it, there was no other option. Andrew thought we could sand it down and put a wide handle over it to try and hide it, but after trying that, we knew it would still be visible, plus it would also look like we were trying to hide it.

We both really wanted to salvage the wood grain, so I searched around for some ideas…and couldn’t find anything I loved and that would work for this situation. After some experimenting I decided to go with a leather door pull. I grabbed an old leather belt from the local thrift store and some brass screws from Home Depot and figured it out from there. It was fairly simple to make and I think it turned out pretty good! The best part, it sits flat against the door and hides all the imperfections from the old handle!

Click here for more detailed steps and supplies needed to make your own leather furniture pulls.

Once the door was coated with tung oil and the drawer pull was attached, it all came together. We kept the legs wood even though they were lighter, it picks up the lighter tones in the grain on the door and it’s a nice contrast to all the white.

Nicole Phillips is a Vancouver based Graphic Designer and blogger.
You can learn more about her at visualheart.com or follow her creative side:
twitter.com/visualheart
pinterest.com/visualheart
instagram.com/visualheart

The post Before and After: Mid-Century Modern Cabinet appeared first on Poppytalk.