Arts & Crafts: Media Cabinet Re-Do

Hey, all...I took some time away from the garden (it's frustrating me, anyway, right now) for a different sort of project.  Our media cabinet needed an upgrade and I finally pulled the trigger and bought a new one.  The new piece wasn't quite right the way it came, however, so the project also included faux finishing.

This is what we had, originally.  These photos were taken back in 2012 before we started using this dresser as a media cabinet / TV stand.

Memphis and the original dressser.

More Memphis

I liked the old piece.  I've always thought that it is OK to mix modern furniture with Shaker-style because both share a similar no-nonsense simplicity.  Anyway.  You probably wouldn't have guessed that the old piece is IKEA.  Yup.  It was a "Hemnes" dresser in medium fruitwood finish before I went to town on it with all my "antiquing" skills.  I sanded it, distressed it, replaced the original metal knobs with wooden knobs, painted it, sanded it some more, and (when I was all done) finished it with furniture wax.  

Here's how the "Hemnes" dresser originally looked in the IKEA catalog photo:

IKEA "Hemnes" dresser.  (Picture from the IKEA website )

As I said, I liked this dresser.  But a recent visitor made me feel bad about my decorating style by saying that it is "kinda all over the place." I don't agree--I think I have a pretty cohesive vision!  But that comment got me to thinking about the most efficient way to reduce the number of style influences in my home,  and I decided that the Shaker-style dresser had to be replaced by something more unequivocally modern.

Fast forward to more recent times...

After ages and ages spent looking for the right piece, I finally spied something I loved on the Anthropologie website but it cost much, much more than I was willing to pay.  I kept cycling back to the website, though, reassured that it was still available.  Until, one day, it wasn't.  It was discontinued and I was bereft--only realizing how much I'd wanted it once it became unavailable. So I kept looking and eventually found the same cabinet BACK IN STOCK at Anthropologie, AND on sale for 20% off, AND in a cheaper color as well ($500 cheaper!).  I decided I HAD to have it this time and congratulated myself on receiving both the sales discount and the cheaper price.  I purchased the cabinet, but never received a confirmation, only later discovering that the cheaper color that I'd ordered was no longer available and the order was in no-man's land.  So, with minutes left (literally, minutes) until the expiration of the 20% discount, I felt compelled purchase the more expensive cabinet at the previously unacceptable price.  Dumb, huh?  At least I got to take advantage of the 20% off sale.  At LEAST!  What can I say except that I was driven nearly mad by the need to own this thing.

SO, this is the Anthropologie "Boro Star" cabinet as it is in their catalog:

Anthropologie "Boro Star" media cabinet.  (Picture from the Anthropologie website )

 It's cute.  I like it as it is.  I especially like the raw-looking metal legs, which wrap around the top of the cabinet, and the rustic wood cabinet box.  But the front doors look very boho-chic and I wanted something more modern.  So, I painted the doors.  (And that's why I was so bummed to have to pay more for the specific paint selection.)  Here's how that went down:

First, I taped-out the cabinet box and the metal legs with painter's tape.  I removed the cabinet knobs.  Then I sanded the doors, primed them with a flat, gray primer, and gave them a coat of aluminum/silver colored paint.  I wanted the final finish to give the effect of a slightly-weathered, painted metal finish. 

 Then I boldly began to put on the first layers of color...

I kind of like the very bold effect of the initial layers, but I realized that it would overwhelm our small room, so I toned it down significantly as I worked.  

More color layers with sanding in-between...(Gotta love power-sanding in the middle of the main living area ;-)  but I tried my hardest to keep the dust wrangled.)

After many layers of paint and sanding in-between.

 Eventually, I decided to call it "done" and applied a waxed finish.

And here is the finished chest, in place in the living room.  

(If you look around, you can see that there is plenty of IKEA remaining:  The candle holders, the black and white pillow cover, and the sheep skin throw...)  I source items from everywhere!

I still need to tweak it a little bit, but I think this project was a success.  I feel like I achieved my goal, which was to make a unique furniture piece of indefinable age/origin.

Garden: Good Bug? Bad Bug?

I spied these creepy-crawlies huddled under a hydrangea flower petal.  What are they, do you suppose?  Garden friend or foe?

** Many thanks to Laura who blogs at Gravy Lessons for identifying these as nymphs of the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, an invasive pest.

Garden: Today's Photos--Lilies!

I spent a bit of time today addressing the necessities of gardening:  weeding the patio, raking alder leaves, pruning the neighbor's rampant and invading ivy, and watering thirsty potted plants.  Heck, every plant was thirsty today--it rained a few nights ago, but apparently not enough to yield much accumulation.  I really should buy a rain gauge so I'm not so hit-and-miss about these things.

Anyway, there was just enough time this evening to run around the front garden with my camera.  A few hot days brought out the lilies and the Digitalis parviflora are also blooming:  it's one of my favorite combinations.

Lilium "Landini", Digitalis parviflora "Hot Chocolate", Clematis chiisanensis "Lemon Bells", and Geranium "Jolly Bee" with my neighbor's ancient cherry tree providing a backdrop.

Lilium "Landini" with Geranium "Jolly Bee" and Actaea simplex.

A big mess of stuff, very different from my garden of a few years ago.

The Reverse View--taken from my neighbor's property and facing North.
"Quick Fire" Hydrangea is pinkening already!

Garden: Holes in the Border

Last time I wrote, I was pondering a mini-remodel of the front garden.  I'd decided to swap out some grasses and replace the orange-ish geums with another color.  It took a while to marshall my forces, but I've done it.  Where craft is concerned, I make no idle threats--if I see something that doesn't work or doesn't fulfill my vision, I ruminate on it (in a frantic, obsessive, not altogether pleasant fashion) until I find a solution and then I get it done.  

So, I decided to swap out the three Pennisetum "Hameln" for Melica uniflora f. albida.  Far Reaches Farm sells Melica, but their website showed "Out of Stock."  No problem!  I sent an email asking if they had any plants that would soon be ready to ship and they rounded up enough plants to fill my entire order.  I really like ordering from Far Reaches Farm! The people are always nice, the plants are always healthy, and the packaging is amazing.  See for yourself:

Big box of plants arrives via overnight.

Each individual plant is lovingly wrapped.

Plant Number One

Soon, there were twelve happy plants (and a GIANT pile of recyclable packaging materials).

This is what the front garden looked like before I dug into it:

Front garden (photo taken a couple of weeks ago).

And here (below) is the "After".  I've removed one of the big sedums and three Pennisetum and replanted with the baby Melica.  I also cut back the spent geraniums with the hope that they'd send up a fresh flush of leaves.  It looks a little choppy now, but I think the change will prove to have been a good one.  I love the airy spangles of the Melica seed heads and I think the Melica will make a nice continuity between the two Calamagrostis brachytricha that also share the space.

Garden after removing the Pennisetum and one Sedum "Autumn Joy" and replanting with Melica.

On the other side of the entry path, I swapped out the Geum "Flames of Passion" for "Banana Daiquiri". "Flames of Passion" was a nice plant--eager and trouble-free-- but it wasn't quite the color that I'd wanted.  I replaced it with "Banana Daiquiri".  (I'd been looking for Gimlet, another yellow Geum in the "Cocktail series", but Gimlet is unavailable locally and I decided to compromise for the locally available plant.)  "Banana Daiquiri" opens to a more sulphery yellow than I like, but it ages to a pleasant margarine yellow.  The yellow is picked up in the back of the planting bed by a Kirengeshoma koreana which will bloom with bell-shaped yellow flowers.  And the yellow is echoed across the path in the flowers of the Clematis chiisanensis "Lemon Bells".  I also prefer the way in which the yellow Geum flowers interact with the spring-green and coral new growth of the Vine Maples planted adjacent.

Geum "Banana Daiquiri"

Well, that's all I've got at the present.  We are enjoying warm, dry weather, so I'm spending a lot of time hand watering the new transplants and water-thirsty specimens throughout the garden.  I'm also working on a totally different, non-gardening project,  Maybe (fingers crossed) I can share soon a finished product post on that project.  :-)  On to those tasks!

Garden: New Pictures and New Plans

A few weeks ago, I had a little freakout on Facebook.  I was thinking about removing and replacing the sedums in the front garden and decided to ask the hive-mind for approval and planting suggestions.  

I've two problems with the sedums.  First, they are very dense--artifacts of a previous planting scheme--and I now prefer a wispier garden style.  Second, they are a very pale and minty green for most of the year and do not support the duskier color scheme I've been trying to create.  My initial idea was to remove the sedums and to replace them with something texturally lighter and tonally darker.   But, after thinking about it for awhile and ruminating on the answers I gleaned as a result of the freak-out, I decided to solve the problem in a different way.  I've decided to keep the sedums (at least three of the four) and to switch-out other plants instead.  

First to go were some lovely Amsonia tabernaemontana "Blue Ice" (which I really did like a lot), and also some Geranium macrorrhizum (which I really didn't like so much).  I replaced them with the hardy geranium "Samobor" that I'd already used on the other side of the garden.  (Thanks, Alison, for the suggestion!)  I hope that the dark splotch on each leaf will convey the darker, dusky theme that I'm trying to develop, and I'm happy to reduce the number of species in the garden by two--a small victory in the war against bittiness. 

The usual view.  

At the moment, I also enjoy the color echo between the geraniums and the just-opening alliums.

Geranium phaeum "Samobor"

I was still plotting against the sedums, however, until a post by Scott, who blogs at Rhone Street Gardens, led me to a different solution.  I've decided to switch-out some of the grasses instead of the sedums.  The grasses in this area are mostly Pennisetum "Hameln" which is a densely mounding grass.  I'm planning to replace them with Melica uniflora f. albida.  

Melica uniflora via Wikimedia Commons

Last year, I added some Melica to the rockery area and I've been pleased with it.  It does seem to seed around, but it also stayed green well into the fall, emerged early this spring, and has a much more loosely clumping form--all positives in my book.  I hope that the looser forms of the Geranium and the Melica will impart enough lightness to the planting.  And probably, I should also consider dividing the sedums--I haven't done that for a while and each clump is bigger than a bushel basket.

Here's the same planting area photographed from the opposite side:

Front garden with Geranium "Samobor" and lots of Sweet Woodruff.

And a couple of close-ups of various plant combinations:

Geranium "Samobor", Myrrhis odorata (Sweet Cicely), a branch of Hydrangea "Bombshell",
and Allium "Purple Sensation".  I hate that the Allium leaf tips are already browning--this is why,
for years, I avoided panting alliums.

Myrrhis odorata, Geranium "Samobor", and Sweet Woodruff, with Hakonechloa macra in the foreground.

Allium "Purple Sensation"

Here (below) is how the whole thing looks when viewed from the sidewalk.  One thing that I'd like to change about this view is the clump of coral-colored gems to the right of the walkway.  I've been planning to swap them out for years, but I haven't found the ideal substitute.  I want to replace them with another Geum, probably something from the new Cocktail series.  I really like "Gimlet" (a pale butter yellow),  but I haven't found it available locally.  Plenty of "Mai Tai", yes, but no "Gimlet".  I'm issuing an APB for "Gimlet"--please report all sightings promptly!  Or maybe I'd be better off by placing an-online order.  Gotta make up my mind and act fast while there is still stock available.

View from the street.

Bonus picture of the strip of ground to the north of the driveway.  I removed all the Nassella tenuissima (which never looked very good despite my constant efforts) and replaced it with Sesleria autumnalis.  This is also the new home of the displaced Geranium macrorrhizum.

Grasses, alliums, leucanthemum, and Geranium macrorrhizum on the north side of the driveway.

And that's all I've got at the moment.  Bye for now--if I keep editing, I'll miss the rest of Spring!