Le French Buffet

It's been awhile since my last post. I've been working on something pretty cool. I took this boring, blah buffet and worked on it, and worked on it, and worked on it.

I had a special request from a client to make it turquoise and fabulous! Now, making something fabulous is a tall order, but I felt up to the challenge.  

The great thing about what I do, is I set my own schedule and paint at my home. So, if I find myself awake at 4:30 A.M., (which sadly happens frequently thanks to hot flashes) I can go and paint.  And, paint I did, and paint, and paint, and paint. Did I mention I painted?

It called for just the right shade of paint and it took about 10 different blends of colors to get just the right shade of turquoise. Then, the color was perfect, but it just needed a little something. I played with some free hand painting and it wasn't quite right.

In the middle of the night, it suddenly came to me. This piece was going in Cashmere and Coco (Vail, CO) and Coco is Chanel's first name, and Coco Chanel was French....this little western American looking piece, needs some oh la la! It needed some Parisian....But, how does one go about oh la la ing? Why, French poetry of course! Oui!

My favorite Annie Sloan stockist has some UH MAZE ING stencils. Now, these are not your ordinary stencils. They cost mega bucks (read...husband will freak out when the credit card comes) stencils. But, it is what this piece needed! A lovely spring-time French poem about flowers stenciled on the top in cream color.
My friend, Shawn, who only ever tells me the truth about my work...including when she doesn't like things, told me this is her favorite piece I have ever done. Not ever one to be humble, this is my favorite piece too. Something about it speaks to my soul. Look how good it looks in Cashmere and Coco!

photo by Jesse Csincsak