Lingerie Closet

I found this amazing lingerie closet in a little resale shop just a mile from my house.  I have never seen a piece shaped like this one.  I knew I had to have it and I knew whatever Wood Icing™ finish I used on it would have to be worthy of this exceptional piece.  Therefore it sat around in the studio quite sometime before I could get the nerve to touch it,  There was lots of anticipation as to what I was going to do  from customers and students visiting the store. Thanks to some of my very talented friends making a few suggestions, I worked up the nerve to get started on it.  My friend Kathy Otto loaned me her gorgeous custom stencil and my friends Tim Glasteter and Mark Tillman offered the suggestion on the partial use of the stencil and the placement of it. 

I could swear I took a before photo of this but I cannot seem to locate it in any of my files. So what you see here is the beginning of the application of Wood Icing™ troweled through a stencil. I broke out the stencil and only used portions of it to embellish particular areas.  I used the basket of flowers across the two drawers on the bottom, then used the scrolls on the top half of the door. On the sides you are looking a raised relief with the use of lace.

The sides and inside drawer fronts just screamed for a lace design to accentuate the lovely curves.  A stencil would have been extremely difficult to execute inside these inset areas.  I could choose to spread the Textura Paste on first, then press the lace in or I could lay the lace down then trowel the Textura Paste over the top of the lace, then pull the lace out.  Since I wanted a really high relief I chose to lay the lace down then trowel the paste over the top of the lace.  I pull the lace off right away. 

Here is a little photo demo on how this is done.  (this is not the lingerie closet in the demo but another project done with the same technique,)  

1. Paint with any brand of flat or semi flat paint with good bonding 

qualities or prep with a bonding primer before painting.

2. Lay down lace

3 Trowel Textura Paste over the top.

4 Remove the lace immediately. While the paste is still wet..

This is where I will admit I had a mini breakdown while trying to attempt to apply the lace on this vertical surface. So, I will share with you what I learned from that experience.  I tacked three or four small brads inside the top of the panel.   I then hung the lace on these brads so the lace would be held in place for me while I did my magic with the Textura Paste and lace.  Normally this technique works like a charm. ..read further

Unfortunately, it did not this time.  I would spread the paste on then pull it off and big chunks of the paste would come off with the lace,.  I think I did this about four times before realizing that the problem was, the surface is too slick to hang onto the paste.  So I started over again.  But first I applied a coat of a soft warm white flat or semi paint. which has the perfect texture to allow the Textura Paste to grab onto the surface and I never worry about failure.  Some paints have too slick of a finish that causes the paste to slide during application so look for a good bonding flat to semi flat paint. Ideally, it would be best to apply a bonding primer before the flat or semi flat paint.

Once I crossed that hurtle I was on my way to finishing this project.  Unfortunately, I never have more than and hour here and there to work on something like this, so it sat around partially done for quite some time.  I think I got on a few peoples last nerve for taking so long on this one.

I chose to paint it with the color "CoCo" color and embellish the raised reliefs with "Light Blue" paint. It is breath taking.  I know these photos do not show just how beautiful this piece really is, but I love this piece so much that I may just have to keep it for myself.  Maybe someday I will get some professional photos done of it so I can share the real beauty of it with you.