A Sweet Little Ottoman Encore

It's been  too long since I've written a post. Sometimes life throws you a curve and you're knocked off course. Well, I've been working hard to get back on course. I've spent the past 3 weeks working on lots of stuff, that always helps me ,that and prayer! So, after I got  up off my knees, I  got busy. 

What's Got Me Thinking...

When should I restore instead of refinish? A couple of weeks ago I bought a sweet little ottoman at Scott’s Antique Market. It had been a number of months since I’d gone to Scott’s so I was excited to see what I’d find there. I went with my favorite Scott’s Shopping buddy, Shelly. For some great tips on getting the most out of shopping at Scott’s check out her blog post over at ConfettiStyle.

Well, this little girl (why do we assign genders to objects, I don’t know, but I do. Stop laughing, so do you) was a steal and in fantastic shape. She really only needed a cleaning but I decided I wanted to dress her up a little bit.   

 

 

My first step was to remove the brass leg cups and rings. Here’s what got me thinking. Should I spend the time it would take to clean and shine the brass or save valuable time and spray paint them?

After reading a post on Miss Mustard Seed’s blog, I tested my pieces to see if they were real brass or brass plated. They were solid brass! That got me thinking that I should spend the time to restore them to their original beauty. I felt that in 20 years if someone else wanted to give her another encore, they could clean the brass, but not if I painted them.  So, off I went to buy a bottle of Brasso. Armed with the Brasso and an old towel and rubber gloves, I got to work. The smell wasn’t so great so if you can use this product in the garage or outside, do it. I mean I didn’t mind too much, but others in your house might object to the smell. Here are before and after pics of the brass pieces.

 

 

Since the great Ice Storm of 2014 had passed and the sun was out, I then headed out to spray paint my ottoman. I used Rustoleum Painters Touch 2X in Satin Canyon Black . It was a windy day which really helped make those coats of paint very light. It went on so smooth that I didn’t even sand between coats.  Next, I used a really cool piece of vinyl that I picked up in California this past summer. Of course, the fact that I couldn’t just run back for another piece if I made a mistake has kept me from using this material. But, you can’t let fear make a prisoner of you so, I got to work cutting this for the two projects I had in mind.

 

Because the original top lifted off and there was a small amount of storage space underneath, I also painted the inside black. After adding a 2” piece of foam to the original backing board, I wrapped batting to it and put the new vinyl on. She is Smokin’. 

 So, what do you think. Would you spend the time ( about 1hour) cleaning the brass or would you have spray painted it?