My Dixie Belle Journey

Everyone needs a hobby, and I have many.  Flower gardening, birdwatching, reading, rockhounding, family ancestry, visiting lighthouses and searching for old Civilian Conservation Corp camps are just a few of the things I love to do when time allows.

I recently realized that I needed something to satisfy my need to repair and recreate things, to take something old and worn and make it look new and beautiful again.  I thought what better way to do that than finding great wood pieces right here where I work and trying my hand at refurbishing something with the Dixie Belle paint we sell right here at the ReStore.  

I didn’t know how this was going to go, but I knew I had to try.  I have never been a crafty person.  I’m not good at drawing, I CAN NOT crochet or knit and frankly, watercolors make me a bit nervous.  But I am good at figuring things out and fixing things. So why not give this a try?

An old vanity with a great mirror came in as a donation.  It had good bones but was a bit rough and had great potential.  It sat unsold on the floor for 2 weeks and I just couldn’t leave it there any longer. It had to come home with me, to my husband’s dismay.  

I started by pulling out the drawers, removing the knobs and cleaning the entire piece.  I was lucky that it wasn’t very dirty, but the Dixie Belle (DB) White Lightning I used to clean it could have easily handled that.  I’d already seen it do wonders on pieces our “Dixie Belle Expert in Residence” Debbie Pond had cleaned before painting.  

The real work began with a light hand sanding over the entire piece just to rough the surface and get it ready.  Next came 2 coats of DB Bonding Boss to seal the wood and give it a good surface for the paint.  I taped it off so I could paint different sections the 2 colors I chose and got painting.

When I purchased the vanity, I knew it had to be painted blue, Nautical Blue, a nice bright navy, to be exact.  With a little help from Debbie, I settled on Sun Kissed as my second color. This one is a great, slightly off-white color with a sunny hint of yellow to it.  I wanted to try Dixie Belle’s Silk All-in-One line of paint.  Silk has a primer and topcoat built in and we hadn’t used it on any projects at the ReStore yet, so I figured I’d give it it’s maiden run (and save myself a little time and some additional products).

The Nautical Blue went on so easily.  I ended up doing 2 coats though it probably didn’t need it.  Next came 2 coats of Sun Kissed and when I looked at the results, I couldn’t believe it.  Did I really do that?  Me?  I’m not good at this sort of thing, but this is gorgeous!!  With new confidence I tackled the 3-section mirror. Painter’s tape and patience made the curved parts manageable with only a little clean up on the glass with a razor blade.  I finished the whole piece with 2 coats of DB Flat Clear Coat for extra protection.  I didn’t have to, but I have 2 cats that climb on everything and knock things over, no more explanation needed.

I put it all back together, attached the mirror and thought I was done. I decided that I could do more.  I used some of the Nautical Blue I had left to paint the knobs and put a border around the outside of the mirror.  That was just what it needed.  I hated the old, outdated contact paper inside the drawers, so it had to go. Honestly, getting that out was the hardest part of the whole project.  I Bonding Boss coated the inside of the drawers, used Badlands Silk on the inside and decoupaged the bottom.  Decoupage is an intimidating word, but 2 YouTube videos later I knew I could do it.  And Voilà!

If I can do this, so can you.  The feelings of relaxation, confidence and pride my new hobby has given me are priceless.

Disclaimer:  All Dixie Belle paint, brushes and other DB products were purchased at the ReStore except for the decoupage paper which I ordered online, though the ReStore has some of that too. 

Stay tuned for my next project and post in October, a simple wood chest that turned into a labor of love that was anything but simple.

​-Melissa Tallman, Operations Manager.