Cerusing for Love

I love the look of cerused furniture, but I’ve never given it a shot. It looks easy enough, but it’s a multi-step process, and I’m more of a single-step gal. If it can’t be started and finished in an hour, I probably won’t get around to completing it within a reasonable time-frame. Like, my lifetime. (I hope that’s not always true. Maybe when my toddler grows out of his aggressively screamy stage and the temperature in my garage returns to double digits I’ll finally be a more productive human/blogger).

But Kelly wasn’t afraid to tackle some cerusing! Cerusing, if you are confused, is a painting technique that emphasizes the grain in the wood. This can be done with paint and stain or wax. It’s also referred to as ‘liming’. Lots of tutorials online if you want to give it a shot!

Here’s how Kelly’s turned out:

Super unique. She created this piece for a Habitat for Humanity auction, which is an organization dear to my heart. See more on her blog The Ridiculous Redhead.

I could probably find another cerusing project to show you, but my aggressively screamy toddler is currently emptying the contents of my desk drawers and throwing them at me while screaming. He’s the funnest.

But here is one more quick desk makeover before I go! From Better After reader Jill who says, “For two days I drove past this desk at the side of the road in my neighborhood. I was tempted to drag it home (my husband asks me to wait until after dark) but when my daughter excitedly called to say “Mom, there’s a desk for you in someone’s trash!” I couldn’t resist. I was determined to finish the desk with only what I already had in my basement. There was plenty of paint, knobs left over from redoing the kitchen and poly seal left over from redoing the floors. The elbow grease and time I was happy to donate.

Pretty awesome, especially since the whole things was free!