That damn thing. Now it has drawn my blood.
Well, I bought it one ill-starred night off eBay because I remembered it from childhood, and I thought it would be precious for my dolls. With white wood and little strawberries. I loved the idea of cross-stitching strawberry pillows and linens for Ophelia, and finding Strawberry Shortcake accessories for her.
The seller undermined the piece's flaws. I feel like to say it needed a new coat of paint would imply the paint was worn, but it had been re-painted in patches at least once with a beige paint, sloppily. Both paints would need to be removed for the bed to be painted again.
I sanded the bed. I painted it white, not really knowing what I was doing, and it looked terrible. The paint was too thick, and it leaked onto the strawberries. In trying to correct it, I smeared the strawberry headboard.
Now there was nothing for me to do but strip the paint. I stripped the footboard today, shoving something or other under my fingernail in the process. It's maddening, and one stripping didn't remove all of the paint. And when I'm done, why, it won't be a strawberry bed anymore. It will be an anything bed.
I think I will decorate the headboard with my vintage cards and cover the bed with vintage handkerchiefs. It will be beautiful, and at least I won't have to live with the badly-painted wood, but oh, if I had a job that thing would be in the trash, and my Ophelia would have a proper bed unmeddled by me.
I am no artisan. I am no seamstress. I bow and bend and ache and curse, and sometimes things come out halfway decent, but the truth is, I don't think I have any creative talent when it comes to my dolls. I really didn't bargain for how difficult this hobby would be. Buying nice outfits makes me feel like a cheat. It's not really what I wanted. I wanted to make my darlings' clothes myself, and fashion an elaborate world for them.
I am so foolish. If only I could be patient and try again.
Update
I stripped two more pieces on Labor Day. Now all that remains is the headboard. I hate to do it and remove those lovely strawberries, but it's absolutely trashed due to my first painting effort.
I oiled up the footboard to see how good I could make the wood look. Not very good. It's dull and tortured after all the paint stripper. There will always be traces of white paint, even if I sand away at them for the next forty years.
After some introspection I have decided that the little bed will probably look most cheerful if it is white, anyway. Maybe I can try a white wash or pale stain this time. I want the natural grain of the wood to show through, but I don't want something as heavy as paint.
I'm having a hard time deciding what to do about the base portion. Some beige paint dripped onto it when its previous owners re-painted it, and I was going to live with it before I ruined the matching headboard. It is contrived in a Trompe l’Oeil design of strawberry pillow and sheets. It doesn't make sense to keep it, but I hate to efface the bed's original identity completely.
Update
I threw it away. My re-paint didn't work out. If I had stripped and spray-painted it in the beginning it would have worked out, so now I know what I can do in a future case. I spray-painted it in a textured beige that turned the pieces into a goopy mess. I couldn't face stripping the pieces again.
However, come Monday I will be bringing in a pay check, and I will be able to buy a (nice) new one if I wish.
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