Saturday, 28 March 2015

1940's antique, shabby-chic, white bedframe

As promised, here is another installment of furniture that will be available at the Beeton Honey & Garden festival (find their website here).  This is a beautiful bedframe that came as part of a 1940's bedroom set.  The woodwork on this bed is lovely; and since most good furniture in the 40's was made from solid wood, this piece is no exception.  
The head and footboard have been chalk-painted a pretty antique white, lightly distressed, and finished with a smooth all-natural wax to protect and seal the wood and paint.  I think it turned out very nicely, and I hope the previous owner's parents would enjoy their "wedding set" bedframe now as much as they did in the 40's. :)














All photos copyright, Sage & Balm, 2015


Contact me at sageandbalm@gmail.com if you would like to place a custom order for refinished furniture or photography prints, and I'll be happy to assist you.  You can also Follow Sage & Balm on Facebook for updates and new photos!

Friday, 27 March 2015

Architectural photos/buildings

Here are some prints that will be available online as well as at the Honey Fest (Honey Fest website). You can also follow Sage & Balm on Facebook for updates and new photos! Enjoy :)


St.Patrick's cathedral, downtown Manhattan, NYC.




A hauntingly beautiful "castle" near Ottawa's Parliament buildings.





A long abandoned fisherman's cabin, Cape Spear, Newfoundland.





The Guelph basilica in downtown Guelph, Ontario.

Monday, 23 March 2015

A few black & white photo prints

In a previous post, I mentioned that I'd like to add some of my amateur photography prints to my blog to round out items for purchase.  Frankly though, I really just like to share my work and show you all another side of me.  I truly enjoy taking photos and exploring the world through a camera lens.  Sometimes the ordinary world has hidden surprises where beauty lurks...and only if you seek it out, you'll find it!  


Here are a few black & white prints that will be available at the Honey Fest this May (here's their website) and can also be ordered for purchase:


















 Contact me at sageandbalm@gmail.com if you'd like to order a print or a custom furniture order.  I'll be more than happy to assist you in making your home more beautiful!!

Sunday, 22 March 2015

Sage & Balm has gone GREEN!

Hi all!  Sage & Balm has finally made the transition to all eco-friendly, water-based, non-toxic products!!  I'm so relieved that these products exist and that they are still specifically designed for furniture AND they live up to their promises of long-lasting, durable finishes!  I am a huge advocate for using chalk-paints as they are beautiful for painting; but now that there are fantastic water-based sealers like waxes and polyurethanes, I will never feel guilty about finishing a piece again!

See this guy?  Avoiding harsh chemicals just saved his life. :)

So not only is up-cycling older furniture a great way to keep these pieces out of our landfills, the materials used to spruce them up are much safer for you, your family, children, pets, the air we breathe, and our environment (not to mention my poor lungs too!).  YAY!


Shabby French "driftwood/bleached wood" table

This has been a busy month, so I haven't posted in a while; but I've been working hard on refinishing a lot of pieces for the Beeton Honey Festival.  Some more pieces will be completed soon, along with a few custom orders as well (pictures to come!!)

This latest installment is a table that got a fun "French country" makeover.  It was a pretty table to begin with: beautiful lines and solid oak...very promising.  It just needed some serious TLC to take it from a homely and very ratty, orange varnished finish to something that I wanted to resemble driftwood.  Then a mix of stenciling and hand-painting, and a very matte sealant to keep that raw, bleachy driftwood look were added to make it a little more special. :)  Here's the final result which will appear in my booth at the festival:







This table definitely has gloriously beveled woodworking!













If you have some furniture at home (or perhaps you've stumbled across a piece at a garage sale or thrift store...), but you're not satisfied with its current state, contact me at sageandbalm@gmail.com and consider a face-lift for your boring, drab or outdated items!
 I do custom orders of a wide range of furnishings and finishes so you can fall back in love with some of your old furniture, and at the same time, you're recycling: hooray!!

(YES: I use all eco-friendly products specifically designed for furniture!)