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Every year I look forward to May, the weather begins to warm up and the ground begins to stir as the sleeping plants begin to wake.  I have so many memories as a young girl gardening with my Mother.   For as long as I can remember, my Mother has loved plants and taken great pride in growing them.   It didn’t matter if they were flowering or vegetables,  she loves them all.

My parents always planted a very large vegetable garden, where many life lessons were learned as a child.  I was always fascinated by the way the vegetable garden was a world within itself.  Growing and busying itself underground, and working hard above soil flowering and sprouting buds of tiny fruits and veggies.  Always in a constant war against invaders such as insects, rodents, disease.  The garden taught us about hard work and its payoffs  and sometimes even when you work hard you don’t always get what you deserve.  That’s pretty deep stuff coming from a vegetable garden!  Needless to say the gardens were a childhood staple.

This vegetable dresser comes straight from those memories.  Painted in Chalk Paint® decorative paints by Annie Sloan.  Here is how I achieved this playful look.

I began by prepping my piece, which means I washed it with TSP. Prep with Chalk Paint® is about as easy as it gets!  Once the dresser was dry I painted a base coat in Greek Blue.  I layered in the ground with a mix of French Linen and Graphite.  Once I was happy with the sky and ground, I took a piece of chalk and sketched out where I wanted to paint the root vegetables.  I wanted to mention, I would normally remove the hardware from the furniture, but this particular piece had wooden knobs and I wanted to blend them into the painting, so I left them on.  The dresser is finished with two coats of clear wax. This dresser now graces the rooms of an adorable farm house.