It's Not As Easy As It Looks

So I am in the midst of a whole bunch of projects that unfortunately, are on hold...what am I doing?  I'm painting furniture.  It's not as easy as it seems.  The reasons?

1. The type of paint that I decided to use which is top quality is showing itself not to be the best for furniture.  You go to sand a piece and it strips whole sections away...
2.  The drips-As much as I try, I've had a few drips on the furniture and with the sanding problem, well, it's a little difficult...
3. It's time consuming with coat after coat, turning furniture, twisting your body to reach weird places in furniture nooks, and the patience...
4. Being far away from supplies-I need fabric and paint, and I can't get it right now as it's 1 1/2 hours away...

So what am I working on?  Remember though, that these are work in progress pics!

Chair:  Before

I found this chair at a yard sale and thought it had great lines...I pictured it in cream with a great new fabric in either gray or purple tones.

Chair:  Ongoing 

So here's the chair painted-I think already it looks way better.  The problem?  The fabric I bought wasn't large enough for the seat.  I calculated the fabric needed for the top, but not enough to secure it underneath 

Fold Down Desk:  Before

So this piece I found at a yard sale and I instantly fell in love with it.I loved the detail.  Just don't mind the mess you see-it was just pushed in there after the move...organization wasn't my priority at that moment!

Fold-Down Desk:  Ongoing

This piece is coming along, but when I put the two pieces together (the top and the bottom shelves separate) I realized that I needed to do some more painting.  As well, I plan on applying a glaze still in hopes that it will bring out the exquisite carving!

Antique Buffet:  Before

This particular piece was bought from an auction for a steal!  I got it for $50 when I should have paid over $150.  See my auction posting if you're interested for more information.  I personally am not a fan of stained wood and despite a few friends begging me not to paint it, I decided to do just that.  My plan was to have two paint colors, one for each stain of wood that you see.

Antique Buffet:  Ongoing

This particular picture is of the top drawer; the parts not painted are going to be a soft grey.

Yes, it looks a little scary, but I tell you, this is going to be beautiful when it's finished!  I tried to paint over the hardware though as I was having issues removing it.  I decided it wasn't worth the hassle, and painted over it.  The problem?  The hardware reacted with the paint, and massive rust flecks came through even though there was no rust on the hardware!  I pried off the hardware, and will be obviously looking for similar hardware.

These are the cabinet doors.  Grey will go around the perimeter of the cream and then I plan on going into the swirls with black...haven't figured out exactly how I'll do that yet.  

So it's all a work in progress, work that I'm very excited to do because I think it's going to look amazing in the end!