Hello blog land! My name is Katherine Farrow, and I’m the owner of Hey Mama Bird out of Duncan, Oklahoma, land of tea on front porches and neighbors who pop in without needing to knock. We specialize in refinishing furniture, custom art pieces, and mural work. The business was born from a lifelong love of creating, where projects done as gifts for friends and family naturally progressed to bringing in income as a military wife and stay at home mama to five little ones! (I always like to clarify that we had surprise twins right at the end. That tends to help people rehinge their jaws after their mouths have fallen open.)
I started years ago refinishing with latex on my solid pieces and acrylic on my mural pieces, like so many of us have. Then all of a sudden, I found myself pregnant with twins and super sensitive to the odor and VOCs that came along with all of my old faithfuls. But I had projects to do! Renovating and getting a 100 year old house liveable for my increasingly large family meant I had no time to take a 9 month hiatus. CeCe Caldwell’s Paints to the rescue! After some digging on the internet, I found a retailer 3 hours away. I made the drive over and over again after completing my first project with the paint and clear wax. I immediately fell in love! The colors, the body of the paint (holy cow, I love how it’s almost as thick as pudding!) AND it’s totally all natural and VOC free? I was an immediate convert and my business began taking on a whole new life. I had to bring this stuff to Duncan. So I did. I am so proud to be a small part of this environmentally conscious, family friendly company.
That brings me to Mixology Monday! As a muralist, mixing custom colors is already a big part of what I do. I just can’t resist the lure of pouring those colors into a can or mixing them on a palette and seeing what appears. I’d just bought this gorgeous midcentury ‘L’ shaped table. Every time I looked at it, I saw gold and starbursts and cool, kitschy 50’s mint and coral.
It was almost too easy. I started with California Gold, added a splash of Santa Fe Turquoise, and there it was. My ‘Midcentury Mint’. The rest, as they say, is history. We covered this beauty in Midcentury Mint, buffed the daylights out of her using the waxing cream (my favorite finish, it’s buttery soft and smooth once cured!) handpainted some classic 50s starbursts, dipped the legs in gold, and then finished her off with a little bit of ‘Eldorado Gold’ metallic wax which added the perfect amount of sparkle and glow. 
I think this piece is my new favorite, it’s totally on trend in both color and clean lines. The hardest part of having a furniture refinishing business is making sure that the pieces actually leave your house once they’re done! Is there a furniture hoarders support group? My husband would like to know. I can’t imagine why, silly thing. He must be asking for a distant relative. Here’s how to get your own stash of ‘Midcentury Mint’: Add one part CeCe Caldwell’s Santa Fe Turquoise to three parts Caifornia Gold and stir ‘er up! (Yes, it’s really that easy.)
Check out some of Katherine’s other work below, when you visit and like her Facebook page, or at Junk Hippy Roadshow on June 13th at the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds!
