Tom and Tonya Chitwood’s home and workshop are full to bursting with one-of-a-kind pieces created from scratch and upcycled materials that add off-kilter and sometimes humorous twists to home decor. Tonya is proud to show off a dresser the husband-and-wife team refurbished by stripping the paint and adding distressed designs to each drawer. She replaced all the knobs with mix-matched, eccentric ones, including arrows, a shield, a fleur-de-lis, and a key. Tonya even mentions a knob in the shape of a deep-sea diver she has in reserve. The element that pulls it all together is a flying pig hand-painted on top.
Tonya says she’s been crafting and creating art her entire life, but it was in December 2015 that she and Tom started their side business. Their very first project was a ladder that Tonya needed to hang Christmas stockings on in lieu of a fireplace. “I corrupted my husband, and we made the ladder,” she says. The inaugural ladder, as Tonya calls it, has since evolved into a coat rack and is the catalyst for what has become known as Cheeky & Chalky.
The ladder sparked an interest in crafting for Tom. Tonya says he claims it’s his favorite project because it introduced him to a new hobby he never would have considered before they married. “We don’t call it crafting,” Tonya says with a wry smile. “Dudes don’t craft, they do projects. So we ‘project.’” They each handle different aspects of the same projects. “Finishing and design is my thing; construction is his.”
When inspiration strikes, they do their best to grab materials they can reuse from discarded objects. “Whether it be from eBay or a garage sale or an estate auction, we’ll buy things that we think we can turn into something else,” Tonya says. Picture frames are one of Tonya’s favorite materials to work with, and she credits their versatility for that. “I will pick up a frame wherever I can get them. You can put metal behind them, make them a magnet board, you can put wood behind them and make them a chalkboard, or … do a paper transfer,” she says. She also loves working with metal. One reason she credits her attraction to it is that she’s able to take newer pieces and distress them, seal them, and make them look much older than they are. “I like anything industrial,” she says. “I’ve always liked rust, metal, and grungy looking things.”
Tonya is drawn to one particular theme over and over. “I have an obsession with clocks,” she says. “I don’t know why, probably because I’m always late.” She says she never makes two clocks the same. She has monogrammed clocks, covered them in scrapbook clippings, built them from sheet metal and pipe, decorated them with decoupage, and hand-painted them. Now she’s planning on building a clock out of a hot water heater pan, with a cage over the face to give it an industrial vibe. “I’m a very mixed-medium type of person. I don’t stay with just one thing; I like to experiment.” Almost all of Tonya’s designs are painted by hand. “I’ll use a reference … then I’ll hand draw all of them.” She isn’t opposed to using stencils, but she professes a love for lettering and prefers to do it herself.
Tom handles most of the construction for their projects and built a massive workbench when they couldn’t find one to purchase that met all of Tonya’s needs. One of Tom’s largest projects involved breaking down an upright piano and transforming it into a hallway table. The table is complete, but pieces of the piano are still being used in other projects, including a Sloppy Chicken pub sign. His signature lamps are steampunk works of art, constructed from Edison bulbs and metal pipes that makes them look as if steam is flowing out of electrical outlets to power them. While many of the Chitwoods’ projects are entirely upcycled, the lamps are not. “We have to buy all the stuff for that, all the wiring, all the fittings,” Tonya says. “We buy Edison light bulbs, and then he’ll construct the base from whatever wood he has on hand.”
Tonya works as a graphic designer for Integ and Insite Brazos Valley magazine in Bryan and says much of her inspiration comes to her on her daily commute. “I’ll come across ‘blank’ — like a big circle or something — and I’ll just think on it until something comes to me, and that’s it. It’s done.”
For more information, visit facebook.com/cheekyandchalky or call (970) 261-8815.
