{createinspire}: heavy distressing

Friday, December 7, 2012

Cabinet Makeover

A great friend brought me this little cabinet and wanted to do something fun with it. Well, it wasn't a very fun piece of furniture--a little drab and plain (she agreed!).

{Time for another confession: I don't like oak. There, I said it! I've carried that dirty little secret around with me for far too long! I don't like how heavy and open the grain is because it doesn't give a nice smooth surface for a great finish. And I don't like the way it takes stain. I have done some beautiful oak tops, but they are not my preference. Please don't send me hate mail!!}

Anyway, my sweet friend said I could do whatever I wanted with it and she wanted it some version of Salmon for the color.

Yea! First, I just had to get rid of those hideous casters. I replaced them with these cute little legs I found at home depot. We had to change out the hardware on them to make them work, but it was an easy fix. Next, I had Craig (I just have to say, he is awesome and WAY TOO GOOD to me!!) trim out the doors with some thin molding I also found at HD (love that store!). Finally, I just filled in all the extra holes and she was ready to prime and paint. (I primed it in a dark brown, so when I distressed that would be what showed, not the medium color oak. :P)

Actually, the grain on this piece wasn't too bad, so I didn't have to curse at it! ;)

Before

Trimmed out, new legs, and puttied...

After

After I painted I heavily distressed and then stained over it with Dark Walnut by Minwax to tone down the color (yah, it was bright!).

Isn't she sweet??!

Check out the hardware! I am IN LOOOVE!!

I love the texture of the distressing, the depth the glazing brings, and the hardware with this fun color!

color = Rejuvenate SW (only if you're brave enough!!)

Linked up here:

Shizzle Design

Friday, November 2, 2012

Chippy French Vintage Buffet

I seem to be on a french kick lately. There's just something about the soft colors and the worn feel that I love.

This buffet had been collecting mass amounts of dust in my shop because I was back and forth on what to do with it. I would go to bed one night knowing exactly what I wanted to do and then would start on another project and by the time I would get back to it, would change my mind. This has been going on for 6 months! :s

Yesterday I saw it sitting by the wall and knew it was time to make up my mind. I'm not always a fan of waterfall style furniture, but it had great details that were lost in all that dark wood. I knew I wanted to lighten it up but I didn't want to go white again after the buffet I just finished. Then I remembered Mandie over @ Altar'd furniture did her homework and chose corresponding colors from Behr and Sherwin Williams for all the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint colors. I've always wanted to do something in French Linen but couldn't bring myself to buy another quart (cuz my birthday is over you know!) ;) of ASCP (and because I couldn't wait for it to come in the mail). So, I pulled up her chart, found the right color, and the wheels just started turning.....

Before

Definitely vintage! :)

After

You know I LOVE it, but even Craig walked into the room and said, "Now that's cool." lol

I only scuff sanded because I wanted to keep the dark finish under the lighter colors (if you use a heavy grit you can end up taking off the previous stain as well). I didn't prime because I wanted the paint to come off flaky for that "chippy" look.

Then I distressed with a paint scraper, which I have to say is so much FUN! I knew I wanted it heavily distressed so I just wasn't too concerned about how any of the paint came off. It was so liberating! lol :) I adore that it is so random and imperfect!

And, I love these knobs from the Paris Gray dresser I did. I just happened to have two in my stash--perfect!