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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!