The story of a wardrobe: Part 2

Hi friends!  I'm back today with Part 2 of our wardrobe story.  Last week, I shared Part 1 with you.  Here is how we left her.  I think she is going to be a real beauty!!

I had painted the whole base piece and the drawers, inside and out.  However after looking at the drawers in place, I felt like they needed a little something extra.   I decided to paint the inset trim white.  

I was not looking forward to the loads of time it was going to take taping those drawers off!  Ten drawers with four corners on each drawer equals 40 corners to go around with tape!  YIKES!!!  Then..........
Aha moment!  I remembered that a while back I had snagged several packages of Scotch Painter's Tape for Hinges on clearance (you know, just in case) at my local True Value store.  Hopefully these 'stickers' were going to cut my taping time in half!

I cut each sheet in half as straight and square as I could then I taped one half of one hinge 'sticker' in each corner.  Each "hinge sticker" sheet covered four corners.  All that was left was straight runs with my Scotch Blue Painter's Tape!

This is where my story grows dim......

You see, I had just brought home a new can of paint from my local Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Stockist, The Weathered Cottage and was in the process of shaking the can upside down (as is my common practice) and the can slipped out of my hands, landed on my kitchen floor and proceeded to POP OPEN!!

NOOOOOOO!!!

There was white paint splattered everywhere!!  In fact, I wish I knew more about physics because there was paint found in places weeks later that didn't make sense as to how it traveled and landed there.  I was completely speechless.....almost all of my freshly painted drawers had white paint on them in places that I did not intend for white paint to be (as did many other spots in my kitchen).  I am so thankful that my lovely mom was standing in the kitchen with me when I did this.  All we could do was look at each other and laugh hysterically.......after a good tearful laugh, we started cleaning it up.  I tell you what though, this spillage experience has made me a forever fan of Annie Sloan chalk paint.  It wiped up with water so well.  I kept saying "I'm so glad this isn't latex paint! I'm so glad this isn't latex paint!".  The drawers wiped up well.  They needed a little sanding where the splatters landed and some touch up paint but all was good as new and we moved on.

Up next were the doors and the trim for the doors.

More taping followed....

When I removed the tape there was quite a bit of touch up to do.  Here's a photo of 3 doors waiting to be touched up, in my living room!  Yes, that is how I roll.  My poor family suffers through periods of having the living room (and kitchen) overrun by furniture pieces!  They must love me a whole lot! :-)

The next step was to join the two 'towers' so they would become one solid piece and would not sway.  To do this, we used a shelf that came with the cabinets and cut it into 2 pieces (by we, I mean my husband).  The smaller piece would face outward and the larger piece would face down.  I used my trusty Mini Kreg Jig to drill some pockets holes then we were ready to join 'em up!

I used my favorite Makita drill and Kreg screws like these to attach both pieces to the 'towers' on either side.

Here's a photo from the top side.

If you like to DIY furniture and have never used a pocket hole jig, I highly recommend purchasing one to add to your tool arsenal.  It joins pieces together very securely, plus it is super easy to use.

Next up on my to-do list was to add trim to the base piece.  This is the step that really made it look like one cohesive piece of furniture.  I added flat trim above where the doors go, shoe molding where the 'towers' meet the dresser, decorative trim along the front and crown molding at the top.

Here is how she looks with all the trim waiting for a final paint job. (I apologize for the cloudy appearance of the photos,  it was dark outside when I took these in-progress photos and before I owned a DSLR)

 Here is the dresser!  I am thrilled with how it turned out.  It was worth every minute it took to tape off those drawers.  The new hardware completely changes the look.  I purchased the cup pulls and drawer pulls from my local Home Depot.

There are still several things left to do:

• Stencil and attach backing
• Attach shelf brackets to the center section 
• Install closet rods &
• Attach doors

See y'all soon with the final reveal!

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Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

The story of a wardrobe: Part 1

A long while back, I shared that I got a dresser and hoped to turn it, plus two other pieces of furniture, into a wardrobe for our daughters' room.  The plan looked like this.

Our plan was to use this dresser and 2 identical cabinets that we found on craigslist.  Really, we only used the top of the cabinets.  The drawers we get to use for another project down the road.  The reason why we decided to use these cabinets instead of just building a top for the dresser is because the cabinets were built out of sturdy oak plywood and cost less than buying 2 sheets of pine plywood.  Plus we ended up getting another 6 drawer dresser for free with the cabinets.

I began by removing the wood pulls, the cabinet hardware and the trim on the front of the cabinets.  Below you can see the difference between the two cabinets after the doors, hardware and trim were removed.  {Tip} If you are planning on reusing hardware, take a photo before removal to refer to when you are ready to reuse it.

The trim was held onto the front of the cabinets with glue and wood dowels.  My husband took a hack saw blade and cut off the dowels that were stuck in the cabinet so they would be flush with the edge.

Next up it was time to cut the top off of each cabinet.  We needed some way of guiding our circular saw along the side of the cabinet, so my husband screwed up a scrap piece of wood for the saw to slide along to make sure we got the straightest cut possible.  We also used ScotchBlue Painters Tape on the cut line to help ensure a smooth cut without chipping or splintering the wood.

We were left with 2 cabinet tops and 2 drawer bottoms.

Now it was time to get painting and then on to reassembling.  I had been seeing chalk paint used for furniture all over the place and could not wait to get my hands on some and try it.  I read wonderful reviews about how chalk paint would stick to surfaces without having to sand the surface or use primer.  I decided to use Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Pure White on the main part of the wardrobe, Provence on the doors and drawers and Scandinavian Pink (by special request) on the inside of the drawers.  After removing all of the drawer hardware, I sanded the drawer fronts to minimize the appearance of the old hardware lines.

Here are all the drawers after a couple of coats of Provence and the dresser after a couple of coats of Pure White.  I have to say that I loved using this paint!  It dries so quickly and you do not have to wait 4 hours between coats like you do with latex paint. (sometimes even longer depending on the sheen)

Of course I had to try out just one drawer to see how it would look.....it seemed to be shaping up nicely!

After most everything was painted, we began to assemble the wardrobe.  The tools we used were a Mini Kreg Jig Kit, Kreg Washer Head Pocket Screws, my favorite Makita Drill, wood dowels and a Quick Square. 

We used the Kreg Jig to make pocket holes along the edges of the cabinet tops so we could securely attach them to the dresser.  For a little extra insurance, we also drilled aligning holes into the dresser and the bottom of the cabinet tops to insert wood dowels.  The dowels really helped to make sure that the tops stayed square as we screwed them into the dresser.

Then we attached the cabinet tops to the dresser.

Before we went much further in the assembly process, we decided to move the piece out of our kitchen into the girls' room.  I wasn't real sure of how sturdy it would be and I didn't want to take a chance on it breaking or splitting.  Plus, the dresser itself was quite heavy, then we added more weight on top of it.  

And that is where I am going to leave y'all for now, looking at a strange, boring white piece of furniture with no drawers.  I promise, it gets better!!

Be sure to stay tuned for my "painting in the kitchen woes" story.   

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Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

"It's The Nester's coffee table!!!" I exclaimed.

Yep, that's what I giddyly (<--is that a word?) exclaimed when I found this coffee table on craigslist.

I had just shown my husband how a round table looked in her living room and convinced him we needed a round one in our living room too....It would just work better with the layout we have and give our family of four more room to move about than the current Ikea one did.

{via}

I mean look, just LOOK!  It is THE very same table!  I couldn't believe my eyes! Now being a new groupie to the blog world, I was kinda star struck.  I was giddy and shy and just didn't know what to say so I just stared..........at the craigslist post and then The Nester's family room. Should I, Could I?  Twenty dollars, SAY WHAT!?  Why yes I think I will!  Here is my living room with the new addition back in January.

It had a very dark finish on it.  Not quite black, but very dark cherry, almost.  I had planned on painting the piece from the moment I got it.  However, when I got really close in the right light I could see a beautiful wood grain underneath that finish.  The existing finish was doing absolutely nothing for the wood grain.

Since I spied some pretty wood grain, I thought I'd try to do a two-tone finish on it with a wood tone top and a color on the bottom.  The top of the table was clearly a veneer, but I took a chance and stripped it anyway.  If it didn't work, I figured I could always paint it right?  I bought some Citristrip stripping gel to remove the dark stain from the top.  I followed the manufacturer's directions and protected my work area with a tarp, builder paper and a drop cloth.  I used all three, layered, since I was working indoors.  

I applied the gel liberally to the top and let it go to town.

Do you see the grayish/white spots?  At first I thought it was drying.  I tested a spot with my trusty plastic scraper and it wasn't dry at all.  It was just working its magic.  I let the gel sit until I couldn't resist it any longer which was about 15 minutes.  I didn't want the veneer to lift, so I went ahead and scraped away.  This stuff is AMAZING!!!  The old finish slid off like melted butter.  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

TA-DA!! Pretty wood grain!  Really, isn't it just so pretty!

Yippee, it worked & the veneer was still intact!  Now, this is where I hit a small snag.  There wasn't any veneer on the edges of the top.  (Does that make sense?)  It was only on the top.  So there wasn't anything to strip down to wood grain, just pressed wood.  So I tweaked my plan just a tad.  (You've gotta go with the flow when refinishing furniture!)  I wasn't crazy about the natural wood color against our hardwood floors, so I toned it down with a white wash.  I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White, mixed with water, on the top.  The mixture was probably about 3 parts water to one part paint.  I just brushed it on and wiped it off with a soft cloth until I got the effect I was looking for.  After the top was just right, I brushed some more Old White on the edges of the top and went over it with some dark wax so it would sort of blend with the white washed wood tone on the top.  

For the bottom I mixed up some of Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint in Lucketts Green with some bonding agent and went to town painting the bottom of the table.   Below is the finished product after some distressing, some clear wax & some dark wax.

I just love the milk paint!  It distressed beautifully and has such a pretty, mottled color to it.  LOVE IT!!  I will certainly be using it again!  (I have some Mustard Seed Yellow just begging to be used for a future project!)   

In the picture below, you can hardly tell that the edge of the top isn't the same as the top itself.  I was so pleased with the final result.  

Now we have our own unique coffee table, in our own unique style!  That is what I love most about painting & refinishing furniture.  You can make it your own.  Even when you have the same coffee table as The Nester, it can still look completely different and work in your home too.  Sa-weet!! 

Here's a final before & after

Tell me, how do you bring a sense of uniqueness to your home??   Last week I shared how I got to help bring a sense of uniqueness to my Sister-in-Laws house.

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Show Me What Ya Got #125

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Disclosure:  This post contains affiliate links.

My First Real Job.....

......furniture job that is.  That's right!!  I got to makeover a piece of furniture and get paid for it!!! WAHOO!! YIPEE!!  HOORAY!!  Can you tell I'm just a little excited??

     A big THANK YOU to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law for giving me this opportunity, to my husband for allowing me to make a mess, my children for being patient & encouraging, my parents, the academy......wait, wait this isn't the Oscars is it!  Sorry, I got a little carried away there.  Back to reality.  In all seriousness though, I really am grateful that they took a chance and asked me to paint a piece for them.  I hope they love the way it turned out as much as I do.

This is how it began:

This dresser actually belonged to my parents.  It was in their bedroom the entire time I was growing up.  I could probably tell you what used to go in what drawer, but I'll spare you those details. :P  It is at least 40 years old.  All I can say is furniture is not made like this anymore.  It was well taken care of.  There were a few minor dings, but nothing that wouldn't add to the character of it, after all, I planned to distress it.   My biggest challenge was going to be finding hardware for it.  I absolutely did not want to fill in the holes and drill new holes!

I painted it with 2 coats Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old White.  Before I began, I gave it a quick wipe to remove dust using a dry cloth.  Below are the drawers as they filled my living room floor.

I had one minor freak out when a couple of the drawers dried with a crackle effect in a small area.  I couldn't figure out the cause at first.  I knew that you can use a hair dryer on a high heat setting to create this effect.  But, believe me, I had not been blow drying my drawers!  Then it dawned on me that the sunshine that comes in my living room window is very warm in the afternoon.  The drawers that had crackled were right in the path of that sunbeam, hence the crackle effect.

I decided that it just added to the aged character I was going for and left it alone.  If all else failed, I could just sand it and repaint it.  Chalk paint is forgiving that way.  Have I mentioned that I  l-o-v-e, LOVE chalk paint?  I don't think I have.  I do, I really love it for so many reasons.

Below is a shot of two drawers at different stages.  One has only been painted and the other has been painted then distressed.

   

 After 2 (kinda sloppy) coats of paint and sanding/distressing, I put on a coat of Annie Sloan's clear wax.  Then I aged it further with a light coat of Annie Sloan's dark wax.  I fell in love with the way the distressing brought out the details in the dresser.  I know some people think I am crazy to paint a furniture piece with such a pretty wood grain.  I feel that some beautiful details get lost in the wood grain on certain pieces.  I think that many times paint treatments highlight those details and can really refresh a piece.  

Here is the finished product!

I lucked out and found the perfect pulls at a reasonable price!  The center knobs actually came off our Ikea shoe cabinet.  The color matched the pulls perfectly.  Lucky for me, I had been wanting to change them. 

Here is the final before and after:

The end result it a one of a kind dresser for a couple that is dear to my heart.  I am thankful for the privilege of contributing to the style of their new home!



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                                               furniture feature friday

  

Show Me What You Got #124

Love of Family & Home
Weekend Blog Hop #15