Creamy Distressed China Cabinet

 

 

A couple of months ago when I returned Mrs R's

Not so Shabby Buffet & Bookcase

I came home with another project for her.

 

She had been given this well used China Cabinet,

who was in desparate need of a makeover!

 

 

This guy had potential.

But was living in a era of bad scroll-y hardware and medium oak finish.

 

Mrs. R requested the China Cabinet go Creamy

to match her newly painted buffet.

 

And she wanted the glass removed and chicken wire installed.

 

Easy Peasy.

(But I didn't have a CLUE about chicken wire!)

 

So I started with removing the glass from the doors.

'Cause I know demo!

 

First, I removed the door from the cabinet.

 

Then I started prying the inside trim piece off with a screw driver.

 

 

Then I grabbed the most handy of staple removing tools

 (no idea what its called!)

 

 

And after I pulled all the staples I removed the glass.

 

 

Side note: I still don't know what to DO with the glass...

Anyone have any ideas for 2 curved glass panels?!?!

 

Once the doors were glass free, I started priming & painting.

 

 

Ahhhhh... this Oak-y China Cabinet looked a TON better!

 

Now look closely,

The foot areas on the cabinet had strange, recessed circles.

They didn't match the other lines on the cabinet.

They didn't improve the look of the cabinet.

They were just not good, or necessary.

So I erased them. With wood fill.

 

 

Much better!

 

Once painted all the details looked a TON better!

 

 

Unfortunately, I erased the distressing/glazing pictures.

(Head Palm Moment!!!)

 

So on to the "How to Install Chicken Wire"pictures.

 

Wander around your local Farm & Home store until you find a roll of this:

Silly me Chicken Wire has an official name.

"Hex Netting"

 

Who knew??

 

Unroll it carefuly.

I repeat, carefully!!

This stuff is SHARP.

A smart person would wear gloves.

I'm not smart.

 

Trim the razor sharp wire down to roughly the right size.

 

This tool is really all that worked for trimming.

Utility scissors did not.

 

Once trimmed, cram that wire into the slot where the glass once lived.

 

You will have to trim and cram.

Trim and cram.

And slice your fingers a few times to get it all done.

 

And you will have to of course do both doors.

 

Eventually you will succeed.

(I also used the staple gun to tack in the wire.)

 

 

YEA she's ready for hardware! 

 

 

This is an important OOOPS picture.

 

 

It will forever remind me why

you should NOT drill holes

on doors until you reinstall the door.

SOMETIMES they hang funny.

And so even though you found the MIDDLE on BOTH doors

The middle is really not THE middle for BOTH doors.

 

*sigh*

  

Once this China Cabinet was

Distressed, Glazed, Wired...

She was pretty much unrecognizeable, which was a good thing!

 

 

Inside & Out this Creamy Distressed China Cabinet had a fresh new look!

 

O and did I mention I painted the back??

Yea, its a problem I have.

If I think furniture has the potential to be used somewhere, someday

where the back might be visible.

I paint it too...

 

For the curious, nope this is not DIY chalk paint.

This is good old latex & elbow grease.

 

Each little bit of distress was sanded off by me.

 

Its how I get my arm work out!

 

 

I love the feet without the circles!

 

I love the dentil molding now.

But I never love to paint it!  :)

 

I wonder if this China Cabinet's previous owners

would even recognize her at Mr & Mrs's R's house now?!?

 

 

Linking up here!

Domestically Speaking, Stone Gable,

 The Shabby Creek Cottage,

Miss Mustard Seed, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating,

Primitive & Proper

 



Painting Graphic Designs Part 2: A Painted Guitar

 

 

Part 2 of this trend of painting objects I never considered painting,

was a Guitar. 

 

Yes, a Guitar.

An actual musical instrument.

Not the painted Piano that's made me

A) want to buy a piano 

B) paint want to paint a piano

 

A guitar is one of those rare things I had never dreamed of applying paint to.

 

So of course I said YES I'll paint the guitar.

And then the guitar was dropped off. 

AND I got a little scared.

 

When I was told "acoustic guitar" I imagined wood.

Not black, shiny surface guitar.

 

Image VIA Guitar Center

 

 

I had to take a bunch of deep breaths before deciding where to begin.

 

I reached for the fabulous, green frog tape.

And covered that puppy up!

 

 

On the BACK side first.

Just in case this went horribly, horribly wrong.

And I had to repaint it black (somehow).

I decided the back side was the best side to experiment with!

 

So after I sketched a design on the green tape.

I started "operating" on it.

 

I trimmed away the green tape to reveal my swirling paisleys.

 

Then I used a tiny piece of sandpaper to rough up the surface of the guitar.

 

 

Sanding had to be done very gently. 

Otherwise you would sand up the tape!

 

After sanding, I covered all the remaining surfaces (to avoid overspray)

Trash bagged the neck.

And said a quick please let this work prayer.

 

 

I first primed.

THEN came the multiple coats of bright red.

After minimal dry time (to avoid peeling paint) I started uncovering the guitar.

 

 

Removing tape was MESSY.

Red, sticky fingers, dangerous wet tape.

Not such an easy process.

 

BUT

slowly I found the pattern.

 

And it looked GREAT!

 

 

SO

 

time for the flip side!!

 

Same process.....

 

1.  Cover

 

2. Sketch

 

3. Trim

 

 

4. Sand and cover

 

 

5. Spray Prime

 

 

6. Spray Prime your leg

 

 

OK, you can skip step 6.  :)

 

7. Paint & Peel

 

 

8. Admire....

 

 

I'm sure you've noticed that this guitar has a name.

"Cash".

Here's the scoop on "Cash".

Cash, after Johnny, of course!

Actually belongs to a 16 year old, guitar playing girl.

Cash was her first guitar.

Her mom snuck Cash away for me to paint.

As a 16th Birthday surprise.

On a tight time frame (one week)!!

 

Painting Cash took a lot of time.

And was quite nerve racking!

 

I had visions of a really angry 16 year old HATING painted Cash.

 

Relief came after the birthday surprise,

Cash's makeover was LOVED.

Soon he'll be hanging proudly on the wall! 

 

 

So what's the most unique thing/surface you guys have painted??

 

Have I ever mentioned to anyone that I've also painted cars. 

Yes, carS! 

A truck and a Karmann Ghia.

Yep, I'm THAT crazy...

 



Painting Graphic Designs

Just when you think that you have mastered most of the

tricks of decorative painting

someone will throw you a curve ball. 

And ask you to paint something totally out of your element!

 

I've had this happen twice recently.

(You'll have to wait for #2!)

 

First up was a $5 table from Goodwill.

I was painting it for a friends daughter to use as her desk.

 

 

I waited for bedding selections to be made,

So I could come up with a design plan.

 

And then all the cutesy, fluffy girly stuff came to an end

When the daughter decided she wanted a EIU Panthers themed desk.....

 

Hmmmmmm said my brain.

(and yes, you could probably hear crickets)

 

It took awhile to come up with an idea.

And then it took awhile for me to get

the courage to paint something so graphic....

 

Here's how it went:

 

First I sanded, primed and painted the "desk" white.

And sketched my very first drawing of an EIU Panther.

 

 

Then I covered the areas UNDER my Panther lines with paint tape.

(Blue tape because I was out of my favorite green tape.)

 

 

Then I broke out the trusty exacto.  And started slicing!

 

 

I cut thru my sketch AND the tape.

 

**Side Note: I was totally attempting to imitate a technique I saw over

at Design Sponge with Erin Scott's Typographic Idea Wall

 

So when I peeled up the paper and the tape I was left with this....

 

 

Rarrrrrr.

(Is that the noise a Panther makes???)

 

I painted the inside Panther black.

And peeled the remaining tape off.

 

 

Hellooooo Panther!

 

Now the EIU logo is actually blue & black.

And the "Inspiration" Panther logo I was imitating

had a thin, blue pin-stripe alllll around the Panther.

 

Of course, my Panther needed one too!

 

So again, I broke out the paint tape.

And outlined my Panther.

 

 

** Side Note: I actually used some of my previously

"trimmed" off paint pieces to keep the outline perfect!

So don't just wad those trimmed pieces up!  They could come in handy!!

 

After round 2 of trimming and taping,

I had this...

 

 

I know, bad lighting.  You can barely see the blue outline. 

But I promise it's there!!

 

SO then I decided that was just not enough excitement on the desk.

 

I allllmost lettered "Panthers".

But that wasn't really a exciting design for this desk.

(In my opionion!)

 

I decided instead it needed some stripes to liven things up!

 

 

These are actually paint tape stripes.

They were helping me make the decision.

 

 

I sealed the paint tape to the desk with white.

 

And hellllo stripes!

 

 

 

Now here's where this "How-To" takes a wrong turn.

 

I decided that this desk needed a coat (or 3) of Shellac

so it had a super, durable finish.

 

I had NOOOOO idea that Shellac would make the bright white

 

YELLOW!!

 

Not a good yellowing.  More like a smoker-house table yellowing. 

(no pictures were taken of smoker yellow table)

 

Yes, I did proceed to stomp and pout.

And read the back of the can.....

"finish will have a slight golden tint".

My.  Bad.

This was not Shellac launching an attack on my table.

It was a complete oversight on my part.

Ooops.

 

But after a few days of being irritated.

I backtracked a bit with some Ebony glaze.

And I honestly can say, I like it better now!

 

 

The glaze added a lot of depth that the previous

white, black, blue did not have.

You can acgtually see the blue outline in this picture too!

 

So just in time for EIU sports to get kicked off,

this table goes home!

(hopefully to a cheering, EIU fan!)

 

 

 

 

Linking Up Here! 

 Chic on a Shoestring, Classy Clutter,

Twigg Studios, My Repurposed Life