I love painting and putting life into an old piece of furniture. I used a chalk paint that’s new to me. We have someone that bought a old restaurant and turned it into a home decor shop and she specializes in Debi’s Diary DIY paint , decals, stencils and stamps. I can’t wait until we can live life without covid so my girlfriend and I can take a class!
Her shop is Miller’s Crossing Design . Becca is the owner, super sweet down to earth gal with amazing eye for color and design!
So here’s my cabinet:
This is special to me as it was my mother in law’s significant other’s cabinet from his mom’s home. No one in his family wanted it!
At first I as going to try and just clean it up but the inside smelled and it looked rougher than I thought. I scrubbed it very well with Myer’s cleaner, dried it quickly by the fireplace. When it was done drying it I wiped it again with a half rubbing alcohol half vinegar solution to remove all the oils. I went through did a quick hand sand and wiped that up with tack cloth.
Now the fun! I used weather wood which looks like a darker taupe brown but when it drys it really is dramatically lighter ! I loved it, It might be my new favorite color!
It totally isn’t this color when it dries!
I base coated the whole cabinet in this color, I didn’t necessarily do a solid coat but near solid. I let it dry 24 hours. Sanded with brown paper bag.
For the second and third coats I took a paper plate and put a blob of vintage linen and a little bit away a blob of the gravel road. I watched a ton of videos about spraying water on the cabinet as you work, That didn’t work for me. It created dots on the cabinet.
In between the paint blob I would spray water and then swipe one corner of my brush in the white  and then the other corner of my brush in the weathered wood, I would work the brush on the paper plate between the paint colors and then I stroked the paint vertically on the cabinet. Sometimes I would swiped the brush deeper into one color but I never put it on pure. I would paint on the chisel and working the brush flat. My favorite brush was this one.
The other thing I did was spray the brush with lots of water and then work it on paper towels to remove the muddiness. I liked my brush to have both colors and shades in between. After about 4-5 strokes the brush seemed to have one color in it.
I just played with water, but I never put it on the cabinet directly . I sprayed either the paint blobs, in between the paint blobs or even spray the brush.
The overall effect was this beautiful old barn driftwood coloring with lots of variation and smooth transition, I was incredibly happy with the end product and this paint!
I let each coat dry 24 hours, lightly sanded with brown bag, wipe with a tack cloth. After the final coat I let dry 2 days and then I waxed my cabinet. After 2 days I buffed it quickly. I did paint the inside, just solid white, Sherwin Williams white. I used bowls of baking soda to help wit the smell, It helped, not perfect.
That’s it! I cleaned the glass really well with Myer’s glass cleaner. I hope you get the chance to epicycle an old piece of furniture . It’s so gratifying seeing what it can become! Thanks for stop by, Stay well and get lots done during the covid stay at home.
