Vintage media stand with sliding doors. Once again with the chalk paint!

This is an old project. In fact, it was #2 in my refurbishing carrier. I was very intrigued by the sliding doors on this one. And the drawers were just lovely. Unfortunately, the top had a big stain that looked like something fluid had extracted into the wood, as well as inside the cabinet. So something had to be done. I didnd mind!

Look at those legs!

I mixed up the same batch of color that I used on this cabinet. Allso, the edges got a different shade, very similar to the main color, but a little greener. 

The inside of the cabinet is what I would call a result of my inpatience and lack of more paint.

But I think that combo worked, in this perticular situation.

Now, the sliding doors were quite a challenge, because what do you think happens when you get lots of thick paint in between the sliding door- thingies?  Thats right! They get stuck when the paint dryes!

So I had to use some force to loosen it up, and get the paint to release from the door panel. Once I had run them back and forth a few times, it went much smoother. 

To finish it of, I used clear wax, mainly on the top and on the front of the drawers. Allso, I put a little on the sliding doors, hoping that it would give them a smoother slide. And I guess it did, because I have not had any problems with them since. 

A little dark wax on and around the handles and drawers gives the whole piece a little more authentic look, vintage-vise. 

And there you have it! a perfectly good, vintage, chalkpainted tv stand!

How to be accurate when you drill new wholes for your drawer pullers. Every time!

Well, this old thing keeps popping up. You might remember that when I bought it, one puller was missing, and they were`nt really much to look at to begin with, So I decided to remove all of them, plaster up the holes and make new, once I had found the right pullers. And I did!
See how I painted them and gave them a makeover with chalkpaint here.

But I was a little short-sighted, and had not foreseen how I would make sure that the holes on all three drawers were identical. So I came up with something, that I think was very clever! Haha...
I have not seen it elsewhere, but I doubt I am the first person in history who came up with it.
And by all means, if there is an easier/better way, please let me know!

You are going  to need tracing paper and a pencil.
Make sure your paper is long enough to cover the lenght of the drawer.

Place the pullers where you want them, and start measuring. 

Heres a tip! When you have it where you want it and you have marked the spots (I marked with a pen spot exactly were the screw holes goes) then you fold the paper in half and just trace them over from where you made them the first time. Now you will have a mirroring image of the handle placement. 

Fold open the paper again over the drawer, push down hard with your pen/pencil so that it goes through the paper and leaves a visable mark on the actual drawer. That is were you will drill youre holes.

Everything in order! As simple as that.

Thanks for stopping by:)

The brown, old cabinet gets a makeover with home made chalkpaint

Tilbake i sommer kjøpte jeg denne brune, gamle skap online. Jeg hadde prøvd å finne noe som dette for en stund, og jeg var allerede ganske satt på bying en. Men selv om det er en ganske vanlig møbel her i Skandinavia, de bare syntes å gli ut av fingrene mine. Jeg var allerede ganske innstilt på å finne en, men ikke for enhver pris. Så da jeg snublet opp på dette for ca $ 45 (eller 300 kroner) Jeg hadde ikke tenkt å la det gå! Og jeg allso fått en ny venn sammen med det! Den formelle eieren av kabinettet har vist seg å dele min lidenskap for ommøblere og maleri. Hun ga allso meg de vakre håndtakene for min antikke chalkpainted secretaire . Hva en vinkel!
Men nå I`m procrastinateing ....

Heres skapet. Jeg er veldig lei meg for fryktelig før bildet, men da jeg tok disse bildene jeg ikke se meg selv å sette dem på en blogg. At ideen kom senere!
Så her har du det, en ganske enkel kabinett med beskjedne utskjæringer. Disse slags møbler var vanlig i 50-årene og kom ofte i serier, med matchende spisebord, stoler, cup boards etc.

Dette var min første noensinne møbler som jeg malte med hjemmelaget chalkpaint. Jeg gikk til min malingsleverandør og kjøpte en liten boks med andeeggblå, en mine favorit farger!
Jeg ble overrasket over hvor raskt det gikk! Den chalkpaint dryes veldig rask, og allmost av den tiden jeg var ferdig med med det første laget, kunne jeg starte den andre. Jeg did'nt sand det heller, bare vasket det siden det var full av spindelvev og støv.

Igjen, forferdelig bilde, men her ser dere detaljene på carving etter at de fikk en runde med sliping og mørk voks.

Etter to lag med maling, pusset jeg ned hjørnene og andre områder som ville ha fått en normal slitasje gjennom årene. Så hele stykket fikk et godt lag med klar voks, befor jeg satt på mørk voks på flere strategiske steder. Den klare voks gir den en silkeaktig smooooth lag etter en dag eller to når det har vært skikkelig dynket i en allso beskytter lakken.

Jeg er veldig fornøyd med resultatene! Det matcher selv min chalkpainted 60`s tv kabinett. 

Men dvs et show for en annen dag.

Takk for at du stakk innom!

(You can read about this post over at Songbirds Vintage Inspirational Party!

Can you paint hardware? Sure you can! { How to paint and distress hardware with chalkpaint }

In my obsession with chalkpaint I continue to try it out on different material.
No need to say my husband has layed down the law when it comes to chalkpainting every single furniture, a long time ago.
As I told earlier, this secretaire was missing drawer pullers after I removed the old, ugly ones, and the hunt for the perfect pullers had begun. I searched and searched through the obvious internet dealers. But I am kind of cheap when it comes to buying stuff, and since this blog is about frugal furbishing after all, I couldnt make my self by new "old" drawer handles for over $30-40.
And it is in moments like these when you really find out who payes attention to what you say and do, because a recently acquaintance of mine, who I actually bought one of my makeovers with, saw my announcement on facebook and said she had six pullers she wanted to GIVE me! Now, if youre in to that kind of stuff, you know thats a BIG DEAL! And whats even better, they had the perfect look! I just had to paint them.

 So I mixed up a batch of my homemade chalkpaint, using the color duck egg blue (my favourit!) and started painting. But I had to make shure that they did`nt look completely new, so I distressed them, using sandpaper. and gave them a go with first the clear wax, then the dark to give them an aged look. If I can say so myself, I think I succeded.

And they looked perfect!

Now I only need to find the time to put them on. I suck at finding time to finnish up on last details.
How are you with finishing projects? Sorry to say, but I tend to drag things out by starting on a new project before the old one is completely finished.


(You can read about this post over at Songbirds Vintage Inspirational Party! and at From my front porch to yours )

Antique secretary make-over with homemade chalkpaint

In my very first post, I showed you this old, worn out secretary desk I bought.

I actually dont know what time-period it originates from, but I would guess some time around the 1950`s. 

It had a very dark sort of laminated color. I think the right woord would be plywood. 

Heres a before picture:

You can see here that I took off the handles, and plastered the screw holes.

I chose to this because:

1) The handles werent "all that" 

2) One handle was missing

So I figured that the smart thing to do would be to just remove them and replacee them with the perfect ones (still have`nt found them, though....).

There was allso a couple of places on the drawer that the plywood had chipped of, so I put som plaster there to.

Just look at all those tiny drawers and the pillars. They make a beautyfull detail. Unfortunately the keys didnt come with. 

Look at this paper the former owner put in the bottom drawe. This was a very common thing to do, maybe to protect the wood?

                                                                                           

Here is the secetary desk closed up. The desk can be pulled out or in. Offcourse in this case it is pulled in. All in all it was a quite functional piece, except for one VERY tricky drawer....

Will have to work a little on that one.

So.... after a good cleaning and a little sanding (I try to avoid that as often as possible. Simply because I hate sanding) the secretaire was ready to be painted. And with what else then chalkpaint?! 

I love chakpaint. For so many reasons. Will make a post of that some other time, and how I make my own.

I had allready decided, after spending quite some time on Pinterest looking for inspiration, that I wanted the piece to have two colors. One for the cabinet it self, and another one for the drawers. Here`s a color palette I took inspiration from:

(source)

I first gave the whole piece a layer of a light white-ish color called "mist". Then I painted the drawers with a green color called "prism green". It fits perfect with my other interior. 

Getting inside this compartment here was a bit tricky. In fact, it was impossible to get in there with my brush. So I took a cloth, dipped in the painting and rubbed it all over. 

I made shure that the green didnt cover completely, since I wanted the white to shine through. So I started of carefully, allmost drypainting the drawers. The thing with chalkpaint, is that it dryes so fast! I was done in a couple hours, and then I could start sanding. This is a great way to make furniture look old and distressed. When I sand, I try to think of wich areas that would get most worn and torn the naturally way. You know, if this was a really, really old piece. 

Then it is time for the waxing. This is where the magic happens! I love the affect that waxing makes!

It really gives you the impression that the piece has a history and a soul. And it looks real! I do this by using first clear wax, then go over again with dark wax to make the wanted effect. But it is very important that you give all the surfaces a really good coat with the clear wax before putting on the dark wax. Or else you could risk the paint to suck up the dark color, not being able to rub it off again.

And here it is! I love the detailing on the pillars. The sanding and waxing works perfect together.

And there you have it! Only missing the hardwear now, then it is complete.

What is youre opinion? Would love to hear about it:)

Shared over at Prodigal Pieces