Guest post by Nicole of Visual Heart
One thing that really bothers me is when someone takes a Mid Century style piece of furniture and applies a shabby chic paint finish to it. Modern + shabby do not mix! This vintage cabinet was one of those disasters, lightly brushed with a weird green, the door had been removed on the right side and the notches for the hinges were left behind. Ugly white hooks were added to the side for functionality and that green paint had dripped down onto the legs ruining the brass finish. The only cool thing this cabinet had going for it was the drawer, the inside was crafted really well with an area to hold pens or utensils.
I started by removing the hooks on the side and patching all the holes. I lightly sanded the entire cabinet and Andrew aggressively sanded the face of the drawer right down to raw wood. We had to be careful because it was a really brittle wood veneer on top of plywood. The legs were also sanded down to raw wood and a danish oil was applied to both the legs and drawer front in several thin coats.
Since this cabinet was so tall it was calling out to have some shelves made to make it more functional. So we got some MDF pieces cut to fit and drilled some holes to place in some shelf clips at the desired height.
The cabinet was primed with several thin coats to build up a nice base, this was a very dry and brittle cabinet, the primer just soaked right in. Once it was primed, the interior of the cabinet was painted with Benjamin Moore High Gloss Advance in Mantis Green and the outside is Snowfall White.
I replaced the rustic style knobs with something more clean and modern, these tiny knobs are actually from an old Ikea Expedit unit, they’re the perfect size and scale for the drawer. They no longer carry them, but they have other options.
Check out the transformation from shabby to chic:
The shelves were purposely placed at the right height to create a bar cabinet or a record cabinet:
Editor note: We recently found out Nicole sells her "before's and after's" after we asked what she did with all of her pieces. You can contact her HERE if you wish to inquire about buying them, or in general she has a gallery of her amazing furniture projects listed HERE.
About the contributor:
Nicole Phillips is a Vancouver based Graphic Designer and blogger.
You can learn more about her at visualheart.com or follow her creative side:
twitter.com/visualheart
pinterest.com/visualheart
instagram.com/visualheart
http://visualheart.com/2014/07/18/vintage-cabinet/
One thing that really bothers me is when someone takes a Mid Century style piece of furniture and applies a shabby chic paint finish to it. Modern + shabby do not mix! This vintage cabinet was one of those disasters, lightly brushed with a weird green, the door had been removed on the right side and the notches for the hinges were left behind. Ugly white hooks were added to the side for functionality and that green paint had dripped down onto the legs ruining the brass finish. The only cool thing this cabinet had going for it was the drawer, the inside was crafted really well with an area to hold pens or utensils.
I started by removing the hooks on the side and patching all the holes. I lightly sanded the entire cabinet and Andrew aggressively sanded the face of the drawer right down to raw wood. We had to be careful because it was a really brittle wood veneer on top of plywood. The legs were also sanded down to raw wood and a danish oil was applied to both the legs and drawer front in several thin coats.
Since this cabinet was so tall it was calling out to have some shelves made to make it more functional. So we got some MDF pieces cut to fit and drilled some holes to place in some shelf clips at the desired height.
The cabinet was primed with several thin coats to build up a nice base, this was a very dry and brittle cabinet, the primer just soaked right in. Once it was primed, the interior of the cabinet was painted with Benjamin Moore High Gloss Advance in Mantis Green and the outside is Snowfall White.
I replaced the rustic style knobs with something more clean and modern, these tiny knobs are actually from an old Ikea Expedit unit, they’re the perfect size and scale for the drawer. They no longer carry them, but they have other options.
Check out the transformation from shabby to chic:
The shelves were purposely placed at the right height to create a bar cabinet or a record cabinet:
Editor note: We recently found out Nicole sells her "before's and after's" after we asked what she did with all of her pieces. You can contact her HERE if you wish to inquire about buying them, or in general she has a gallery of her amazing furniture projects listed HERE.
About the contributor:
Nicole Phillips is a Vancouver based Graphic Designer and blogger.
You can learn more about her at visualheart.com or follow her creative side:
twitter.com/visualheart
pinterest.com/visualheart
instagram.com/visualheart
http://visualheart.com/2014/07/18/vintage-cabinet/
