Fun and quick before and afters!

If there is one thing that most of my friends will agree upon, it's my spastic energy. I am not really happy if I don't have several balls up in the air at one time. Who knew that being a mom of five, a wife of an entrepreneur and a thrift addict would also hone my juggling skills all while going to college. I am not superwoman...not at all and sometimes the balls drop and in my case THEY BREAK!!! But my personality lends itself to functioning very well under pressure...take a look. It all started with this funky little shelf thingy that I picked up for $4.99 at Goodwill. It was actually two shelf thingys put together but I saw potential here. I was out with my friend Wendy. She has seen some of the projects that I have done in the past and didn't even wince when I told her it was my find of the day! Both cabinets had built in cubbies. Perfect for little collectibles or gardening things. I took it home and unscrewed it so that it became two pieces and then I got to work. Here's how it went.

Here is what it looked like when I bought it.

Dusty but cute little cubbies inside.

I chose to paint the top one a sort of french blue. It had a curvy top which gave it a french look to me. The little one on the bottom was more rustic so I went for a country yellow. Below are the steps of paint layers I did to give them a nice new look and their own personality.

First I had to use gripper to cover up the disco dancers on the front. Gripper is a Glidden product that coats everything from wood to glass to metal to tile. It is water based and an amazing product. A little piece of heaven for those of us who re-purpose furniture. It dries quickly and you can begin to paint in about 30 minutes. Next I applied a fresh coat of robin's egg blue paint from Glidden.

Next I applied a little yellow to the edges of the architecture with a dry brush. Dry brushing is when you take literally a dry paint brush and dip it in paint then blot it so that when you stroke the paint onto your project, you can see the brush strokes from each bristle. It makes it look like it's been sanded off. This is the lazy re-finisher's way to make a piece look like it's worn. I love it. Three times as fast with almost the same effect.

The next step is super easy. You take some burnt umber craft paint and dry brush it with the grain of the wood. I wiped it off while it was still wet. The effect is interesting because some of the paint dries and stays heavy while the other part comes off and just warms the colors underneath. Look at the difference between the fresh blue and the new patina with the yellow paint and the umber stain....cool.

I repeated the process of the yellow and umber dry brush all over the cabinet. This is how it turned out. The photos just don't do it justice. It is so much cuter than this in person. I also forgot to take a photo of the cabinet after I put the knobs on. Purchased from Home Depot for $1.19 each. They made this little cabinet adorable.

I had to put several coats of this yellow paint on the brown cabinet to cover. I could have used Gripper but decided I wanted the dark brown to come through on the finished product.

I used the same dry brush technique with red paint and went against the grain so that more of the character would show through. I started around the edges like the left side and then filled in like the right side. Yes over the knobs and everything!

With this cabinet I wanted the red dry brush to show through more than the brown so I used a wet staining technique. I started with a watered down burnt umber paint and brushed it wet and heavy around the edges then brushed some in the middle of the cabinet. You have to take a clean cloth and rub this immediately to give it a nice warm glow. If you leave it too long then you will have streaks.

This is what it looked like after I rubbed the brown staining into the paint.

Nice warm patina. This is the finished cabinet. I love it! Both cabinets are in the Berry Booth at A & J's awaiting a new home! The little chest below was done at the same time. I love doing multiple projects because while one is drying, I can work on the other one or two or three.

This is the before. It was a hand me down from my parents 10 years ago. Has been through multiple moves and one of the puppies got to the corner. I had to sand them down but with the distress I gave it, you don't notice it in the finished product.

Didn't like the little metal emblem type crest that was on the middle of the top drawer so I took it off and plugged the holes with wood filler.

First a base coat of this beautiful red color.

I applied a thick burnt umber stain to the edges of the drawers and then wiped off with a soft cloth. The finished product is below. I love the way the dental molding came out. I finished this with a product called Polycrylic. It is a water based polyeurethane.

These projects took me about 3 hours from start to finish for all three of them. Anyone can do this! Get busy and get thrifting! XOXO the thrift addict.