Old China Cabinet Makeover

One of my readers said, "Wow, wow, wow! I just showed my husband, who always rolls his eyes at painted furniture, and he said, 'Wow, now that's a piece I can appreciate. Very well done!'" Another said, "It looks like a piece of wall art. Stunning!" "It's the best transformation I have ever seen!" Come see how I transformed this beauty. I hope you'll be just as wowed as my readers were.

Nope, I don't have a bad before picture. She was a beauty to start with. The wood veneer had some small areas of damage and discoloration and was dried out, but overall it was in great shape. I personally love old stained pieces, even when they have battle scars. Maybe especially when they have battle scars. For several weeks, I would walk pass her while I was working on other projects and each time I would wonder if I could actually paint her. I do paint furniture as a hobby, but I'm actually a purist when it comes to these older pieces. I have many stained pieces of furniture in my house that I would never paint. So, my head and my heart battled it out. To paint or not to paint???

After I cleaned the years of dust off of her, I sat down and just stared at her a while. This really was weighing heavy on my conscious. I prefer to protect and preserve history when I can, but I thought about this logically. I ran through the pros and cons. It was a dark cabinet, especially behind the glass doors and the wood veneer was dry and slightly damaged but could be conditioned. What really stuck out in my mind was how the intricate trim and detail work was camouflaged in the midst of all that wood. It had beautiful details, but they weren't appreciated because they blended right in.

As I sat there staring at her, I started seeing a color scheme take place. I could visualize how I wanted to play up certain details with one color while highlighting other details with a different color. And for the first time in weeks, I felt like I could truly showcase the details to their fullest effect. I was still a little uncomfortable with the idea of painting her, but I *knew* sooner or later someone would paint her and I wanted to be that someone.

I spent about 4-5 days painting her. I would work for an hour or two. When I became fatigued, I would call it quits because I needed to be at my best in order to do the fine detail work. As you can see, my color scheme changed and I just went with 2 colors instead of 3 and left some of that gorgeous wood.

General Finishes graciously supplied paint for this project. Don't you just love how the blue, the creamy beige, and the woodwork play off one another?

And how about these beautiful knobs? Love, love, love them! These were from House of Antique Hardware. They hand antiqued each piece right before sending it out. Love. It.

They also made sure the knobs and the Victorian style pulls matched perfectly. When the hand antiquing on the knobs of my first choice didn't match the pulls like they thought it should, they got in touch and gave me different options. They have some of the best customer service I have come across in years. Their hardware is top quality and just gorgeous. I have to say that the hardware really brought all of the other elements together. It was like the icing on the cake.

Details. It's all in the details.

A little dentil moulding...

Notice how I left the millwork trim inside the cabinet stained. This was necessary in order to balance out the wood on the bottom of the cabinet. It really is important to balance out the different elements used so that your eye will focus on the entire cabinet and not just one area. Balance really is another "detail" not to be overlooked.

For more information on the products I used and for more amazing pictures see: http://www.thetatteredrabbit.com/general-finishes-china-cabinet-makeover/ Photos courtesy of 5 Rings Photo.

Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/14460305/old-china-cabinet-makeover site