Girl in Pink: Cinderella Cabinet Makeover

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Cinderella Cabinet Makeover

If an unattractive piece of furniture can be made lovely with Chalk Paint® Decorative Paint by Annie Sloan, an already lovely piece can be made the belle of the ball! This hutch started out looking pretty darn good, but I knew it had the potential to be something extraordinary. It reminds me a bit of Cinderella. She was a cute girl. She just needed her fairy god mother to step in, wave her wand around and turn her into princess potential!

Sometimes I wish a wave of the wand was all it took to work this kind of magic! I love china cabinets and hutches but they can be tedious to paint. I tend to get a little impatient! Still, I won't argue that the end result isn't well worth the time and effort put into it!

For the body of the cabinet, I mixed up 3 parts Pure White to 1 part French Linen...probably not what you were expecting! I love how versatile Chalk Paint® is. One of these days I will post on how many different looks you can achieve with just two paint colors...it's amazing, truly!

The accents received two coats of Old White. After a fair amount of distressing, I applied a coat of clear wax and a very minimal amount of dark wax, focusing on the detailed areas.

Deciding which parts to accentuate in Old White was a little tricky at first, especially since the hutch was split into two pieces and I was working on them one at a time. I had to refer to my "before" photo several times to map out my game plan.

When it comes to painting details, I have all the patience in the world! It's painting and waxing the interior of a cabinet that wears on me. This is partly why I often line interiors with book pages or sheet music (I get lazy...please don't hold it against me). I am always tempted to leave the inside of a cupboard "as is." But I don't, because I can't tell you how many times I have watched customers at the store walk up to a piece of furniture, open a cupboard or drawer and look inside. Do you do that? I do, without even thinking about what I am doing! I'm not sure what I expect to find, but if the exterior is painted and the interior is still wood...it sometimes feels like it's a bit unfinished, don't you think?

I just love these tulle poms that I see all over Pinterest. I decided to make some in ivory for my Christmas display, with the idea of them hanging like snowflakes. I suppose they look more like snowballs, but still I am loving the look of them hanging from the bare tree branch. It creates just the whimsical, snowy winter scene I had imagined! I may be working these into our Christmas décor at home as well!