When the cat's away .......

When my honey was on a business trip a few weeks ago, I had a thought. Which led to more thoughts. And that led to me digging out the paint rollers and tray, unearthing a drop cloth and grabbing all manner of paints. The hutch was going to be transformed. I'd been dabbing test spots on it for a year, looking for the right color. Time to Just Do It.

Here is a "before" shot of the dining room. The only reason I have it is I was looking for a new light fixture and took some pictures to help me decide. Notice the mass-produced, super shiny finish on the table. Ugh. Notice the hutch is actually a Black Hole of Doom, sucking in all light. And, especially, take note of that wallpaper and trim. Ten years ago I happened to see our wallpaper featured in the "before" section of a magazine story. This year the wallpaper turned 25! Yikes. It's about time I did something about it.

Here's what I started with.

And another "sorta before" shot of paint daubs. The WINNER was Annie Sloan Chalk Paint: Paris Grey, Old White and Duck Egg Blue. But I get ahead of myself.

First I covered the entire hutch with a special blend of oops paints. The color is a soft sage-gray. I painted the inside a brilliant white. Then I got too excited and experimented with glaze around the glass. Which I had to sand off.

Not that it happened to me or anything, but if you spill stain or glaze on the carpet while Hubby is out of town, Professional Strength Goof Off takes it out. Just sayin'.

Enter the Chalk Paint. I added a coat of Paris Grey to tone down the green, then used Old White and Duck Egg Blue for the trim.

The next step was dark wax tempered with clear wax. I found rubbing on dark wax, then taking some of it off with clear wax worked well for me. Are you lovin' the wallpaper yet?

Time to start distressing. Chalk Paint distresses beautifully. A light touch goes a long way.

We're getting there! No hardware yet and that wallpaper is still there!

The final details.

Before I added the pulls I rubbed the drawer and door panels with Old White. I also went back and softened the screaming white interior with a soft cream for the sides and sage green for the shelves. Much better!

Ahhhh, the sun came up as I took this shot. I found these awesome glass pulls at VanDykes online, after looking forever. Now the hunt was on for the knobs.

I finally settled on a shape and picked these knobs from Lowes. I used short shots of 3 different spray paints, then glaze and finally a coat of polyurethane to get the look I wanted.

AND IT"S DONE! Complete with my little brass bat hanging on the side. Now that the wallpaper is gone, hmmmm, maybe get rid of the icky wall to wall?

Don't forget - any furniture you see here is for sale! Contact me for info or click on the Etsy link.


Linking to:
http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/
http://chiconashoestringdecorating.blogspot.com/ 
http://my1929charmerblog.com 
http://www.thevintagefarmhouse.com/