Turquoise Cabinet Makeover

January 09, 2012

Turquoise Cabinet Makeover

So here is my "Exciting New FINISHED project". :)

We'll be using it in the lounge room as an entertainment cabinet for storing our DVD's.

I purchased this cabinet at a yard sale for $20. Thank you! And yep, I haven't disappointed, I have AGAIN forgotten to take a before picture! Bugger, bugger, bugger!

So, again my creative friends, please use your imagination and picture this cabinet a plain baltic pine with a boring red/brown wood stain with the usual round wooden door and drawer knobs.

BORING, and ugly.

Here's what I did:

First I applied a coat of undercoat. Then I mixed up some flat white paint with a small amount of powdered grout to produce a chalky paint texture. Most of our furniture has been painted white, with the exception of one that I did grey doors on recently. So, this time I decided I'd seen so many gorgeous turquoise creations, that I would try it on this piece. I added blue and yellow acrylic paints to my white paint and mixed and mixed, and mixed, and mixed, until I got a shade of turquoise I was happy with. Of course this was last night, the worst time to be mixing colours cause they ALWAYS look different in the day light, but of course I never learn and I get too excited to wait. :) I applied one coat with a roller and let it dry.

Half hour later I was using my sandpaper to distress the edges. Wow, it was turning out fantastic. I did however think the colour was a bit too close to being a mint green, rather than turquoise, so I decided to wipe over a black stain with a damp cloth to darken the colour a couple of shades. It did darken the colour, however dried really splotchy. Not happy. :(

I'd used all my turquoise paint and did not fancy trying to mix another batch. I'd also run out of sandpaper. So I went hunting through the cupboard and found some steal wool. I'd read somewhere that you could sand and distress paint with steel wool, so I gave it a try. Woohoo! I was able to blend the splotchy bits, while keeping the dark stain still visible. And it also brought more traces of the white under coat out which I also love. Following which I added a coat of clear poly. Now I must share that this my first time using poly as it had scared me before. It just looked so sticky and I was sure I would leave paint brush strokes, but guess what. It was SO easy! And it left a gorgeous glossy clear coat. I can't wait to use it on some of my other finished furniture projects.