Annie Sloan China Cabinet Restoration

I never thought my arch nemesis could be a china cabinet, but boy was I wrong. In the end though, we became the best of friends :)   I thought I would explain a bit of my restoration on this china cabinet. 

I knew right away what colors and brand of paint I wanted to try. I had been eyeing Annie Sloan Chalk Paint for a real long time. I loved the colors florence & old white. I bought samples of them while I was back in the states visiting & fell in love with the colors and how easy the paint was to work with. I bought my cabinet at a thrift store where I am living. I didn't pay much, and it isn't to old, so I wasn't worried about painting it.

HERE is the before picture: 

It is a very pretty piece even without painting it, but it had many issues that needed to be fixed. Once I dove into the project I found many many issues that made this much harder then I thought it would be.

Annie Sloan paint is known for being easy to use. Not needing to prime or sand your furniture before hand. So I took that to heart without thinking and painted a coat of Old White the the bottom piece. Because of all the stains and the stain that was on this they would soak through the paint and appear again. So I tried some primer and that did the trick. I was going to use clear shellac but couldn't find it anywhere. Below is some of the stains. 

Next up was this mess. Any clue how hard it is to remove 20 year + old contact paper? VERY. Ok so I researched easier ways to get rid of the paper. What I did was get a blow dryer and spray bottle with water in it. I would spray the paper with water and use the blow dryer on high heat and it would start to peel. You do this over & over until its done. It took me about 3 hours to remove it all. 

After it was removed there was a sticky mess left behind. It to wasn't easy to clean up. I did more research and bought a product called Goo Be Gone. It worked wonders and I was done quick. 

So more issues I ran into was some cracks in the wood. Ive never used wood filler so for some reason I was intimidated. It ended up being the easiest part of this process. Just fill in the gaps, let dry and sand off the extra. 

To make things easier I took off the glass/doors/shelves and hardware I wasn't planning on painting. The paint is so much fun to work with. I wanted a pretty thick coverage so I did two coats. The paint is very very thick. So second coat I watered down a bit and it spread nicely. 

One coat in on the Old White. I wanted a bit more coverage because I planned to do some distressing at the end. I had some o.k. paint brushes I used from the BX. I used different sizes & some angled ones to get in the corners. 

ALMOST done. All that was left was some clear wax & some dark wax. Clear wax is a breeze. Dark wax is a lot scarier. I just rubbed a little on at a time, and used a clean rag right after to whip up the excess. Ok guys here is the final After pictures...........

Some CLOSE up pictures of the distressing.. I think it is my favorite part :)

Next up I wanted to show how colors and items will look inside. 

I think they look so CUTE. I also love it with the blankets & pillow. 

Well this has been my favorite project I've done in a very long time, or forever really. I enjoyed is so much. It took many many hours and although some of them were difficult I loved every moment. I have a lot of time on my hands in Germany, and I think I found my new Hobby and love. Hope you like it guys and thanks for reading and looking.

Much Love,

Brianna ~