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I owe y’all all the details on the vintage cabinet I refinished with chalk paint. Original post is over on Mom It Forward. Here I am going to dive into a few more details. I always start with before and after pictures…get the good stuff out of the way first! Here is my after….
And the (aaackkkk) before….
The paint job was awful and DIRTY! To see my failure on stripped the cabinet hardware…head on over to this post.
Of course, the inside was covered in faded 80s contact paper. But I found a super easy way to remove contact paper!
Now for some discussions on how we got from before to after. First of all, I will backtrack to the failed cabinet hardware. I had to order all new hardware. The spacing on the original holes was very odd. I ended up going with eBay. The handles were the perfect shape, color, and best of all…price!
Now let’s talk about the inside of the cabinet for a second. I had this vision of something behind those glass doors. Something on the back that would make the cabinet pop. Then I saw this tutorial over on Pretty Handy Girl on how to add fabric to the back of cabinets. I had found my solution. Brittany’s tutorial is super easy to follow. The solution is temporary so it can be applied and removed easily. It is really perfect for a vintage piece that you don’t want to harm. I will offer some instructions below, but head on over to Pretty Handy Girl for even more pictures and step-by-step instructions!
For my “fabric back”, I wanted to use vintage quilt squares. That is more my style and makes the cabinet more “me”. So I gathered up these quilt squares that I have been saving for a special project. (Many thanks to Tricia and Gina for the squares!) I had to sew the squares together for this project. Plus I added filler strips to some of them to have something to wrap around the foam board. The squares were almost perfectly the right size. This meant I had no fabric left to wrap and secure. These filler strips worked perfectly for that.
- You use MUCH less paint then with regular paint. Gina gave me a partially used pint. There was a little less than 1/2 of the pint left when I gave it back to her. Two coats on a very large piece of furniture with less than 1/2 a pint of paint. That is amazing all on its own.
- The coverage is beyond anything I have ever used before. This piece was a mess. I did clean it well, however, there were aged stains that just were not going anywhere. They were completely covered with the chalk paint. It was like magic gold.
- This is the first time I have ever painted a piece of furniture that I felt the finish was even close to being professional. I did use a really good brush with the paint. But, I know that my skills as a furniture painter did not improve that much. It was the Annie Sloan magic that made the finish what it was.
- It is there to stay. I would never say it is impossible to scratch but I will say that I feel the quality of the finish is stronger than with regular paint.
Sherry @ No Minimalist Here says
Hi Angie, The cabinet turned out wonderful and I love the stencil. Thanks for linking to the Open House party. Hugs, Sherry
Justine says
Stopping by from the Open House Linky Party! http://queenofsavings.com
Richella says
Angie, you worked magic on your cabinet! I love that you used vintage quilt squares to back it–what a cool look. And I’ve been wondering if ASCP was worth the price–thank you so much for giving us the lowdown on that.Great job! Thanks so much for linking to Grace at Home! I really appreciate it.
- Brittany aka Pretty Handy Girl says
I think your cabinet is really darling! Thanks for sharing the progess with us. 😉
reFresh reStyle says
Love your cabinet, it does brighten up the corner!debbie