Between U & Me: An Heirloom Classic Revamped

An Heirloom Classic Revamped - Before/After

by Courtney

on Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Hi, BU&M readers! Today I want to introduce you to Angi from AKM Designs. She is this fantastic new blogger (since October) and she is just amazing! Her tutorials are way easy to understand, her projects are awesome, and her blog is just too cute for words! She has the kind of personality where you just feel like you've known her forever and you're super great friends from way back. Here is a little bit about her and her amazing blog:

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Hi-ya! My name is Angi McCarthy and I am a married thirty-something (we’ll just keep it at that) year old, working, mother of two amazing young men, keeper of two dogs, two fish and an abundant amount of "mommy can I please keep these" lizards, that spends all of her free time (yeah, right, who am I kidding, who has "free time") re-purposing, painting, decorating and when it all goes wrong, baking!
AKM Designs and Delights blog will be a collaboration of our family, our projects, missteps, brownie baking, cookie eating, wine guzzling, hair pulling, laughter filled, moments of sheer frustration, wanna kill each other, MAN DOESN'T THAT LOOK AWESOME!, journey to making this house our Home!
And now that you know me, I welcome you to... AKM designs and delights! I hope you find something you like!

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First of all I want to thank Courtney at Between U and Me for having me as a Guest Blogger! I am so honored to be here! I struggled with an idea on what I should post about today. After much speculation, I decided it was time to dive into some serious Chalk Painting! I was ~~over-the-top~~ a bit nervous with this project as it is a family heirloom.

We’ve had this cabinet for years. It has sat un-noticed, stuck in a dark corner forever filled with our DVDs. It was functional. That’s about all I could say about it. While I did like the looks of it, I wasn’t in love with it. I did love the little glass knob on the door; however. And the beadboard on the back and I REALLY loved the shape of it. But more than looks, I loved the history of this piece. You see, it belonged to Mr. AKM’s grandmother. If memory serves correct, his grandfather actually made it. I love the way it smells of old wood…not musty and gross…but rather more of history, time and use. Sometimes I would just run my hand over the top to feel the indentations and wonder how they got there. The glass on the front cracked during a move across the country. I went to have it replaced but they could not match the glass. The glass is the original glass from the early 1900’s. It’s not smooth like glass is now. You can see small ripples or waves in it. I love that about it so I opted to not replace it but instead stuck a piece of tape to hold it together. I am hoping to find someone that can repair the glass as opposed to replacing it someday.

So why paint it? Well, there is this wall in my dining room that has been BEGGING for something to fill it. I’ve looked all over the place for a small table or hutch but nothing seemed to fill the “void”. When one day it hit me…I mean like literally HIT me. Like I opened the cabinet door and it fell over and hit me kinda thing. Not cool. But while I was picking up the spilled DVDs I realized what AWESOME potential this had! It’s like it called out to me…Paint me! Paint me! Who was I to deny it it’s true self? So, I did just that, I painted it!

So let’s get on with the pictures shall we…because we all know that is why you are really here! It’s ok…I can handle the truth. Here it is. The piece de resistance (say it with a French accent). Go ahead, try it again…piece de resistance.

Isn't it GOR-geous? I am seriously in love with this piece now. I mean like over-THA-top in LOVE! I know the lighting is a bit off...Daylight savings has seriously messed with my photo ops!

How did I get to this most awesome piece of awesome-ness you ask? Let me give you the dets. It all started like this....

Sand...sand...sand...then vacuum all the saw dust off...then sand some more and vacuum again. Not a fun process I must admit but totally worth the efforts. I chose to only sand the top since I was using Chalk Paint on the base. No sanding necessary for that! LOVE ME SOME CHALK PAINT!

Once the sanding/vacuuming was complete I wiped the entire piece down with a tack cloth to remove all the remaining dust. I then applied two coats of Minwax Dark Walnut stain to the top only. I wanted to preserve the original look of the cabinet by doing this. Then I moved on to painting the cabinet itself. I used Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Old White. I rolled on the 1st coat using a sponge roller then brushed on the second. This is the finished look before sanding/distressing it then after.

WOW! Are you loving this as much as I am? After all the distressing I applied a coat of Annie Sloans Clear Wax with a cheese cloth then buffed. That was it! So totally easy! Mr. AKM decided he wanted the doors to stay the original color as well since we were leaving the top and the shelves that way. I was a little on the fence with that idea until he put them on...