PJH Designs

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Chantilly Gray China Cabinet

Hello everyone! I hope life has been treating you well since I last posted. :-)

Today I'm sharing how I refurbished an antique, mahogany china cabinet. As you know, if you follow me on FB, I am mixing my own colors of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and I used two of those colors on this piece. Chantilly Gray and Seaside Whispers, which is a soft aqua color.

Here is the finished piece.

As you can see from the first picture I'm still doing most of my work on my carport but I have good news! I'm getting my own shop! Yeah! I'm buying a portable building and finishing it out on the inside so I can have air and heat. Yippeee! LOL I will be sharing the process of finishing the inside of the building with you as we go. I can't wait!

So, back to this cabinet. First, I painted it with Annie Sloan's Coco. Coco is a brownish gray that is great for undercoats. Once that was dry I applied my new color Chantilly Gray to the outside.

I brought it inside to my kitchen and finished it because it was just too hot outside. When applying the gray I more or less just dry brushed it on allowing the Coco to show through in places. This aged the piece quit a bit and left the darker color in the crevises giving me the look I wanted with much less work.

Next I painted the inside and the shelves with Seaside Whispers. I love that soft, aqua green with the gray.

I know. It looks gray but I promise it is pale blue-green. I just could not get a good picture of the inside.

Once it was painted I just thought it was too plain. It just needed something. So I added tissue paper, floral pictures to each of those side panels.

The graphics came from...you guessed it "The Graphics Fairy." I just used double sided tape and taped some tissue paper to a regular sheet of printer paper and ran it through my ink jet printer. Only tape the outside edges and gently pull it apart after printing.

I then applied two coats of a clear, soft wax and I was finished.

See that wasn't hard. :-) I just love this piece and if I had somewhere to put it I'd keep it. (I really need an old two story plantation house with a couple of extra wings to hold all the furniture I want.) ;-) But I'm stuck in this small house on the lake. Just kidding I've grown to love this place.

I'll leave you with a couple of more pictures.

By the way, that is my best china I picked up about 20 years ago at a flea market. Love the pink roses.

The heart with paper roses and lace on top is a craft project from last summer.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time

I'm sharing with the following great parties:

Sunday
Nifty Thrifty Sunday

Chalk Paint Link Party
Sunday Showcase Party
Sunday Showoff Party
Nifty Thrifty Sunday

Monday
Make the Scene Monday

Wednesday
Power Of Paint Party
Wow Us Wednesday

Thursday
Share Your Cup Thursday

Friday
Feathered Nest Friday
Redoux Link Party
Shabbilicious Friday

Saturday
Get Schooled Saturday
Show & Tell Saturday
Spotlight Saturday

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Totally Transformed Tuesday # 9 And Features

I'm so excited its Tuesday again and time to see what everyone has been up to this week! Here is one of the things I completed...an antique pie safe.

You can see the complete post with all the details of how I transformed this piece here.

Now I have the difficult job of sharing my favorites from last week.

First is Penny's shabby chic, spooky kitchen at Penny's Treasures. You really need to check out the full post to see her gorgeous kitchen!

Myric at Petites Passions shared her darling suitcase table. Be sure to stop by and check out her tutorial so you can make your own. :-)

I love these sea glass pendants from Gypsea Mermaid. So pretty and like me she has a true concern for preserving the environment.

Mixed Media Vintage shared how to make and sew waxed prints. I'd never heard of this have you? So pretty.

There were more blogs I wanted to feature but they had no back link. Please be sure to provide a back link so you may be featured.

Were you a star today? Be sure to grab your brag button!

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Antique Pie Safe Re-done

Today I want to share an antique pie safe I just finished restoring.

Now I don't want all of you chippy paint lovers to cry when I tell you I painted this piece. I know a lot of you would have left it as is, but I had my reasons. Here is the before picture.

This is the top...

and here is the bottom. If you look on the top of the bottom :-) you'll see a bag and a watering can with water. This is the milk paint that I used to paint the pie safe.

First, I had to make some minor repairs, after over 100 years of use things were kind of sagging and loose! Then I gave it a thorough scrubbing and boy did it need it!

Next I painted the entire outside of the piece with milk paint in "Buttermilk". After that dried I took a scrapper and gently scraped off the loose paint. Milk paint, without the bonding agent, will not bond in certain areas and is easily scraped off giving you that sought after chippy look.

I then antiqued the entire piece with a burnt umber wash and after that dried I dry brushed on more milk paint and scraped again. Once it was dry I applied two coats of clear, soft wax to the entire piece which sealed it stopping the chipping and protecting the finish.

Here is the finished piece. I like that soft color much better and it is clean!

A close up of the front shows that you still have that chippy, worn look so you can quit crying now! lol

I love the patina on the butcher block top on the bottom and I left the original hardware with all their chippiness. (Hmmm, wonder how many times I can work a variation of chippy in this post)

The inside of the top was clean but had stains so I gave it a light coat of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in "Versailles". Much better!

The bottom drawers are metal which is typical of a piece like this but the sides were wood and also had stains so I gave all the drawers a coat of ASCP in "Madonna Blue" (a color I mixed myself using different original ASCP colors). By the way you will be seeing more original colors of chalk paint as I am creating a whole line of unique colors to use on my furniture.

I am having so much fun mixing my own colors of chalk paint. The possibilities are endless and I'm giving each color a name.

Finally, I gave the entire piece inside and out two coats of clear, soft wax. This stopped the paint from chipping and protects your finish.

I hope you like how it turned out and are inspired to try milk paint for yourself. :-)