A Little French Cabinet Makeover

We pretty much have zero storage space in our home. Because of this I am always on the lookout for pieces of furniture that can be used as storage. Upstairs we just have one teeny tiny linen closet and then each bedroom has a small closet. Neither of the bathrooms have one so trying to find space for towels, washcloths, and bed linens has always been a challenge. I have been on the lookout for either a tall dresser or cabinet/armoire that would fit in the little space in the hall upstairs. I have found a few things over the years but they have always been too wide and would not have fit. I had pretty much given up until I saw this piece in a used furniture shop here in Williamsburg. It was a good price and I loved the lines of it and it looked like it just might be narrow enough. After measuring the wall again at home to make sure it would indeed fit I got pretty excited about it and my mom and dad bought it for me for my birthday. Last week I finally got around to painting it!

Here is what it looked like to start with:

For this project, I simply added some tape to the wire to avoid getting paint on it and then started right in painting it. I used Benjamin Moore's Gray Owl for this piece. I wish I had of gone one shade darker but other than that I LOVE the color of it. It's a great gray, although I think it's kind of hard to see the true color in any of these pictures. =(

Once the whole outside of the piece was painted I sanded it down in some areas to give it more of a distressed feel. After that I painted the inside with a darker grayish blue by Benjamin Moore called Cobblestone Path (I think....I will have to check that one to make sure). I did choose the Gray Owl intentionally but for the inside I just went out to the garage and looked through my stash of extra paint and I thought this color complimented the Gray Owl best. If I had been able to just pick any color I would have gone for a slightly lighter less blue color but I am still happy with how this turned out.

After the inside dried completely I got really torn on what to do with it. I had been wanting to paint something chevron for a few months now but really didn't have the right place/piece to do it. I thought it might work but then realized how much work it was going to be so I kept talking myself out of it. Plus I was worried it might look a little too modern for this particular piece. Eventually, though, I knew I would be disappointed if I didn't at least give the chevron a chance so I started taping it out. Ugh! It was a total pain and I have to say I don't plan on doing it again any time soon! In fact, I almost gave up midway through. I wanted my chevron stripes to all be the same width, but in order to do that I had to tape accordingly, which makes some of the lines look skinnier (although once you pull the tape off it will make them even back out). It was a hair confusing to start with but not too bad once I got going.

Once it was FINALLY all taped off (I will make a mental note to NEVER attempt to do a wall) I painted every other chevron stripe with the Gray Owl I used on the outside of the piece and went to bed (sorry for the grainy phone pics for these shots).

The next morning Lillie helped me take all of the tape off and yay! It was worth it! It was far from perfect but seeing how it was the back of a piece that was going to have shelves and things on the shelves I knew it didn't have to be perfect.

Now that it is over with, I am so glad I did go ahead with the chevron. I think it adds a little quirky touch to this otherwise traditional piece. And when I get sick of it, it will take about two minutes to just paint over the back and then try something new (I had thought about wallpapering it or doing a damask stencil originally). For now, though, I love the chevron!

 

As usual, Lillie likes helping and for this piece she got to do the back all by herself! =) Believe it or not, it actually took her a really long time to do this.

Now we just have to get it back upstairs. These pictures were taken down in our entryway area because it hasn't made it's way back upstairs yet. I can move it from room to room but can't get it up stairs - it's heavy and rather awkward to lift. A few of Jon's players originally helped us get it up stairs when we first got it back in early January, then our friends Austin and Kelly came over and Austin helped Jon get it back downstairs last week so I could paint it...now we just need to rope one of the players into coming back over and helping us get it back upstairs.

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday!

Linking up to Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday!
and The Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday!