Before & After China Cabinet

My grandparents had this beautiful China Hutch and Buffet set that my Papa bought my Nana for their 25th wedding anniversary.  It was big and heavy and solid wood.  When I think of family gatherings, parties, holiday meal in their dinning room growing up that piece of furniture is in every memory.  So when my Nana and Papa had to move to a smaller apartment because they were getting too old to take care of a big house they no longer had room for it.  I jumped at the opportunity to have it passed down to me, the only granddaughter.  Yep I played that card to get it.  But come to find out the buffet part was down in Houston at some cousins house for some still unknown reason to me and when we called to request MY GRANDPARENTS piece of furniture back, we were impolitely told no.  So I had this enormous hutch but no buffet/table to set it on.  So it just sat against the wall not looking right at all.

I spent nearly 3 years looking for a buffet that was in my budget and had the right dimensions to fit as well as it needed to be a solid piece of wood.  Then a few weeks ago I did a search on CL with just the dimensions and a dresser came up.  HMMM never thought about using a dresser for the buffet.  That day I found the piece I was looking for in the form of a dresser, Poppa went and picked it up and Momma got to work on putting it all together.

Now I learned a lot from working on this DIY project.  I opted out of sanding and went with 2 coats of primer instead.  Normally I'd sand but this saved me a lot of time and the primer covered well.  However next time I think I'll go with a spray primer as using a paint brush just took forever and made my arm very sore.  That's probably due more to the fact that I'm out of shape though. One thing good though about using a brush to paint is your little monkey can help. Boy we both are looking rough here!

Here she was so proud because she painted the letter C. 

I used a brush nickle spray paint to turn that brass into some sass! 

Black was the color of choice.  I've been collecting white dishes and serving platters for a few years and thought the black with the white would just pop.  Plus our walls are white in our rental home so need something to add contrast to it.  We took the doors off and once they were off we decided we liked the look of it and kept them off. (and please don't mind the red and turquoise squares still up from the Cat In The Hat Party, don't worry they are down now. )

I just love the way it turned out.  Sometimes I get home and just go and stand in front of it and stare it, I've even been caught hugging it. 
So once again here is the Before

And here is the After

My Papa died 2 years ago, 3 weeks after Monkey was born and so this piece has even more of a value to me.  I hope to pass it on to my grandchildren one day.  Until then though I will be showing it all my love! 


What do you think?  I was thinking of distressing it a bit and or glazing it but just haven't made up my mind.
I have a few more DIY projects I need to finish and get posted but they seem to keep getting put on the back burner.  You know cause a glass of wine or taking a nap always seems more fun. :)

Happy Friday Ya'll.

Thursday's Tutorial - Painted Aged Walls

I'm so excited to share this awesome tutorial with you today.  I have many friends and family members who are into painting.  And I have quite a few friends that flip houses and I have awesome readers who are amazingly talented and thought everyone would love to see a step by step tutorial on aged wall painting. 
I contacted Rachael from Mrs. Adventure and she so graciously agreed to share her tutorial with all of us today.  If you haven't been over to visit her yet please do so, she's got some amazing talent and shares that talent with her readers via tutorials and posts.  Such a giving gal!  So let's get started shall we?
Racael writes:

"So easy a cave man can do it"

You will need: 

A blank beige / cream wall. 

A glaze, I used Valspar's Mocha # 94825

(for a 12x12 room it took me 1.5 bottles of the glaze so about $30 bucks)

Then a small pan with a roller and a small pointy brush (See photo below)

A sponge (this small one worked the best for me, I know its more work but the finished product looked much better than when I tried the larger sponges).

Step 1:

Take a roller and roll a generous amount around on the wall like so:

Step 2:

Then take your sponge and start dabbing all over your rolled on paint.

Keep dabbing in between the blank spaces as well as the covered ones.

Step 3:

After you have done this a couple of times, the paint will start to dry. Once you get to the edge of the previous coat you can blend the two areas together this will create the "lines" you see on my walls. (see photos below)

(before blending)

This photo shows the wall after blending, As you can see the areas of overlap create darker "lines" make sure these are NEVER strail always curved for a more natural look and feel.

 Step 4:

Once you get to a corner, if you want the corners to be darker (like my room) paint this "pattern" in the corners first then fill in.

This way you can go back to the corners with a 2nd, 3rd coat to get just those areas darker.

After your walls are covered in your first coat (you will be sick of dabbing for sure). You can go back and add your "aged" cracks and seams.

Making Cracks:

Take a small paint brush and swiggle (is that a word?) a line on the wall with your glaze like so:

Then take the end of your brush to the end of the line and make the "ends" like a V like so:

Then to make the crack more "real" I took my sponge and lightly dabbed around the line after it was dry to make it even darker like so:

Adding more seams:

Ok to get that plastered seams look (like the photo below)

I went back after my paint was dry and make them simply by dabbing with a semi wet sponge in a line, and you can do these from the corners, ceiling or just down the wall (I did all three).

After going around and adding a dab here and there, and making cracks where you want them, YOU ARE DONE!

Hang your curtains and enjoy your new room.

Isn't that awesome!  I love what she did to her room.  And because I'm just a sucker for Before and After shots lets take a look at them.

Before:

And After:

Impressive huh?  Hope you are inspired and both Rachael and I would love to see pictures if you do this or have done this.

Happy Thursday Ya'll.