Display Cabinet

My latest project.

I was in need of a display cabinet for the booth.  I had several pieces of furniture in the basement, that I thought might work.  Below is the finished product first.  It turned out so great!  Lots of room for all my plates and glass.  It is lighted too, so that was a bonus!

I have to admit, I have never painted any furniture with this kind of finish before.... It is sort of laminate over particle board? I guess?  The finish is shiny and slick.  I wasnt sure paint was even going to stick at all. 

I hate to use the word ugly, but this thing was really ugly!  It had really brass gaudy hardware, a very fake looking finish.  The doors were beyond ugly and really heavy.  They actually made the piece feel heavy to the front, like it might even tip over!  So I decided to take all the doors off.  I took all the glass out, and pretty much just stripped it clean.  I wasnt sure if my usual liquid sanpaper would work, but I decided to use everything I had to try to prepare the surface to paint. 

After cleaning with TPS and then the deglosser it still felt completely slippery!

This is Most of the time when you use the liquid sandpaper, it breaks down the finish and allows paint to stick.  It will feel very sticky.  Sounds crazy, but its exactly what you need to happen.  Well.....not this time. Sooooo I decided to use the best primer I had and see what happens.

This is really good stuff.  I try to use older brushes because I think it tends to dry out and make mine still no matter how much I wash them.  It cleans up with water, and goes on thick!

Looks rough huh?  I was a little nervous, but I waited a couple of hours for it to dry.  I had two colors of paint I wanted to use.  One was a light tan and one a little lighter, almost ecru.  We painted all the trim on the top and around the edges with the darker color, and used the lighter color for the inside and the "body" of the cabinet.  I let that dry.  My helpful husband said.  AI think we should make it look a little weathered.  You know?  We took some of both colors and just kind of sparingly spread them on in a random way.  It went really fast!  I think using the two colors in two different layers had a really nice effect.  I was really dry as soon as we finished. 

Looking a little better, but still not distressed enough.  We both grabbed a sanding block and started distressing the edges.  the more distressed the better, in my opinion. 

I use a mouse sander too.  Goes much faster! 

Anytime I distress, I usually follow up with a q-tip and some stain.  Only on the sanded areas.  Put it on really light and wipe it off immediately.  I go into great detail on some of my other blogs.  I also  used some copper rub and buff on the brass wheat thing that I had completly painted over. 

This is an old photo of some hardware.  You just wipe over the area with your finger.  Turns out great!  I used "copper"

We finished up with a coat of polycrylic,  and Tada!  New display!