Tutorial: Repurpose a dining room buffet and hutch into stylish mudroom storage Part One

I never seem to be able to leave well enough alone. And I've done it again. Our architect's design team created lovely plans for our new mudroom. They included custom built cabinets with cubbies for storing shoes and hats and gloves and other what nots, with a built-in bench in between. It was really quite nice, and just like the ones I had tucked into one of my many idea books on Houzz, something like this one by Susan Obercian Design :

Nice, isn't it? but for some reason, the more I thought of it the more I decided that lovely as it is, it doesn't 'fit' my style. My dear husband really had no idea what to make of me when I announced that I had changed my mind about the built-ins. What do I want instead? Glad you asked!!

I want this:

In case you are not sure, the object of my desire is that awesome vintage dining room buffet and hutch at the very back of this consignment shop. Gorgeous, isn't she? Ok she is not gorgeous. She is old and out of style. She was all the rage in the 1960s. (When I was young everyone's dining room had one of these babies!) BUT she has great bones! She is SOLID FRUITWOOD. And she has potential!

When I laid eyes on this ugly duckling she was forlornly sitting at the back of the shop, where items go that no one would buy. Next stop, the dump. I couldn't believe my eyes. Why had no one else seen what I saw? I didn't even bother to phone my husband, which I normally would do, you know, to create the illusion of a discussion when in actuality my mind is totally made up, but this time I didn't even think of talking it over. I knew I wasn't leaving the store without her. I am so very lucky to be married to this guy. He just said "ok if that's what you really want." I guess after 34 years he has realized that there is no point resisting when my mind is made up! So, for just over $250 she was all mine. Now all I had to do was get her home. A quick call to our wonderful son, and presto, he and dear husband had her loaded up in the back of a truck and away we went.

I was so excited I couldn't sleep while I planned with intricate detail how I would accomplish this makeover. My little mind was working over time. I knew she could look fabulous given half a chance, like Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, and I even started to refer to her as Audrey.

Finally I decided on a Restoration Hardware type finish. Since Audrey is not overly fancy I thought this might work, give her a whole new modern vibe while still with a nod to her vintage origin. I agonized over paint colours, and especially over how I would execute the look. I think I studied close to a billion Pinterest images before I felt secure about how to make this a reality.

Let me step back a bit and share with you the 'vision' that was guiding me here. Because a picture is worth a thousand blogs, here is my 'inspiration picture', Restoration Hardware potting shelves:

Do you see the resemblance to Audrey? No? Well, keep reading...


Next, off to my local Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Stockist, The Painted Bench in Oakville. The owners, Nicole and Melanie, are so helpful and supportive. I chose Old White (seems I can't get enough of this warm historical white) and Coco. After a brief chat with Nicole in which she gave some wonderful tips about using shellac to seal vintage furniture to avoid bleed through and how to do a wash (I thought I knew how to do that but live and learn!), I flew out ready to start primping Audrey.

 

Here is a close-up of this girl. Now, imagine the molding gone. Poof! Glass doors gone. Poof! (Now you are looking at lovely open shelves, 4.5 feet of them.) Next the bottom doors with those old style panels. Poof! Panels gone, replaced with wire mesh. Oh yeah, you can see it too right?

 

Now, I have vision, I have persistence, I have resourcefulness. What I don't have is power tools and brute strength. So that's where dear husband comes in once more. It was sooo easy to sweet talk him into removing those panels! Here is a photo of him working away at removing them while I took down all the glass doors.

 

 



Let me tell you, this wasn't easy without using a router and jig saw to cut it out, but I wanted to save the panels if possible so that I could use them as practice boards. And I'm glad I did! One of the things I discovered by doing this was that paint is seriously affected by the colour of whatever it is painted onto. Here is what I mean. Below is a sample of Coco painted directly on the fruitwood panel (and some experiments with Old White on top of it). It looks positively olive!



The next photo is Coco applied over a base coat of Old White. Crazy! I liked the warm brown and gold tones that this brought out.

This is a tip that I hope you use yourself since it can be disappointing to have your piece turn out a different colour than you had imagined. Based on this I decided to use a base of Old White and then try my hand at colour washing the Coco over top. More on how that turned out in a future post.

For now, here are some photos of Audrey letting go of her 1960's accessories.

See what I mean? GREAT bones.

The last thing I did before starting to paint was to bring out my instrument of torture...

here's a better look -->

This is a home-made antiquer. A maker of genuine authentic worm holes. A simple paddle made of a board, just the right size for my tiny hand to comfortably hold, with a bunch of very sharp pointy screws on one end. And, my oh my, poor Audrey got the daylights whacked out of her with that thing! Instant worm holes!

I thought the worm holes would add a little character, and they would really show up nicely with the help of a liberal application of dark wax.

With all these steps done, I called it a day and dreamed all night of Part Two of Audrey's makeover. I'll write about that and show more pictures in a future post. For now, I hope I've inspired you to think of new ways to give new life to old and worn items, like dear Audrey!

Blessings,
The Duchess of New Life

How to remove paint from a mirror in 2 easy steps without using a razor blade.

Hello readers! I have been working on the mahogany

 

cheval mirror I mentioned in my last post. Well, that is really an overstatement since it suggests that I the project has gone on for some time. Let me correct any misconception on that score: painted the cheval mirror in under 2 hours including drying time and waxing.

Yes, in just 2 hours it went from this:

                               
                                                  to this:

And, as always, it was a fun journey of discovery! I learned how to easily remove dried paint from the surface of a mirror, without using a razor blade. So not does my mirror look much better in Old White, but I now have another skill in my furniture painting portfolio. Bonus!


Before I could start painting this project I decided to spray the whole red mahogany frame with Zinsser shellac. I did that because furniture made from mahogany and some from the 40's and 50's with reddish stains can sometimes bleed through the Chalk Paint. So rather than wait until I had painted a coat on the frame to discover if it was going to bleed I just sprayed the shellac at the start. If you are new to this, that is Tip #1 from today's blog!

When working with spray paint, please take my advice and don't do what a friend of mine did: never spray paint furniture in the house! It will get places you don't want it to no matter how well you think you have protected the area. air is constantly moving, and the fine droplets in the spray travel! So, I worked outdoors for that part of the project. 

Because I needed to protect the mirror from the spray, I cleverly covered it with newspaper. 

 Unfortunately, I discovered that I hadn't taped the newspaper down as well as I had thought when a sudden gust of wind whipped the paper up just as I was in mid-spray. I was SO annoyed with myself when I saw that white shellac on the surface of the mirror.

I knew I had to get that shellac off the mirror but for whatever reason I elected to wait until after I had finished painting and waxing the frame. Frankly, I was so frustrated I think I was just trying to avoid the whole situation.

Now, most people will tell you to carefully take it off with a razor blade and I know that works for some, but I have tried it in the past and it has not worked well for me. One time I cut myself and most times I have managed to scratch the glass. (Yes, that does mean that I have a history of getting paint on glass.)

As I stood lamenting the condition of the mirror I had a brainwave. And that is how I discovered a much easier way to get paint, including sprayed on white shellac, off a mirror without using a razor blade:

Step 1: Dip a clean cloth into a little white mineral spirits and press onto the surface of the mirror. Just hold it there for a few seconds.

Step 2: Wait about 30 seconds and then, using extra fine #0000 steel wool  very gently "polish" the mirror surface where you want to remove the paint. Don't apply pressure. You are not scrubbing. The paint will just roll off in little flakes that you can then wipe off with a clean cloth. To help you see it in the photos I placed a dark cloth behind the mirror so that the paint would show up nicely in the reflection.

Voila, lovely clean mirror in Old White Chalk Painted frame!

You can see the vintage maple highboy I painted recently reflected in the mirror. The room is coming together!

Blessings,
The Duchess of New Life