From Drab to Fab

I bought this console on Craigslist for $40.  It needed some love.

The poor thing was stuck in the ‘70s – not a good style decade in my opinion. 

Outdated hardware.  An ugly finish.  But it was well made and a good size, so I decided to refresh it and use it in my dining room redo.

I planned on replacing all the hardware, but the plates behind the door pulls were nailed and glued on.  I couldn’t figure out how to take them off without creating a bigger project than I wanted to undertake.  So I decided to incorporate them.

First I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White for the body.  For the insets I started out with AS Chalk Paint in Louis Blue, but it looked a bit too baby blue.  So I used the AS dark wax to try to tone it down.  It still didn’t work for me, so I followed that with a glaze of Old White.
  

I sanded it to distress it a bit.

I love the painted plates behind the new pulls.

I was going for a bit of an old world French Country look, kind of like this cabinet from Wisteria ($999), one of my favorite stores.

Wisteria

Not quite as fancy as this one from Horchow ($1399), but with the same elegant feel.

Horchow

And voila!

Forty bucks and just a few hours of labor! (No priming or sanding needed with Chalk Paint.)