Welcome back—still working on my master bedroom project. Last week I finished my headboard. This week I have to deal with that ugly oak furniture and what to do with it. I held up remodeling our master bedroom until we could afford a nice bedroom set. Well, with two sons in college and our economy being anything but stable, I had to rethink the new bedroom set.
After a couple of trips to our local furniture stores, it was apparent that the furniture we could afford was cheaply built and the beautiful solidly built furniture was out of our price range. Also, I wasn’t finding much that I loved. One of our oak pieces is a large armoire that houses our TV and small stereo, and I wanted to replace it with another. It seems that the armoire has been replaced with short cabinets that hold big-screen TVs. With that, I made the decision to keep what we have. I would change what I hated most about our furniture which was the oak wood and the wooden vertical slats that served as handles. A fresh coat of paint, new hardware and we would feel as though we had new furniture—that we can afford! The next day I made a trip to the hardware store to pick out paint.
Now the first mistake I made was not taking Carol with me. She is my expert paint-picker-outer. I chose a beautiful deep brown paint color. One look at my paint sample and Carol would turn up her nose—it was too “muddy”. I made a trip back to the hardware store, this time with her. Together, we chose a beautiful rich brown.
The following day Carol and I decided to go back to one of our local furniture stores for more ideas. Upon picking me up she handed me a book entitled “Shabby Chic” by Abbey Ashwell. She came to the conclusion after seeing my chair, headboard and the colors I chose for the room, that this was the direction I was taking, I just didn’t know it. After perusing the book and getting some ideas in the furniture store, I changed the paint from dark to creamy beige. I am thrilled with the change. The paint was on sale at $15.99 a can.
After removing all the handles I prepped the furniture with a primer (costing $13.99) so that I would not have to sand down to the bare wood. I followed examples in the “Shabby Chic” book and used some decorative wood designs to add to the furniture, glued them, and then prepped the furniture. I purchased the wood designs at Hobby Lobby at half off which ended up costing only $1.00 for 2 pieces. The hardware stores carry them but at nearly 3 times the cost.
The next decision was which handles I would use. This decision was not an easy one, I would find many that I loved but I needed 20 and at $5.00 or more each it could get expensive. I decided to go with simple round wooden handles that I could paint, at only $1.29 a piece. I love the overall effect. I then used the creamy beige in semi-gloss and painted the furniture. Hint: instead of using a brush, I used a small roller, it flowed on very easily with very professional results—no brush marks.
The furniture is painted and I am very happy with the results. Join me next week when I tackle the bathroom cabinets.
