Past Projects: Media Cabinet

The red media cabinet was my first furniture refinishing project, done in our old apartment. While I never took before pictures, I can tell you that my favorite red media cabinet used to be a blond faux Ikea laminate and it just didn’t fit in with the rest of our dark wood furniture. Here you can get an idea from these snapshots of the original color:

Painting laminate was intimidating at the time. I had just learned it could be done thanks to Ikea Hacker, but I was nervous about how it would come out. Would the paint even stick? Would it scratch off easily? I was really unhappy with the light wood clashing with my other furniture, but I loved the storage and versatility of the piece overall. So we jumped in.

We started off by emptying out all of the shelves and removing the doors, then lightly sanding the whole thing to rough up the laminate to help the primer stick. We put on a coat of high adhesion primer in a prescribed bubble gum pink color as a good base for the candy apple red I wanted (if you’re going to paint something, why not go bold?). I used a 3” foam roller as much as possible, and a sponge brush for the corners. During the priming process I learned that when painting the inside of a cabinet, there is an order to what you do first to prevent you from bumping into and smearing your work. First you do the top/ceiling of the cubby area, then the back, then the sides, then the bottom. Once you’ve completed the whole area, then you can work on the outside. If you do the outside first, you keep touching/bumping it.

After letting the primer cure for 48 hours, it was time for paint. I chose Benjamin Moore Enamel in crimson with a satin finish. As with the primer, we put it on with a sponge roller and a small sponge brush, using the same techniques. It took forever because there were so many shelves and cubbies and deep nooks to paint with two coats. When the paint had dried for a full day, we put on 3 coats of polyurethane. Since this was my first project, I had not yet discovered the wonderfulness of wipe-on poly, so I used polycrylic instead. I wouldn’t recommend it compared to the wipe-on stuff - it took a lot more time to put on, more sanding, more bubbles to deal with. And they both smell terrible. Also over time I’ve found that the wipe-on poly has a harder finish.

Since this was a media cabinet for a lot of gear, we waited more than a week before putting it back together. I wanted to make sure everything had fully cured. I even had a chance to add some extra screws to make a repair to the bottom of the cabinet and add some new hardware from Anthropologie to finish it off.

Source List and Supplies:

• Paint: Benjamin Moore Enamel in Crimson with a satin finish
• Primer: Benjamin Moore high adhesion primer in a custom tint
• 4” sponge roller and disposable sponge brushes
• Sandpaper in 220 and 400 grit
• Finish: Polycrylic in a semi gloss
• Hardware: 2 Anthropologie antique style glass knobs 

Past Projects: Armoire

Things have been a little overwhelming lately. It’s hard enough adjusting to being working parents of an infant - now we’re struggling with teething and still recovering from the hurricane. While we aren’t dealing with massive damage, there are still a million things to do. We lost a week and 2 weekends to the storm (one weekend prepping for the storm, one week and one weekend dealing with the aftermath). Our to-do lists are so long we don’t even have time to change a lightbulb... and with Thanksgiving next week and the start of the holiday season - I need a little more time to play catch up. There are contractors to line up (if we can even find one available to bribe). I haven’t done any fall yard clean up or even finished pulling up the garden. My citrus trees have aphids again (even though I washed them before I brought them in). We need to winterize the house... the list goes on and on.

So I thought I would share a couple of furniture refinishing projects that we did before we bought our house. Starting with the antiqued white armoire we have in our dining room (on the right in the picture below). It was actually once a pine entertainment center. Luckily at the time I was so proud of the project I was smart enough to take before and after photos in my pre-blogging days.

We actually did this giant refinishing project indoors in an apartment (in the springtime so we could at least have the windows open). It was a little messy, but that’s what newspaper and water-soluble acrylic paints are for. And if we can refinish multiple pieces of furniture in an apartment, anyone can.

The armoire started as a secondhand pine entertainment center, but it had good bones and was easily converted into a microwave/storage cabinet. Perfect for our apartment kitchen that was seriously lacking counter space and storage.

I have nothing against pine, but it was too cabin-in-the-woods for the rest of our decor. We thought about staining it, but I like really dark stains and the piece was too big to stand out even more. So we went with Benjamin Moore’s white dove paint (white always works on big hulking pieces), and decided to bring out the Anthropologie style details in the trim with a faux antique finish that just rubs on with a rag.

To start we removed all of the removable shelves and the bottom doors (but left the top doors on because they swiveled all the way around and it was actually easier to paint them on, and since we were antiquing the piece we didn’t care about a few paint splotches on the hardware). Everything was sanded inside and out with sandpaper (and baby wipes work really well for cleaning up sawdust in an apartment).

We primed everything with a small 3” foam roller for a smooth finish and used a 1.5” angled brush for the corners, and a tiny artist brush for the intricate detail work. It took 2 coats of primer over the whole thing, plus an extra coat over the knots to help prevent future bleed. We waited a full 2 days to let the primer cure before painting. Then we put on 2 coats of white dove paint using the roller/1.5” angle brush/artist brush combination again. The armoire looked so good white dove we were almost afraid to antique it, but we braved it out and forged ahead.

The antique glaze took some getting used to, I had to do some practice runs on the back of the piece. I found that using a wet rag to rub it on (instead of a dry one or a sponge) worked best for me. I wiped it on with a wet rag and wiped off the excess with another wet rag, which left just enough glaze in the dings, edges and detail work to look like the undercoat in an antique piece. I went through a lot of rags and it took a lot of time, but it really brought out all the details to the piece. I loved it and still do. The glaze required a full week (7 days!) to cure before we could polyurethane it. We used Minwax polywipe which is amazing stuff, you just wipe it on with a rag for a fantastic finish. We let it cure for another 3 days before putting the whole piece back together, including some pretty knobs from Anthropologie.

A media cabinet makes a great kitchen microwave and storage unit. It holds a ton of stuff!

Source List and Supplies:

• Paint: Benjamin Moore Latex Paint in White Dove with a pearl finish
• Antique Glaze in Pewter
• Finish: Minwax Polywipe in a satin finish
• Primer: Murano high adhesion primer in pure white
• 4” sponge rollers, 1.5” angled brush, small artist brush for detail work, rags for glaze
• Sandpaper in 220 and 400 grit and baby wipes for cleanup
• Hardware: Anthropologie (on sale of course)

Anniversary Week: The Old Apartment Part 2

This is part 2 of our apartment tour, the rest of the 900 sq ft 1 bedroom that we called home for 3.5 years.

Our kitchen left a lot to be desired. The cabinets were too dark and made of cheap faux wood, the linoleum was old and damaged, the countertops laminate.  However it had a large spacious pantry, a dishwasher (oh I miss having a dishwasher!), and enough room for our giant cabinet.  It also had more counter space than we have now.

We painted the bedroom Palladian Blue, the same blue we used in our house in the sun room and our current bedroom.  We liked it too much to let it go.  The spacious room also boasted his and her closets and sliding glass doors out to a small balcony.

I loved the balcony.  We never sat out there and enjoyed the view of the parking lot, but I loved it because I had a potted garden out there filled with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and flowers.  Having a garden, however small, kept me going until we had a yard.

Oh and here's a quick picture of the bathroom too.  It was ugly and had no natural light, but we've both lived through worse.

Anniversary Week: The Old Apartment Part 1

Since we're sentimental around here these days (being the first anniversary of our house and all) we took a look back at some pictures of our old apartment.  We thought it would be fun to give you a tour too.  There are a lot of fond memories of this place - though we did have to make the most of cheap faux wood cabinets, stained linoleum flooring, and a peachy terra cotta bathroom.  We loved so many things too - the large rooms, the private entrance and stairwell, the dark espresso wood floors, the balcony for plants, the deep living room window sills that Georgia would sit on... plus the amenities like the pool down the street, a storage unit in the basement and someone who came to fix anything that broke.  Sometimes we really do miss that repairman.

This was our living room. We painted it a bright bold yellow with a hint of orange to warm and brighten what used to be a cold, sterile, dark space.  It was a daring choice (this was before bright yellow was even in fashion) - at first in the wrong light it looked like nacho cheese instead of "Beverly Hills Gold", but I think we made it work.  The place felt warm and cozy and that's what mattered.  In fact we loved this color so much that we brought it with us to our new house - the yellow background in our living room wallpaper is the exact same yellow.

We split the living room up into two spaces because it was large enough for both a sitting area and an office space for us to share.  It was a little tight for my large L-shaped desk, but it worked just fine.

The private entrance and staircase provided us with a great landing space where we hung up coats, dog leashes and a good place to leave muddy shoes.

We also painted the dining room the same bright yellow as the living room and then added a blue accent wall around the bedroom door that was the same color as our bedroom.  I love the pairing of blue and yellow together.

Goodbye Apartment

This weekend we spent most of our time cleaning and repainting the apartment. It was time to say goodbye. Our lease ends Wednesday at noon and we had to spend our last couple of days off earning our full security deposit back. Lots of dust bunnies to swiffer, floors to polish, and walls to paint back to white. Mom wonderfully volunteered to help and got my floors & appliances shinier than I ever could. We also had to clean out our storage unit in the basement, move my balcony garden to the backyard of the house, and collect the last of our things.

It's amazing what paint and a few accessories can do. Empty of furniture and blank white walls, our apartment turned from our home back into a generic apartment. Looking back at pictures, it gives me confidence that if I can make this apartment feel like a cozy home, I can make anything - including this challenging house - feel like a cozy home. 

It's actually surprisingly hard and sad to say goodbye. I know we have moved on to a bigger and better place, but we had a really great 3.5 years there.