When I fell in love with this hutch, it was despite the yellow, goldish color it had been painted. I thought I could live with it as is, but it grated on me, until I finally had to neutralize the piece and make it this classic white.
The original hardware was gorgeous, but too dark for me, so it got painted too.
See what I mean? It is a magnificent hunk of furniture, but just didn’t go with my house as it was. Maybe the tones were more Mediterranean instead of romantic cottage?
Ahhhhhhh, much better!
And a much more simple project than you’d think. I bought a quart of white chalk paint at JoAnne’s with a 50% off coupon. (There was a lot of paint leftover)
No prep needed, I just brushed it on. I didn’t take out drawers or remove hardware, I just carefully painted them in place, watching out for drips as I went along. After painting a drawer, I’d leave it open a crack so it didn’t stick shut.
I considered doing a glaze over all of it to accentuate the carvings and details. Then decided against it, because they showed up nicely in the solid color. Plus, other items in the room were painted that way, and I don’t like things too matchy.
The handles got the treatment, though. They looked odd in plain white, like they were unfinished.
The brass was turning a little green through the white paint and I kind of liked it, but didn’t want too much of it, so I used a clear coat on them, then another coat of white, barely leaving the green patina to peek through.
After that, I brushed on umber paint and wiped it off.
Then the whole cabinet got a satin, water based clear coat. Not wax! That stuff would have been soooooo much work to apply and buff on something like this! The clear poly worked just fine and was done in a fraction of the time.
Chalk paint dries quickly and covers well. It took one coat plus touch ups. The entire project was done in three hours, start to finish.
It looks great !
What brand of poly clear coat did you use?
Posted by: Dana Smith | January 25, 2021 at 09:26 AM