Surprise on the Side
Slow and steady wins the race. Slow and sporadic wins the participation trophy. And, by George, I earned that participation trophy. I had every intention of finishing this project on Sunday so I could get this post out on time. Nope. Then I thought, “Makeover Monday is a cute title.” And self-soothed in the face of not getting my regularly scheduled post up with that thought. Monday came and went and still no finished product. So I thought “Transformation Tuesday works!” But Tuesday proved less than transformative. I’m unfathomably grateful for a client who wasn’t impatient to get this piece back as I worked on it off and on for two weeks. She wanted the doors removed, the bottom stained, the top painted, and the sides stenciled. Totally doable, but I felt an odd amount of resistance during each step. My mantra became “do the next thing” as I plugged away.
Step one was delightfully simple: remove the doors, drawer, and hardware to prep for stripping.
To strip the base, I used 80 grit, then 180 grit, and finally 220 grit sand paper on as much of the surface as possible, then stripper and a wire brush on the nooks and crannies. My poor mom. I thought it would be a good idea to call her while I used the wire brush, assuming it wouldn’t make much noise, but apparently the mic on my earbuds is abnormally sensitive and picked up every brush stroke. Once the old finish was removed, I used Minwax gel stain in coffee to give it a rich finish.
To prep the shelves, I used 180 followed by 220 grit sand paper, then primed it with Kilz Premium 3. It was my first time working with this product and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it covers and sticks like oil based primer, but cleans up like latex. It’s a bit pricier, but totally worth it.
I gave the top 3 coats of paint, lightly sanding with 220 grit between coats, but it was still uneven and splotchy. And it was driving me nuts. I know, I know. “Just use a foam roller,” you say. Every time I do that, I end up going over it with a brush anyway to smooth out the roller lines and get into the corners. Then I remembered that I had some floetrol. If you haven’t worked with it before, it’s a magical liquid that you mix with latex paint and the brush marks and splotchiness disappear. Ahhhh.
My client picked out the adorable new hardware.
Her idea to add a stencil on the sides was genius. She looked through the ones I had on hand and picked out the magnolia and berry one from Cutting Edge Stencils that I used in our entry. While completing that project, I created a more flexible template out of freezer paper to make it easier to work around corners and used that to trace the pattern on the upper half of the top and then hand painted what I had traced.
I love how the pattern kind of sneaks up on you and adds a whole new dimension to the finished product.
Yes, it deserves a much better background than my disaster of a garage. And you deserve to see it nestled into its cozy new home, full of all the pretty things my client plans to display in it. Hopefully, she’ll send me a pic of it in its new digs so you can see it living its best life.