Remember the whole ‘my computer died and I haven’t been able to retrieve my photos yet’ thing?  Yeah, well, I haven’t made that a priority.  With my sale coming up, I am mainly focusing on getting furniture done.  This is further exacerbated by the fact that fall is in the air here in Minnesota.  I know I only have another month or so before my summer workshop in the Carriage House is closed up for the winter.  I’ll have plenty of time after the snow flies to concentrate on indoor projects … like figuring out how to retrieve my photos from an external hard drive (snore.)  And cleaning.

Meanwhile though, that means I don’t have a ‘before’ picture of this project for you.  Let me try to paint a picture.  One afternoon my pal Cathy texted me and said “I have a piece of furniture for you, I’ll drop it off.”  She came by with a little washstand in her car and a tall tale about how she wrangled that thing into the back seat all by herself.  You see, she saw it at the curb with a “FREE” sign on it.  It was in a sad state of affairs.  It had the most hideous replacement hardware ever, one caster was missing, the veneer on the top drawer was totally buckled.

But, Cathy saw through all of that and she knew this little cupboard could be salvaged!  So she manhandled it into her car and brought it to me.  The furniture whisperer.

Where do I even start with this one?  First of all, the hardware that came with it went right into the trash.  This is practically unheard of for me, but seriously, this stuff was butt ugly.  Bad, bad, bad 70’s hardware.  I felt that it was my responsibility to protect humanity from ever having to lay eyes on such a hideous sight ever again.  Fortunately, I had these vintage glass pulls and knob on hand to use as replacements.  Ahhhhh, so much better.

Once the hardware was gone, I made the decision that the top drawer was beyond salvage.  Or at least not worth the trouble.  Instead, I had Ken put a shelf in that spot.  He also cut a hole at the back for electrical cords, thus making this piece functional as a TV stand.

I actually kind of loved the wood top on this one.  It was pretty beat up, and the veneer is buckling on top too.  But I kind of dig the aged, beat up look.  I had to strip the top because it had some paint drips and splats on it from it’s previous life.  Once stripped, I gave it a quick sand and a coat of dark wax.

Next came the paint.  I had picked up a quart of Annie Sloan’s Aubusson while my sister was here visiting.  I’ll be honest, when I first opened that can of paint I thought “what was I thinking?  why in the world did I buy this color?”  But I realized that I must have seen it on something in the store, and I must have loved it.  I decided to go for it.  Two coats of paint, followed by a coat of dark wax.

Sidebar.  When I say ‘dark wax’ I am referring to my own concocted mix of Johnson’s Paste Wax and Briwax in Dark Brown.  When I first purchased the Briwax, I didn’t realize how really, really dark it would be.  I toned it down by mixing it with clear paste wax.  I ended up loving this combo.  Plus it is a great way to stretch the more expensive Briwax with the really cheap Johnson’s (about $6 a can).  However, FYI, the Johnson’s is very stinky.  I never use it indoors.

Anyway, guess what?  I do love Aubusson.  It’s a nice, rich blue.

As a last final touch, I lined the bottom of the cupboard with some vintage wallpaper that matched perfectly.

 I think I will save this little cupboard for my upcoming Carriage House sale.  Hopefully someone there will want to give it a new home.