As it turns out, working on my dollhouse renovation has been the perfect winter project.  I love nothing more than staying in my cozy warm house, wearing my fluffy slippers and painting tiny things.  Especially in January when sometimes the temperature didn’t get above zero.

So although I didn’t actually have a spot in mind for this next piece of mini furniture when I purchased it, I knew it would be a fun painting project that I could work on to avoid going outside.

This is another Hobby Lobby piece.

I kinda wish they had a bigger selection of dollhouse furniture, because the pieces they do have are pretty good.  And they are quite inexpensive.  I don’t exactly remember what I paid for it in-store, but I just looked it up on their website and it was $4.49 there.  That seems ridiculously cheap and makes me wonder how they can possibly produce it for that price.

But anyway … I digress.

I started out by painting the inside of the shelf area with Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Once dry, I chose DB’s Holy Guacamole for the rest.

I know this avocado (or pea soup green, if you prefer) color isn’t for everyone, but I really like it.  I’ve mostly used it on the insides of toolboxes, but I think it worked beautifully on this piece too.

But before we go further, I have to note that after completing the sideboard that I painted up for the dining room, and replacing the drawer pulls on that piece with some fun cup pulls, I decided to do the same with this piece.

So, if you’ll notice above, it originally had round knobs on the drawers and now (below) it doesn’t.

I just pulled off the round wooden knobs, and then glued the cup pulls over the holes they left behind.

And then, as I was sharing this updated look, I realized that I should also just dab a little of Dixie Belle’s Bronze Patina Paint on those two round knobs on the door to make them match.  Don’t know why I didn’t think of that sooner.

There, that’s better, right?

I’m not going to retake all of my photos though, so you may notice that I don’t have bronze knobs in any of the other photos.

The wording inside the upper part of the cupboard is from the I.O.D. Seed Catalogue transfer set.

If you aren’t familiar, this particular set comes with 8 pages of transfers with seed packet designs in varying sizes.

I grabbed just the wording from this one …

It worked out perfectly inside this cupboard.

After applying the transfer, I used 220 grit paper and lightly sanded some of the corners and high spots.  I’ve found that you really have to be careful to not go overboard when distressing these miniature pieces.

After sanding, I gave the piece a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax.  Then I took a step back and looked at it with a critical eye.  It needed something more to make it look a little less ‘new’.

So I pulled out the Dixie Dirt in Earth.

This is a powder pigment that you can use to add subtle shading to your painted pieces.

A little goes a long way, especially with miniatures.

I used a little brush to apply the ‘dirt’ to the crevices of my cupboard.  It’s a little difficult to see in the photos, but trust me when I say that it really does add dimension.

I hadn’t originally planned to stage this as a potting bench, but with the addition of the seed packet wording it sort of called out for it.  So I stole the rusty watering can from my fairy garden, and then I ordered a few miniature clay pots online (from MforMiniatures on Etsy).

I also tried my hand at working with some ‘printables’ again.  This time I purchased a downloadable file from LittleMaggieShop on Etsy.  I paid $2.99 to download a .pdf of tiny seed packets.  Then I printed them, cut them out, folded and glued them up and ta da …

The world’s tiniest seed packets!

I’m not precisely sure where this cupboard might end up, but I have an idea brewing.  You’ll just have to stay tuned until Monday to find out what it is.  But here’s a hint, it includes an option for shipping!

But in the meantime, what do you think of this Welsh cupboard makeover?  Leave a comment and let me know.