A Furniture Divorce…

In the antique world there are many marriages.  Not the husband & wife kind more the pieces of furniture marrying kind.  Often times these look well matched, like many human marriages but many times they look like a miss-match.

I have a piece that belongs to my son and I’m looking after it for him.  Now this piece I have called a ‘divorce’.  We’re not sure where it came from originally but it did have something at one end that had been cut off.  It looked like maybe it had been in a store as a showcase as the back is not as old as the rest of it and there are many slots for shelves that can be adjusted.

It’s not an old piece, not a new piece, an in-between.  It is rather plain but where I needed to put it, it needed an update, a coat of paint and what better than see how it liked chalk paint.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a ‘before’ photo but the cabinet original  was all the same colour as the inside.

Wattyl low sheen water base paint called Midnight Seas is the one I chose to redo this cabinet.  I used the cornflour recipe for this one. See below…

I also used this colour on a couple of captain chairs, I’ll post about these later.

As this cabinet was staying on our outdoor area, I used a waterbase polycrylic over the chalk paint, two coats as it will have the outdoor elements to contend with.

This is the finished cabinet, the clear handles are  from Ikea and the accessories have all been chalk painted with water base Accent called Aurora Sky.  There is a mixture of surfaces there, cane, wicker, terracotta and high gloss pottery.

That’s what  I love about using chalk paint, it is the variety of surfaces that it will cover without a problem.

So if you want to repurpose, restore and relove while you redecorate your home then why not give it a try.

Using Cornflour/Cornstarch Recipe

Plastic container that will hold 16oz

Fill container with two cups of water and mark on outside the level and empty

Add 3 Tbsp Cornstarch
Add 1/4 Cup Of Water And Stir
Add Paint To The 2 Cup Line  And Stir

I halved the above recipe as I only needed a cup or 250ml of paint.

I was able to paint the cabinet and the two captain chairs so it goes a good way. I really do like this recipe and have used it on many things, the finished product feels lovely and smooth once it is waxed.

The only preparation was to clean down the piece and make sure there was no dust or grit, no sanding, no other prepping. So easy!!!