Wednesday, August 18, 2010

[painted armoire] before & after



Yes, I finally did it!




I did some light distressing on it, I used 120 grit sandpaper and just did it by hand. I tried to rub the places I thought would have been worn over time if it were an old piece. The edges, the corners, the little parts that rub together when the doors open and close. The distressed parts may have turned out to be my favorite of the whole thing.



I love how the bottom coat of black paint peeks through in some places. I took some walnut stain and did a tiny bit of glazing in some of the corners and distressed places. I used a wet rag and the tiniest amount of stain and rubbed it in key places to make it look a little bit older, rather than a freshly painted piece.

I rounded up some more colorful accent pieces and pulled out some of the reds in my pillows.


It makes the family room look way more fun.

I didn't hate the black, infact, I liked it, but with our dark brown couches I just felt like all of the dark stuff was sucking the light out of the room, and sucking the life out of me!



What I love about a piece like this is that it's perfect for family life. I'm not going to stress out about my boys driving their cars on it, or opening and closing the doors over and over, because it's supposed to look "lived in". When the day comes that I decide to change up my colors and phase out my blues, greens, aquas and turquoise, I can paint it another color, or white, and it will look great with layers of paint showing through in the distressed places.

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out! There's nothing a new coat of paint can't fix!

And here's the disclaimer. I did, in fact, make my own custom paint color. I chose a color I thought was perfect (Behr Marina Isle) and I put the first brush sroke on and could tell immediately it was way too light. It almost looked baby blue next to the black. WRONG color! I panicked for about 3.5 seconds, then I remembered the turquoise paint I used in my big boys room, and added some of that and some black and a little bit of tan so it had a more gray or dirtier look to it. It turned out just right!

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

The armoire looks AMAZING!!! I love how the blue lightens up the whole room, and makes it feel fresh and happy. Good choice! :)

Frank, Heidi and Family said...

Looks awesome! That gives me hope for painting my kitchen cupboards.

hilary@oldhousetruelove said...

love it!!!

Angie said...

Great job! You even moved your pictures around too. :)

Colleen said...

I love it! Especially the distressed parts.

Cathy said...

Great job, it really changes how the room looks, so fun!

Desiree said...

It's beautiful! I love it so much. We have dark brown sectional couch and big brown entertainment center. A piece like this would really lighten up my space as well. I really like the color that you made.

-Desiree

Anonymous said...

I really like the cabinet in blue! I liked it in black too but this adds a nice pop of color to your room like you said. A lot of our furniture and accessories are darker colors and I really want to slowly lighten things up.

A womb for rent said...

Love it! Ok what color is that? I have something I want to paint that color :) very peaceful!

Brenna said...

Great color! I think if your armoire could talk it would say 'thank you'. :) Seriously love the liveliness it adds to your room. I can relate to the black/brown/black/beige feel of a room!!

Cara said...

Beautiful color! I absolutely love it! I know exactly what you mean about having too much dark furniture in the living room. I'm facing the same problem now, and trying to figure out what to change. I also like your new wall color! Isn't it fun mixing up your own color? I did that recently for our master bedroom, and absolutely love the color I came up with!

Erica said...

Yours looks better than pottery barns! I love the difference it makes, and I love you made your own color, great work!

Tausha said...

Just found your blog and I am THRILLED that I did! Oh how I love all of the inspiration all over your happy blog! I haven't completely looked at everything, but hey, the night's still young! Great work-keep it up!!
Happy Weekend!!

Laurel @ Ducks in a Row said...

It looks fantastic - what a great family room!

Mindy said...

nennermommy- I just made up the color by mixing a bunch of stuff together... but I can probaby take my paint stick to lowes or home depot and have them give me a color formula for it?

Thanks so much for all of your nice input! I love reading your comments! They make me happy!

Tausha, Your comment especially made my day! Thank you so much!

Melissa @ Honeybee Vintage said...

I have been looking for one of these for our bedroom (for computer/sewing stuff) and now I have to get one off of craigslist! This has inspired me! I am sure my husband will thank you later:):)

Maryann @ Domestically-Speaking said...

What a great paint color you created!

Unknown said...

Just came over from tatertots and jello and I am loving your blog! cute projects!

Dana said...

I am so impressed with how amazing this turned out! I love that color! It seems more you than the black one to me. Anyways I am really getting excited to see what other ideas and things you come up with! I hope it will start to rub off on me. :)

Rebecca L. said...

I just found your blog... it is so full of inspiration!
I have been married for a little over 2 months and I am trying to figure out how to decorate our little apartment... we have a black entertainment stand and brown couches. So when I found your blog and this post I felt like it was a sign, LOL! I am trying to find pillows and I love the ones that you have! where did you get them?

Thank you for sharing your gift of creativity, and decorating!

Mindy said...

Hi Rebecca! The pillows are all from various places. The peacock blue ones in the basket on the fireplace are Ikea. I made the green ones. The multi color flower ones are made from place mats found a pier one about a year and half ago. The white pillow with green scrolls is from wal-mart!

Good luck! If you can't find what you're looking for, just remember you can always buy placemats or cloth napkins and turn then into pillow covers! :)

Holly said...

Wow Mindy, it looks great. You'll have to give me some color advice when you come see our new place. Right now everything (and I mean everything) is white, grey, or black. Love the soothing serenity, but it certainly needs some color pop... I just don't know where to begin.

I love this! I loved it black, and I love it blue! Looks so great in that space! I'm impressed with your paint mixing talents! :)

Shannon said...

Love it!! We have just painted our pine armoire a blue similar to yours...I'm just waiting to post until I glaze it up real nice!!! Good job!
Shannon
www.akadesign.ca

Anonymous said...

It looks lovely. You did a great job. It looks almost like my PB armoire in my Living room. I'm in the process of trying to paint an armoire for my bedroom and was looking on blogs for inspiration.

beth said...

Wow! That looks so great!!
I had a similar situation happen this week. I decided I was going to paint my armoire turquoise, and I hated it! So, I mixed up a bunch of different colors I had laying around in the garage and came up with a soft blue that I love! Now I just need to distress the edges, and hopefully it will love half as good as yours! :)
Beth.

Unknown said...

Your cabinet looks wonderful. I love the colour, and that you custom mixed it. The distressing and tiny bit of glazing really works. My most recent post is on deciding on a colour to paint our armoire, and I found this post through a google search.

Anonymous said...

I love that armoire! Any chance you know the maker of it?