Hello!! I hope your Thanksgiving holiday was great and all that you had hoped it to be. My was great and I am very thankful to be able to spend it with my family. I wanted to share with you my latest project on an antique washstand turned into a cute coffee bar. I really wasn't looking for a washstand but a customer offered it to me so I bought it as it was in relatively good condition considering the age. It was an antique washstand and my first thought was to turn it into a bathroom vanity. (Excuse the background mess as this was in my half finished garage).
But once I actually started the prep work, I then realized how small it was and it would be difficult to continue on with my first thought so I then thought about a coffee bar. Then all the inspiration juices started flowing!!
My first step in prepping any of my pieces is washing thoroughly with Dixie Belle White Lightening. In case you haven't used this product before it is one of the best products on the market for cleaning and de-glossing any kind of project or furniture. What we seem to forget is how the pieces are cleaned or not through the years. It is imperative to get off as much of the gloss and waxes for optimal adherence of the paints. I sell this for $4.95 and you add water based on the instructions. A little goes a long way. Always use gloves when using this product and rinse very well afterwards.
Next as far as my prep was concerned was painting the piece with a primer. It did have some musty odors which is very common for older pieces. The Dixie Belle Boss will help eliminate old musty odors as well as old cigarette smoke. It also is great for blocking any tannins that might pop up later while finishing up your piece. The top also had a stain that I was concerned would come through the paint so I did not take any chances. If you don't have troublesome odors then you always spot BOSS after you paint if you see any spots pop up as well. BOSS comes in white, clear and gray and it comes in 8 oz, 16 oz or 32 oz.
Now on to the fun stuff. I also wanted the coffee bar to be higher so I purchased some legs at Home Depot so it would be give it the height that I wanted and felt is was warranted. My husband who is my fixer dude added them and made the piece very sturdy for use. I decided to go with a Farmhouse theme and paint it dark on top and light on the body. So I used Dixie Belle Coffee Bean for the top and my all new favorite color for the body in Dixie Belle Sawmill Gravy. The Sawmill Gravy is a nice off white creamy color.
When I paint, I always do a nice first coat. I try not to be too heavy handed while I paint and I pay attention to any brush marks. The reason being if you see brush marks now then you will definitely see them later. I always do a light sand in between coats to break down the chalk residue as well. So two coats of Coffee Bean and two coats of Sawmill Gravy. I also painted the inside of the washstand as well to finish it off as I knew that I would be selling the piece. It had such great detail on the front so I wanted to highlight it every so slightly. I am in love with the Dixie Belle Black Glaze. I wanted it to just give it a little pop so I top coated everything with the Dixie Belle Satin Clear Coat first and then used the black glaze in the cracks and crevasses to give dimension. When you apply the glaze, you wipe back as much as you want. It looks blue in the jar but goes on black.
For the finishing touches, we added the hardware after painting them black and then top coated one more time on the top and now she is at the shop for sale. I love it!
this is how we transformed this piece from forgotten find to beautiful design.
Now on to the next project!! Remember you can buy all the Dixie Belle products easy enough through my website!! Let's start your next project today!
www.forgottenfindsanddesigns.com