Tag: Behr

#33 Ethan Allen console cabinet

Transformation expenses: $205

Before I even got it home fate had a plan for this Ethan Allen cabinet. On the day I decided to rescue it, I called a friend and neighbor to help me load it onto my truck. Straight away she knew it would work as the bar cabinet she and her husband wanted for their library/office renovation. Designing it to be a showstopper in an eclectic room with both rustic and modern elements was a challenge. I’m happy with how it turned out.

I started by taking the piece apart, stripping the top, removing the old hardware, filling the holes with doweling and wood filler, and cleaning and sanding everything.

I primed the carcass with two cans of Rust-Oleum 2X Ultracover primer. I then added some glamour to the inside panels of the doors & cabinet using Rust-Oleum Aged Metallic paint in Vintage Gold. You’d think this stuff was real gold the way it has been disappearing off the shelves!

Next I added the Wow! factor with four coats of Behr high gloss enamel in a custom color that we’ll call Hermes Orange. I actually took a friend’s Hermes scarf box to The Home Depot for them to color match.

The lovely maple top of this cabinet is the design element that pulls everything together. I custom stained it to complement the rustic fireplace mantel it would be near. The stain was a 50:50 mix of Varathane premium wood stains in Cognac and Dark Walnut. I then added a bespoke stenciled design that mirrors the one on the new door pulls.

New door pulls from Bellwith Keeler and new brass hinges updated the hardware

The back panel had to be replaced because it had warped, so I got my husband to cut out all the identification from the old back panel and then I attached it to the underside of the cabinet. I also attached mirror glass to the inside of the back panel, then reassembled the piece. A glass interior shelf was the finishing touch.

#31 The Sophia desk

Transformation expense: About $35

This was my first transformation done with an apprentice and it was a baptism of fire for 9-year old Sophia! By the end we had applied eight coats of paint and wax to this piece! The hurdles we had to overcome were good teaching moments, and the end result was well worth all the effort. My design inspiration was a refinished piece by The Resplendent Crow.

This desk is solid wood, and has some decent joinery, but had also seen its fair share of wear and tear.

Rolling up her sleeves, Sophia got to work cleaning the desk inside and out. We then sanded and used wood filler to repair the biggest imperfections, including a crack in the top.

Sophia chose a beautiful, pale blue color (Permafrost) for the Behr Chalk Paint. We applied the first coat and immediately ran into two serious problems: 1) When the desk was moved, the crack in the top re-opened and 2) Stain from the sanded surface was bleeding through the paint causing yellowing.

Fixing the recurring crack was made harder because the top could not be removed (a couple of wood wedges were gluing it firmly in place). To install a metal bracket across the joint I had to drill pilot holes down through the desktop because I couldn’t get a drill in from the underside. Once the stabilized crack and pilot holes were filled and sanded, we could move on to problem #2.

A couple of coats of Kilz oil-based primer sealed the surface and prevented any further bleeding of the stain.

Now we could go back and apply three coats of the beautiful pale blue chalk paint.

When the painting was finished we decided to take this desk to the next level by adding some stenciling to the top.

Two coats of clear wax give protection and a beautiful sheen to the finish.

Tea break!

Finally we were ready for the finishing touches: We removed all the painter’s tape, polished the whole surface to a lovely sheen, and re-installed the hardware, which had been cleaned and painted in Rust-Oleum white semi-gloss spray paint.