Good morning friends! I need some decorating advice, and I hope you will chime in and help me out. See, I have this lovely cabinet; it’s white and perfectly nice and matches all of the other white stuff in my house, ha ha. The thing is, I’ve had a bee in my bonnet about this cabinet since Bixby was born and we removed the glass doors for safety reasons. Now, it is sad and door-less, and looks nowhere near as nice as in the old picture (scroll down to see). What I think I want to do is paint it gray, like this cabinet from Tine K:
I really, really love that soft matte gray finish. So that’s my first question: which paint do you use for repainting furniture? Any tips for a project like this? A favorite tutorial you refer to? And what do you think of gray?
Paint color aside, there is still the issue of the glass. Bixby is not going to be safe around kicking-level glass for quite some time, I’m afraid, so I want to think of another option. I’m not a big fan of fabric in cabinet doors, so instead I’ve been thinking – maybe chicken wire?
What do you think? I like the example above in Alexis Garrett’s home tour on Design Mom. And we will have plenty of extra chicken wire around when we get our chicks later this spring (oh yes, we are getting chickens!!).
Above you can see the cabinet in question, although this photo was taken a few years ago! The final part of my plan would be to switch out the knobs for some pretties from Anthropologie, don’t you love their hardware? And what sort of knobs do you think would go well with gray paint? And what about painting or papering the interior of the cupboards a contrasting color/pattern?
Please, friends, tell me what you would do.
(images: linked in post above)
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Re paint: I used Annie Sloan chalk paint and it’s wonderful – it doesn’t require priming :) A bit expensive, but worth the extra-money, in my opinion.
Chicken wire is an option; you could also use canvas frames, or those thin boards used by artists to paint on, and paint/collage/decorate in any way you think. Also perspex could be an option.
If you use chicken wire, painting the inside would work well too – maybe soft pastels?
I’m curious to see what you will go for :)
Cristina | Positively Beauty´s last [type] ..Still life photos for the first day of Spring
Thanks Cristina! I am going to look up Annie Sloan right now…I think it would be worth it to use a really nice paint for this project because it is fairly small, so I shouldn’t need much. Painting the inside of the cabinets in soft pastels is one of the things I had in mind – I like the idea of still being able to see inside.
Hmmm. Could you take the doors off and just stash them somewhere until you could put the glass back in? I usually use semi or high gloss when painting furniture, but if you want it to be more matte, maybe you could use a semi-opaque stain. Benjamin Moore makes some and I remember that they had a couple really nice shades of grey. They also have different levels of coverage and it might allow you to get that worn look on the edges like your first inspiration photo. I’m excited to see what you come up with! Post photos once you get going on it.
Cindy P.´s last [type] ..Cheesy Thursday – Hold On Loosely
Hi Cindy! I will definitely post photos when I get down to business. And I loved your dresser project, by the way – it looks beautiful! I actually have the doors off the cabinet right now, which I originally thought would be enough of a solution, but it just doesn’t look right without them.
I’m all for painting it! I like Christina’s idea about using canvas in the doors, and I also like the chicken wire idea (is it scratchy for little fingers though?). What about decorative radiator screens? I bet you could get them cut to fit.
Ooh, decorative radiator screens – brilliant! I think I do want to be able to see through the doors still, but the right sort of screens might be able to sway me…I will definitely be looking into that. And I want to paint it for sure! You are all convincing me : ) xo Laura
I think I would consider removing the doors for a while (or saying “no” a few hundred times until he gets not to touch it… said by someone who has a glass cabinet that is at kicking and punching level! :-) ) But I love the idea of painting it grey, definitely a chalky grey. You might think about layering another color underneath if you want it to have the feel of the Tine K and then sanding it some. I think the chicken wire would be very country and your living room doesn’t look very country, though this is just a glance at a piece of the room! Anthro has awesome knobs, but if you wanted to DIY it, you could always paint them white and then stencil something on the front. I’m sure whatever you did will be completely lovely! I, too, have a cabinet to paint. I thought I was going to paint it grey, but now we rearranged the room and it is sitting next to the grey couch, so that would be an awful lot of grey! I’ll share a pic soon so you can help me too! :-)
Tina@FlyingHouse´s last [type] ..fashion {calls}
Hi Laura! Checking out your blog for the first time- very pretty. I don’t have any ideas for the cabinet, but we have the same West Elm rug and I’m wondering how you get yours to lie straight. Ours is always wavy along the edges and it drives me CRAZY.
Ha ha! Jessica, ours did that too at first, and just sort of settled down over time. Sorry I can’t be more helpful! xo