B O R I N G!
Boring, dark, but oh so useful piece! We had received this sideboard as a wedding present and have used it in every apartment and dining room in which we have ever lived. It holds linens, silver, flatware, paper napkins…. you name it, it has been invaluable.
But oh so out of date or boring!

Time to refresh.
And Annie Sloan paints were the perfect choice. I had bought one color, “Provence”, on my first trip out to Mebane and my dealer, The Melville Trading Company.
No, the color just was not right. This piece resides in my husband’s study: dark reds, Oriental rug, lots of books etc. and Provence was too…. what? … clean, is the best word.

 

Off I went, once again, with my friend Sally (this was her first, much-anticipated visit to a visual, design-lover’s mecca!).
This is the color I had decided to buy: French Linen
and a few ideas from Pinterest:
http://pinterest.com/kathryn_cole/

 

From methenyweir.com

This paint is a pleasure to use!! Really… no prep work AT ALL. Just paint.
I knew I wanted the dark “mahogany” to show through the finished product, so I painted two coats and then was going to sand.

At first, it looked SO streaky. Yikes. Nothing to do but paint on…
The four drawers had these annoying fake key holes. We debated whether to pry them out, fill and sand. No, too much work! And, you know, I think they look sort of retro in the redone piece!
Here you can see the difference between one coat and the beginning of the second
Here are the products I used. After painting two coats (drying time of about an hour), I then sanded down the edges to let the original stain show through, then put on the clear wax. At first I used a big, soft brush for the wax, but soon found it was easier, and more efficient, to use a cloth. Wipe on, that’s it. Then in about an hour, buff.
And, ta da, here it is.
It’s a pretty basic piece: no raised woodwork, no fancy edging, really nowhere to add another color or dimension. Now, I would have added some dark wax along the drawer sides, or have sanded off more of the paint around the hardware… but this is just what my husband wanted!
Just one small issue here… I would have chosen different hardware! (I really like that in the second image from Pinterest, above), but it was my husband’s choice, after all.
Am I happy? Or, more importantly, is my husband happy with it?
Y E S
He loves it. He can’t believe we waited this long (as in maybe fifteen years?) to do this makeover.
Better late than never, right????