Furniture Makeover

I recently re-did a small China cabinet Ben's mom gave me.  And when I say "re-did" I don't mean that I did anything that a normal person couldn't do.  Just sanded, primed, and painted!

Supplies:
Small can of gray primer (I used Glidden brand)
pack of 150 grit sandpaper
1/2" and 2" paint brushes
pack of small paint brushes (for the detail on the front)
painters tape
small can of paint (I used Martha Stewart "Maine Lobster" in eggshell paint finish)
scrap newspaper

The cabinet had a medium brown stain when I got it, and while researching I found lots of people who said that you have to completely remove the stain before you can paint.  WRONG.  That would have taken me YEARS to finish.  Luckily, Stacy (of The Little Chick fame) gave me some very helpful and time-saving pointers before I started on this little project!

I started out by sanding everything with 150 grit sandpaper.  I can't take all of the credit for the sanding, Ben was definitely helpful, because let's be honest, sanding is no fun.  FYI - I would remove any doors or anything like that and sand those separately.

After we finished sanding, we wiped down everything with a damp cloth and let it dry for a couple of minutes.  As you can see, I had to carefully place strips of newspaper behind the wood on the front so I could paint it.  While this did not 100% keep paint off the glass it was definitely helpful.  Hint - about 5 minutes after you paint the primer remove the newspaper, otherwise the paint will make it stick to the wood (I learned this the hard way) and use new newspaper strips when painting the top coat.

While priming the cabinet I decided to leave the back and bottom brown, but after painting the first coat of red paint I went back and painted the bottom red because something just didn't look right.

Then the red painting started.  I did two coats, which was the perfect amount.  At first I was nervous about this color, because it's red and red can easily go horribly wrong, but after it was all said and done I loved it! 

Hint - do not go by what colors look like on the internet.  They are wrong wrong wrong.  Go look up Maine Lobster.  It looks nothing like this.

The flash makes the glass look weird - sorry

This project was so much fun and really didn't take very long (and you don't have to be a furniture expert to do it)!  I probably could have finished in one weekend if I had devoted most of my time to it.  If any of my instructions weren't clear or if you have any questions just e-mail me - jstansbakery [at] gmail [dot] com