{diy project: armoire makeover, part III}

{Part I}
{Part II}

The fun & final part! Knobs!

My mom & I headed to one of my favorite places for knobs...Anthropologie!

We thought that since we went a little boring on the color of the armoire, we could be more adventurous with the hardware. We walked in thinking color! patterns! fun!

There were lots of gorgeous options, but we narrowed it down to two:

This crystal octagon knob:

& one very similar to this golden metallic knob:

^^I can't find the actual knob online, so this'll have to do.

To be safe, I bought four blue knobs & two gold knobs, that way I could try them out. But I already picked: I was in love with the blue crystal knob. I pictured it in my mind on the dresser & thought it looked so chic. I thought it was the perfect mix between vintage-y & bold. It was just the pop the armoire needed! 

Fist-pumping the air, I walked out of Anthro ready to see them on the dresser in person.

After trying out both, the clear winner was...GOLD! I was so wrong! Don't you agree that it just looks better? The blue knobs just made the armoire look...cheap. Or something else I can't think of the word for. 

Once all of the gold knobs were on, I was finally 100% happy with the end result. I love it! I wish I could fly it out to San Francisco :)

The whole process was so fun & really a lot less complicated than I thought it would be. Full disclosure: this took me two months. It could've taken two days. Ha! But I had such a blast working on it with my mom, that I'm glad it took a long time :)

Here's the final before & after:

If you have any other questions about this project, feel free to ask!

{diy project: armoire makeover, part II}

{Part I}

So when I went to find the photos for this post, I couldn't find any! They either disappeared or were deleted by accident. So, unfortunately, I don't have many pictures of the next few steps. Ugh.

After I cleaned, sanded, & vacuumed the entire armoire, it was ready for paint!

To make milk paint, you have to mix equal parts hot water & powder. Easy peasy.

{It actually wasn't for me, though, because I was doing this entire project in my stepdad's company's warehouse...where there is no sink. So I had to lug a couple gallons of water, a few buckets, & my electric teapot to mix the paint. I advise people not to do it this way. Obviously! Ha.}

I wanted to paint it light gray, so I mixed both Snow White & Slate. Once I got the exact shade I wanted, I started painting. Hooray!

Here are the exact steps:

1. Paint one coat.
2. Let it dry.
3. Sand with a sanding sponge {not orbital sander}.
4. Wipe it down with a clean cloth.
5. Vacuum.
6. Repeat.

It took about 2 hours for it to dry between coats. But I painted the exterior & interior first, & THEN all of the drawers, so by the time I was done all five drawers, the actual dresser itself was dry. This was a huge time saver.

After painting two coats, I stepped back & looked at the piece. My reaction?

I hated it.

It looked like it was primed & waiting to be painted another color. It didn't look grey enough & I totally panicked. I'd just spent all this money & time & I despised it before I was even finished!

As I was studying it, I kept picturing Tim Gunn by my side à la Project Runway.

^^me too, Tim.

As he says, I needed to "make it work." So I went back to my paint bucket, added more "Slate" & painted a third coat. That did the trick: it finally looked more grey!

When I say "sand" I mean SAND. Since I was going for an aged look, I really scrubbed down to let the original wood color come through. {That's a lie. My mom actually took over at this point, since I was deemed a bad sander. I think she added about five pounds of muscle to her arms just from sanding this thing. Three coats of paint is hard to take off, which is why you should just do the suggested two. Unlike me. Ha!}

The next step was painting everything with polyurethane. I used a clear satin finish & a china brush to get the thinnest coat possible. Same steps as painting:

1. Paint one coat.
2. Let it dry.
3. Sand.
4. Wipe it down with a clean cloth.
5. Vacuum.
6. Repeat.

I'll be honest--this product wasn't my favorite. If I were to do this again, I'd try a different finish. The satin came out a little too yellow for me; I really expected it to be more clear.

^^ignore the mess.

Next & final step...knobs!

PART III

{diy project: vintage armoire makeover, part I}

This summer, I decided to rehab an armoire that's been in my family for quite some time. It was my grandma's, then my mom's, then my sister & I's. It was actually the dresser that was used in my sister & I's nursery! So me & this dresser? We go way back. It's been in storage for YEARS & I totally forgot about it. Needless to say, when I saw it again...I fell in love.

Take a look:

Gorgeous, right?

My mom & I decided to tackle it. Before I started, I knew three things: I didn't want to stain it, I didn't want to paint it all one color, & whatever I did, I wanted to keep the integrity & character of the piece. It's vintage! I wanted to keep it looking that way. Since painting it all one color seemed a little boring, I started looking for other ideas...

I came across the book Furniture Makeovers & was immediately inspired! The author, Barb Blair, can only be described as the ultimate furniture guru. The book is full of so many amazing projects! The before & afters are truly incredible. She goes into detail about the different stains, methods, paints, & processes you can use on furniture. She tells you exact brands & products to buy, which was incredibly helpful. And most importantly, she gives step by step instructions on how to do everything.

The section that really stuck out to me, though, was on Milk Paint. I'd never heard of it before, but after seeing the aged, vintage look of the furniture it was used on, I knew it was the way to go. Milk Paint is only sold in select stores, so I had to source it, but I ended up finding it in the most adorable little hardware store outside of Philadelphia.

The only problem was...what color were we going to do?! My mom & I didn't know where the dresser was going to go: our house? the beach house? my future apartment? Because of this, we had to be very "safe" with the paint color. It had to be adaptable.

Here are the colors Milk Paint comes in:

Even though I was SO tempted to paint it "Mustard", we eventually decided on grey. Milk Paint doesn't come in liquid form, only powder...so you have to mix it yourself. This was actually a great thing for me, because I was able to create the exact shade I wanted. I wasn't a huge fan of "Oyster White", "Snow White was too white, & "Slate" seemed too dark.  I ended up in the middle: buying two bags of "Snow White" & one bag of "Slate" to create the lightest grey possible.

Before I could start painting, I had to prep.

1. The first thing I did was clean the entire dresser. Dust was in every little crevice, so I spent about 30 minutes just wiping it down.

2. Sanding! I used both an orbital sander AND a fine sanding sponge.

^^Oh, yeah. I totally rocked the protective glasses. I like the ability of sight.

3. After sanding everything down, I took a vacuum & sucked up all the dust. There was a LOT. I don't have a picture, but this step is still very important! You don't want to paint a dusty, sandy piece of furniture. Trust me.

4. While I was sanding with the orbital sander, my hand slipped. Or I got a little too excited. Who knows. Whatever happened, I sanded off a piece of decorative trim! I was super bummed. Luckily it was a clean cut, so I just took some Gorilla Wood Glue & glued the piece right back on.

Next up...painting!

PART II