TV armoire upcycle project

I know, I know. I have been silent for too long now. Things have been hectic in my household since one of my BFF's, her husband and 18 months old daughter have been staying with us. They are moving to CO, which makes me ecstatic to say the least, but  their 'dream rental' is taking a while to be ready...and I am surely NOT going to be working on any projects while their little one is around (read: noxious fumes & sticky hands, here! LOL).

I do however, have a project that I finished about 2 months ago, but I just never remembered to post. So today, I thought I would let you in on what I nicknamed "my monster" project. It was a large piece to tackle, and quite honestly, a pretty boring one at that, devoid of any architectural interest. But who can argue with a solid piece that I got (you guessed it) from Craigslist, for $15? I needed something for the basement to store our old TV and components, so this fit the bill to a T.

As with all of my other pieces, the preparation consisted of a good ol' scrubbing with soapy water and a few TBSPs of bleach and a light but thorough sanding.  You may see that the left hand side of the cabinet here is whitish, that's the sanding dust. After sanding I wiped it down with a damp rag and vacuumed it inside and out.

Time for priming. My regular tools: Zinsser Cover stain primer, my Purdy brush, a good quality roller and a stir stick.

As usual I started by painting all the corners with the brush...

...and continued filling in with the roller.

I always work from the inside out, as you can see here.

I always do two full coats of primer. One coat is usually not enough to hide the dark wood underneath. This is the 'monster' after one coat of primer, and then again after the 2nd coat. Slight difference.

Time for the paint to go on, this is what I used for this piece. On the far left: Valspar Ultra 'Cincinnatian Hotel', in the middle: Glidden 'Cappuccino White' and on the right: Minwax Clear Polycrilic. All are in Satin finish. All are latex paints. I usually shy away from using latex on furniture. I don't like the finish and I don't like the durability...but I have a lot of leftover wall paint (that's what this is), so I wanted to recycle it. With latex paint you will NEED to use a top coat or hardener...that's what the minwax is. 

I started by painting the inside of all the cubicles with 2 coats of the Valspar paint (Cincinnatian Hotel). I waited 24hr and then taped around the edges and proceeded to paint the 'monster' with the Glidden paint (Cappuccino White) on the outside.

 To add a bit of visual interest, I painted stripes on the sides. First I painted a long narrow center stripe with the Cappuccino paint, then I measured and marked with a pencil where I wanted the masking tape to go. When I taped I left the mark exposed...

...you can see the exposed pencil mark better from a close up.

Then I proceeded to paint the 'taupe' color on the sides and removed it before it got too dry (for crispness). Some of the paint still peeled off (I HATE latex) so i went in with a tiny brush and fixed those spots. 24hrs later I had to paint (everything inside and out) with polycrilic to harden the finish. Oh fun! One more reason to hate latex for furniture. LOL.

The same treatment was reserved for the doors (washed, sanded, wiped, primed twice, painted twice with the Cappuccino paint and then coated twice with the polycrilic).

This is the finished product...

Here is a detail on the stripes.

And here you can see the new knobs. I found those, 'Marroccan' inspired cuties, at World market for less than $1.50 each (on sale) yeayyyy me! 

You can see them better here from a stock photo from Worldmarket.com

Photo courtesy of Worldmarket.com

Here is a close up of the tooth molding at the top and the curio area.

So again, this is how it looks like finished. I still need to find some baskets, to fit on the cubicles under the TV, and organize it a bit better, but you get the gist of it. Don't you? ;)

I hope this inspires you to makeover your own 'monster' to better fit your home.

Happy painting! ^__^