my little china cabinet!

oooh, little china cabinet!

when i first saw her months ago, she was such a hot old mess… with her bright green details that were about half falling off… her million layers of dark brown wax coating over some kind of wood situation, i don’t even know… and i didn’t know what i was doing, either! i just knew that i loved her.

so, like the good woman she is, my mom picked her up at the antique shop for me! i was at home with a newborn and a house to sell… and clearly, with all that free time i needed a project! ha.

yay! i decided i’d try out the amy howard line of one step chalk paints from ace hardware that i’d been eyeing for a while… although, this lovely little piece of confusion took more like one million steps. one million!

…scrub. wipe. make a lot of what the heck? faces…

then! i started painting! i’d purchased a color called windsor along with the light wax, dark wax, and dust of ages. and i mean, what a magical name, right! dust of ages? that’s brilliant! because i’m pretty sure the name might really be why i bought it! i know there are actual reasons for using it, but mostly my brain heard “old magical dust.” who am i to resist such a thing?

anyway, before i applied the wax, the windsor was not so much coming out the color i’d envisioned! it had a grayish purple tinge? and i was like ehhh this might not go well. but i had nothing to lose except time and effort. and oh, money. so, figuring if all else failed i’d put another coat of something else on… i kept at it! and my daddy dearest shined up the hardware for me, glooory!! he’s the best.

in the end, the wax worked its magic. the dark wax worked additional magic… and the dust of ages added some snazzy magical dust. i topped off those shabby little details with some gold rub n buff, as well! [and don’t even get me started on the rub n buff! i was all… what else can i use this on?! can’t believe it was my first time using that product!] and since the design details on the cabinet had actually come completely off in sooo many places, i really didn’t want to make the imperfections stand out with the gold, so i wasn’t going for perfect at all with my application there. the opposite, actually! quite the opposite.

and voila! after a few good months of living out in my dad’s shop, she was finally home for the holidays! she is sooo not even close to perfect, but well… that’s part of the beauty to me. i love her!

she taught me a few things, too, that’s for sure! i have a totally new appreciation for people who do this sort of thing for a living. but also, it was fun and therapeutic. she sure makes me happy there in the dining room, proudly housing my items that need a good polishing!

so! that concludes the tale of my china cabinet. the end! 🙂