China Cabinet Makeover

Next, we sprayed a layer of Annie Sloan’s Old White on the entire piece. We lightly sanded and removed any dust again with a microfiber cloth. Here is where the fun begins. Remember when I mentioned I wanted dark to show beneath the final paint color? Well this is where I wet distressed. I did this by taking a damp microfiber cloth and rubbing away the paint so that the dark layer underneath would show up.

You don’t need a whole lot of pressure, it is just a repetitive motion to be prepared to do this for a few minutes. I love to wet distress because it doesn’t leave any sanding dust behind on a freshly painted surface.

This is what the wet distress looks like once finished.

Next, we added two molding pieces to the drawer to dress it up a little. We used wood glue behind the molding and then a nail gun to make sure it wasn’t going to go anywhere.

Next, I used Howard’s restore a finish to renew the shelves after we sanded them. I used 0000 steel wool to apply it. Take a look at this before and after.

What a difference! After that dried, we used Howard’s Wax n Feed to seal in the stain and protect the finish.

They turned out really nice!

Next, we decided that the back needed a little bit of love so we used paintable wallpaper from Lowes. We followed the directions to apply, soaking in water then pressing firmly and using the wallpaper tool to ensure no bubbles were left behind. Once that dried overnight, we painted it the same color as the rest of the china cabinet. Then, we used Annie Sloan’s clear and dark wax on the piece to give it dimension and an antique look.

The wallpaper was no exception – that also was sealed with clear and dark wax and then, we used some gold gilding to bring out some of the details in the wallpaper. It was applied by fingertip, it is super easy and you can just place it where you want a touch of an accent. It really gave it an old world look. Check it out.

Here is a close up.

Once that was dry, we placed the shelves back in, changed the hardware to some beautiful glass knobs from D. Lawless hardware and took a few photographs to enjoy the after of all that hard work!

Here it is all put together and ready for use.