Sorry I haven't posted in a while. We've been keeping very busy, mostly outdoors, and mostly with the purchase of the vacant lot next to us! I'll be sure to post pictures of those projects once they're complete. Early in July, I warned you that the peacock office was going to be no more. And it is no more, though I'm sorry it's taken me so long to share all the progress. On the other hand, it's been nice to work without racing against an imaginary timer this time around! I'm almost ready to share the whole office makeover with you, but there are a few final touches I'm waiting on.
In the meantime, I thought you might like to see the major transformation the gold mafia boss armoire has undergone. It was a painful process, actually, because if you remember, I had a heavy coat of metallic wax to give the gold finish the patina I wanted. Note to self: If there's any chance at all I'll ever refinish a piece in the future, don't use metallic wax on it!!
For those whose worlds don't revolve around my rambling posts, this is the gold armoire, aka "the beast" in her peacock-inspired office BEFORE:
Just emptying the darn thing was an effort, never mind carrying each piece into my workshop from the office. That top decorative carved piece alone probably weighs 40 pounds! Each of the 2 doors has 4 hinges, each with 4 screws, so 32 screws to get the doors off, not counting the corner swivel pieces because I left those on and just worked around them when repainting in the spirit of the this deliberately imperfect thing I'm going for this time. :) Ok, so refinishing this piece for the second time in 6 months is a pain. You get it. But do you though??
The whole point of re-doing the office is to bring it in line with the rest of the entire house. That soft, cool-toned color palette farmhouse vibe we have going on. So I decided the entire piece needed to be white. Aged, heavily distressed white with black peeking through. I played with photoshop and really desperately wanted this piece to be an unexpected color like my dining room buffet that went lilac. I did decide to paint the inside an accent color, and I went with Celestial by Sherwin Williams. But for the outside, none of the options spoke to me like the white did for this piece so off I went. The white is "Picket Fence" by martha stewart, by the way!
First I cleaned it with a low odor TSP-substitute. Then I mixed up some homemade chalky paint in jet black and painted the entire piece. Once it was dry and I ran my hand over it and all the black started flaking off to reveal the gold I thought "ruh roh!" Enter previous note to future self about never trying to refinish a piece with metallic wax on it! I've NEVER EVER experienced chalky paint not sticking to absolutely any surface, but there's a first time for everything.
See? Yikes!
Next up, coating the entire piece with heavy primer, which I thought in hindsight that I should have done in the first place because of the wax. Surely the primer would do the trick! After the primer, I went back over with the black chalk paint again and this looked much more promising!
Then I started my 2 or 3 (I can't remember) coats of white chalky paint, and I held my breath and started sanding to get the black to come through. I was taking my own advice in just "going for it" knowing that it's just paint and it can be redone if it goes wrong. And it did. The primer on top of flaking black paint on top of wax didn't do the trick after all. It sanded (easily too!) right down to the gold layer immediately. So, instead of doing it right, which would be to strip the whole piece down to bare wood... I decided to fake it. I globbed on another 2-3 layers of the white paint and then I used ebony minwax stain in all the crevices and detailed areas.
It looked like a cartoon at this point. :)
Then, I used a super fine fan brush and just dragged on some black randomly over the flat white areas in places where, had I not encountered issues with the wax, the black would have worked its way through while sanding. Then I dry brushed the white over the whole piece to tone down my faux distressing. I used matte water based varathane to seal it.
And here's the final finish on the bottom piece:
But surely you all know me better by now than to think this is the end of the story. :)
This armoire only went gold, ultimately, to prove I could make a giant piece of furniture done in metallic gold awesome. I hated it like 5 minutes later, but I did it. Unfortunately I decorated my entire office around it, but whatever, I'm moving on. The point is, I couldn't simply do a basic paint makeover on a piece like this and call it a day. No, no, no friends. This needed a bigger makeover than just paint.
Did you notice I haven't mentioned the doors yet aside from removing them in the very beginning? I thought about leaving the doors off completely but I know the contents of this large piece can get messy from time to time and I didn't want that completely on display. But a little on display I was ok with! So I decided to cut the flat panels out of the doors along the decorative trim and replace the wood with chicken wire, or so I thought at the time. It turns out the chicken wire and even 1/4" mesh gave next to no privacy/coverage so I had to special order some construction mesh that's got 1/8" openings with a heavier gauge wire so it has better "hide." I'm getting ahead of myself though because the doors experienced another oopsie like painting over the wax.
I planned to use my jigsaw to cut along the edge of the mouldings on the door. However, I was concerned that the saw had nothing flat to rest upon while cutting and it'd be a free-for-all. So I decided I'd outsmart these doors. I drilled tiny holes all the way around each panel up against the moulding so I could flip the door over, trace a line along the holes, and cut from the backside, which was completely flat! Brilliant!!
So here's what it looks like with holes along the front side moulding. (sorry, not sure why I can't seem to rotate this back)
And here's what I did on the back so I knew where to cut.
I was feeling pretty pleased with myself at this point. Then I started cutting. Queue suspenseful music. Turns out I wasn't smarter than the doors or the jigsaw. Jigsaws are pretty accurate when you're not cutting blind like I was, and I can hold my own with power tools! I couldn't account for the blade thickness or for any variability in the hole's proximity to the moulding cutting blind from the back. I cut into the moulding in several spots and I was way off the moulding in other spots. So then I did what I should have done from the beginning... I just used the jigsaw and rested it on top of the moulding. That was much better. I still dumped buckets of sweat into that first door as I realized far too late that the blade was super dull. On the second door just for ha-ha's I tried an older, cheaper jigsaw and it cut through the darn thing like butter. I was psyched to be done, but so mad at myself because the whole process didn't have to be so complicated.
I didn't bother drilling the holes on the second door, and as such I didn't have to go back and fill all the visible divots like I did with the first door. Live and learn!
So the doors got a heavy wipe down with mineral spirits hoping to wear down some of the wax finish, then a light sanding, then primer, then black, then a couple coats of white, and that worked slightly better, though still the wax is coming through when it wants to. I'm actually ok with that. I'm finally at peace with this armoire showing its layers. :)
I was planning to attach the wire mesh with my upholstery stapler and compressor just inside the outer edge of the moulding. A factory finished piece like this would be done like that afterall, and then they'd cover the staples with a trim piece at that! However, after living and learning from the jigsaw debacle, I decide to just keep it simple, and staple the mesh to the back of the door. It took me about 45 minutes to do all 4 panels and I love the look so I made up some ground there. I used Construction Materials KwikMesh in the 12"x20' roll (KM1220) if you care.
Ready for the big reveal? I think she's lovely, and she looks like she belongs in our house finally!
This piece has a built-in power strip so I can hide the printer, modem etc in the corner. I failed to mention that I added a little LED light strip on the back side of the shelf just for a hint of light because it's quite dark inside this thing.
It absolutely kills me that you're sleuthing a sneak peek at the new wall color, but only the best of you super detectives may have also noticed I threw a sloppy brush stroke on the floor to cover up a potential peek at the new area rug. You'll just have to wait a few more days for the final office reveal. I will say, if the wall color related in any way to anything else in the room I probably wouldn't post this today. The wall color is my colorful version of a neutral. :)
It's the desk chairs that are in progress, and you'll either feel relieved on my behalf, or disappointed entirely to learn that I've sold out and hired a pro to take on the chairs. I wanted the room done and if I assign even a pittance of value on my time, it's cheaper to hire a professional who can do it well and fast. He picked up the chairs yesterday and hopes to deliver them here Wednesday. I wouldn't even have my piping done by Wednesday!! If it were one chair I'd have tackled it already. But two chairs...ugh!
I was going to also share the decorative hanging file storage boxes I made since our "stuff" is somewhat on display now, but this post is so looooooong already. Maybe I'll do a mini post a day with some of the individual projects that will ultimately make up the whole office makeover. I hope you'll stay tuned.
In the meantime, I thought you might like to see the major transformation the gold mafia boss armoire has undergone. It was a painful process, actually, because if you remember, I had a heavy coat of metallic wax to give the gold finish the patina I wanted. Note to self: If there's any chance at all I'll ever refinish a piece in the future, don't use metallic wax on it!!
For those whose worlds don't revolve around my rambling posts, this is the gold armoire, aka "the beast" in her peacock-inspired office BEFORE:
 |
| It was cool for a minute, but this dark room with intense colors gives me the shivers now and not in a good way! Can't wait to share the new office with you!! |
Just emptying the darn thing was an effort, never mind carrying each piece into my workshop from the office. That top decorative carved piece alone probably weighs 40 pounds! Each of the 2 doors has 4 hinges, each with 4 screws, so 32 screws to get the doors off, not counting the corner swivel pieces because I left those on and just worked around them when repainting in the spirit of the this deliberately imperfect thing I'm going for this time. :) Ok, so refinishing this piece for the second time in 6 months is a pain. You get it. But do you though??
The whole point of re-doing the office is to bring it in line with the rest of the entire house. That soft, cool-toned color palette farmhouse vibe we have going on. So I decided the entire piece needed to be white. Aged, heavily distressed white with black peeking through. I played with photoshop and really desperately wanted this piece to be an unexpected color like my dining room buffet that went lilac. I did decide to paint the inside an accent color, and I went with Celestial by Sherwin Williams. But for the outside, none of the options spoke to me like the white did for this piece so off I went. The white is "Picket Fence" by martha stewart, by the way!
 |
| Martha Stewart "Picket Fence" |
 |
| "Celestial" for interior |
First I cleaned it with a low odor TSP-substitute. Then I mixed up some homemade chalky paint in jet black and painted the entire piece. Once it was dry and I ran my hand over it and all the black started flaking off to reveal the gold I thought "ruh roh!" Enter previous note to future self about never trying to refinish a piece with metallic wax on it! I've NEVER EVER experienced chalky paint not sticking to absolutely any surface, but there's a first time for everything.
See? Yikes!
Next up, coating the entire piece with heavy primer, which I thought in hindsight that I should have done in the first place because of the wax. Surely the primer would do the trick! After the primer, I went back over with the black chalk paint again and this looked much more promising!
Then I started my 2 or 3 (I can't remember) coats of white chalky paint, and I held my breath and started sanding to get the black to come through. I was taking my own advice in just "going for it" knowing that it's just paint and it can be redone if it goes wrong. And it did. The primer on top of flaking black paint on top of wax didn't do the trick after all. It sanded (easily too!) right down to the gold layer immediately. So, instead of doing it right, which would be to strip the whole piece down to bare wood... I decided to fake it. I globbed on another 2-3 layers of the white paint and then I used ebony minwax stain in all the crevices and detailed areas.
It looked like a cartoon at this point. :)
Then, I used a super fine fan brush and just dragged on some black randomly over the flat white areas in places where, had I not encountered issues with the wax, the black would have worked its way through while sanding. Then I dry brushed the white over the whole piece to tone down my faux distressing. I used matte water based varathane to seal it.
And here's the final finish on the bottom piece:
But surely you all know me better by now than to think this is the end of the story. :)
This armoire only went gold, ultimately, to prove I could make a giant piece of furniture done in metallic gold awesome. I hated it like 5 minutes later, but I did it. Unfortunately I decorated my entire office around it, but whatever, I'm moving on. The point is, I couldn't simply do a basic paint makeover on a piece like this and call it a day. No, no, no friends. This needed a bigger makeover than just paint.
Did you notice I haven't mentioned the doors yet aside from removing them in the very beginning? I thought about leaving the doors off completely but I know the contents of this large piece can get messy from time to time and I didn't want that completely on display. But a little on display I was ok with! So I decided to cut the flat panels out of the doors along the decorative trim and replace the wood with chicken wire, or so I thought at the time. It turns out the chicken wire and even 1/4" mesh gave next to no privacy/coverage so I had to special order some construction mesh that's got 1/8" openings with a heavier gauge wire so it has better "hide." I'm getting ahead of myself though because the doors experienced another oopsie like painting over the wax.
I planned to use my jigsaw to cut along the edge of the mouldings on the door. However, I was concerned that the saw had nothing flat to rest upon while cutting and it'd be a free-for-all. So I decided I'd outsmart these doors. I drilled tiny holes all the way around each panel up against the moulding so I could flip the door over, trace a line along the holes, and cut from the backside, which was completely flat! Brilliant!!
So here's what it looks like with holes along the front side moulding. (sorry, not sure why I can't seem to rotate this back)
And here's what I did on the back so I knew where to cut.
I was feeling pretty pleased with myself at this point. Then I started cutting. Queue suspenseful music. Turns out I wasn't smarter than the doors or the jigsaw. Jigsaws are pretty accurate when you're not cutting blind like I was, and I can hold my own with power tools! I couldn't account for the blade thickness or for any variability in the hole's proximity to the moulding cutting blind from the back. I cut into the moulding in several spots and I was way off the moulding in other spots. So then I did what I should have done from the beginning... I just used the jigsaw and rested it on top of the moulding. That was much better. I still dumped buckets of sweat into that first door as I realized far too late that the blade was super dull. On the second door just for ha-ha's I tried an older, cheaper jigsaw and it cut through the darn thing like butter. I was psyched to be done, but so mad at myself because the whole process didn't have to be so complicated.
I didn't bother drilling the holes on the second door, and as such I didn't have to go back and fill all the visible divots like I did with the first door. Live and learn!
So the doors got a heavy wipe down with mineral spirits hoping to wear down some of the wax finish, then a light sanding, then primer, then black, then a couple coats of white, and that worked slightly better, though still the wax is coming through when it wants to. I'm actually ok with that. I'm finally at peace with this armoire showing its layers. :)
I was planning to attach the wire mesh with my upholstery stapler and compressor just inside the outer edge of the moulding. A factory finished piece like this would be done like that afterall, and then they'd cover the staples with a trim piece at that! However, after living and learning from the jigsaw debacle, I decide to just keep it simple, and staple the mesh to the back of the door. It took me about 45 minutes to do all 4 panels and I love the look so I made up some ground there. I used Construction Materials KwikMesh in the 12"x20' roll (KM1220) if you care.
Ready for the big reveal? I think she's lovely, and she looks like she belongs in our house finally!
This piece has a built-in power strip so I can hide the printer, modem etc in the corner. I failed to mention that I added a little LED light strip on the back side of the shelf just for a hint of light because it's quite dark inside this thing.
It absolutely kills me that you're sleuthing a sneak peek at the new wall color, but only the best of you super detectives may have also noticed I threw a sloppy brush stroke on the floor to cover up a potential peek at the new area rug. You'll just have to wait a few more days for the final office reveal. I will say, if the wall color related in any way to anything else in the room I probably wouldn't post this today. The wall color is my colorful version of a neutral. :)
It's the desk chairs that are in progress, and you'll either feel relieved on my behalf, or disappointed entirely to learn that I've sold out and hired a pro to take on the chairs. I wanted the room done and if I assign even a pittance of value on my time, it's cheaper to hire a professional who can do it well and fast. He picked up the chairs yesterday and hopes to deliver them here Wednesday. I wouldn't even have my piping done by Wednesday!! If it were one chair I'd have tackled it already. But two chairs...ugh!
I was going to also share the decorative hanging file storage boxes I made since our "stuff" is somewhat on display now, but this post is so looooooong already. Maybe I'll do a mini post a day with some of the individual projects that will ultimately make up the whole office makeover. I hope you'll stay tuned.
I thought I loved the gold beast...but WOW!
ReplyDeletei'm glad you like it gretchen - i know you were apprehensive about this makeover. :)
ReplyDelete