Another Refurbished Piece;)

BEFORE 

AFTER

 

Here are the steps in between.  I bought this piece for $50 at a used furniture store and took off the cupboards to paint them....but then I noticed how cool it looked without the cupboards and left them off to expose the wood. I liked the contrast between the painted grey and the natural wood.  Here are the steps that went into this piece...

Step 1: Wipe Down with a Damp Cloth and Let Dry

Step 2: Take Cupboards Out and Hardware Off. 

I always take the cupboards out and put them on newspaper.  I also always take the knobs off, even if I am planning on using them.  You could tape them off if you wish.  I take them off and paint them separately, or keep them with the original metal and then put them back on at the very end.  

Sorry the light in the room where I painted it is VERY yellow:(

Step 3: Start Priming

I used a dark primer because most of what I paint are dark colours, so then I don't need as many coats of paint.  Just pick a primer at your local hardware store and then they can put a dark tint in it.  I don't sand the wood, I used to manually sand it with a light grid sanding pad, but not anymore, because when you dust/clean it makes for a rougher surface and sometimes small fibres of cloth get stuck in the wood. I use a painting tray and a small paint roller.  I try to use the roller as much as I can, because it's much faster and also there are no paint brush marks.  Priming the wood before painting it will help prevent chips and create a seal on the wood so the paint won't soak into the wood. 

This is the dark tinted primer but you could definitely just use a
white primer, or whatever you have on hand:)

I started priming this piece with a small paint roller. Make sure to just do
a thin coat, if the coat is too thick it will be rough on top, and you
will have to lightly sand it and repaint:(

Here are the cupboard doors taken off and being primed.  You could
leave them on if you wanted, but I just find it easier this way.

Step 4:  Let Dry. They usually say for at least 8 hours.

Then this is when you would do about two coats of your favourite paint colour.  Let each coat dry for at least 8 hours.  For a really nice coverage you will need a good two coats of paint on top of the primer.  For some reason I loved this dark grey primer color so I just used the primer for the second coat and didn't even put paint on top. Just two coats of primer for me this time. I have never done this before (just used primer) but it turned out really nice:)

Step 5:  Oil the Wood

Because I was leaving the wood exposed, I wanted to shine it up a bit.  Also there were a few chips so I wanted to try and hide these.  My husband had some tinted oil finish in the garage so I used this. I wore gloves and put some on an old rag and just rubbed it in. I couldn't believe the difference it made!! 

 Even though this cabinet isn't a solid wood, it's plywood with a laminate
on top, this still worked really well.

The oil definitely helped lessen the appearance of scratches and nicks in the wood.

Before....

After.....

You can still see the scratches a bit, but it definitely made them a lot less
noticeable.

Step 6:  Normally you would put the doors and hardware back on.

However, I really liked the look of the exposed wood inside.  So I just left the doors off and filled the open cupboards with glasses to put in my dining room!

Finished!!!