Odds And Ends... : Drab to Fab Computer Armoire

So we got this computer armoire thing from John's mom. For FREE (my favorite price!). It was in really good condition, even after ~~throwing~~ scooting it gently down my stairs. But it was lacking in the style department. What's a girl to do? Buy some paint of course! It was an amazing transformation if I do say so myself. Such an amazing transformation that when my friend L came over after it was finished she asked me when and where I got it. She saw it in its before state. And didn't even realize it was the same piece of furniture. I'd call that a success! So here's the drab before picture. Super drab because my lighting sucks and there's no way I was waiting until morning to get started on this baby just so I could snap a better pic.

You can see the color better in some of the other photos

Want to see how I turned that into this?

So much prettier, isn't she?!

First things first the prep work. Not my favorite part. Ok, I hate it. I just want to skip right to the fun stuff (yay for paint!) but for a good finished project you gotta start with the not-so-fun stuff. I took the doors and hardware off and sanded. And sanded. And sanded some more. Took a break. And sanded again. Lots and lots of freaking sanding. The electric sander is oh so handy, but I'm most creative at night when all the normal people (Who am I kidding, my apartment complex has no normal people. I mean, they let me in didn't they?) are fast asleep and would ~~call the cops~~ not be pleased if I used my electric sander.

After sanding, lets get priming! Or start to prime then realize that even with the cats trapped in the bedroom, all the other windows open, and some industrial looking extractor fan on full blast there is no way i can spray paint in this apartment without John dying. Either from the fumes or from my throwing heavy things at his head for singing the "I told you so" song. So decision time. Do I carry this heavy beast back up the stairs and outside, work out in the cold, then bring it back in again? Or do I say forget the primer and change up my idea completely? Guess what option I chose, I'll give you a hint, my back appreciates my decision.

One coat of primer and 2 coughing fits later.

So priming and the black spray paint is out of the picture. Lets go to the store and see what we can find. Oooh, my favorite isle. "Oops paint". I found a really pretty color and it was marked 50% off. Yoink. Yes, I'm using wall paint on wooden furniture. Its all good though, it says it can be used for molding and wood paneling, even metal. Schweet.

Grey with just a hint of purple. Its called amethyst jewel. Isn't it pretty? And only $7. Score.

First coat = done! Yay! But that's not really covering up the red very well. Okey dokey, time for another coat.

Ohh so streaky

Not quite as bad as the door. The door had not been primed, part of this had. See the difference primer makes if you can use it without faceing a murder charge? Also you can see the original color better in this photo. Bottom left corner, without the blotches of primer.

And still not 100%. Its going to take a lot of coats to get this nice and smooth. So time for another design decision. Paint it over and over again until its perfect? Or go for a slightly distressed look? I do love distressed furniture. And while I love painting, I don't know how I feel about painting 500 coats on this ~~brat~~ fabulous armoire. Distressed it is. And I'm so glad I went with that. It was feeling a bit flat, had no character.

Pretty color, but flat and dull. Such a shame.

So time to bust out the sandpaper again. Like I said, we're going for a slightly distressed look here. So I gently sand over the whole thing, focusing mainly on the edges. They're the part that see the most wear over time. Plus it looks really cool, kind of outlined.

Nothing super dramatic, but enough to add a bit of character.
The really dramatic stuff comes next.

Now one of my favorite painting techniques. I don't know what its called, or if it even has a name. I got bored and came up with this one night and I've never seen anyone else do it. So I guess I should name it. Hmm... I suck at naming things. Oh well, not important.

I took video of this part and was going to do one of those '80s gettin it done montages, but the video camera sucks and won't let me get the file off. I got the pictures off just fine, but its touchy about videos for some reason. So no fun montage, just more pictures and words. ~~Yay for crappy video cameras!~~

Here's what you need for this part.

A pre-painted surface. It must be completely dry. I went with a really dark gray. You can do this in any combination of colors, but I think it looks best with a dark color for the base with the lighter color on top.
Paint to go over top of your other paint.
Paper towels. Important part: they have to be nice textured paper towels. The more texture the better.

And a paint brush might help, but that goes without saying.

Now we paint again! Don't gob on a bunch of paint, but you don't want it all thin and streaky either. You're going to paint in small sections, you can't give it a chance to dry before the next step.

Small area, Goldilocks on the paint. Not too much, not too little, just right!

Now take a piece of your paper towel and crumble it into a ball. You're going to press the towel down on the paint and then lift up. Be very careful not to pull or push the towel, just straight down and up. If you move it around all you're going to do is smear the paint. What you're doing is removing some of the paint, with a nice pretty texture.

Press firmly but don't smear!

See the pretty design, it lifted the white paint off to reveal the darker color underneath.

Continue doing this all over. Every now and then change up the part of the towel you're using. We're not looking for a consistent pattern, keep things random. If you are very careful you can also roll the balled up towel into a cylinder like shape and roll it across rather than dabbing. It is difficult to do without smearing, but it looks really neat. And its fun to do!

To prevent super obvious lines that show the sections you painted in go back over what you already did just a little bit. Paint right over top of that edge and then go at it with the towel again.

Tah-freakin-da!

And here's the doors done up all pretty:

I also changed out the hardware with some pretties I already had laying around.

Aren't they fabulous?!

And here is the piece that inspired it all. I was seeing how it would look with the jewelry box sitting on top, and I just knew I had to paint it like that. And yes, I was inspired by one of my own projects, that just means I'm awesome, not full of myself, right? :-P