[ an armoire makeover ]

EVER HAD a piece of furniture you truly loved when you bought it but eventually fell out of love with it? That's what happened with my red armoire that I purchased about 5 years ago. At the time, I was in a bit of a red phase and it worked really well with our decor. But... now our palette is much softer and it's been sticking out like a sore thumb. So, time for a makeover!

I decided on a bluish grey colour that I thought would blend in nicely with our other furniture and pick up on the grey of our marble backsplash since it's open to the kitchen. Home Depot didn't have the interior base for my paint but the exterior is virtually the same so I settled for that to save me from having to go back. Their Ultra paint is paint and primer in one so I was excited to try it and skip the tedious priming step. I chose a colour called French Silver.

I bought some new glass knobs for this armoire last year from Anthropologie (yup, this project has been on the list for a while!).

And I'll need to do a bit of antiquing to give it a worn, lived in look (and look less freshly-painted). I found some Burnt Umber acrylic paint in my paint box and decided it would work fine with a cotton rag to rub into the crevices.

I gave the entire armoire 2 light coats of paint and let it dry overnight. As I started to rub the antiquing paint into the crevices, it started to rub off some of the grey top coat. At first I freaked out but then decided that I can work with that. So I continued on. Using a bit of the grey paint afterwards, I dry-brushed it over the bright red exposed bits showing through to soften them. The key is to know when to stop!

I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I think it is aged just enough so it doesn't look overly rustic. Now it sits quietly in its corner and doesn't scream out at us like it did when it was red. And it allows me to change up the colours of our pillows and accessories without always having to consider the red.

lisa