The Black Credenza...AKA The Never Ending Project!

On my way to pick up some supplies at Home Depot, I popped into our local thrift store and found this sitting outside in the back.  It didn't even have a price tag on it yet!  (I forgot to snap a pic before taking off some of the hardware).  It was in perfect condition, and just needed to be fixed up a bit.

While at Home Depot, I picked up some Behr Ultra Premium black paint.

My husband was gone at a friend's house watching our Boise State football team, (#2!!) so I had to unload this monster all by myself.  Well, I am a P90X graduate - you know - "Regular to ripped in 90 days"...um... then back to regular again in 30.  :}  Ha, Ha! Yep, that's me!  

I finished sanding it right away.  I used an 80 grit sandpaper on my mouse sander.  Then it sat.  For about 4 weeks.  I was waiting to paint it until I got my spray gun.



I took Cassie's advice over at Primitive and Proper and skipped the primer on this one and went straight to painting since this was going to be black.  Here is what the brown credenza looked like after the spray gun showed up (this really isn't a great pic, but doesn't my grass look nice and green?)...

Oh my goodness, the paint went on so fast and beautifully!  Because I don't have to dilute the paint, this spray gun lays down a nice thick coat.  I did a second coat just on the top.

 Later, I found 2 scratches on the top of the credenza.  I was hoping I could just buff it out, but no.  I had to roll on a couple of coats to fix it.

 

I'm not naming any names, but I have a feeling it was caused by a certain someone trying to move a certain blue bike out of the garage. 

I saw Christa's post over at Stories of A House about how to do a rubbed-through distressed finish, and I had to try it!  Christa has a really informative post and a video tutorial about exactly how to do this. 

First thing, I went to Lowe's and bought all my necessary materials~

Denatured Alcohol

Steel Wool Grade #0000

Rubber Gloves

I'm not going to go into detail about how I did it since Christa's post and tutorial covers it all.  :)  However, this is the effect I got by basically rubbing steel wool dipped in denatured alcohol against the edges and small areas of this piece~

                                                       The result is quite lovely, I must say!

I sealed it with Minwax Wipe-On Poly.

I wanted to make the inside cupboards and drawers a little more fun than just black, so I pulled out my Woodlawn Charm. 

Of course I first primed the cupboards and drawers with my $5 Zinsser mis-tint primer~

                     It's oil-based and stinky, but it matches my Woodlawn Charm almost perfectly!

                                           Here are the drawers painted in this fun color~

I thought it would be pretty to line the drawers and cupboards with fabric, so Little Maya and I headed over to our Hobby Lobby (we are lucky, it's only about 2 miles from our house) to pick out some fabric.  Maya found this~

                                                                 and I found this~

We were both happy with our purchase!  :)

To line the cupboards and drawers, I decided to try something a bit different.  Rather than mod podge the fabric to the cupboards and drawers, I bought some spray adhesive at Jo-Ann's.



It is pretty simple.  After cutting the fabric and fitting it exactly to the cupboard or drawer, it's time to spray!  Once I got the hang of it, I discovered that these steps worked the best for me:

1.  Position the fabric exactly where you want it to be in the drawer or cupboard.

2.  Pull the top half of the fabric back. 

3.  Spray a layer of adhesive on the upper section of the drawer or cupboard, giving careful attention to the edges.

4.  Wait just a few seconds for the adhesive to turn from wet feeling to tacky.

5.  Repostion the top part of the fabric back into place and press it firmly down with your hands. 

6.  Pull the lower half of the fabric back.

7.  Spray a layer of adhesive to the lower portion of the drawer or cupboard, again, giving careful attention to the edges.

8.  Wait just a few seconds for the adhesive to feel to tacky.

9.  Reposition the lower half of the fabric back into place and press it firmly down with your hands.

*I found that it worked best to do this in two sections (upper and lower) because the adhesive dries and loses it's stickiness pretty quickly.

                               

                                   To protect and seal the fabric, I whipped out my Mod Podge~

                                                         ~and brushed it over the fabric.

All done, but not quite dry!  :)

I kept the original hardware and left the color as is because I thought it highlighted the distressing details.

It seems like this piece has taken me FOREVER to finish, but here it is~

Remember the before~

...and here's the after~

(Pardon the garage pics)

the outside of the drawers~

                                                      ~the inside of the drawers.

Inside of the cupboard~

Distressing details~

Here's the top of the table. It's not too visible from the picture, but I had a really hard time getting an even finish here.  All I could get was a kind of smokey-glazed look.  I actually kinda like it!

I'm exhausted!!!  :)

Have a great day!